Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 979 979 574 Familiarity_2

?Chapter 979: Chapter 574: Familiarity_2 Chapter 979: Chapter 574: Familiarity_2 Because the people around them always said, “You tried your best, the poor performance is the team’s fault, what more can you do?”

This kind of excuse isn’t entirely wrong. Sometimes, it’s completely accurate because basketball is ultimately a five-person sport, and one person, no matter how strong, can only guarantee the lower limit for the team.

However, Griffin’s lower limit was leading the team twice into the lottery zone, so even compared to the lower limit, it was a pretty ugly one. And what was Yu Fei’s lower limit since his rookie season? It was the divisional finals. From the results point of view, the divisional finals meant being in the top four for the season. Such a lower limit had already been the best performance many known stars could lead their team to achieve.

But Griffin didn’t understand, he was too young. He was out for the rookie season, encountered a lockout in his second season, hit his peak as a third-year, and continued to snatch luxurious stats in his fourth year. He achieved personal success, but he couldn’t bring corresponding success to the team.

When the situation and public opinion both had issues, the losers who refused to admit their incompetence could only blame the environment. Griffin, who believed his own strength was only held back by the team, could only think that Yu Fei’s past success was due to a strong team lineup. If they switched places, the result would be the same.

So when Griffin saw the GOAT arrogantly choose a terribly bad lineup, he knew his chance had come. If he could defeat the GOAT’s momentum on the first day of training camp, there was hope to take back part of his forcefully taken team position. Therefore, Griffin treated this intra-team scrimmage with a real battle mindset.

He had thought his opponent would be that rookie from Greece, but to his surprise—the White Team actually let the seven-foot-tall Giannis Antetokounmpo play point guard, while GOAT took the power forward position, teaming up with Brown against Griffin.

“Is this a joke, Big Fei?” Griffin asked, finding the sight of the Greek and Billups facing each other rather amusing.

“Maybe it is, and hopefully a good one,” said Yu Fei, sticking close to Griffin, “but if you guys can’t turn Giannis into a joke today, I will suggest to Doug that he becomes our starting point guard for the new season.”

Upon hearing this, Billups was the most shocked. He had decided to stay because Rivers promised to give him enough playing time. If the Greek became the starting point guard, how many minutes could he play?

In the span of a few words, Billups found a reason why they couldn’t lose.

In the subsequent jump ball, Brown beat Pachulia, and the White Team took the lead in offense.

Griffin hadn’t taken the GOAT seriously, who voluntarily came to power forward to face him, as GOAT had often played in that position while in Seattle, and they had clashed before. He didn’t think GOAT at power forward was particularly outstanding.

But today… the rest of the Clippers suddenly realized something terrifying—playing as power forward, Yu Fei’s height might even surpass Griffin’s, and his wingspan completely overshadowed Griffin’s. Griffin’s advantage was supposed to be the strength and combat habits of a pure power forward, but this so-called advantage couldn’t be utilized at all.

At that moment, Yu Fei in front of Griffin showed the results of his summer training. Previously in Seattle, when Yu Fei played power forward, if the opponent was a talent-outstanding power forward, he could still establish a clear advantage. If the opponent’s power forward was a star player, the game would be difficult because inside wrestling, strength decides everything.

And what Yu Fei lacked most as a power forward was that kind of strength. This summer, he compensated for this weakness through training. Now up against Griffin, known for strength but soft on the lower body, he managed to completely prevent him from getting a favorable position using core strength.

Billups forcefully passed the ball to Griffin from a non-sweet spot, but Griffin had no chance at all. Yu Fei pressed Griffin to the left outside the paint, making him immobile. Griffin tried a forced turn towards the basket, but this exposed the ball to danger. Yu Fei suddenly reached out and swatted the ball away.

In an instant, Antetokounmpo surged forward with strides even more exaggerated than Durant’s. Yu Fei picked up the ball and threw it forward. Outside the three-point line, the Greek Freak took one step with the ball, gathered it, and after two steps, he soared into the air like an extraterrestrial being.

Seven feet tall, still striding eagerly even with the ball—was this still human?

Professionals on the scene couldn’t help but ask themselves a similar question.

Afterward, the Greek slammed the ball into the basket.

“OMG!!!” Brown exclaimed, “A dunk like that?!”

Yu Fei smiled slightly; clearly, Giannis wasn’t confident enough in his own talent. With his stride, he could have easily gathered the ball from beyond the three-point line.

However, building confidence takes time, and he had plenty of that.

Griffin was shocked but quickly composed himself. However, GOAT’s assessment made his heart waver once more.

“Give him five years, and he will surpass you completely,” Yu Fei said, “Have you ever thought that one day in the future, you won’t even be able to keep your current position?”

Griffin’s face darkened as he firmly replied, “That will never happen!”

“Never?” Yu Fei’s smile gradually faded, and his tone carried a hint of chill. “Do you really have the right to make such a claim?”

From that moment on, Yu Fei stopped trash-talking to Griffin. He began to suppress Griffin with defense that went beyond the norm, preventing him from executing any of his preferred offensive moves, even denying him a decent position to attack.