Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 463 - 317 Emptiness

Chapter 463: Chapter 317 Emptiness

Yu Fei hadn’t even officially played the penny card against Shaquille O’Neal, and O’Neal’s mindset was already a bit shattered by the penny’s performance.

In terms of performance, the penny wasn’t that good either, it just happened to be enough to put pressure on O’Neal.

In the remaining minutes of the first quarter, penny made 3 shots and hit 2, both baskets coming from post-pick-and-rolls. After he scored the second basket, Miami Heat substituted O’Neal out.

Without O’Neal on the court, penny seemed to have his energy drained and afterwards only took one shot, which he bricked.

The Heat, mindlessly pushing inside, were down by 13 points to the Bucks by the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Dwyane Wade came out all guns blazing, unstoppable in isolation and also getting the benefit of the whistle on the road, he quickly poured in 9 points, closing the gap from 13 points to 7, prompting the Bucks to bring Yu Fei back early.

Then, the Heat also brought back O’Neal.

All starters against all starters, but for the Heat, all starters didn’t mean they could play to their full strength, because O’Neal was always unwilling to give up his tactical status.

He disrupted Wade’s rhythm as soon as he came on.

Wade, who had been scoring consecutively, was forced to pass the ball to him.

And O’Neal, finally finding a chance to go one-on-one, backed down Pachulia and then scored with a hook shot.

At that moment, O’Neal felt refreshed and couldn’t help but think, if every offense could be this simple, the game would be so much more interesting.

Such an idea was undoubtedly naive, anything that involves work and professional ethics is hard to associate with fun.

Yu Fei, who had been wary of Wade as a major threat, felt there was something wrong with the Heat’s game plan.

They should have been playing the two-man act with him, instead they put the focus on O’Neal.

Didn’t the Lakers’ failure serve as a lesson for the Heat?

Yu Fei was not Riley’s gut worm, he didn’t know what the opposing coach was thinking, but since the Heat decided to do so, they were digging their own graves.

Yu Fei stopped caring about Wade and started focusing on harassing O’Neal.

On the defense, helping, trapping, intercepting, and fouling, all these go without saying.

The deadliest was on offense, the Bucks’ center on the court was Robert Horry, who, as easily as he could be shattered by O’Neal on the defensive end, was just as much a space-stretching big man who could contain O’Neal on offense.

O’Neal, repeatedly targeted and insulted with Fei’s trash talk, felt his anger building, but what could he do?

His offense couldn’t respond, his defense was futile.

Halfway through the second quarter, a senseless O’Neal rushed high to switch onto Fei.

Then, Fei, with a bit of trickery, changed directions quickly, dribbled, shifted sideways, and destroyed O’Neal’s balance, making this nearly 300-pound giant collapse in front of him like a toppling building.

“As a two-time team reject, how dare you say those two victors who kicked you out are Fredo and Sonny?” Fei said sarcastically, “Is there a possibility that penny is the failed Michael, Kobe is the obsessive Michael, and you, you’re the Fredo who has fluked success in this disgusting world?”

A mix of shame and rage, O’Neal roared with emotion: “I’ll shut you up! You mongrel, I’ll silence you forever! @#!#￥”

“Silence me? With what?” Fei taunted, “With your barking? I think you better hurry up and lick Dwyane’s shoe bottoms, to avoid him having the team trade you come this summer.”

“Even an annoying pig like you wouldn’t be abandoned by the team three times, right?”

What frustrated O’Neal the most was that Fei had basically nailed his sore spot, and he had nothing on Fei whatsoever.

Fei may have had the stain of refusing to join Team USA, but how could that blemish attack him? On the other hand, O’Neal, at the twilight of his career, had been through all the ups and downs—his flaws were essentially part of his record.

As long as Fei gained the upper hand in the game, O’Neal couldn’t hope to catch a break.

The trash-talking eventually brought the referees’ intervention, who gave both sides a meaningless foul.

And then? Fei continued to target O’Neal, kept spewing trash talk, and kept aiming at every dark spot on O’Neal with unbearable assaults.

Before the half ended, O’Neal, with four fouls and a technical foul against Horry, was substituted by Riley.

And the game? Although the first half wasn’t over, no one believed the Heat had any chance of a comeback that night.

The gap was terrifying.

At half-time, it was 59 to 40.

A nearly 20-point difference was enough for the Heat to start thinking about the next game with half the match still to go.

In the second half, Riley deliberately staggered the playing times for O’Neal and Fei.

This was to give O’Neal some time to cool off and think about what was right, and to give Wade space to perform.

But all these were planning for future games; Riley had no delusions about this one.

At the final buzzer, 115 to 101, the Bucks won a big home victory over the Heat and took the opening victory in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Fei, with 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists, was voted the best on the court, maintaining a triple-double average in the playoffs just like he did in the regular season, but tonight, his feud with O’Neal was drawing more attention than his lack of a triple-double.

“I don’t know why this has become a topic,” Fei said with a righteous expression, “As one of the few Asians in the league, I feel I’m a symbol in many ways. When confronted with a bastard who openly expresses racist words against all Asians, do you expect me to show friendliness to him? Why can he still proudly represent the NBA? Why can he still be selected to the All-Star? Why do so many people support a racist? If you can answer these questions, then I can tell you why I won’t let this pond scum off.”

Those feeling sorry for O’Neal couldn’t combat Fei’s logic.

Because Shaquille O’Neal was racist towards Asians, Yu Fei felt he could freely insult him, and because Shaquille O’Neal was racist towards Asians, Yu Fei felt he could seek revenge at will. What kind of revenge was not allowed? Of course, it was for Yu Fei to use a word that starts with N to curse at Shaquille O’Neal.

If he did that, a simple apology would never suffice.

But Shaquille O’Neal faced no consequences after his apology.

So why should Yu Fei let him off the hook?

Rivalries on the court can be resolved, but this kind of baseline involving character, dignity, and racial discrimination cannot be crossed. If you dare, we will be enemies. That was Yu Fei’s mindset.

Because of the grudge between Yu Fei and Shaquille O’Neal, the actual focus on the game itself had diminished.

Therefore, Dwyane Wade’s complaints about the team excessively focusing on low-post offense were ignored.

But it wasn’t the audience who ignored this; Riley was very aware.

He did not care at all about how the feud between Yu Fei and Shaquille O’Neal unfolded; there was only one thing he cared about: when would Shaquille O’Neal come to his senses.

Was tonight’s game enough?

The next day, Miami Heat had video review sessions at the hotel.

Riley repeatedly stressed that their team’s inside attacks were not effective.

“Should we change our approach or continue to play inside?” Riley asked, looking at Shaquille O’Neal. “Let’s hear your thoughts.”

Many people voiced their opinions.

The content of these opinions was mostly the same; everyone did not want to focus solely on perimeter or inside; a good offense should mix both.

Only Dwyane Wade wanted to focus on perimeter attack since the Milwaukee Bucks, who did not rely solely on inside play, had the League’s highest offensive efficiency in the playoffs, even higher than the Suns’ “S.S.O.L.”

Shaquille O’Neal had no opinion to offer.

So Riley adopted the majority view; in the next game, their offense had to be balanced between inside and outside.

Was the problem solved with that? No, it wasn’t that simple.

Riley believed that Shaquille O’Neal’s confidence was shaken; he was starting to realize that he couldn’t defeat Yu Fei with his own strength, but he still needed one more game, so the script for the second game was the same as the last one.

Miami Heat’s opening offense was indeed from both inside and outside, but as the game went on, possession increasingly gravitated towards the inside.

However, the good part about this game was that Shaquille O’Neal’s crazed demands for the ball were delayed until the second half.

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This allowed Dwyane Wade to display an unstoppable all-around offense, with his unanswerable breakthroughs, 50% three-point shooting, and 14 free throws to score the highest 39 points of the game.

Yet, Shaquille O’Neal slowed down Miami Heat’s offense in the second half.

This caused them to miss the opportunity presented by the Bucks’ off-shooting night from the perimeter. Dwyane Wade’s 39-point performance was meaningless against Yu Fei’s comprehensive 35 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists.

109 to 99

The Bucks took two in a row, leading the series 2-0.

After the game, the Bucks started to talk about the possibility of making it back to the finals.

Riley said the team needed a change.

Dwyane Wade had already given up hope on any tactical changes from the team. He was satisfied with his performance tonight, but as for the result…

“I need to do better,” Wade said. “I don’t care how many points I score, I don’t care if Frye got a triple-double or not, I don’t care whose team this is. All I know is that I have to do better.”

Shaquille O’Neal, who had been questioned more and more despite scoring over 20+10 in two consecutive games, refused to do a post-game interview. He locked himself in the locker room, almost dismantling everything removable within, until Riley entered the room and said with a reproachful look, “Shaq, have you lost your mind? This is an away game, what are you doing?”

“Can’t you see? I’m fucking venting!” Shaquille O’Neal yelled. “I hate that damn Frye, I hate the fucking Bucks, I hate the Bradley Center, I hate everything about Milwaukee!”

Riley looked at him deeply. “If you really hate them that much, you know what you should do.”

“Fine, I know, I’ve always fucking known! You win! Kobe wins! That bitch wins!” O’Neal shouted in self-defeat, “From now on, I’ll play like a stupid Rottweiler! If that helps us win the game, are you happy now?”

A barely discernible smile flickered across Riley’s tense face: “I’m satisfied now.”

“But the team will not pay for damages to the visiting locker room,” he added.

Upon hearing this, Shaquille O’Neal suddenly wanted to blow up the Bradley Center, but after thinking it through, he let it go.

He couldn’t afford it, and he’d also face jail time.

From the perspective of venting anger, tearing up the locker room was more cost-effective.

So…

Shaquille O’Neal’s eyes swept around the locker room again. Was there anything left to dismantle?

But there wasn’t; everything was gone.

It was like a man who had furiously enjoyed a fine film, no matter how delightful the process or comfortable the ending, what remained in the end was only emptiness.

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