Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1134 - 627: Silence is Golden_2

Chapter 1134: Chapter 627: Silence is Golden_2

However, after experiencing several difficult years of development in New York, he returned to the finals, only to encounter the resurrected Greatest of All Time.

Only when facing him as an opponent did Durant realize how difficult this was.

“What if no one can do this before you grow old?”

Durant posed a soul-striking question.

“Then I’ll leave on my own. I won’t let time defeat me!” Suddenly, the Greatest of All Time spoke as if making an unbreakable vow. “I will never grow old like number 23, needing a young man to remind me when to get lost! That day will never come for me!”

That night, Durant possibly defeated Yu Fei in the game.

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He scored 40 points.

While Yu Fei only scored 26 points.

From the looks of it, the Clippers didn’t seem to need Yu Fei to take shots.

Antetokounmpo scored 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists, while Jokić contributed a triple-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists.

The brilliance of the young can sometimes overshadow the glory of the Greatest of All Time.

This made Durant realize another thing.

He didn’t have enough support.

Iguodala was old, Aldridge wasn’t outstanding.

To succeed in these challenging times, or even to boldly be the one to defeat the Greatest of All Time, he at least needed to optimize Iguodala.

And this was something that couldn’t possibly be completed during the season.

Beating the Knicks, although there were strong teams afterwards, there were no similar challenges.

However, there were no interesting teams, but there were interesting individuals, like Westbrook.

Just like what he did in the main timeline, Westbrook achieved a triple-double average.

However, Yu Fei had already replicated this feat eleven years ago and had done it several times in subsequent seasons.

Thus, Westbrook was just retracing Yu Fei’s path; he would receive a lot of praise, but would never dominate the MVP votes with miraculous stats like in the main timeline.

This is the truth in sports.

The first one to cross the finish line has everything, the second gets nothing.

Although the Timberwolves couldn’t beat the Clippers, Westbrook scored 38 points, 14 rebounds, and 12 assists, continuously solidifying his basis for an average triple-double.

“Lars, is it worth pushing yourself so hard?”

Yu Fei really liked Westbrook, even though he often played without thinking, it was precisely this headstrong style that was impressive.

“I don’t have LeBron, I don’t have LaMarcus, nor do I have Giannis; if I don’t push, we’ll fall into hell!”

Westbrook obviously knew that his biggest problem wasn’t lack of effort, but lack of support.

Since entering the NBA, the best teammate he had was Old McGrady.

Moreover, the Timberwolves are the very typical kind of team that just coasts along, competing for the championship? That’s just a slogan to tease you. In reality, they rely on drafts to pick a player who can desperately take the team to the playoffs pretending to compete, and if he doesn’t succeed, they just continue selling tickets until he can’t take it anymore, then they teach him not to let loyalty hurt him.

But now, Westbrook believes he can create miracles.

But one day, he will realize that the gravity of reality makes miracles seem trivial.

And, the situation Westbrook faces seems to have no solution.

His second contract was signed directly with the Timberwolves for five years.

Moreover, this contract does not include a player option.

Now, in his ninth year into his professional career, can he leave? No, he had already reached a 3-year, 100 million US Dollar extension contract with the Timberwolves last summer.

From a professional standpoint, Minnesota is not worth remembering, hence Westbrook’s decision was undoubtedly foolish.

But this is exactly why Yu Fei likes him.

Professional basketball has almost been ruined by those self-serving individuals; if the league no longer has people like Westbrook, how boring would it become?

After the game, a Minnesota reporter asked Yu Fei how he felt about Westbrook possibly becoming the second modern player to achieve a season average of triple-doubles following himself.

Yu Fei didn’t skimp on the praise: “Lars deserves all the praise, in this era, it’s hard to see someone like him. I admire everything he does, and if I had the right to cast my vote for this year’s MVP, I would give it to him.”

While the acknowledgement from the Greatest of All Time is gratifying, Westbrook has a more realistic goal right now.

He must lead the team into the playoffs.

Numbers speak through results.

Good results mean the data holds more value.

If they can’t even make it to the playoffs, an average triple-double will just solidify accusations of stat-padding.

Yu Fei could only wish him good luck, because in the Western Conference, a team like the Timberwolves, which doesn’t even have a second star, trying to make it to the playoffs has to depend on the mood of second-tier powerhouses like the Lakers.

The last game before the All-Star weekend, the opponent was the Celtics.

The Celtics were quite unlucky in recent years.

Larry Sanders, traded from the Clippers, had already retired to become an artist, and in 2015, they struck luck by getting the first draft pick and selecting Karl-Anthony Towns, who performed excellently in his rookie season and was unanimously considered by all general managers as the best player under 20 to build around in the NBA.

However, Towns began to expose his defensive weaknesses in his second season, gradually becoming a problem the Celtics had to address.

Now, the Celtics are stuck in the middle, with not much headway to move up and it’s not beneficial to tank.