Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 990 990 578 Trust the Process

?Chapter 990: Chapter 578 Trust the Process Chapter 990: Chapter 578 Trust the Process “You really piss me off!”

The Clippers’ opening game of the new season was a “road” game against the Lakers. Before the start of the game, Yu Fei and Kobe met at midcourt.

This was their first meeting since the end of the last season.

Yu Fei noticed Kobe’s beard was a little grizzled and couldn’t help but think that the other man was already 35 years old. He reflected on the days of their youth, when they had met at the ABCD Camp. Who would have thought back then that they would become such fierce competitors on the court?

However, the first thing Kobe said upon meeting made Fei, with a hand sore from signing autographs, bewildered.

“Are you trying to say that my eight total championships really piss you off?” Yu Fei couldn’t help but add fuel to the fire.

Kobe glared at him and said, “I can understand you refusing the Lakers, but how could you join the Clippers?”

If that’s what he was going to say, then Yu Fei was ready to unleash a major memory recall.

“Weren’t you just one step away from joining the Clippers back in the summer of 2004?”

That year, the conflict with O’Neal had grown irreconcilable, and Kobe had resolutely given the Lakers’ management an “it’s him or me” ultimatum. The ordeal had blown up in the media and had led to substantial contact with the Clippers. Just as it seemed the Lakers might lose their rising star to a local team, Old Buss decisively decided to trade O’Neal away. The Clippers ended up playing the role of a ridiculed third party in this drama.

“That’s different,” Kobe said unapologetically, acknowledging the fact that he had used the Clippers as a bargaining chip. “That was just a strategy.”

Yu Fei replied calmly, “Sorry, I don’t have that many strategies. My reason for choosing the Clippers is simple: it’s a Los Angeles team. Moreover, historically no one has been able to bring this team out of the abyss. If I want to make a significant mark in the last part of my career, the Clippers is the obvious choice.”

Kobe was about to turn 36.

He believed that as long as he could guarantee his starting position and status, playing until 40 wouldn’t be a problem.

So it was quite surprising to hear Yu Fei, who wasn’t even 31 yet, refer to the Clippers as the “last” stage of his professional career.

Nonetheless, Yu Fei’s intentions were crystal clear now.

Having played professional basketball in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years, Kobe knew better than anyone how much contempt the Clippers faced in the city.

Griffin’s meteoric rise had briefly changed that, but the popularity of a superstar who was more interested in racking up good stats with flashy dunks than in improving his team’s record was as fleeting as the wind.

In the end, Griffin only managed to increase the Clippers’ basic support a little; the situation remained unchanged.

The Clippers were still a mess.

No one had high hopes for them.

But if it were Yu Fei…

Kobe was just one of many opponents Yu Fei had defeated; he knew the man’s capabilities and influence. If Yu Fei was setting out to accomplish this, it might actually be possible.

Still, he was furious because Yu Fei had chosen the Clippers over the Lakers.

It was like a big breast lover choosing Julia over RION; although it seemed to be the same type on the surface, the difference was immeasurable.

Afterward, Yu Fei went back to warm up.

Griffin looked around, his most painful moments always came when facing the Lakers at the Staples Center, because there were almost no home fans cheering for them.

However, today, there were clearly quite a few “Clippers fans” in the arena.

These people were of unknown identity, but all were wearing Clippers jerseys.

Rivers’ strategy had worked; there were indeed a few thousand fans in Clippers jerseys in the crowd.

Although Yu Fei couldn’t possibly sign autographs for several thousand fans within an hour, a few hundred lucky ones got his signature. Those wearing Clippers jerseys but failed to get an autograph still chose to support the Clippers because Yu Fei had promised that their names would be recorded and given priority at the next signing event.

Of course, that was just an empty promise, but fans are always that easy to satisfy.

After the warm-up, the starters from both teams gradually made their appearances.

Although the Lakers hadn’t managed to bring in Yu Fei, they still used their market influence to sign the defensive stalwart Tony Allen.

However, a player like Allen who is extremely focused on defense seemed somewhat out of place for this Lakers team that still claimed to be competitive.

The Lakers brought him in just to show Kobe: We have tried our best.

The effectiveness of that effort, however, is another matter.

Nowadays, Kobe’s desire for supreme honor wasn’t as strong as before, given that over the past few years the Lakers had gone all out, but had run up against the powerful Supersonics empire, which was their misfortune.

As Kobe aged and with the Lakers Team lacking sufficient resources for large-scale player acquisitions, he was more focused on what other honors he could achieve in his career.

One of these goals was to break Jabbar’s all-time scoring record.

On the other side, the Clippers, though their situation wasn’t much better, had set their sights on the championship from the start.

After the game began, both sides showed their opening moves.

The Lakers focused inside first, with Marc Gasol dominating.

The Clippers’ starting center was Zaza Pachulia, who couldn’t match up with Pau Gasol’s peak performance. Pau might be one of the best centers in the League—good at low-post offense, high-post coordination, boxing out, rebounding, protecting the rim, and even stepping out for threes. His main problem was that what worked for him in FIBA with the Spanish national team, built to serve him and his brother, didn’t work as well in the NBA; his offense wasn’t as good as Yao’s, his defense not as solid as Howard’s, his passing about the same level as Noah’s. While it appeared he had many strengths, he lacked an overriding skill, becoming truly dominant only against the likes of Pachulia.