noveldrama
Chapter 996 996 580 Just Like in the Legends
Chapter 996 996 580 Just Like in the Legends
?Chapter 996: Chapter 580: Just Like in the Legends Chapter 996: Chapter 580: Just Like in the Legends Defeating the Miami Heat wouldn’t make the Clippers better overnight.
Because life isn’t like those passionate, clichéd Japanese sports manga where you can grow quickly by defeating a strong opponent; for professional teams, it’s just an overnight thing.
Yu Fei racked up impressive stats, left some harsh words for Wade, and the media, like vultures, picked over the remains the next day, then both teams turned their attention to the next game.
This is the most normal way to treat a regular season game.
The Clippers, unexpectedly, had achieved three consecutive wins on their five-game road trip in the Eastern Conference. In Doc Rivers’s expectation, last night’s game against the Miami Heat was supposed to be a loss, but they unexpectedly won.
This highlighted the unpredictability of competitive sports.
Of course, it also showed that the Clippers, owning the GOAT, were a team capable of creating miracles.
With the morale of defeating the defending champions, the Clippers reached their fourth destination, Orlando.
Since Howard left the team, the Magic had been meandering on the road to rebuilding.
They wouldn’t be a stumbling block for the Clippers, as the “tank battle” for the 2014 draft had already begun.
Teams like the 76ers, who had been focused on preparing for the 2014 draft from day one of the season, were already far ahead, nearly securing the last-place spot.
This left those who “made up their minds” to tank only a month after the new season began with no chance to catch up.
After all, if a team can openly tell its fans to “trust the process” for a high draft pick, then other teams could only compete for the second to last place.
Now, the road ahead is long, and the tank battle has just begun but establishing an “advantage in being the worst” early on is quite important. Therefore, whether in terms of fighting spirit or overall team goals, the Magic would not compete hard against the Clippers.
The cursed Clippers breezed through easily.
Despite often being said to be unlucky, the Clippers’ five-game road trip was going exceptionally smoothly.
“Our goal is to return home with a winning streak,” Rivers said ambitiously, “you know, Kevin Durant grew under Frye, and Frye knows how to handle KD.”
Yu Fei, well aware of Durant’s capabilities, never claimed to be his mentor, because Durant was obviously the kind of player who would stand out in any environment—even if Larry Brown was his coach during his rookie season. However, some titles weren’t for Yu Fei to refuse.
In the opening of his autobiography “As I Wanna Be,” Rodman explicitly stated the truth about influence: fame and fortune are enticing.
Whether you like it or not, people will seek you out because of your reputation. Yu Fei being recognized as Durant’s mentor was already accepted by the public, and even Durant himself didn’t deny it.
This was Yu Fei’s first encounter with Durant since leaving Seattle. He had intended to clear up a few things for Rivers, but Durant spoke first, “Doug is right, you are my mentor, you know me inside out.”
Yu Fei asked with a smirk, “Do you really think so?”
“But I believe a student doesn’t necessarily have to be worse than the teacher,” Durant said, “for two years, I’ve been considered top three in the league. I know that means I’m ranked third.”
Yu Fei wondered what the issue was.
“I’m tired of being third,” Durant continued, “Do you know what the most important thing I learned from you is?”
“To get engaged to a woman with a big chest?” Yu Fei joked.
Clearly, the mentor’s sense of humor didn’t impress the student.
“To be number one,” Durant said, “That’s what I learned from you, and I’m ready for it!”
Are you sure you want to start with me? Although my team isn’t that good right now, I’m still the top ranked player in the league. Maybe you, being third in the league, should start by challenging the second-ranked player?
Yu Fei didn’t bother to argue, because Durant clearly wanted to start his challenge with him. He believed he was ready. In fact, he was indeed ready.
In the original timeline, the 2013-14 season was Durant’s MVP season, the peak of his time with the Thunder. Unfortunately, since his MVP acceptance speech that moved the entire United States, bad luck had come at him like rain.
Would this season’s Durant be as good as in the main timeline? Could he win the MVP in New York? If that happened, he would be the second Knicks player to win the MVP after Willis Reed.
The NBA’s commercial influence was almost negligible during Reed’s era, but it was Reed who led the Knicks into the commercial sphere, allowing the twice-crowned Knicks to surpass the Celtics’ glory of eleven championships in thirteen years in terms of cultural impact.
The ever-smoking “Red Cardinal” Auerbach might never forgive the sportswriters of the time for overlooking the Celtics dynasty, but the truth might leave him restless: the fact is, the Knicks’ two championships were of greater significance to professional basketball than the Celtics’ eleven.
If Durant became the second MVP for the Knicks in this era, his popularity might quickly surpass James and Kobe, naturally making him Nike’s new spokesperson.
But what did this have to do with Yu Fei?
His student was ready to ‘cut down’ his own mentor. Could such an act of betrayal be tolerated?
The outcome of a game doesn’t decide much, but Yu Fei definitely did not want to be the stepping stone on Durant’s path to winning the MVP. He knew there was a large crowd secretly waiting for his failure, but that was not going to happen today. He was confident in leading his team to beat the Knicks.