Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 438 - 293: I Give Lebron James a 10 out of 10

Chapter 438: Chapter 293: I Give Lebron James a 10 out of 10

Yu Fei didn’t go as hard on the Cavaliers, at least not as hard as he had against the Miami Heat previously.

Because at that time, Wade had a clear intent to challenge him, whereas LeBron was only subtly trying to show off his skills. After a few rounds, Yu Fei seized the opportunity and put on a more impressive performance.

Then, the first timeout of the night came, and the Bucks made a strategic adjustment. George Karl subbed out Kevin Martin and Kwame Brown for Latrell Sprewell and Dikembe Mutombo.

With this change, the worst defender on the Bucks’ court became Danny Granger, who was playing the small-ball power forward position.

For the Cavaliers, Mutombo replacing Brown was a significant adjustment that clearly impacted the game.

Because at that time, LeBron was still young. He wasn’t yet the player who 20 years later could still average 25 points per game using experience, jack-of-all-trades skills, and a robot-like body.

For him at that moment, to break through Mutombo’s rim protection, there were only two methods: either have a hot shooting night from afar or hope that Big Z or someone else would be suddenly possessed and transformed into a big man shooter who could reliably hit mid-to-long range shots.

If there was neither a hot shooting night nor support from teammates, the situation would become difficult.

“Frye has too many helpers…!”

LeBron’s full-time assistant Mims complained, “The people in Cleveland are giving Bron too little help!”

That was a good excuse, but it wasn’t enough.

After the first quarter, the Bucks led with a score of 27 to 21.

Just looking at the stats, Yu Fei and LeBron were even.

The difference was that Yu Fei played eight minutes before being rotated out, while LeBron played the entire first quarter.

This wasn’t staggering the players’ minutes, because the greater one’s ability, the greater the responsibility. If the Cavaliers didn’t let LeBron play more and take advantage of the few minutes Yu Fei was off the court to catch up, the gap in the score would be even larger.

This was a demonstration of LeBron’s sense of responsibility as a leader.

The more this was the case, the more complaints his close friends would have about the Cavaliers.

At this moment, Yu Fei’s situations with the Bucks became a point of empathy for them: “Bron, regarding the contract renewal with Cleveland, we really need to be cautious! Look at Frye, a year ago the Bucks were in dire straits, and then he signed that damned short contract. Look now! That damned political boss of his is willing to spend money. They spent all the money they could to help build Frye a team that could compete for the championship!”

Since Milwaukee had a poor environment and the heating system in the Bradley Center was notoriously unreliable, Dan Gilbert, who had been very enthusiastic about participating in team affairs since becoming the owner of the Cavaliers, did not travel with the team tonight. Otherwise, hearing Mims’ words, he would certainly have had a quarrel with this short-haired, short-sighted N-word.

The Bucks did spend money in the summer, and so did the Cavaliers. If it wasn’t for his generous donation, Big Z would have been gone by now. If the Cavaliers’ roster depth is not as good as the Bucks’, it’s because the other team drafted better and Yu Fei has a strong ability to lead rookies. Who can you blame for that?

Blame LeBron? You can’t. Of course, you’d have to blame the Cavaliers’ former management with no real vision and the high-salary, low-ability former coach of the Cavaliers.

Gilbert had already sent those good-for-nothings packing, and the new era for the Cavaliers began this summer.

However, since Gilbert was not present, Mims was free to express his opinions.

When he touched on a sensitive subject—the renewal of LeBron’s contract—the Cavaliers players off the court all looked sideways.

This season was LeBron’s third, and as early as this summer, the Cavaliers had offered him a 5-year, $80 million renewal contract.

As long as LeBron signed, the Cavaliers could keep this new generation dominator until the summer of 2012.

Just as Reebok behind Yu Fei hoped he would leave Milwaukee, Nike certainly wanted LeBron to leave Cleveland, didn’t they?

From a commercial value perspective, neither place was ideal for prosperity.

LeBron prudently postponed the contract negotiation.

On the surface, they wanted to wait and see, but in reality, they were concerned about the consequences of Yu Fei’s short contract.

Yu Fei, by signing a short contract, had made himself a villain. For a time, his reputation stank, with backlash from conservatives and unanimous criticism from the media, causing all young players to weigh whether they could withstand such negative publicity.

To this day, LeBron is still the perfect gentleman in the eyes of the media, even though his mom sometimes makes a scene off-court, but this has had a negligible overall effect on him.

So, demanding a 2+1 short contract like Yu Fei did could lead to a collapse in public opinion for him, unless there was full confidence. Otherwise, he hoped to take a not-too-fast, not-too-slow mid-term strategy.

Therefore, LeBron responded to his childhood friend and assistant Mims’ complaints sagely: “We need to be patient, Randy. The team has already done well this year.”

“Well isn’t bad, but it’s not enough,” Mims said. “Look at Frye…”

“Enough!” LeBron cut him off with a smile. “Have you counted how many times you mention Frye in a day? I think you’re about to fall in love with him.”

On hearing this, Mims glanced at Sharapova, who was chatting with Yu Fei, with a sneering tone, “Humph, what’s there to wonder about, who doesn’t love Frye?”

LeBron just laughed it off. Mims often gave the impression of being shallow, but LeBron knew that he was considering his best interests.

All he needed was to discern which words from Mims were correct and which ones were said in the heat of the moment.

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In the second quarter, the Cavaliers picked up their pace.

Although Mutombo was restraining them, the great African mountain was advanced in years and could only maintain his energy for 15-20 minutes, even in the not so intense regular season games.

To lock down LeBron James, he would have to elevate his game to playoff mode, which would entail a greater expenditure of energy.

In the end, Mutombo played only 15 minutes, yet with statistics of 4 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 blocks, he achieved a plus-minus value of +17.

That is to say, during the limited time Mutombo was on the court, the Bucks outscored the Cavaliers by 17 points.

For the Cavaliers, with their relatively poor offensive talents, falling behind by so many points essentially announced the outcome of the game.

However, James hadn’t given up, so the Cavaliers wouldn’t give up either, at least not for the time being.

Ironically, as long as James didn’t give up, Yu Fei wouldn’t give up on this game either.

Halfway through the fourth quarter, with the Cavaliers trailing by 15 points and the trend of the game unlikely to change, Yu Fei was still aggressively attacking, calling for pick-and-rolls, stopping abruptly outside the three-point line, and sinking his 40th point of the night.

On the other side, James also had impressive stats with 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, responding to Yu Fei with a pull-up three-pointer of his own.

“Swish!”

The gap remained the same, with James scoring 34 points, and the Cavaliers called a timeout with four minutes left before the game ended.

Mike Brown, not yet 36, recognized as one of the up-and-comers from the Spurs lineage in the NBA coaching circle, knew in his heart how much the young star valued tonight’s game.

It was because he valued it so much that the reality of the fourth quarter being garbage time was hard to swallow.

“LeBron, take a rest.”

As a coach, Brown admitted to himself that he couldn’t teach James much more, but he could still brew various flavors of motivational soup to keep the emperor satisfied.

James was persuaded.

“We need to be realistic, LeBron,” Brown said, “The Bucks have won championships twice in the past three years and have reached the Eastern Conference Finals three times in a row, while our Cavaliers are a team seeking to return to the playoffs. That’s the gap between us—it’s huge. But because of your presence, people start to believe that we have a chance to catch up with the Bucks. LeBron, you represent a promising future.”

With that motivational soup, the Little Emperor drank heartily and chose to sit out, officially turning the game into garbage time.

Seeing LeBron benched, Yu Fei also rotated his neck and went to the sidelines with his stats of 40 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists.

In the final four minutes, it was still time for the Bucks’ reserves to shine, especially loving to wildly pad the stats and further widen the already substantial lead.

In the end, 119 to 100, the home team Bucks beat the Cavaliers with a 19-point advantage, securing back-to-back victories over their opponent and ensuring that every Milwaukee fan could enjoy the Christmas spirit.

Post-game interview

“On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your performance tonight?”

“7.”

“What about LeBron’s?”

“10.”

The reporters were surprised by the answer because Yu Fei had basically accomplished a full statistical encirclement of LeBron, yet he rated himself a 7 and gave LeBron a 10.

“What’s your standard for scoring?”

“You know, LeBron is my little brother,” Yu Fei said with a smile, “As long as he performs better than the last time he faced me, I’ll give him full marks. As for myself… I have a different set of standards.”

“Some people in the Cavaliers think that LeBron’s performance against the best of the league proves he’s worthy of the expectations placed on him. Do you think LeBron meets that standard?”

Yu Fei said indifferently, “I don’t care about what others think, but if there are such voices within the Cavaliers, then I might say something nitpicky: LeBron should set even higher standards for himself.”

That night, Yu Fei exuded the demeanor of a victor, speaking about LeBron James and the Cavaliers as if he were an elder.

But his words were irrefutable.

After all, he proved in two consecutive games that, from any angle, he was still outperforming LeBron James in every aspect.

Furthermore, he only wished for LeBron to become better—could that really be criticized?

As for whether LeBron would fall back into the “Frye Hell” again, that was not something he, as an older brother, needed to concern himself with.

After all, his team had never hyped up LeBron together; everything has its causes and effects, and the Chosen One must bear the consequences of his choices.

Climbing the ladder to greatness is never easy.

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