Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 516 - 356 Impossible Mission
Chapter 516: Chapter 356 Impossible Mission
Just as the Dream Team was ready to show the world its new face, the United States sports scene at the same time was anything but calm.
Or rather, for sports fans, this year was like a nightmare.
David Beckham’s foray into the United States was so overhyped it became nauseating; Barry Bonds, who was proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs, broke Hank Aaron’s home run record, tainting the glorious milestone with disgrace; in comparison, NFL star Michael Vick’s reprehensible acts of illegal dog fighting seemed almost less abhorrent.
The NBA appeared calm, which is exactly what David Stern wanted.
His league was recovering quickly, and although it had yet to reach the heights of the Jordan era, Yu Fei’s rise infused professional basketball with a new vitality.
As long as scandals like the Eagle County incident from the summer of 2003 didn’t recur, Stern sensed they could return to the early ’90s status within a few years.
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You know, back then, the old king was declining, and Jordan, the new king, was waiting to ascend the throne, with the entire basketball world’s attention on him.
However, Fei’s situation was different from Jordan’s back in the day; he faced an unprecedented dilemma: to redeem the Dream Team, to save the Supersonics, and to reinvigorate a league that had been declining ever since the 1998 lockout.
In Stern’s view, accomplishing all that was impossible, but if Fei managed just one, he would secure his status as the undisputed number one of this generation of players.
Just as Stern and the league’s practitioners entered a time of fantasy, an NBA referee named Tim Donaghy was arrested.
For what? Alleged involvement in illegal gambling.
After the Western Conference Finals Game 6 in 2002, the world had been skeptical about the NBA referees’ ability to officiate fairly.
But no matter what the media or fans said, they had no evidence to prove that referees were blowing the whistle for some unsavory benefit. Donaghy’s case gave victims ample reason to believe that NBA games were controlled.
Despite league officials insisting—and so far, evidence proving—that Donaghy was a “rogue criminal acting alone” (Stern’s preferred phrase), the unsettling clamor had to be addressed. Inaction would miss an opportunity to restore the league’s image, just as Stern said, “We’re going to spend a lot of time improving [the referee] system as well as dealing with recruitment, education, mentoring, teaching, and on-court and off-court rule issues.”
Yet, the damage had been done.
Even if Donaghy insisted he never fixed games for gambling, only making high-accuracy predictions based on his understanding of the referees’ grudges with teams, such defense was laughable, like an adulterer saying, “I only rubbed without penetrating.”
The NBA could control the situation, but the negative impact was already enormous, even more frightening than the Eagle County incident, because fans would question the integrity of the game.
Every poor officiating decision would cast the shadow of Donaghy.
Stern had no choice; for him, preventing things from getting worse was already pushing his limits.
He could feel that prosperous league drifting away from him, the explosive commercial growth of the Jordan era may have gone for good.
“David,” Vice President Stu Jackson said, “the Dream Team was undefeated in the qualifiers, and Frye was named the MVP.”
Stern asked, “Did everything go smoothly?”
“Without much suspense,” Jackson said, “Frye adapted to FIBA better than we thought.”
That might have been the only delight for league practitioners; their best player was finally willing to shoulder the mission of the Star-Spangled Banner and set an example for the people.
Before the Donaghy scandal broke, Stern’s biggest dilemma was that his best player was in a small market where basketball wasn’t the number one sport.
Despite Yu Fei being involved in many controversies and performing many crowd-pleasing revenge dramas, the Bucks’ lack of appeal notably hurt viewership ratings.
In Fei’s four NBA Finals appearances with the Bucks, besides the first one against the Spurs and the 2006 series against the Mavericks which exceeded the historical average, the other two Finals barely met the average.
Of course, this cannot disregard the league’s continuous decline in attractiveness since the summer of 1998.
If not for Fei, the viewership over these years might have been even more dismal.
After all, the only Finals in the past five years without Fei set the record for the lowest viewership ever.
Kobe was all thunder and no rain, James might need time, perhaps just a bubble, the Celtics’ Big Three lacked traffic effect, and all Stern’s hopes rested on Fei. But the problem is, Fei is now in Seattle, and his goal is to save the Supersonics?
Thinking about this, Stern’s face grew even more somber.
It was an impossible task.
※※※
This summer had been somewhat exhausting for Fei.
In the past, he was always able to take full advantage of the summer to rest, but now, he didn’t get a break until the end of August.
From warm-up matches to Olympic qualifiers, plus a good half month of training camp, Fei spent several extra months of time, ultimately leading the Dream Team to an undefeated victory and securing a ticket to the Beijing Olympics.
During this period, Fei averaged 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists per game, ranking first on the team in all categories, truly deserving of the hype as the captain of Team USA.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēnovelkiss.com.
As soon as the mission for the Dream Team was over, and while there was still a little time, Reebok arranged a trip to China for Fei.
Fei’s market in Asia was bigger than in the United States, and the Chinese market was the largest part.
Many factors contributed to Fei’s explosion in popularity in China: his skill, his complexion, his accentless Chinese, his understanding and respect for the place, his close relationship with Yao Ming… Unless you were a fan of James, Jordan, or Shaquille O’Neal, there was hardly anything about Fei that Chinese fans disliked.
Fei visited the still-under-construction Bird’s Nest, boldly indulged in Chinese cuisine that he’d never get in the United States, and, before departing, accepted an exclusive interview with “Basketball Park.”
What he didn’t expect was that the interviewer would be Yu Jia.
In China, as long as you watched basketball, even if you didn’t know the person, you would have heard his voice.
“You know, before this summer, many Chinese fans believed that you would wear the Chinese team’s jersey,” Yu Jia said jokingly, “Did you ever consider it?”
“I really considered it,” Yu Fei responded with a joke too, “Then I looked into the Chinese team and discovered that they need to spend half a year in training camp every time, and this made me decide to only support them in spirit.”
“What made you decide to host a major sports event in Sichuan under your own name?” Yu Jia asked.
“My great-grandfather was from Sichuan, so strictly speaking, I’m also a child of Sichuan.”
“Can you speak Sichuanese?”
“I know a few phrases.”
Yu Jia’s expression showed anticipation.
“Xian ren ban ban… Gua wa zi…”
One week later, Yu Fei returned to the United States.
On the plane, Lawson showed him a news piece from ESPN.
It read: LeBron had an intimate meeting with Michael.
“Looks like he really threw in his lot with MJ,” Lawson scoffed, “He doesn’t think that just by getting a few sermons from MJ, his skills will be as good as MJ’s, does he?”
Since the two parties had already openly broken apart and were at odds like fire and water, James naturally didn’t need to worry about Yu Fei’s reaction anymore.
This truly made Yu Fei feel the irony.
In his previous life, James was very sensitive about Jordan because the media wanted him to surpass Jordan, and he himself aimed for this as well. Although the two never competed in the same game, their covert competitions were not few.
In the comparisons within Zhan Ke, Jordan chose to do a math problem: I don’t know who is stronger, but I know 5 is greater than 3 (before 2020).
James didn’t want to be compared with Kobe, because being compared to Kobe meant that he hadn’t clearly surpassed Kobe; how could he then challenge Jordan?
As a result, he crowned himself the GOAT on a show.
It was unexpected that, the two individuals who should have been at loggerheads instead became allies due to his emergence.
Yu Fei didn’t know whether to feel pride in his own strength, or to reflect on the unpredictability of life.
However, he didn’t have time to care about James at the moment. The Knight’s roster didn’t look like it could contend for the championship, which meant that James didn’t even qualify to enter his race right now.
He had more important things to do.
In mid-September, before the Supersonics’ preseason training camp began, Yu Fei noticed a significant change in the coaching staff lineup.
Karl came to Seattle with him and naturally brought his own coaching team, all of which was fine.
But Yu Fei noticed that some of the veterans who had served the Supersonics for many years had been dismissed.
Among them was Lanny Wilkens, who had a lot of local prestige, and Jack Sikma, whom Yu Fei was very interested in.
Yu Fei had been practicing low-post offense for two years. Although he had made some progress, if he could have guidance from a master of low-post play like Sikma, progress would be quicker.
Therefore, he went directly to the general manager, Sam Presti, to inquire about the reasons for Sikma’s departure.
Presti hadn’t expected Yu Fei to be so concerned about an old-timer who had left the team, “With George’s team coming in, our coaching staff was a bit bloated, and for financial reasons, we had to let go of some people.”
So, this was Karl’s fault?
Yu Fei countered, “So why did Lanny Wilkens have to leave? You’re not going to tell me he was also a member of the coaching staff, are you?”
Presti hailed from the Spurs, a place where the management, coaching staff, and players each had specific roles.
Popovich was the center of power; others just needed to provide advice.
Players did not dictate terms to the management.
Presti left the Spurs because Clay Bennett gave him Popovich-like authority.
But the arrival of Yu Fei broke the established equilibrium.
As a superstar, Yu Fei was a completely different entity from Duncan.
He would speak up about things he disagreed with, openly oppose management decisions, and meddle in everything until he was satisfied.
Suppressing his dissatisfaction with Yu Fei’s condescending attitude, Presti explained, “It was the owner’s decision.”
“Then it’s all good.”
To Presti, Yu Fei’s response perfectly exemplified what he thought the management’s role was in his eyes.
A tool that must obey him, nothing more.
If the directive had come from the top—the owner—then he wouldn’t waste his words on the management; he would go directly to the person who could solve the problem.
After Yu Fei left, Presti finally felt like he could breathe normally again.
This season was going to be very long.
PS: The second update will also be 30-60 minutes late.
