Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 932 932 558 Change of Weather _2

?Chapter 932: Chapter 558: Change of Weather _2 Chapter 932: Chapter 558: Change of Weather _2 In the locker room, ESPN’s reporter Mark Stein witnessed everything, and he asked Yu Fei, “Do you trust him?”

“I no longer have a foundation of trust with him,” Yu Fei said calmly, “Let the facts speak for themselves.”

When Yu Fei said he no longer had a foundation of trust with Bennett, he wasn’t speaking as a player but as a ruler of the team. As the owner of the team, if there is a loss of trust with the ruler, the outcome is self-evident.

“May I include this in my article?” Stein asked.

Yu Fei finally smiled, still with a superior’s grin, “That’s why you’re sitting here.”

Then, Grant Hill stood up. Due to injuries, he missed tonight’s game, but that did not affect the outcome. The SuperSonics ultimately won the championship, and Hill got his wish, finally becoming a champion. For a veteran nearing 40, it was a moment of complete fulfillment.

“Guys, thank you for helping me win this championship, a lot of incredible things have happened this year,” Hill said, “but we did it, and to me, it’s the perfect ending, I’ll be forever grateful for everything that happened tonight!”

Some people urged him to play one more year, but Hill no longer had the fighting spirit. Veterans almost all held on by sheer will, especially those eager for a championship. Once the championship was secured, his aging seemed to accelerate beyond imagination. Thus, no one could persuade Hill.

The remaining suspense of the evening could hardly be called suspense.

About the ownership of the FMVP.

Yu Fei predictably lifted his eighth FMVP trophy.

At this moment, no one disputed whether he was the GOAT.

He was the GOAT, a living GOAT, a playing GOAT, a prime GOAT, every honor he won made it harder for successors to catch up.

It is worth mentioning that Durant received two FMVP votes, a recognition of his performance in the finals.

But this was of no help to Durant, are two FMVP votes considered an honor?

Forget it, after tonight, no one will care about this, only the winner of the FMVP will be remembered in history.

The scenes that unfolded in the locker room flashed through Durant’s mind, he wasn’t Chris Bosh, he wouldn’t waver over the goal of a five-peat, nor was he Hill, so he wouldn’t lose his fighting spirit at this stage.

So far in his career, he had devoted everything to Yu Fei’s empire.

From now on, he would fight for himself.

The next day, the familiar season-ending analysis appeared in the media.

Yu Fei replacing Jordan in historical status had already become a public consensus, so basically, there was no more discussion about his historical status.

He was recognized as the GOAT of the basketball world.

Now, experts began to analyze whether he could win ten championships before the end of his career.

Considering his age and the SuperSonics’ competitiveness, this didn’t seem to be a very difficult goal.

Then, recently emerging on ESPN, Zach Lowe said sharply, “It depends on whether Kevin Durant stays in Seattle.”

Lowe’s words made people reassess the relationship between Durant and the SuperSonics.

After Yu Fei’s comeback, following the minor account incident that exploded, the SuperSonics reversed their fortunes dramatically; Durant hadn’t caused any troubles, and throughout the playoffs, his average of 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists per game played a crucial role.

His performance was so outstanding that people nearly forgot that he had done such a thing.

Now that the old issue was brought up again, people discovered that Durant had never explained that incident, nor apologized to the team, and there were no expressions of regret.

Doesn’t that explain something?

What followed was an article by Yu Fei’s mouthpiece at ESPN, Mark Stein.

Stein wrote an article titled “The Noisiest Night of the Empire” to describe what he saw and heard on the night of the championship, emphasizing Chris Bosh’s desire to stay in Seattle to pursue a five-peat.

This news immediately exploded on social media.

Chris Bosh retweeted Stein’s article on Twitter and confirmed the news with an emoji of flexing muscles.

Consequently, the pressure shifted to the SuperSonics.

More precisely, the person under this pressure was the team owner, Clay Bennett.

The season just concluded had netted the SuperSonics a profit of 150 million US dollars, 10 million more than before the lockout.

This showed how hot the SuperSonics’ market was.

Many teams hadn’t recovered from the lockout, yet they weren’t affected at all.

However, according to the latest profit-sharing system, 50 million of the 150 million in profit had to be paid up.

Because the SuperSonics had more than four max salary contracts this season, the total salaries triggered the super luxury tax, and by the end of the season, Bennett still had to pay hundreds of millions in taxes.

After a great season, Bennett not only didn’t earn money, he even lost millions.

Now Bosh had actually declared his intention to stay?

Such a frightening luxury tax again?

Bennett had hardly considered that keeping Bosh could ensure a five-peat.

What he saw was that Bosh’s presence would make him continue to lose money next season.

Whether or not the SuperSonics completed a five-peat, a loss was inevitable, as their market was nearly fully tapped. Being forced to continue using Key Arena until the new arena was built, the coins fans could explode were limited.

Until the SuperSonics moved into the new arena, there wouldn’t be a significant increase in profits.