Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1101 - 616 Tomorrow Will Be Better_2

Chapter 1101: Chapter 616 Tomorrow Will Be Better_2 Chapter 1101: Chapter 616 Tomorrow Will Be Better_2 Yu Fei answered, “For me, getting selected for the All-Star for eighteen consecutive years is harder.”

The 15-year-old Alex didn’t know that for Yu Fei, getting selected for the All-Star eighteen times in a row meant playing for four more seasons.

A few days later, the All-Star Weekend events officially began.

Adam Silver made many reforms after taking office, and so far, two of them have sparked the most discussion. One is the promotion of short-sleeved jerseys—basically, this is where Adam Silver gets criticized. As long as a player has a bad shooting night, they blame the short-sleeved jerseys. James even tore the sleeves on the spot because he shot so badly.

The other is the fancy remodeling of the All-Star Weekend.

The celebrity game has more variations now, and the Rising Star Challenge has changed from freshmen versus sophomores to Team USA versus Team USA, which fits the NBA’s successful globalization today, showcasing a concentrated display of the world’s basketball talents. The restructuring of the Skills Challenge also keeps up with the times; it used to be a preserve of guards, but now, the league insists on pitting backcourt and frontcourt players against each other in teams.

Because of this change, Antetokounmpo, who has always shown off a seven-foot magical impression, naturally signed up for this year’s Skills Challenge.

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Thompson signed up for the three-point contest as well.

Yu Fei suggested Jokić sign up for the Slam Dunk Contest.

Jokić angrily refused, stating that the only contest he was interested in was the Cola Chugging Contest.

In the Rising Star Challenge, Lakers’ sophomore star Zack LaVine shone brightly, scoring 30 points and leading Team USA to a 3-point victory over the International Team.

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This made reporters wonder if LaVine would have enough energy for the Slam Dunk Contest the next day?

LaVine said, “Piece of cake.”

What he didn’t expect was that fate had arranged the greatest opponent for him.

Yu Fei knew what was going to happen on the day of the Slam Dunk Contest, so he pulled his teammates to the best spot in advance.

Last year LaVine won effortlessly, so, it was generally believed that as long as he didn’t make any mistakes, he would have no equal in this contest.

However, Aaron Gordon came out and stunned the audience with a dunk, bringing people back to the great era when Jordan and Wilkins dueled in the Slam Dunk Contest.

The atmosphere at the scene reached a climax with Gordon’s under-the-butt hand-switching dunk.

From what happened afterward, Yu Fei felt that the fight for the championship should be set in stone here.

Afterward, Gordon ran out of inspiration, while LaVine played up the free-throw line dunk, eventually winning back-to-back championships with a striding free-throw line dunk between the legs that barely stepped on the line. The greatest Slam Dunk Contest duel in history concluded amid the world’s amazement.

The Lakers are definitely the biggest winners so far.

Sophomore LaVine gained a reputation tonight akin to Kobe’s.

Whenever such a moment arises, reporters ask Yu Fei why he never participates in the Slam Dunk Contest.

Yu Fei never shies away from the question: “My dunks are like Amar’e Stoudemire’s. You can see me pull off some great dunks during games, but at the Slam Dunk Contest, it’s hard for me to do better than them.”

It’s an answer that’s both honest and lackluster.

But Yu Fei is very authentic about this issue.

If he was confident of winning the championship, he would have participated long ago; not participating is a self-awareness that his style of dunking is not suited for showy dunk contests.

Whenever he says this, the media lets him off the hook.

Then, when another exciting Slam Dunk Contest occurs, they come back with renewed vigor.

That night, Adam Silver was very happy.

Because the NBA seems to be thriving under his administration, both LaVine and Gordon are new stars who entered the NBA after he took over, and in a few years, there will be more and more of them.

In the end, the old Durants are bound to be weeded out.

Then, the old Durants seem to sense the President’s subtle thoughts, or maybe they are too frozen in Toronto to put on a show, and the All-Star Game, which should have been the main event, turned into a playground for the youngsters.

The old Durants strolled lifelessly on the court.

Westbrook, who has long struggled in the lands of bitter cold, felt strangely at home in Toronto.

He was last year’s All-Star MVP, and this year, he wants to defend his title—possibly the Timberwolves’ only highlight of the season.

After McGrady’s retirement, the burden on the Timberwolves was entirely on Westbrook’s shoulders; even with him working as hard as an ox each game, the team could only manage a 50% win rate.

However, this win rate wouldn’t get them into the playoffs in the Western Conference; he needed to work even harder.

The disheartened Westbrook could only vent his frustration in the All-Star Game.

When he took Yu Fei’s assist for an emphatic dunk and couldn’t help but howl, yelling at Yu Fei, “Old man, put some more energy into it! If I had nine championships, I’d be the most energetic man in the world!”

Yu Fei retorted with a laugh, “That’s why you don’t have nine championships.”

“!￥!￥” Westbrook muttered extremely, “Just winning one championship would be enough for my lifetime!”

Hearing this, Kobe sneered.

Win just one championship?

In Yu Fei’s era, that was a luxury.

The Spurs benefited from the Palace of Auburn Hills’ demolition of the Bucks in 2005, and the Miami Heat benefited from Yu Fei’s team not being championship-competitive in previous years, but those days of easy pickings are gone.

Just like in the past, whenever people think Yu Fei is done, his team quickly improves, and his teammates rapidly grow. Durant’s rise is still traceable, but where to make sense of the rise of the Clippers’ Antetokounmpo and Jokić?