Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

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Seeing Paul Pierce getting mentally bombarded by Yu Fei, Rivers still wore a pig-headed look of contentment, but Thibodeau beside him suggested, "We need to give Paul a break."

"He's only played for a few minutes," the pig-headed coach asked seriously, "Is it really necessary?"

Thibodeau replied, "I don't know, but it's definitely better to let Paul come off and regroup than to continue playing like this."

It wasn't until Rivers saw Pierce use a feint to shake off Yu Fei, and then miss his normally reliable jump shot, that he realized his beloved PP34 was indeed disturbed by some villain.

"You're right, Tom."

Pierce missed the shot, Yu Fei grabbed the long rebound, and promptly passed it to Durant, who was breaking fast.

Finally getting his chance to shine, Durant caught the ball in the frontcourt and after just one dribble, faced Michael Redd, who just put up a token defense. Redd was no match for Durant's height and wingspan as he easily made a "layup" right above the rim.

Is this Frye's new pet? Indeed, a prodigious talent.

"You will be even better than Ray and me," Redd told Durant, "and then, your relationship with Frye will come to an end."

Durant wondered why he would say that?

Redd didn't spell it out.

When Greg Oden had to bid farewell to the summer league due to injury, then dropped out of the Las Vegas USA Basketball training camp because of tonsillitis, and finally was ruled out for the season with a foot injury before the start of the new season—the doubts about why the Sonics didn't use their number one pick on Oden evaporated.

For such a super talent who was chosen over Oden, his lower limit is to become a superstar, while his upper limit is boundless.

So how long can a genius with boundless potential tolerate a domineering leader? Redd was one of the many spectators who watched Yu Fei and LeBron James go from close brothers to a dead end.

He was also there during the Las Vegas massacre.

He believed that Yu Fei possessed a compelling force and impetus to challenge others; LeBron couldn't handle the pressure, and so their relationship ended. One day, Durant might empathize with LeBron.

That was Redd's view on Durant's future.

Even though they appeared to be great mentors and friends at the moment.

After returning to the backcourt, Yu Fei high-fived Durant and even asked him why he didn't dunk instead.

Durant responded, "Redd's defense was in place, a layup was the better choice."

"But a dunk can boost our morale," Fei argued.

They were both right. But within the SuperSonics, only Fei was absolutely correct.

"I'll try next time," Durant promised.

Before the Celtics on the offense came over, Fei said, "Not try, you must."

The Celtics noticed something was off with Pierce, so the focus of their offense gradually shifted from the wing to the inside.

Garnett was shooting well tonight, and Perkins had a certain height advantage over Kwame Brown.

After spreading out, Rondo passed the ball to Perkins.

Perkins immediately backed down Brown, drawing a defensive foul and headed to the free-throw line.

Before Perkins's free throws, a substitution alert from the Celtics' bench came through the scorer's table.

The Celtics replaced Paul Pierce with Matt Barnes.

Last summer, after the Celtics formed their Big Three, countless people wanted a free ride to the championship. The Celtics nearly signed every player they wanted, only James Posey refused them. Although Posey acknowledged the Celtics as the hot favorites for the championship in the new season, he believed that following Fei was more promising.

Because in the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals, he had seen firsthand how Fei tore apart the Heat team that definitely had a shot at the title.

Posey had chosen Fei out of instinct and emotion. The Celtics could only look for Posey's lower-tier replacement, another renowned blue-collar wing player, Matt Barnes.

Unlike versatile Posey, who could play the three and four, Barnes was a full-time small forward, so there was less flexibility in rotation.

But when Pierce had problems and the Celtics needed to shift their focus to the inside, Barnes was a good filler. He could defend like a mad dog and snatch up every opportunity that came his way like a hungry dog.

In comparison to a barking dog like Pierce, Barnes's role was closer to the definition of a dog.

But Fei didn't care who was on the other side.

Barnes was at best an indestructible mangy mutt, much like how P.J. Tucker was deployed by the Bucks in 2022 exclusively to guard Durant. Did Tucker stop Durant? No, he just wore Durant down each round. That was Barnes's role as well.

However, Tucker could exhaust a just-recovered, over-thirty Durant, but Barnes would never be able to do the same to Fei in his prime.

Perkins made one of his two free throws, Brown grabbed the rebound and passed it to Roy.

Roy waved, signaling for the red-hot Fei to wait in the frontcourt.

A joke, really; if he gave the ball to Fei in the backcourt, it would seem irresponsible of him as the ball-handler, and most importantly, if Fei dribbled from the backcourt to the frontcourt and scored one-on-one, Roy wouldn't get the assist.

Roy wasn't one to fuss over stats, but Fei often used his assist numbers to tease that the team lacked a point guard, prodding Presti to take action.

Given the practical necessity, Roy was naturally willing to play the servant a bit.

Once in the frontcourt, he'd make a show of playing tactics, then point to the weak side for Fei to receive the ball.

Rondo, guarding him, could only roll his eyes.

Fei caught the ball, took a probing step that pushed Barnes back, then rose from where he stood, and cleanly scored with a jump shot.

Roy's assist tally ticked up by one.

"Don't you think you're going solo a bit too much?" Roy asked in a faux-concerned manner.

Fei replied with a grin, "Do you like the assists I'm racking up for you?"

"Love them."

"Then what the hell are you complaining about?"

Back in the backcourt, Roy felt it was necessary to remind Fei that basketball was a team sport.

"We can't rely on just you to win the game, right?"

"Tonight, you can rely on just me."

Apart from Lawson and those other core buddies who had been playing together since childhood and now shared mutual interests, Fei's best friends in the League included Roy, Brown, and then Little O and the others.

But even Roy knew there was a clear line of demarcation in the Supersonics when it came to power.

Whatever Fei wanted to do had to be accommodated, so while Roy might verbally disagree, when it came time to cooperate, there was no ambiguity.

Durant, reduced to a spectator, keenly understood through these subtle details the extent of privilege a superstar could possess.

Nike wanted him to be a good guy and not challenge Frye until he had absolute power.

"Otherwise, LeBron will be a cautionary tale for you."

That was what Nike executives had told him personally.

Having seen how Fei had retaliated against LeBron in Las Vegas, Durant never entertained any crooked thoughts against Fei, believing he should never cross paths with Fei.

But he couldn't fool himself into saying he didn't want to be a player like Fei.

From the moment he entered the radar of mainstream scouts, they had pegged him as the next Frye. That was his template for development, his mission, the pinnacle he could reach, the future he dreamt of.

If he couldn't become that kind of person, then his professional career would be a failure.

But did becoming such a person necessarily mean conflicting with Frye? The naive Durant didn't think it was inevitable, because Frye wasn't Jordan, and he wasn't Frye; he just wanted to be a player like Frye, not become a person like him.

At 19 years and 117 days old, Kevin Durant didn't yet understand that some things are destined. It was because of who Fei was that he had become that kind of player. Once Durant chose this path, it was inevitable that the nice Durant would be swallowed up by the demonic Durant.

The Celtics gradually realized that Pierce wasn't the one who could get under Fei's skin. Fei targeted Pierce only because he was noisy.

Fei's real target was their team, and in the eyes of the Celtics' coaching staff, Fei was going all out to show PJ Brown his competitive spirit.

So, whether it was Pierce or Barnes, neither could halt his offensive momentum.

Pierce could even bring some pressure to Fei's defense on the offensive end, but Barnes? His lack of ball-handling ability in set plays, relying solely on cutting and catching passes for shots, greatly eased Fei's defensive burden.

After Barnes took the floor, Fei began moving inside more to help Brown and others alleviate pressure. If not for the Celtics having Red sinking threes to stabilize the situation, the Supersonics might have built a double-digit lead in the first quarter, powered by Fei's unstoppable offense and defense.

But in the end, a fully committed superstar could indeed dominate the situation.

At the end of the first quarter, the Supersonics led the Celtics by 8 points, 29 to 21.

Fei was on fire, scoring 20 points, grabbing 4 rebounds, and adding 1 assist for the quarter. Aside from a couple of missed shots from the outside, his one-on-ones in set plays were almost perfect, and both Pierce and Barnes were overwhelmed.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Karl subbed Fei out for a rest.

"Frye, even if it's for PJ, you're going too hard. It's just a regular-season game," Karl remarked.

Fei responded, "What if our Finals opponent is The Celtics? How much defensive attention will they put on me after this game? I guess 30% more than usual. We have a lot of fledglings on our team who haven't played in the big games. If I take on 30% more pressure, it eases their load by 30%. This will give them a better chance to perform at their level in the Finals."

It was only mid-January, and Big Fei was already thinking about the Finals?

Though it looked like personal vendettas, Big Fei had spoken, and how could Karl not believe him?

Fei is magnificent, no further words needed!

In the following second quarter, Karl confidently fielded a young line-up centered around the bench to spar with The Celtics.

This five-man unit consisted of (Luke) Ridnour, Durant, Childress, Posey, and Nick Collison.

Durant liked the current line-up; out of the five, he was the only starter.

That signified that he had the highest tactical status.

Even though his shooting percentage wasn't high, his turnovers many, and he lacked the prestige of Frye, he truly believed he could perform just like Frye whenever he wished.

He felt ready.

(1) A previous error regarding Watson has been corrected in the text above, thanks to readers for pointing it out.