Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 883 883 542 In the Name of Love

?Chapter 883: Chapter 542 In the Name of Love Chapter 883: Chapter 542 In the Name of Love As long as there is a dominant leader present, training camps usually do not become places that intensify conflicts.

But there are always exceptions.

After all, even someone as assertive as Jordan had conflicts with Steve Kerr during his second three-peat and was even punched by Kerr.

However, players like Kerr who dare to stand up are rare.

More commonly, Garnett’s bullying within the team ended Richter’s NBA career. When a less assertive leader is at the helm of a championship team fraught with conflicts, new issues continually emerge.

As in the case of Poole and Green’s infighting which triggered the 2022-2023 season for the Warriors Team, the approachable Curry could do nothing but watch helplessly from the sidelines, only to get frustrated when Poole missed a long-range three-pointer.

As for the SuperSonics, there was not yet a similar situation.

The intense training regimen of three sessions a day led by Fei deeply stressed everyone.

If the team’s leader is working so hard, everyone else has to strive to keep up with his pace.

Durant had yet to make excessive demands about his tactical position because he needed real combat experience to confirm his current status.

Thus, Roy could still comfortably hold the team’s second chair.

This was not only due to his experience but also because of the impact he made by taking a risk to return from injury before the shutdown.

Every player who had experienced the SuperSonics’ third championship held respect for Roy; even Durant himself found Roy’s return at that time critical.

Roy smoothly reclaimed the ball-handling rights he had lost during his injury period.

Tyronn Lue faced a major issue in how to distribute the ball rights under a newly constructed system.

When he took charge, Roy was already injured.

Before stepping down, Karl had arranged for Fei to return to the point guard position and Durant to play as a small forward.

Lue chose to go further by letting Fei revert to the style of a major core player. Although this did not solve the root problem, it crudely suppressed everyone’s ambitions through the latter’s tremendous ability.

Now, with Roy’s comeback, Fei no longer had to play the point guard position; he was going back to playing as a small forward. So, what position would Durant play?

When Lue realized that Durant’s core strength had significantly increased, he began to experiment with something Karl had tried but failed—letting Durant play as a power forward.

This arrangement appeared on the fifth day of the training camp.

Durant was not keen on playing in the frontcourt, but he understood that if he did not want to return to being a shooting guard, a large shooter, he had to try playing as a power forward.

The shutdown era SuperSonics and Lakers firmly established the era of space basketball.

If the Big Ball Era demanded power forwards do the dirty and tiring blue-collar work, and the inside players be large in size, able to hold their ground under the basket and play low post, a clear distinction of space basketball was the blurring of positional roles.

The boundary between point guards and shooting guards had disappeared, big small forwards should try swinging to power forward positions, and smaller forwards should add three-point shooting to their skillset to swing toward shooting guard positions.

Centers needed to switch defense, protect the hoop, and shoot threes, and top centers should possess the dribbling skills of a forward, the organizing abilities of a guard, and the ball control abilities of a core perimeter player.

The problem was, times often outpace individuals.

Both the United States and other countries’ youth training were correcting the training methods for inside players; thus, a unicorn inside player suitable for space basketball would not appear so quickly.

Until then, quite a few small forwards would be placed in the power forward position.

And for a supernaturally gifted, giant-sized ‘Spider-Man’ like Durant, not trying him in the power forward position would simply be a waste of his physical talents.

Durant accepted this arrangement.

At the same time, to ensure Durant did not feel he was sacrificing himself for the team, Fei also proactively asked Coach Lu to let him swing between the power and small forward positions in the new season.

This made Lu’s job much easier.

If Fei was willing to swing to power forward, what could Durant possibly say?

With Fei and Durant’s stances, Lu’s target shifted to Chris Bosh.

Since Fei and Durant wanted to swing to power forward, then Bosh had to swing to center position.

Everyone remembered how miserably Bosh had been outplayed by Pau Gasol in the center position.

And Bosh hadn’t forgotten either.

But being versatile is a hallmark of space basketball, an irresistible trend; Bosh needed to adapt to this situation.

Three of the SuperSonics’ four All-Stars chose self-sacrifice for the team.

This spirit was deeply moving; who could believe that this team was deeply flawed?

But if you sacrifice, I sacrifice, and everyone sacrifices, how can the value of the sacrifice be demonstrated?

However, sacrificing oneself to switch positions is not just about having the willingness.

The players themselves also need to have the capability.

Thus, while the SuperSonics’ star players were setting an example by sacrificing their roles, a very contradictory situation arose.

Ideally, if someone deliberately plays a position they dislike for the team’s sake, isn’t it supposed to make others more comfortable?

The array of changes initiated by Lue and the problems they caused lies right here.

Who felt comfortable?

No one, no one felt very comfortable.

But one person wanted to curse.

That was DeAndre Jordan, immensely talented but unable to play other positions.

With both Big Fei and Durant swinging between the power and small forward positions, they casually pushed Bosh to the center position.

If Bosh really played as a center, then DeAndre Jordan would lose his starting position.