Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Yu Fei's joke had Celtics fans launching a series of attacks on General Manager Danny Ainge.

Although it was Ainge's first year with the Celtics, fans had already witnessed his craftiness.

Ainge was a man of action who would go for it once he set his mind on a goal, and he didn't care about anyone else's opinion.

From the moment he took over the Celtics, he knew that the team's current roster had reached its limit. If they kept muddling through, they'd just play the playoffs for fun.

Therefore, he performed major surgery on the roster, clearly refusing to renew Antoine Walker's contract and then shipping him off, following that with an acquisition of Ricky Davis from the Cavaliers— a move that completely shattered the heart of Jim O'Brien, the head coach who had led the Celtics out of the Rick Pitino nightmare.

O'Brien chose to resign, and Ainge had anticipated this reaction.

However, what Ainge had not expected was the competitiveness of the Eastern Conference to be so low.

He had practically dismantled the team, but the Celtics still entered the playoffs ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference.
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Then came the first game where they were thrashed by the Bucks, and Yu Fei made his remark about "suggesting Ricky Davis be signed for 20 years."

Countless people were offended by this, and naturally, Bill Simmons was the most enraged.

The next day, he published a column entitled "How an Incompetent General Manager Ruined My Beloved Team in Just a Few Months," indicting Danny Ainge of seven deadly sins.

Aside from mocking the Celtics, Yu Fei had no other intentions; the one thing he wanted was to sweep them aside without trouble and advance to the second round early.

The second and third games of the playoffs had no suspense, with the Bucks winning by a margin of more than 20 points.

The fourth game, however, had a little suspense.

Pierce scored a playoffs series-high of 38 points.

But on the Bucks' side, Yu Fei also responded with 38 points.

In addition, apart from Fei, Ray Allen scored 30 points, and Sprewell tallied 20 points.

The Bucks' trio of perimeter players took turns firing, their offensive surge sweeping across the Celtics like a tsunami.

The Celtics were swept out, and the Fleet Center wailed as if an era had come to an end.

Yu Fei stood on the sidelines, feeling nothing of it.

Aside from asking Yu Fei about his thoughts on advancing to the semifinals, an ABC reporter asked a special question: "Frye, if the Dream Team invites you again during the offseason, would you accept?"

As a player who aims to become the most valuable player in history, Yu Fei truly believed he shouldn't represent the national team and that resting properly during the offseason was the priority.

But he couldn't say that publicly.

"I don't know," said Yu Fei helplessly. "Coach Larry Brown has been using this to criticize me, and it's heartbreaking. He clearly got me wrong, and I don't want to play for a coach who sees me that way."

"So, is this a personal issue between you and Coach Brown?"

"You could say that."

"If the Dream Team had a different head coach in the future, would your stance change?"

"Maybe."

With these words, Yu Fei effectively rejected the summertime call-up once again.

But for USA Basketball, Fei's rejection was expected—an anticipated outcome since it wasn't his first time declining the call.

Strangely, along with Fei, other high school superstars like Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady had also refused invitations from the national team.

And their reasons were quite formal.

Garnett's reason involved getting married and the NBA season being too long—this season would be the first time since 1995 he hadn't gone fishing during the semi-finals.

McGrady's was even simpler: a back injury plus a fallout with his team, seeking a trade, and not in the mood to play for the national team.

It seemed like the most patriotic Kobe, due to the Eagle County case and still haggling over contracts with the Lakers, wouldn't waste energy playing for the national team either.

Why are these high school players so problematic?

People couldn't avoid stereotyping them even if they wanted to.

Fei was surprised (and pleased) to see so many players having issues.

If everyone were fine except for him, he'd leave a bad impression for having so many reasons. Now, with so many people joining him in standing up USA Basketball, even if they would be criticized later, they'd face it together.

And the incident blew over like a gentle breeze.

The first round of the playoffs hadn't even finished, with the Bucks and other strong teams already sweeping their opponents waiting for the semifinals to start, while the NBA announced the Rookie of the Year during this time.

Although Fei's appearance led the Cavaliers to lose two more games than in the past, LeBron James's selection as Rookie of the Year proceeded unchanged.

If Yu Fei wasn't LeBron's big bro and had voted with absolute neutrality, he might have chosen Anthony.

However, in the media voting, James secured an overwhelming advantage.

Ironically, for an award that should be taken very seriously, those journalists with voting rights chose James from a non-basketball perspective.

Sports Illustrated, in their award prediction article, picked James as the Rookie of the Year.

The reason?

"LeBron, as the most anticipated rookie in history, largely lived up to everyone's expectations."

ESPN announced they cast their vote for James, and knowing this would irritate the fans of Melo, they wrote in an unsigned article: "Let's make an assumption. Everyone who thinks Melo should be the ROY has the same reason—the Nuggets made the playoffs. Now let's suppose LeBron was on the Nuggets and Melo was with the Cavaliers. Can you honestly tell me that Melo could lead the Cavaliers to the playoffs?"

Then David Aldridge from ESPN wrote; "No one—including Jordan, Magic, Kareem, Russell, and Wilt—entered the NBA with such a level of scrutiny and hype as LeBron James, and he has performed exceedingly well almost every night. His output at the point guard position was unexpected, and when he returned to the forward spot, he brought an unprecedented level of explosiveness. Yes, LeBron's Cavaliers were subpar in a weaker league. But that's not on LeBron. His performance met everyone's expectations. It's astonishing."

All those who supported James for ROY echoed similar testimonies.

You could extract the same content from their flowery rhetoric.

They alluded to James's lack of support, how he delivered an elite-level rookie season under unparalleled pressure, and how he was more well-rounded than Anthony, at least at the rookie stats stage, hence, he should be the ROY.

The biggest issue is that few of the reasons contributing to James being chosen for ROY are purely basketball related.

Intense pressure, high expectations...?

Data and records, the most concrete things, are brushed aside with the excuse of "lack of support," and so basketball reasons become invalid, and non-basketball reasons take precedence.

Yu Fei was happy for his little bro's selection, but after seeing the reasons the media supported his brother for ROY, he couldn't help but feel frustrated for another person.

Last season, there was a rookie who combined the objective conditions and personal performance of both James and Anthony but failed to be chosen for ROY.

If pressure and expectations are so critical, why didn't Yao Ming get chosen for ROY? Has anyone in NBA history faced greater pressure than him? Who, apart from Shaq and before LeBron, had higher expectations than Yao? Plus, his individual performance was not shabby either. But when considering both external and internal factors along with this year's selection criteria, shouldn't Yao have been a sure bet for ROY?

Behind the inconsistent standards, there must be a clear criterion that cannot be openly acknowledged.

But Yu Fei didn't have the time to dwell on this matter, he could only trust that there was a force in the universe determined to see his little bro as ROY. Well then, so be it.

In the second round of the playoffs, the Bucks encountered their old friends, the Philadelphia 76ers.

Before the All-Star break, the 76ers were outside the playoff bubble, with the team trying to sell Iverson. Turns out, no one was buying.

Since Iverson was rotting on their hands, the 76ers had to coax him into playing well. Conveniently, post-Kidd's departure, the middling Brooklyn Nets were ready to tank for a rebuild, so they took Kenyon Martin at the trade deadline.

Though the 76ers gave up three first-round picks, Martin's arrival indeed turned them into winners.

They surged from the tenth to the fifth position in the Eastern Conference and just eliminated the fourth seed Miami Heat in the first round, setting up another clash with the Bucks.

Yu Fei VS Iverson.

This was the second season of the Reebok Derby, albeit with less fireworks than the first.

Because Yu Fei had successfully taken the top spot from Iverson last season.

Post-strengthening, the 76ers were somewhat improved but still did not reach the height of the Eastern Conference's top three.

In the first two games of the series, Yu Fei averaged a triple-double, and the Bucks won with ease.

In the third game in Philadelphia, Yu Fei unleashed 40 points, securing a match point for the Bucks and effectively clinching a ticket to the conference finals.

As the 76ers' exit was imminent, the league announced the winners of the season awards that same night.

Yu Fei, as a point guard, joined Kobe, Garnett, Duncan, and Shaquille O'Neal in the All-NBA Team.

This also marked the second year in a row Yu Fei was selected for the All-NBA Team.

Ironically, as the five men at the pinnacle of the basketball kingdom were being honored on this night of seasonal accolades, they were once again asked if they would participate in the national team during the off-season.

Three of them rejected the idea on the spot.

Duncan, after toying with opponents in last summer's Americas Cup, said, "If my body allows it, I'd love to play for Team USA. It would be interesting."

The other person who didn't reject the idea was Yu Fei, but it was generally assumed that he had no connection with the national team.

Yet Yu Fei still didn't close the door completely, teasing: "If Coach Larry Brown lets his players leave me unguarded in the Eastern Conference Finals, I might consider it."

"But Frye, you haven't eliminated the 76ers yet."

"We're already at 3-0, what's wrong with looking forward to the Eastern Conference Finals a bit early?"

"..."