Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 412 - 271 You know, Big Fei is my brother
Chapter 412: Chapter 271 You know, Big Fei is my brother
Greg Oden became the unmatched MVP of the Frye & Yu All-American High School Stars Invitational with his unrivaled dominance.
Having witnessed Oden’s performance, Yu Fei felt that those who said he was stronger than LeBron James at the same stage might have a point.
Oden was not yet 18 years old, stood at 7 feet, and weighed 250 pounds (113.4 kilograms), able to run full speed on both ends of the court, his pace not losing to that of a guard, his every confrontation with high school opponents looking like an adult playing with children.
Undoubtedly, like James, he already possessed an NBA-level physique in high school.
If the NBA hadn’t decided to restrict high schoolers from entering the draft starting next year, he would have entered the draft in 2006.
“Frye, our MVP would like you to give him a piece of advice.”
Before Yu Fei handed the MVP trophy to Oden, the host asked with a cheerful smile.
“Stay healthy,” Yu Fei said, “No matter how much potential you have, only health can help you achieve your goals.”
It sounded like a truism, but in the near future, people would realize that it was part of Oden’s parable.
Maybe many sports writers would quote Yu Fei’s words to write an article about Oden.
After the invitational, Yu Fei headed to Los Angeles to carry out his personal business activities and to start his own club, inviting other players to join.
The NBA’s offseason also officially started.
This summer was different from the last, with not many big-name players available.
The biggest two free agents were both former Bucks, Ray Allen and Michael Redd.
However, both of them had the kind of easygoing personalities that, unless it was absolutely unbearable, they wouldn’t easily switch teams.
Ray Allen stated that his first choice was to renew his contract with the King.
And Redd believed he would finish his professional career in New York.
Although the Cleveland Cavaliers listed Redd as their top target during the offseason, believing the sharpshooter who had performed well alongside Fei would become James’ right-hand man, Redd, having enjoyed the buzz of a big city, was dead set against playing in a backwater like Cleveland again.
He had already had enough of that during his days in Milwaukee.
Seeing that Redd was unattainable, the Cavaliers turned their attention to their second target—Larry Hughes.
Chasing Hughes with fervor were also the Bucks.
The new season’s salary cap was set at 70 million US dollars, and although the Bucks had two max contracts with Fei and Sprewell, with Ray Allen’s departure, and after dealing Ostertag’s contract on draft night, and with Mobley’s contract expiring, they actually had nearly a max salary cap space and a mid-level exception available.
However, compared to the Bucks, the Cavaliers’ offer was more attractive.
They could offer Hughes a standard 5-year, 80 million US dollars max contract.
While Bucks and Cavaliers were engaged in a bidding war for Hughes, Larry Brown, after two years, announced another team change.
It’s worth noting that Brown still had 3 years and 18 million US dollars left on his contract with the Detroit Pistons, so this termination undoubtedly came as a blitz to Detroit.
In the days leading up to the termination, Brown waxed eloquent to the media about his love for the Pistons and his desire to stay in the Motor City, but less than ten days after the settlement, he took up a new position in New York.
Yu Fei’s friend at ESPN, Marc Stein wrote, “You can expect Larry Brown to lead different teams into the playoffs, but you can’t count on them to win championships, nor can you expect a warm farewell when Larry leaves. Just like the chaos in Detroit. For Larry, he’s getting a dream job in New York, but it may not turn out as he wishes, in two years, or three, perhaps we’ll see him depart again.”
As one storm subsided, another arose.
While the outside world used various means to tease Larry Brown for yet another “affair”, a big piece of news from Phoenix stole the headlines.
Joe Johnson announced that he would accept Atlanta’s 5-year, 70 million US dollars offer, and he specifically requested that Suns owner Robert Sarver not match his contract. He no longer wanted to play for the Suns.
From how it looked, Johnson didn’t seem to be leaving a 62-win championship-contending team but rather appeared to be escaping a weak 26-win squad.
What exactly had the Suns owner done to elicit such strong aversion from him?
The specifics date back to the previous season when Johnson had hoped to reach a 6-year, 50 million US dollars extension with the Suns. The Suns’ offer was 6 years at 45 million US dollars. The new owner, Sarver, having just spent 400 million dollars to purchase the team, did not want to shell out another large sum so soon, even though Johnson’s request was only 5 million US dollars more than their offer.
But over the last season, Johnson evolved further, as a 24-year-old All-Star, every team would offer him a full max contract, but the Suns still aimed to save money, offering him a 5-year, 60 million US dollars extension.
Even so, the Suns still held the right of first refusal since Johnson was a restricted free agent, and they could retain him by matching the Hawks’ offer.
Yet, Sarver thought this was a good opportunity to offload Johnson.
“”
“How can they blame me for not matching when he himself asked the team not to?”
The Suns astonishingly gave up their right to match and handed over a 24-year-old All-Star who fit perfectly into the S.S.O.L system to the Atlanta Hawks.
After last season, Yu Fei always felt that the S.S.O.L Suns were the primitive version of the future Warriors that would usher in the small-ball era, but now it seemed they might be the reverse version of the Warriors Team.
If every step the Warriors took from drafting Curry in 2009, to replacing Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr in the summer of 2014, and their path to success until the summer of 2016 was correct, then every step the Suns took after signing Nash in the summer of 2004 was a mistake.
For the Suns to let go of Joe Johnson was like the Warriors agreeing to trade Klay Thompson for Kevin Love. If that trade had happened, not only would the Splash Brothers be no more, but Green, who clashed in both style and position with Love, would never have risen, and Iguodala would have continued to start… Can you imagine that Warriors Team achieving everything they did after 2014?
Looking at the Suns’ moves, Yu Fei felt that even the Milwaukee Bucks’ owner seemed wise and clear-headed in comparison.
I’ve seen owners save money, but never like this.
The Bucks’ owner, Kohl, also wanted to save money, but under the pressure from Yu Fei, he paid the luxury tax due. After all, Yu Fei didn’t demand that he build the team with the highest salaries in the League. The luxury tax he paid could easily be earned back.
Sarver seemed never to have considered the potential profits of maintaining a strong team and was content living off Nash’s past glories, satisfied with or without a championship.
Yu Fei could only be relieved he hadn’t encountered such an owner, or he wouldn’t have been able to extricate himself for quite some time.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
Now, all he could do was to put the Suns Team on his blacklist.
These days, even though Yu Fei was active in Los Angeles, he was far from idle.
Since the team still wanted to use its available salary cap to bring in some immediate strength, Yu Fei was organizing specialized training for the club in Los Angeles and helping recruit players via phone calls.
Larry Hughes, in the end, chose Cleveland for more money, which was actually not unreasonable.
After all, for non-superstar players, real gold and silver are indeed more tangible than championships.
As Ray Allen, Michael Redd, and Joe Johnson had found their places, there were no max-salary players left on the free market.
The Bucks then focused their main energy on those immediate impact players who could help the team.
One of them was Kwame Brown, who had a deep friendship with Yu Fei.
Brown had just completed his rookie contract, and while he was acknowledged as a draft bust, if you considered him as a blue-collar center, he was still quite good.
Mutombo was getting older and could only top at 10 minutes per game, and Pachulia seemed more suited to around 20-25 minutes per game, so, in fact, the Bucks really needed a center who could consistently start.
Competing with the Bucks for Brown were the Lakers Team.
In terms of salary, both teams offered a 3-year, 25 million US dollars contract, but the Bucks obviously respected Brown more, providing him with a player option in the third year.
This option could give Brown more security.
If Yu Fei left Milwaukee in two years, Brown could leave too.
For Brown, the attentiveness of the Bucks and the desire to reunite with Big Fei far outweighed joining the Lakers and playing alongside a madman who mimicked everything Jordan did.
He had already been teammates with the real Jordan for two years, there was no need to test the quality of a counterfeit.
The Mavericks didn’t match Brown’s contract because they were already over the salary cap, and although Cuban was willing to spend money, spending unnecessarily like this, he’d already done enough (for Dampier).
On July 20th, the Bucks officially signed Kwame Brown.
“You know, Big Fei is my brother. The moment he needed me to help him, I knew Milwaukee was my only choice,” Yu Fei liked Brown’s confidence at the press conference, as convincing as when he declared his intent to blow past Jordan during tryouts. “I will bring a championship to Milwaukee!”
Kwame Brown was by no means a game-changer, but his arrival was important for the Bucks.
Just as the Spurs’ roster seemed impeccable after acquiring Nazr Mohammed last season.
The Bucks weren’t quite impeccable yet, but Brown made them complete.
Moreover, they still had a mid-level exception.
Theoretically, they could still capture a capable player from the free market who could help the team.
That’s the significance of Yu Fei establishing a specialized training club in Los Angeles, because among its members was not only Kobe, but also a guy named Raja Bell, a quality 3-and-D player that Yu Fei was eager to bring back to Milwaukee.
PS: The second chapter isn’t finished yet, and the update time is postponed to 2 p.m.
COMMENT
0 comment
Vote
3 left
SEND GIFT
