Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

The Lakers' problem was obvious, their driving force was on the perimeter, mainly shouldered by Kobe.

Though they had Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum on the inside, they didn't possess the game characteristics seemingly tailor-made for the Triangle Offense like Pau Gasol did.

Their excellent perimeter play gave the Lakers a stable base, but to build a championship team around Kobe, they needed a great inside presence.

Yet, with the timeline thoroughly altered, the Lakers had almost no hope of bolstering their interior lineup.

The Memphis Grizzlies weren't going to offer them comfort anymore since Pau Gasol had already been traded to Milwaukee.

And Gasol was one of the few contemporary star big men suitable for the Triangle Offense and also the one the Lakers had the best chance of acquiring.

However, the Lakers' problems in the paint would not be exposed at Key Arena.

Because the Supersonics' interior was not strong. Explore stories at My Virtual Library Empire

This might have been Yu Fei's fate; since entering the league, he rarely had powerful inside teammates. This issue wasn't addressed until his last year with the Bucks—when Aldridge arrived—yet it was only after his departure that the Bucks completely solved their inside game by trading for Big Pau Gasol.

But this perfect interior matchup with Pau on the left, Aldridge on the right, and Haslem on the bench, had nothing to do with Yu Fei.

It was as if he had signed a pact with the devil—not coexisting under the same sky as the greatest center of the new century meant bearing the consequences of "never having a good center as a teammate."

Karl's strategy was to "hammer Kidd," with Yu Fei taking action, as he had grown accustomed to this from their time with the Bucks.

Phil Jackson has always advocated for players to exert their initiative—slow responses with high emotional intelligence, as they say. During games, he was reluctant to waste a single brain cell on decisions the players could make themselves, earning the Zen Master the praise of being "best at doing nothing" back in his Bulls days, although by the Lakers era, this had worsened.

He had reached the level of Masahiro Taniguchi from the 2020s, who by then, had become detached from worldly desires, so much so that even the hottest actress couldn't keep his "pipes" charged. This situation aptly reflected Jackson's actions.

When Yu Fei began repeatedly calling out Kidd, Jackson first furrowed his brow and then decided to wait and see how Kidd would respond.

After Kidd was blown out, Jackson wanted to see how the others would react.

In the meantime, there were multiple dead balls and several official timeouts, and even the Zen Master himself called a timeout due to the unfavorable situation, but he maintained a wait-and-see attitude towards Kidd being relentlessly pounded by Yu Fei by the end of the first quarter.

The quarter ended at 34 to 24.

The reason the Lakers were only ten points behind was that they had started on par with the Supersonics, only falling behind gradually when the Supersonics changed strategies, and the Lakers had no targeted response.

In terms of game state, the Lakers playing away from home were not inferior to the Supersonics at the start.

During the break, Jackson subbed in Fisher for Kidd and then said to the point guard maestro who had just been targeted to the point of numbness, "If this continues, we may need to abandon the switch on defense."

To abandon the switch on defense, in layman's terms, is to handle the pick-and-roll in the crudest way possible. And what is this crudest way? It's to either squeeze through or go around when faced with a pick-and-roll, without any cover, completely relying on the player's awareness and ability to combat.

If the Lakers were a team with extremely high overall defensive quality, this might work, but they were not.

Kidd kept silent. He had considered this, but as a player, he knew better than anyone the level of his team's defense.

If he directed such a play on the court and ended up being thrashed, it would be his responsibility.

Now it was the Zen Master who wanted to do this, so he simply had to follow orders.

After all, if there were any issues, the media would blame the coaching staff.

Because the Zen Master had subbed out Kobe eight minutes into the first quarter, it opened a window for him to bring Kobe back at the start of the second quarter to score aggressively.

On the other hand, the Supersonics naturally took Yu Fei out for a rest, leaving Durant to lead a bunch of lottery picks with more experience but less standing on the team to maintain the situation.

Collison, Childress, (Luke) Ridnour, and Channing Frye—who were the other four on the court for the Supersonics—were worth mentioning.

They all were within their rookie contract periods.

There was talent for experience, talent for tactics, talent for ability—everywhere one looked, there was an abundance of talent.

Logically, for a lineup like the Supersonics, Kobe plus Bynum backed by the Lakers' second unit should absolutely have been able to cut the deficit.

But Kobe's drive was first blocked by Childress's help defense, then Ridnour scored on a fast break;

Bynum was called for an offensive violation for staying too long in the paint, Durant caught the ball and hit a three-pointer;

The Lakers' strong lineup against the Supersonics' weaker formation didn't just fail to catch up, but they also fell behind by an additional 5 points.

Were the Lakers on the verge of collapse?

No, Kobe, who was considered as having a chance to "rescue" the MVP from Frye Yu's reign, was angrily chewing gum, glaring around furiously like a rakshasa from hell.

As a Kobe fan for fifteen days, Yu Fei believed that he understood Kobe well enough on the court.

In Kobe's shocking 81-point performance, Jalen Rose, one of the main victims from the Raptors, said after the game that he saw no signs of Kobe's outburst. He even joked, "You can't tell he's going to score that much from the way he chews his gum."

But Yu Fei knew Kobe's habits.

When he looked angry, shaking his head and glancing around, some flames were brewing on the court.

Yu Fei stood up and said to Karl, "George, it's time for me to go in."

"Not even two minutes left." Karl felt they could wait a little longer.

Yu Fei said indifferently, "Give number 24 a few more minutes, and our lead will have been for nothing."

"Impossible, Kobe's not on his game tonight," Karl said, "Josh can block him."

However, the main tacit agreement between the young master and the butler is that if the young master acts impulsively, it's not the butler's role to prevent him from being capricious, but to prepare for the aftermath.

Yu Fei insisted on going in, and Karl had no choice but to go to the scorer's table to request a substitution. Grumbling to himself on the way back, "If you want to go against Kobe, just say it..."

Kobe got the ball again, facing Durant.

The ball shuttled back and forth between number 24's legs, and he looked like a giant, living bobblehead.

In the next 60 seconds, everything seemed inevitable.

A step inside the three-point line, a pull-up jumper, a high-post turnaround fadeaway, and backing down Durant before executing a drop step layup.

Kobe said with contempt, "Let Frye guard me!"

Consequently, Durant committed a foul in the next play.

Yu Fei was substituted in.

Karl wondered how Yu Fei could predict Kobe's surge.

Before going on the court, Yu Fei said, "Kobe's high school coach, Greg Downer, and his first NBA coach, Del Harris, once commented about number 24, 'When Kobe decides, 'fuck it,' he keeps doing crossovers under his legs.'

Call it what you will, killer instinct, competitive fire, paranoia, or hatred of losing—this is what the masses believe Kobe has, just like the instinct of number 23 from the Bulls. Over the years, it was this instinct that propelled Kobe forward. If the Lakers wanted to win their first championship after the O.K. era, they had to rely on this instinct.

Karl still couldn't grasp such a thing, but was struck by another thought and couldn't help exclaiming, "No way, Big Fei, are you really a Kobe fan?!!!"

Yu Fei simply waved his hand, noncommittal; no matter who he was off the court, once he was on it, those in the opposing jerseys only had two identities to him.

Adversary or enemy.

The Supersonics made the substitution at an opportune moment.

Kobe was about to erupt, and the Supersonics needed Yu Fei to curb his momentum.

Yu Fei replaced Durant, and yelled at Kobe, "The fun of bullying kids ends here!"

A fierce battle was about to unfold.

Yu Fei responded with a jump shot over Kobe.

Kobe then drove to the basket for a layup.

Afterward, Yu Fei simply directly matched up with Kobe on both offense and defense. Kobe didn't shy away either, actively asking to switch positions for a head-on confrontation in both frontcourt and backcourt.

"In this world, there are no more than three players who can face Frye with such intensity," Doug Collins said, "but Kobe is the only one who gives us the sense he might have a chance to beat Frye."

At that moment, Yu Fei made a three-point step-back.

Collins' partner asked, "What about LeBron?"

"I don't know," Collins added slyly, "All I know is LeBron has never beaten Frye, not once."

For James, this was an unfortunate matter, because his image in the eyes of the world was so pitiful, and Yu Fei's undefeated record against him was always a thorn in his side.

On the other hand, Kobe was quite content with his status. Three years after Shaquille O'Neal's departure, he was back on the championship track. He didn't know what lay ahead; he only knew that he was only one championship away from matching Yu Fei's total. If he could win again, not only would he surpass Shaquille O'Neal's number of championships, but he would also stand on the same starting line as Yu Fei.

That was the reason for his high fighting spirit tonight; the real battle had already begun in the regular season.

(1) I often hear some Lakers fans say that the '08 Lakers were already strong, and Pau Gasol was just icing on the cake. This may be true, but the Lakers were 31 wins and 17 losses before Pau Gasol arrived, and 26 wins and 8 losses after he joined.