noveldrama
Chapter 944 944 562 Extraordinary Mid-Autumn_3
Chapter 944 944 562 Extraordinary Mid-Autumn_3
?Chapter 944: Chapter 562 Extraordinary Mid-Autumn_3 Chapter 944: Chapter 562 Extraordinary Mid-Autumn_3 For example, Ray Allen and Vince Carter, who became free agents this summer.
Presti hoped to use Yu Fei’s name to persuade Ray Allen to take a veteran’s minimum salary and give it one last shot in Seattle.
“Frye’s got plenty of phones,” Ray Allen said arrogantly, “if he wants to team up with me, let him call me himself.”
Allen’s attitude was clear.
A veteran’s minimum salary? He wasn’t against it, but Yu Fei had to call him himself to recruit him.
If the SuperSonics only sent management, it showed no sincerity at all.
Ray Allen didn’t have a strong desire for championships because he had won two rings early in Milwaukee and now valued team status and salary more.
The SuperSonics want him? Simple, offer a retirement contract, and he would definitely come.
But with the SuperSonics’ current salary space, they could only offer Ray Allen a less than full mid-level contract.
Presti didn’t want to bother Yu Fei, as the management needed to prove they could achieve something without relying on a superstar.
However, without Yu Fei’s support, the SuperSonics were not attractive.
Presti first hit a wall with Ray Allen and then failed to persuade Vince Carter.
Before long, Ray Allen accepted a mid-level contract from Miami.
Vince Carter, on the other hand, signed a 4-year, 30 million US Dollar deal with the Timberwolves.
Two capable veterans closely related to Yu Fei chose not to go to Seattle, and Presti eventually used the mid-level exception on former Houston Rockets player Carl Landry.
In terms of age and immediate combat power, Landry wasn’t worse than the two who turned down the SuperSonics.
But Landry was a power forward, and in the era of space basketball, he wasn’t in demand, being a traditional type of ‘cleanup’ power forward.
Now, players like Landry either switch to playing center or develop a three-point range, as the NBA can hardly tolerate power forwards without a three-point threat.
This was Presti’s way of making an explanation to the fans; they did eventually pick a decent role player with the mid-level exception.
But that was all the SuperSonics could muster for reinforcement.
Veterans preferred to see the Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat, and Spurs as more convenient championship shortcuts, with no one wanting to join a team that’s falling apart and ruthless to mercenaries.
Yu Fei had already anticipated this result.
That’s also why he refused to get involved in team affairs. Back then, Chris Bosh was someone he had recruited, and now that Bosh was gone, the team didn’t show him any respect. Although Bosh had requested that Yu Fei not interfere beforehand, Yu Fei felt responsible for how things had turned out.
His greatest fault was not seeing Clay Bennett’s true nature.
Now it was too late for anything; he could only take a vacation, get through this period, and wait for the new season to arrive.
By the end of July, the destinations of free agents were mostly settled. Apart from the Cavaliers, no weak team managed to change its competitive strength through free agency.
What’s left was trading.
The Cavaliers first signed Chris Bosh, then through a sign-and-trade, the Lakers took on his hefty contract, with additional compensation in the form of two first-round picks to free up space.
Then, they had to take a crucial step.
Danny Ainge, feeling that the window for championship contention was closing, decided to trade away Pierce and Garnett while they were still competitive.
The Cavaliers acted upon hearing the news.
After several days of negotiation, the Cavaliers gave up Michael Kidd-Gilchrist along with their 2017 and 2019 first-round draft picks, acquiring 36-year-old Kevin Garnett from the Celtics.
In theory, the trade value of McGee, who had not yet appeared on the NBA court, should be comparable to an All-Star player.
But Ainge has always been all-in in trades once he decided to make a move, often taking his trading partners to the cleaners.
The Cavaliers had no choice; to quickly strengthen the team, they had to accept an overpriced trade.
This is the cost of star empowerment.
They sell the dream of contending to the team, on the condition that the team must sacrifice its future.
The Cavaliers welcomed back James, but this James was more realistic than when he left, he didn’t have the patience to wait for McGee to grow, so trading McGee for a third All-Star was the agreement he had reached with Dan Gilbert before his return.
Gilbert kept his promise.
Now, before the new season had even started, the Cavaliers had only three first-round picks left for the next seven years.
This was not the end, if necessary, the remaining three first-round picks would also be traded away in swap deals.
After the team acquired Garnett, James could finally focus on the Olympics without distraction.
In August, the Olympics opened in London.
Not just Cleveland, but Seattle too was eagerly watching the Olympics because Brandon Roy was one of the official players of the Dream Team.
Yu Fei had advised him in advance: as fragile as he was, it was best to recuperate during the off-season and not add extra strain to his body, but Roy still participated in the training and ultimately became a starter.
This was Roy’s personal choice, and all Yu Fei could do was respect it and wish him well. When the Olympics began, there was still a month left until Elizabeth Olsen’s due date, and the usually media-savvy GOAT was unusually low-key.
During this period, the only piece of Olympics news Yu Fei heard was about Roy suffering a minor injury during the competition yet heroically helping Team USA defeat Spain in the finals, defending their Olympic championship.
In September, Yu Fei awaited the approaching due date with anxiety.
The day he had been anticipating for an entire year was about to arrive.
His life might change completely from this point on.
The word “responsibility” he used to carry on his lips all along, but that usually referred to the responsibility of a star player toward his team.
It was about being a leader’s responsibility, but what about the responsibility of becoming a father? He didn’t know.
Probably no one did.
No man under 30 could say he was mature enough and ready to be a father.
But a baby won’t wait for you to be ready.
Yu Fei and Elizabeth Olsen’s child was born on the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2012.
It was a boy.
That day, there were no portents in Seattle, nothing special happened in the world, no signs to indicate this child was out of the ordinary.
But he had a narcissistic father, a vanity the materialistic world had bestowed upon him.
So, he decided to give his child a conceited Chinese name.
Yu Bufan.
The name was set on the day the child was born.
“I hope he likes it,” Yu Fei said with a smile.
The boy bawled loudly; at that moment, the child’s parents finally discovered what was special about their own child—he might be the loudest crying baby in the world.
At that moment, the greatest basketball player in NBA history and a hot, young Hollywood actress were just ordinary parents, experiencing the same illusion common to all new parents.
My child is special.
Special how?
His cries are very loud.
Eventually, they would discover this wasn’t so special after all, and this single distinguishing feature might even make them doubt life for a while to come.