Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 909 909 550 The World of the Significant

?Chapter 909: Chapter 550: The World of the Significant Figures_3 Chapter 909: Chapter 550: The World of the Significant Figures_3 “If it wasn’t so much fun,” Hill laughed, “I wouldn’t have played until 40.”

It seemed that Hill loved the sport even more than Yu Fei did.

Hill was willing to play until 40, but that was unimaginable for Fei; he could see himself playing until 35 at most, because he couldn’t accept being trampled by younger players as he aged.

This was no longer about passion; the higher one stood, the more fragile their pride, unable to withstand any blows.

The SuperSonics entered the second half with a 12-point lead.

Tyronn Lue praised Hill ecstatically.

He said Hill was Seattle’s treasure.

“Grant had one of the greatest veteran performances I’ve ever seen tonight,” he said.

Lue also said, “He hit six threes in a single quarter, can you believe it? Threes aren’t his strong suit, that must be a new League record, right? I’m surprised he didn’t shrug at the camera.”

Who are you talking about, Coach Lu?

The momentum was all with the SuperSonics.

Home fans were expecting a big win, yet the Brooklyn Nets had swept through the army for a reason at the start of the season.

Paul, who had been threading the needle in the first half, suddenly started to attack; his frame seemed so small, but his determination and will had spread to every corner of the team.

It was supposed to be The Big Three, but Anthony couldn’t say it was his team, Howard couldn’t either, but Paul could. Without him, the Nets were just an ordinary strong team.

Paul played several textbook one-on-one isolations, then assisted Anthony with a three-pointer, connected with Howard, and after the SuperSonics hit iron for just a few rounds, the lead was cut to 5 points.

Before Curry ruled the day, Paul was the best point guard of the moment.

In regular-season games that didn’t involve playoff life-or-death struggles, even in marquee matchups, his influence was direct and apparent.

Watching him bring the suspense back into the game, Fei wondered how he could do the same at the power forward position.

If he were still playing point guard or small forward now, he could be more influential than Paul.

But since he decided to try a new style, he couldn’t give up halfway.

Fei’s main problem now was that he hadn’t yet strengthened himself for the demands of playing power forward; although he didn’t have a power disadvantage against most teams’ power forwards, it was tough facing the centers.

To play power forward, mismatches with centers were inevitable.

But it was difficult to improve this during the season because training is systematic. Once the emphasis on strength training increases, the body’s balance will be disrupted, so many technical movements and muscle memory need to be reconstructed.

It’s a lengthy process.

The two teams started to apply pressure around the 5-point margin, Fei receiving the ball a few times, Roy’s off-the-ball movement, Durant’s isolations, none could finish off the Nets.

With four minutes left in the game, Anthony threw up a three right in Durant’s face.

“Swish!”

In an instant, the lead shrank to 2 points.

Anthony arrogantly tapped his head thrice with his hand, the Nets’ momentum peaking.

Durant was anxious; he truly believed he was better than Anthony, so he decisively called off the play and attacked with the ball.

Anthony couldn’t guard him, the one who did was Howard with help defense.

Durant risked a jump shot, but it went completely off-target.

“Too reckless!” Roy was dissatisfied with Durant’s offensive choice.

In that instant, a figure soared through the sky, and the crowd saw it was SuperSonics’ number 44. Then, number 44 grabbed the basketball and slammed it down over Howard’s head.

“I’ve had enough.” The cold number 44, the arrogant number 44, the domineering number 44, the unstoppable number 44. He was just walking back, but his words were unbearable: “You guys can stop now, Merry Christmas.”

“Frye, you’re too arrogant!” Anthony shouted.

Whether he was arrogant or not, Anthony was about to find out.

Paul, mismatched against Fei on defense, wanted to exploit his size advantage, but his rhythm was completely read, failing to create space and forced to pass the ball.

Anthony went for an isolated three-pointer, missed.

Fei immediately led a fast break, received a pass halfway, drove to the frontcourt, and dunked forcefully.

Now Paul was desperate too; after a high post isolation and several fakes, he cleverly caught a timing gap and scored successfully.

The New Jerseyans thought they could catch their breath.

Fei just jogged to the frontcourt leisurely, Durant was about to ask for the ball from Roy, but saw Fei demanding it with an undeniable gesture, indicating for him to clear out.

Then, he waved to Roy, and the ball came directly.

Anthony defended with all his might, but Fei used a quick between-the-legs crossover dribble to shake the defender off balance, followed by a large step-back to create separation, and nailed a heart-shaking three-pointer.

Anthony, not giving up, wanted to score back against Fei, but he made a crucial mistake at a critical moment, not playing the post or running the play, instead trying to dribble in.

Fei pressured him, and Anthony became unstable, then a mistake, the ball was lost.

That was with 90 seconds before the end.

Fei grabbed the loose ball off the floor and surged towards the frontcourt like a low-flying glider.

Anthony chased furiously but merely became the closest spectator to that evening’s most spectacular dunk.

With less than 80 seconds left, the gap was widened to 9 points.

Starting with that put-back dunk, Fei scored seven points in a row, single-handedly extinguishing the Nets.

The Nets reluctantly requested a timeout, a late one, knowing the game had slipped away.