Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 453 - 307: Battle of Brothers

Chapter 453: Chapter 307: Battle of Brothers

Yu Fei’s third MVP came earlier than any MVP in previous years.

But this time, there was no controversy.

As for votes, Yu Fei was the clear first, followed by Nash in second, and James in third.

However, coming in second in votes wasn’t considered an honor under the absolute statistical superiority.

Nike’s publicity machine crashed for a while after the MVP news hit, then kicked into overdrive promoting James, but no matter how they advertised LeBron’s playoff debut being more spectacular than Frye’s, they couldn’t make a splash.

Because reality laid bare the fact that Yu Fei was only two years older than James, but his resume boasted two championships and three MVP trophies.

Despite the huge gap, Nike didn’t give up trying.

In the publicity battle between The Chosen One and the King, Nike went all out.

In the end, it was Bill Simmons’s article that maintained James’s influence in this disadvantaged situation.

Simmons wrote in his article:

“LeBron answered questions like ‘Will he elevate his game when it matters the most?,’ ‘Can he play a key role in crunch time?,’ ‘Will he get the same respect from the referees as Jordan did?,’ and ‘Will he bite his nails so much that he might develop a rare oral basketball herpes if no one stops him?’ with just one virtuoso offensive performance. Like Bo Jackson in the late ’80s, he has no limits. If you came out of a time machine and told me LeBron averaged 45 points, 15 rebounds, and 15 assists during the 2011 NBA Finals, I would completely believe you.”

As the most influential sports writer in the basketball world, Simmons’s article successfully added a halo to James’s first-round performance, convincing some that this was greater than what Yu Fei did when he carried the Wizards to the playoffs only to be eliminated by the Brooklyn Nets in the first round.

But no matter how the publicity machine worked, players ultimately had to answer everything with their performance on the court.

May 6

Yu Fei woke up from bed, but his mood wasn’t delightful.

Because the night before, he and Christina Hendricks had amicably broken up.

It was a natural outcome, a woman seeking a lifetime contract and a man who only wanted a 2+1 short deal were never meant to last.

Yu Fei ate the hard-to-swallow nutrition meal, listening to Lawson say, “You know what day it is tonight, right?”

“The anniversary of me becoming single,” Yu Fei joked. “I should throw a big single party.”

Lawson smirked. “Isn’t that good? You can now tick Sha Wa off the list without any qualms.”

“She’s too young,” Yu Fei had already forgotten the power of the Crazy Horse show. “Only good as a snack.”

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Lawson said, “She’s just a few years younger than you.”

“Hmm?” Yu Fei hinted meaningfully with a wink.

Only then did Lawson get what he was implying.

Meanwhile, Lin Kaiwen started talking about recent hot topics.

Yu Fei listened indifferently, eating throughout with the regularity of a robot. He suddenly missed Christina’s substantial assets; he felt like having a pork chop meal tonight—if he could kick off his appetite by blasting the Cavaliers, that’d be great.

The game between the Bucks and Cavaliers was heavily promoted even before it started.

It was a direct confrontation between the two biggest drawcards of the league.

The League needed such gimmicks; Nike needed James to prove himself worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Yu Fei on such a significant stage.

How about Yu Fei? As a “victim” bound by publicity, he had no interest in participating.

But Reebok would say, no, you do.

Reebok’s management detested the League’s and Nike’s tactic of tying their promotional strategy to Yu Fei, but they appreciated the traffic and hype it generated, willing to add to the flames from behind the scenes.

As long as Yu Fei achieved complete victory in the competition, all the current publicity and hype would belong to him.

Bradley Center

Yu Fei went through his pre-game routine, playing one-on-one with Ariza as usual.

“Frye, you focus on scoring tonight; I’ll handle LeBron,”

Ariza said confidently.

Yu Fei quickly tore through his defense, elevating for a high layup to score.

“You should first worry about when you’ll get on the court,”

Yu Fei appreciated Ariza’s defense, but expecting him to stop Lebron James was wishful thinking.

With the hand check ban constraining defenders, it was already incredibly difficult to stop his drives, and now with James developing the crab dribble, one-on-one he seemed invincible.

When the Cavaliers entered the court, James congratulated Yu Fei first, “Frye, congrats on the MVP win.”

Yu Fei smiled. “And congrats to you for making the second round.”

James jokingly said, “I’m thinking about making the third round now.”

“That’ll require a hundred times more effort,” Yu Fei responded. “Good luck.”

Then James noticed Yu Fei’s girlfriend wasn’t there, “Where’s Christina, Savannah really liked her Christmas gift; the snacks inside were delicious.”

“Oh, I’m glad you guys liked it,”

Yu Fei didn’t tell James the answer, because there was no need.

The game was about to start, and he didn’t want to be distracted by anything.

In the minutes before the game, the commentators and analysts on various TV channels broke down both teams in detail, especially the comparison between Yu Fei and James.

Although they said a lot of things, if one listens carefully, one could understand what they were trying to convey.

The Bucks will win easily.

But LeBron James will definitely make an outstanding performance in front of Yu Fei, and this is the first step to his greatness—shine in front of a legend, plant the seeds of victory, and a few years later, he will defeat Yu Fei and personally reap the fruits of victory.

At the start, the Cavaliers got possession of the ball.

James dribbled a few times before passing to Larry Hughes.

Hughes played a messy solo on the weak side against Martin, who seemed even more disorganized. After all, as a second-year player not known for defense, being targeted like this made it easy for his defense to offer opportunities to the opponent.

Hughes scored with a jump shot in front of Martin.

0 to 2

As usual, Yu Fei first dished the ball to Kwame Brown, encouraging him to defend well and protect the boards.

Brown liked Yu Fei’s passes; somehow, when receiving from others he would often fumble, but the passes from Big Fei were always just right.

This time, Yu Fei signaled Brown to fake a screen and cut, and the Cavaliers’ defensive discipline remained at the level of their first-round battle with the Wizards, with almost no coordination among them, allowing Brown to easily create an opportunity. Yu Fei waved and lobbed the ball up.

Brown caught it in the air and hammered it down with a dunk.

Seeing the Cavaliers’ defense so lax, Yu Fei felt it was a good night to rack up points.

In the following possession, James’s aggressive drive failed, letting Bell anticipate his breakthrough position. But with his body already in motion, unable to stop, he collided with Bell like a vehicle causing an accident.

Under any standard, that was an offensive foul.

But a king doesn’t suffer the same punishment as the common man.

Bell could only watch as James, after knocking him down, took a jump shot in place… and missed.

Feeling aggrieved, Bell mocked, “Big Fei would have made that.”

James typically didn’t trash-talk on the court, at most glaring at his opponents after a dunk, which maintained quality while demonstrating the domineering presence of a king reigning supreme. But if someone brought up Yu Fei, James couldn’t help but feel the urge to retort.

“After all, he is the MVP,” James said modestly.

“What does MVP have to do with shooting?” Bell said rudely, “You’ll never surpass Big Fei!”

Facing this veteran angered by being outplayed by a youngster, Yu Fei’s approach was to pass him the ball to cool him off.

But Bell, with anger clouding his mind, missed the three-pointer. Fortunately, the long rebound was collected by Yu Fei, and the Cavaliers had not anticipated this.

Yu Fei, left open after grabbing the rebound, raised his hand and let fly a long two-pointer.

“Swish!”

That shot validated Bell’s trash talk.

Look, Big Fei really made it.

Even though Bell didn’t add any more trash talk, Yu Fei silently retreated on defense after shooting. However, the scene visibly affected James’s mindset.

“Give me the ball!”

According to the rhythm, the one to bring the ball past half-court should have been Larry Hughes, but James demanded the ball as he approached, and quickly moved forward, reaching the frontcourt in five seconds, starting his acceleration from the left side of the three-point line.

Facing the full force of the James-style tank, even if Bell anticipated the position correctly, he was sent flying upon contact. This time, the referee’s no-call on the defensive foul expressed consistency in the game’s physicality.

As Bell crumbled like the first line of defense, the Bucks failed to form a second defensive line immediately.

James broke into the paint, collided with Kwame Brown in mid-air but kept his balance as if nothing had happened, and scored with a right-handed layup.

4 to 4

Feeling that he had regained control, James once again looked down on Brown with disdain.

“Big Fei, control your little brother,” Brown said while passing the ball.

Yu Fei asked, “How do you want me to control him?”

“Have him stop looking at me. As the top center in the Eastern Conference, how can he disrespect me like that?” Brown asked with an air of righteousness.

With so many flaws in his reasoning, Yu Fei didn’t know where to begin his retort.

Receiving the pass, Yu Fei decided to do something to bring the game to a new level.

His first step was to call for Bell to set a pick and roll, making LeBron switch onto him.

“Bron, to commemorate our first playoff encounter, I’ve decided to score 50 points tonight,” Yu Fei declared. Without any further action, he pulled up directly over James’s head for a difficult three-pointer from beyond the arc. James’s mind was blank, still not recovered from the trash talk, as the ball flew over his head and into his own basket.

“Swish!!!”

“You got a problem with that?”

Yu Fei asked.

It was like asking someone if he could slap them, and without waiting for an answer, doing it anyway.

After the slap, he asked again, “You’re not mad, right?”

A flame not purely competitive but deeply personal was burning in James’s heart. Hadn’t he waited three years to prove himself on a stage like this?

“I have no problem with that,” James said in a deep voice, “because I’m going to get 60 points.”

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