Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 459 - 313: The Master of the Eastern Convergence

Chapter 459: Chapter 313: The Master of the Eastern Convergence

On May 15, 2005, the Bucks triumphed over the Cavaliers in Cleveland with a 24-point advantage, eliminating them with a 4 to 0 series sweep.

For those who had been following this playoff series, this was not a surprising outcome.

Under normal circumstances, James could leave with a smile on his face.

Because, facing the top contender for the Eastern Conference championship, he averaged 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists per game. Even after being swept, who could say his future wasn’t promising?

But with Yu Fei averaging 45 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists per game on the other side, it’s a different story.

Charles Barkley of TNT joked about himself with glee: “Back when I was in Philadelphia, everybody felt I was about the same as Michael, just with less support, and then Michael averaged 43 points in a playoff series against us. However, today, Frye’s performance is even more exaggerated, but considering he’s facing a team with virtually no defense, I can understand his numbers. The question is, can LeBron?”

Yu Fei averaged 45 points per game, plus the 70-point opening night, a 50-point massacre, 4 to 0 sweep.

The phrase ‘bloodied crown’ for James is no longer a joke on paper but a harsh reality.

Even those close to James admitted there was a gap in performance between the two during this series.

The good news is the gap is closing rapidly.

Randy Mims proposed a convincing theory: “If LeBron and Frye switched teams, the Bucks would still be the winners.”

James neither confirmed nor denied this.

Meanwhile, Rich Paul said, “The top priority is to make the team realize they must build a more competitive team for you. Right now, it’s far from enough.”

This was something James agreed with.

He could use a summer to close the gap with Yu Fei, but the team’s roster had to improve, or surpassing Yu Fei and the Bucks would be impossible.

If in the coming years he reached the same level as Yu Fei but lost because of the team’s strength, that would be unbearable.

The day after the season ended, the Bucks began preparations for the Eastern Conference Finals and kept a close eye on the fierce semifinals between the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers, or rather their owner Dan Gilbert, officially concluded his first season as an owner.

It has to be said, it was fun.

But now the fun is over and Gilbert knows he has another important task to accomplish.

LeBron’s contract with the Cavaliers has only one year left. If LeBron doesn’t extend his contract in the summer, he will become a restricted free agent after the upcoming 2006-2007 season.

Gilbert doesn’t want him to go anywhere else. However, he was well aware of LeBron’s close friendship with Jay-Z, who recently bought a share of the New Jersey Nets. This made Gilbert realize Jay-Z, like other NBA owners, was very interested in luring LeBron away from Cleveland.

So, on the second day after the Cavaliers’ season ended, Gilbert offered James an $80 million guaranteed contract over five years.

James did not want to leave Cleveland, where he had settled down, but Yu Fei’s shocking 2+1 short-term contract made him study the collective bargaining agreement more carefully.

From a purely financial perspective, the 2+1 short-term contract allowed Yu Fei to become a free agent three years ahead of time and gain more benefits for the future.

Professionally, James saw the Bucks’ anxious maneuvers last summer about the potential loss of Yu Fei.

This anxiety caused the Bucks to barely consider saving money, spending as much as they could within the salary cap, leading them to acquire Kwame Brown and Raja Bell, along with several lucky draft picks, which allowed them to rebound quickly from last season’s low and rise to the top of the Eastern Conference once more.

Although James and Yu Fei’s relationship could never return to what it once was, it didn’t stop him from learning from Yu Fei in many aspects.

Yu Fei cut down the power of agents.

James went even further, firing his uncontrollable agent Bob Goodwin and hiring an agent, Leon Rose, who was willing to submit to his will.

Yu Fei set up his own marketing company; James followed suit by having Maverick Carter leave Nike to start a company focusing on building his personal brand and controlling his external marketing and promotions.

Now, the benefits of Yu Fei’s 2+1 contract extension made James, who was originally planning to balance things out with a “3+1” contract, heavily lean towards a “2+1”.

So, when James’ team proposed a “2+1” extension contract to the Cavaliers, Gilbert’s rose-colored glasses for James shattered.

God bless Cleveland?

No, God hates Cleveland!

A 2+1 contract signified that the Cavaliers might lose James in three years.

Three years later, the summer of 2009, felt all too imminent.

Could they in three years build a competitive team that would make James want to re-sign in 2009?

Difficult, very difficult.

Gilbert almost instantly loathed the creator of the “2+1” contract.

If it weren’t for Yu Fei, that rotten apple, how could LeBron have learned to be bad?

There are bad people in the League!

The contract renewal between the Cavaliers and James was at a stalemate, but everyone knew that as long as it dragged on, the Cavaliers would eventually give in.

James’s biggest advantage was that he wasn’t the “2+1” creator; he was a follower.

Yu Fei took the heat for two years and paved the way for them to sign the same short-term contracts.

Far away in Milwaukee, Yu Fei didn’t care much about James following his pursuit of a “2+1” renewal.

While they were waiting for the result of the game between the Bucks and the Detroit Pistons, USA Basketball announced the roster for the new Team USA.

Clearly, the humiliation of the defeat in Athens had stung the insiders of the American basketball community.

David Stern hoped to use the next two tournaments—the Championship in Japan and the Beijing Olympics—to restore America’s reputation as the world leader in basketball.

The big list had 22 people, basically representing the elite of American basketball, with Yu Fei being the first one listed.

Yu Fei’s enthusiasm for joining Team USA had always been questioned; it was a well-known mark against him.

A person who’s willing to promote his social responsibility in terms of prohibition but not willing to make American basketball great again in his field of expertise?

This time, Reebok had a plan ready for Yu Fei to decline the invitation from Team USA in advance.

It’s a three-step process.

The first step is to be vague, not to say whether or not he would participate, only to focus on the playoffs.

Once the season ends, it’s time for the second step, which is to leak suspected injury news through the media.

And of course, the third step is to confirm the injury and to say although Big Fei really wanted to defend the glory of American basketball, due to his injury, he’ll have to leave this honor to others.

Yu Fei strictly followed Reebok’s three-step plan, and no matter how the outside world asked about the national team, his answer was always “focus on the game.”

This actually gave those who understood him an answer.

For Yu Fei’s supporters, this is a flaw, look at LeBron James, his patriotism is higher than the sky and deeper than the ocean, just the day after James mother Gloria was formally charged with four counts, including DUI, a few months ago, James’s team announced loudly, “LeBron will head straight to the national team for training after dealing with personal matters, he is excited to join the Dream Team again, and he can’t wait to become a part of it!”

The brilliance of publicity, the method of marketing, none surpasses this.

Who cares about James’ mother’s DUI now?

Big Fei is a Prohibition Ambassador? If you’re so responsible, why not play for the national team? Look at LeBron…

On this matter, both Yu Fei’s team and the Reebok executives found it odd that he was reluctant to play for the national team.

It was a harmless thing, so why was Big Fei so averse to it?

And Yu Fei couldn’t really explain to them.

In Yu Fei’s opinion, he didn’t represent China in competitions because he considered he might be overworked in the NBA and needed to rest properly during the off-season to avoid injuries, plus the water in the national basketball team was too deep; he didn’t want to wade into those murky waters.

For both public and private reasons, Yu Fei didn’t want to play in any national team competitions.

Moreover, he knew that Little Bron wouldn’t be pleased for long. He remembered that this iteration of the Dream Team didn’t perform all that well…

But no matter what, after the playoffs, an all-out war between the Yu Fei and the James camps was inevitable. As the challenger, James needed to seize all of Yu Fei’s weaknesses to create a public opinion advantage for himself.

Actively participating in the national team’s games was one of them.

Yu Fei couldn’t be bothered to waste time on such matters. Once he won another championship, that bunch would quiet down.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

On May 19th, Dwyane Wade, another popular player who openly stated he would join the Dream Team, had a poor shooting performance against the Detroit Pistons, which was the result of the Pistons’ relentless pursuit.

However, Yu Fei had already demonstrated to the entire league how to break through the Pistons’ defense.

Wade, although not a big core who creates infinite possibilities with the ball in hand, indeed has certain big core characteristics. His offense is fiery, and he has a decent passing vision. Yet, the Pistons’ defensive foundation is to leave some inaccurate shooters open while blocking lanes along the way, making it difficult for one-on-one experts to exert their power.

Compared to the Larry Brown era, the biggest decline in the Pistons was Ben Wallace.

The fate of a stout inside defender is to only have a short prime, and at 32, Big Ben was particularly noticeable. In this year’s playoffs, his average blocks per game was only 1.2, and his threat under the basket was far less prominent, indirectly increasing the defensive burden on his teammates and leading to the Pistons’ collapse in Game 6.

4-2

The Miami Heat ended the Pistons’ dominance of the upper bracket and officially secured the right to challenge the Eastern Conference leaders, the Bucks.

“In the Eastern Conference, what could be more exciting than Frye versus LeBron?” said Mike Breen after the Heat’s advancement to the Eastern Finals, “Of course, only Frye versus Shaq. There are so many grudges, so much hatred, so many unpredictable factors. You only need to know, this is the meeting of the former and current masters. The only question is whether Dwyane Wade will be the X-factor that changes everything?”

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