Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 524 - 364: The King of Ideas and the Devil Du

Chapter 524: Chapter 364: The King of Ideas and the Devil Du

“KD, what did you just do to the referee?”

George Karl stared at Durant, as if he wanted to read his thoughts from a face that seemed devoid of any guile.

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But Durant replied with his usual humility, “Coach, what’s bothering me is that I really didn’t do anything to him.”

Coach, such a sweet title.

It had been a long time since Karl had heard this word from Yu Fei’s mouth.

...

But to him, he hoped even more that Yu Fei would call him “George,” as that would mean their relationship had transcended the usual coach and player dynamic.

“I saw you gesticulating wildly on the court, what was the purpose of that?” Karl pressed.

Durant answered, “I was fouled, but it seemed like the referee didn’t see it.”

“Kevin, I think there might be a possibility,” Karl said, “that the referee deliberately didn’t call the foul for you to better understand their authority. In such cases, the more restraint you show, the more rampant they become. You should know, referees are like a green pool, if you give them a smile, they’ll forget their own status.”

Durant earnestly replied, “Coach, you may be right, but I wouldn’t use that word, it’s not right.”

“Not necessarily, Kevin.” For a moment, the image of Durant blended with Dr. J in Karl’s mind.

A good guy image wasn’t exclusive to Durant. Looking back on NBA history, there were numerous stars with that image, and Dr. J was one of them. However, because Dr. J valued face too much to be decisive in critical moments, before Moses Malone arrived, he had been like a stepping stone in the magic act of Magic Johnson and Bird, laying the groundwork for their early legends.

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Yet even Dr. J, who was often provoked by Bird’s poisonous tongue, once lost his composure and went fist to fist with that damned trash-talking Great White Bird.

Could Durant maintain this image?

If he really is a good guy, might he lose dominance over the game due to being overly friendly?

A reliable star has a killer instinct in crucial moments, but how can you, a good person, be associated with such terms?

Karl wanted to know how Durant would develop his character. Was this kid from the suburbs of Washington D.C. really a humble angel? Would he become another bridge connecting the NBA to its fans after Yu Fei? How long would he maintain his habit of kissing his mother before and after games? And when would he be willing to put down the Bible in his backpack?

At least for now, Durant’s image was unassailable.

On the court, Yu Fei started to face similar encounters to Durant’s.

Playing away from home, his star influence suddenly waned.

The Magic were often foul-prone against him, yet the referee’s whistle was rarely heard.

However, Fei didn’t resort to cursing the referees like Posey did.

When dealing with a sensitive, frail, and unreasonable referee like Joey Crawford, Fei typically would utter brief complaints.

Then, when it came to the more susceptible assistant referees and the third referees, Fei would apply pressure more actively.

“Do your job, didn’t you see I was fouled?”

Fei was indeed fouled, but the whistle went unblown.

This kind of pressure quickly led to the officials calling a dubious blocking foul on the Magic, a sort of compensation for Fei.

These compensatory calls are common in major leagues, but only some adept communicators regularly get the balance whistle.

Fei didn’t advocate personally attacking referees like Posey did, because pushing someone to their limits can lead referees to focus on penalizing you all night.

Halfway through the first quarter, Fei’s control over the referees kept the Magic from finding their desired pace, despite their home advantage.

When Fei left the field, the Supersonics led the Magic by a narrow margin of 21 to 20.

The Magic appeared to be an up-to-date team. They had fully embraced the small-ball philosophy of the Bucks, surrounding Howard with a group of shooters.

Nelson, Carter, and Bell formed a decent offensive and defensive strength, then pulling up Tskitishvili to the power forward position.

On paper, they were among the top in the Eastern Conference.

However, Fei thought they could not compete with the Celtics or the Bucks, but were definitely stronger than middling teams like the Cavaliers.

The Supersonics’ bench unit began to exert their strength in the transitional phase.

It was mainly Childress and Channing Frye.

The former loved attacking the hoop, and the latter was good at shooting. Paired with Nick Collison, a white inside player who could do everything but was a master of none, they made quite an impact.

Especially Childress. His thinking was innovative. As a fourth-year player who had been heavily groomed by the Supersonics as a winger for the past three years, his performance and stats had been lukewarm. Then, with Durant’s arrival, the team’s resources naturally shifted toward the more talented, younger rookie.

For a player in a contract year, losing the starting position was a huge blow, but Childress never showed any dissatisfaction. He even arrogantly claimed, “The coaching staff wants me to come off the bench to use my smart brain to identify problems with the team.”

If anyone doubted his intelligence, Childress would retort, “Can you get into Stanford? I did.”

On the court, Childress’s approach was equally unconventional, always playing unpredictably. If he was guarding the opponent’s most accurate shooter, he would deliberately leave them open to double-team their teammate.

Because the most dangerous move is often the safest. This relative theory on the court made others dizzy. And if his left-open man scored consecutively, he had a justification.

For example, at the moment, Childress was matched against Jason Kapono, who the Magic had sought out in the free agency to replace Rashard Lewis—a player good for nothing on the NBA court except shooting. But it was precisely that skill that had earned him a median contract.

Last season, Kapono’s three-point shooting was at 51%.

However, Childress did not hesitate to leave him open.

As a result, the ball was passed quickly to Kapono, who easily hit the open three-pointer.

Karl couldn’t stand this kind of basic defensive mistake, leaving a shooter with a 51% success rate open; was that even human?

“Josh, what the fuck are you doing?”

Childress answered, “Coach, I’m playing to my strengths!”

“And what are your strengths?”

“Help defense, Coach!”

“Stop helping!” Karl roared, “Stick to that man!”

As a Stanford graduate, Childress had another strength: he was obedient.

Karl only felt a breath of air pent up inside him, unable to vent.

“Do you think his brain has a problem?” Having been in the League for many years, Karl had never seen anyone with such erratic behavior on the court.

Yu Fei smiled without a word, Karl hadn’t seen this kind of person simply because he didn’t play video games.

If he played some online games, he would know that the internet is full of such people.

Commonly known as the “point king.”

Most “point kings” just have lots of crazy ideas but lack action; the problem with Childress was that he had lots of ideas and the boldness to act on them, which really tested the coaching staff’s patience.

Five minutes into the second quarter, Yu Fei and Roy returned to the court.

The Magic specifically raised their defensive focus on Yu Fei to the highest level.

Bell man-to-man defense, Carter ready to double-team, Howard helping.

This defensive arrangement meant Yu Fei would face at least two defenders no matter where he was.

If Yu Fei were still the big core, such defensive intensity might still be effective by blocking his individual offense.

But now, Yu Fei was undergoing a “Larry Bird-style” transformation, as Karl said, from a big core floor general to a versatile core forward balancing both on-ball and off-ball plays equally.

The advantage was that Yu Fei could finally commit his extra energy to the defensive end.

This increased Yu Fei’s defensive threat significantly this season, with his average steals and blocks combined nearing four per game.

The Magic’s defensive tactic was useful, but for Yu Fei, who greatly increased his off-ball play, it represented an excessive waste of defensive resources.

Roy exploited Nelson, ending the half with 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.

“I don’t understand,” said Roy, “why are they deploying so many men to surround you? What do they want to do?”

Yu Fei said with self-satisfaction, “That’s the draw of a four-time Finals MVP.”

“Right,” joked Roy, “everyone knows you’re the ‘Most Attractive Ever.'”

A flash from the past: In the 2004 All-Star game, Big Fei took the AMVP from the big man and self-proclaimed “MAE”.

The Magic quickly realized their strategy wasn’t working, so they shifted to doubling down on Roy.

The Supersonics were driven by dual cores, with Roy as the on-ball core and Yu Fei as the big core capable of playing on and off the ball. Once Roy was targeted, the ball would shift towards Yu Fei.

Then, the familiar Bucks Fei would reappear within the Supersonics’ ranks.

In the second half, Yu Fei continually isolated Carter and Bell, forcing Howard to frequently assist outside the paint. Kwame Brown happily heralded the good days ahead, getting easy baskets underneath, scoring 10 points in one quarter and even showing a dominating surge over Howard.

The imbalance between the Magic’s interior and exterior game and the Supersonics’ cooperation from within and without, led to the collapse happening in an instant.

Carter’s three-pointer missed, Yu Fei grabbed the long rebound and scored a trailing three-pointer; Howard posted up, drew a double team, and then passed to a teammate, but the three-pointer still missed. Yu Fei grabbed another long rebound, played with his dribbling to shake off Carter, and even the Orlando crowd exclaimed because after Fei shook off Carter, he spun out an impressive ground pass that changed direction to Kevin Durant, who followed up the play.

That humble angel, the 2007 draft’s first overall pick, had a tough night in Orlando, but his team still hadn’t given up on him.

Durant caught what may be the season’s best pass, on the left 45-degree angle beyond the three-point line. In that moment, Yu Fei was reminded of the Durant clad in Golden State Warriors’ apparel, as he leaped and launched a three-pointer with an unassailable arc, a shot beyond human interference.

“Swish!”

“Without a doubt, this is the best moment of the season so far!”

The commentator howled as the Supersonics turned an away game into a home game with their performance.

And Durant, relieved, turned around and exhaled, just like in the 2018 Finals when he once again bested the Cavaliers in that familiar spot for the second time, shedding the filth of that season, unaware that the Green Equation was waiting for him just around the corner. He just wanted to relieve his own pressure.

At this moment, Durant couldn’t sense anything so distant. He just didn’t want to waste Yu Fei’s dizzying performance from just moments before.

The Magic were now 16 points behind, and they called for a timeout.

Durant noticed that Yu Fei was watching him and subconsciously said, “Frye, your performance just now was too good.”

“I still prefer your expression just now,” Yu Fei’s words sent a chill down Durant’s spine. “Like a psychopathic killer taking down his target again, I like that side of you.”