Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 482 - 332 Autumn in Saitama

Chapter 482: Chapter 332 Autumn in Saitama

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Yu Fei’s first stop on his Asia tour this year was China, and what was different this time was that besides participating in commercial activities, he also brought Reebok’s training camp here.

In recent years, Yu Fei’s rise has led to a sharp expansion of Reebok’s Asia market.

In Asia, Yu Fei’s sports products alone can compete with those of several Nike athletes.

Speaking of China in particular, he is far ahead of the competition.

This made Reebok increase their investment in the China market, and this year, Yu Fei proposed to sponsor and organize sports competitions in the name of Reebok. Reebok gladly accepted the proposal, but what puzzled them was Yu Fei’s suggestion to host the event in Sichuan in early May.

The reason was that Yu Fei’s ancestral home was Sichuan, even though he couldn’t speak a word of Sichuanese, and the timing was because his mother, Yu Fenglin, was born on May 8th, both matters of special significance to him.

Although Reebok wanted to promote their brand in more economically developed areas, under Yu Fei’s insistence, they chose Sichuan as the location, and even though it was funded by Reebok, it was named after Yu Fei.

After completing his activities in China, Yu Fei went on to the Philippines and Korea, and if he managed a few serious tasks in China, then in these two countries, the trip was purely for fun.

Accompanying him, Lin Kaiwen and Lawson were so enthralled that as the World Championship approached, they felt no need to go to Japan.

But as a “Patriot,” Yu Fei, who already “deeply regretted” missing the World Championship due to injury, how could he not show up to support his Team USA mates?

“Don’t worry,” said Yu Fei to them. “President Shimura has given us a heads-up. We’ll be well taken care of this time.”

Lawson asked, “The strip-show mogul?”

Yu Fei’s face darkened, “What strip-show mogul? The person is a legitimate president of a talent agency.”

Lawson understood, but if all the president’s recruits were burlesque dancers, wasn’t that being a strip-show mogul?

In late August, just before the World Championship began, Yu Fei and his party arrived in Japan.

This was the final stop of their Asia tour for the year.

During the events, aside from his close friends, Yu Fei was always alone, but after arriving in Japan, he gradually started showing up with a female companion.

She was a Eurasian beauty called Erica Kusumi; needless to say, she was recommended by President Shimura. Yu Fei had no interest in industry insiders, but President Shimura said that Erica was still in the “packaging phase,” and the company was building momentum for her.

They believed that the aura of being “Frye’s rumored girlfriend” would brighten Erica’s future in the industry.

Yu Fei didn’t mind the rumors, and hearing that she hadn’t officially debuted yet, he minded even less. Most importantly, Erica was beautiful and had a gentle disposition, so he decided to keep her by his side during his time in Japan.

August 20th

Yu Fei and others arrived in Sapporo, and tonight, Team USA would play against China here.

As an American, Yu Fei would have preferred to watch Team USA’s games in Hiroshima, but it seemed the organizers harbored some misgivings and just wouldn’t schedule Team USA to play in Hiroshima.

When Yu Fei appeared with Erica, all the cameras at the venue seemed to be magnetized, instantly turning towards his location.

Seeing Yu Fei’s companion, Yao Ming came over with a cheeky grin to greet them, “Well then, is that groin of yours going to recover?”

“Keep it up, and I might really get on the court!” Yu Fei responded with a laugh.

“It doesn’t make a difference whether you play or not,” Yao Ming was philosophical, “Losing by less counts as a win for us.”

But Yu Fei said, “It does make a difference if I play or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I played, Team USA could win the championship.” Yu Fei’s arrogance elicited a sigh from Yao Ming, “Now they probably won’t even make it to the finals.”

Afterward, Yao Ming went back to warm up, and members of Team USA came over to greet Yu Fei one by one.

Coach K was the second-to-last to come over, asking about the recovery from Yu Fei’s injury.

“It’s pretty much healed,” Yu Fei said, “I’m very regretful I couldn’t make it for the World Championship.”

Coach K replied, “Don’t regret it, there will be more opportunities in the future.”

The last one to come over was LeBron James.

Since the semifinals, Yu Fei and James hadn’t spoken over the phone.

Now, as one of the Dream Team’s co-captains, James approached Yu Fei and said, “Frye, how’s your injury?”

“Thanks for asking, I’m almost healed,” Yu Fei teased, “Captain, can we win the championship this time?”

James seemed preoccupied, ever since Kobe had dropped out of the national team due to knee surgery, there had been non-stop doubts about the Dream Team from the outside world.

The main point of doubt was that the three co-captains all seemed too young.

And James had to face endless questions linked to Yu Fei.

He was exasperated by this, and when he heard Yu Fei express doubts about whether the Dream Team could win the championship in Japan, he immediately said, “Of course, we will win the championship.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“All right, since that’s the case, I will stay here until the end of the World Championship,” Yu Fei said indifferently. “I hope Erica and I can enjoy your victory celebration.”

James returned to the court.

It seemed he had acquired yet another reason to win the championship from Yu Fei.

But for some reason, James couldn’t feel confidence in Team USA from Yu Fei.

Yu Fei gave him a very apparent attitude of watching a show.

As if Team USA was bound to make a fool of themselves in Japan.

Yes, James gradually understood the hint on Yu Fei’s face.

“If you guys don’t mess up, then I would have come here for nothing.”

That was the subtext written on his face.

But how could they possibly lose? In James’s eyes, the only team that could pose a threat at the World Championship was Spain.

All other teams were not even worth mentioning, including tonight’s Chinese team.

For most of the game, there was no suspense. After the first quarter, Team USA had already taken a 15-point lead. In the second half, Team USA intensified their defense, forcing China to commit three consecutive turnovers. With Joe Johnson’s fadeaway three-pointer, the difference reached 30 points.

The cheers for “U.S.A” in the venue made people question whether this was Team USA’s home court.

Yu Fei didn’t know whether this was an automatic response to support the strong, or if it was an anti-China sentiment at work. Unless in future world wars, as a victor, the old Chinese dropped their own Little Boy and Fat Man on this land, he would not have the answer.

A few days later, the World Championship welcomed the last day of group matches, and Yu Fei had two games to watch today.

One was China against Slovenia at noon, and the other was USA against Senegal.

Yu Fei knew the outcomes of both games, especially the first one.

There were no extra factors to interfere with the game, so it proceeded exactly as Yu Fei understood. Slovenia scored a basket in the paint, while China’s Wang Shipeng dribbled from the backcourt to the front and made the greatest shot in the history of Chinese basketball.

In a decade or so, Wang Qi would keep mentioning this shot in the commentary booth, to the point where the fans would feel irritated.

But for all Chinese basketball fans who personally witnessed this shot, it was an unmatched experience that would be hard to come by again.

Being there in person, Yu Fei had several thoughts at the time. He wondered whether the 7-year-old Luka Dončić had watched this game. Was little Luka stimulated? Did it ignite a belief to “play for the rise of Slovenia”? If so, should Slovenia thank the old Chinese for The Shot? Well, there was no need to thank him; attributing a third of the World Cup championship that Dončić would win for Slovenia to the old Chinese would suffice.

After the knockout stage began, the good days for the Chinese team were over. They could be strangled by Greece. The point guard Liu Wei was thoroughly hindered by the full-court press of the opposition, creating an impression among generations of fans that “Liu Wei couldn’t get past the half-court when facing a full-court press.” However, Liu Wei never said, “Even Team USA can’t get past it!”

The semi-finals were held in Saitama, a city that reminded Yu Fei of One Punch Man. But ever since he had travelled through time, he disliked bald heads, so he didn’t like the city.

But tonight was the game between USA and Greece, and Yu Fei knew what would happen, so he had to come.

Greece’s game plan was impressive. They let the substitutes start, which allowed the usual starters to have the stamina to last until the end of the game. Coupled with the Greek Shaq’s domination in the paint, the outbreak of shooting from the perimeter, and Team USA’s performance, where everyone besides Anthony seemed to have a vendetta against the basket, resulted in the biggest upset in international basketball since the Munich Olympics men’s basketball final.

In Munich, Americans could blame the referees; two years ago in Athens, they could blame the superstars who dropped out midway, leading Larry Brown to have to take a team lacking chemistry to the Olympics. But this year, Team USA, led by three young superstars claimed to be the saviors of Team USA, was defeated by Greece, and it was a comprehensive defeat from a tactical standpoint with no excuse.

The moment the game ended, the FIBA officials meaningfully turned the camera to Yu Fei at the sidelines.

“101 to 95, Greece team has defeated Team USA!” the FIBA commentator said. “LeBron couldn’t redeem America, the one who can really redeem them is sitting off the court!”

“But the question is, does he want to?”

Yu Fei stood up, and many media outlets wanted to ask his opinion about the game.

He hadn’t forgotten how these people had exploited his absence from Team USA due to injury for hype. Since they had fed on this negative publicity, they couldn’t blame him, Big Fei, for also taking advantage of their loss to consume some negative publicity.

“This result is regrettable.”

“I don’t know why we lacked resilience.”

“You know, FIBA’s three-point line is much shorter than the NBA’s, which means that many who can’t shoot threes in the NBA can become shooters here. But what did we see? Only Melo could consistently make threes.”

“Without skill, without resilience, without competitiveness, how can such a team talk about redeeming the Dream Team?”

Then, a reporter asked, “If you were a member of this team, could you have changed the outcome of this game?”

“You know, I have great respect for Greece’s performance; they deserved this victory, so I won’t say I could have changed the outcome of this game,” Yu Fei said with a smile. “But I wouldn’t have gone 0 for 4 from a 20-foot (NBA is 23.9 feet) three-point line.”

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