Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 981 981 575 Beautiful Future

?Chapter 981: Chapter 575: Beautiful Future Chapter 981: Chapter 575: Beautiful Future “`
Does it feel familiar?

Yu Fei believed that Brown must have remembered certain things from his rookie season.

However, Griffin wouldn’t be disheartened by a major setback as Brown was.

Because Griffin was mature enough, he had made his mark in the NBA, and those impressive stats gave him endless confidence, so he thought he could challenge the Greatest of All Time.

Now he had hit a wall, but what did that prove?

Losing to the GOAT is not a disgrace.

Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Kobe… which superstar wasn’t defeated by the GOAT?

Griffin is still far from being their equal.

Today’s crushing defeat will make him recognize his own position, just as Richard Hamilton once did when he felt too good about himself in D.C.

Griffin has already proven to be more tenacious than Hamilton, still wanting to struggle, while the Midrange King back then simply yielded his position to Old Jordan.

After that play, Griffin knew he couldn’t compete with the GOAT.

But if the competition ended just like that, it would be too embarrassing for him.

Griffin gave up on ball-handling offense and started to play off the ball, and only then did his characteristics and advantages truly shine.

He might be the most versatile finisher at the moment, and unlike other big men, he had considerable ball-handling abilities when not faced with a nemesis like Yu Fei who could suppress him with talent and strength.

Turning to an off-ball offense, Griffin began to contribute.

Playing the same power forward position, Yu Fei remained the focal point of the strategy, so Griffin’s decision to change tactics was akin to admitting weakness, as well as acknowledging that he was no match for the GOAT—even if the opponent was playing the four.

Doc Rivers, watching from the sidelines, let out a sigh of relief.

This ticking time bomb was finally defused.

Griffin might still be temperamental, but he probably wouldn’t have any more delusions about being the top dog.

Sometimes the world of sports is like the animal kingdom of the savannah, where only the strong can lead. An unworthy leader, even if not ousted, would still drag the group down to mediocrity.

Los Angeles had given Griffin two seasons to prove himself, and he didn’t achieve anything, bringing the team down to the lottery picks for two consecutive years, which was unsatisfactory. Now, there was someone whose ceiling and floor were terrifyingly high, and choosing the leader should never have been in question from the start.

Rivers started to pay attention to others, and among them, the most eye-catching was the constantly shining talent, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Rivers prided himself as a “walking history of modern basketball.” He entered the League before the NBA’s greatest year (1983) and witnessed the peak clash between the Celtics and Lakers, and how that thrilling series propelled the NBA’s commercial takeoff. He also saw Michael Jordan transform from an unsung young player to the first globally recognized Greatest of All Time in modern basketball.

As for his coaching achievements, there was little need to elaborate.

From the turn of the century’s OK Dynasty to the rise of the GOAT and the near-future Supersonics Dynasty, Rivers was part of it all.

Almost forty years had passed, and Rivers had seen countless talents, but there were only a handful like Antetokounmpo, whose mere gestures revealed overwhelming talent. In Rivers’s view, only three people could demonstrate such talent through pure visual effects: Shawn Kemp, Shaquille O’Neal, and LeBron James.

Visible talent does not necessarily create greatness, but great players often possess it.

After the scrimmage, Rivers sensed that the Clippers had found a treasure. The GOAT’s assessment that “he will be special” was indeed accurate.

A seven-footer with the ability to handle the ball, pass, and possess great athleticism and explosive power, Antetokounmpo also withstood the defensive pressure from Chauncey Billups when playing point guard, and moreover, he always had a smile on his face.

His smile reminded Rivers of Magic Johnson.

He was a player who could operate from the point to the center position, and the position revolution spurred by the era of space basketball would provide perfect conditions for his development.

Furthermore, Rivers discovered that Antetokounmpo’s shooting touch was pretty good, something even Yu Fei had noticed.

Yu Fei’s main impression of the Greek came from his past life—when the other had already emerged as a star.

Under normal circumstances, the “Greek Freak” seemed invincible, capable of anything, to the point that Eastern Conference teams began building “anti-Giannis armors.” Earlier years in the NBA saw teams stockpile defensive players against Shaquille O’Neal who could at best wear him down with fouls, but the “anti-Giannis armor,” if used properly, often effectively contained the Greek.

Because the Greek’s offensive area was too close to the basket, especially under playoff intensity, his somewhat stiff shooting seemed unreliable.

Clutch playmaking was the main issue for the Greek, but what Yu Fei saw now was a still-unpolished “raw gem” version of the Greek Freak.

At this stage, Antetokounmpo not only had a good shooting touch but was also accurate.

To Yu Fei’s understanding, if a player was accurate early on but became inaccurate years later or even drastically changed his shooting form, there must have been an issue with the training methods.

Yu Fei had seen a comparison of the Greek’s body from his rookie period to his peak. While most people used this image to show how hard the Greek trained, thinking about it now, the secret might be hidden within.

“`