Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 396 - 257 Vietnamese Fermented Tofu

Chapter 396: Chapter 257 Vietnamese Fermented Tofu

When the Bucks finished their three-game road trip in the Western Conference, February’s schedule also came to an end.

Currently, they have 31 wins and 22 losses, ranking fourth in the Eastern Conference, and their next two opponents are the Lakers and the Clippers.

On paper, both the Lakers and the Clippers are weak teams.

Currently, the Lakers have only 28 wins, while the Clippers have 24. The Clippers can be ignored, but playing against the Lakers is never an easy task.

And naturally, the key to this problem lies with Kobe.

Kobe wanted to announce in a direct manner that he was ready to take over the Lakers Team.

Considering Shaquille O’Neal’s departure would mean the team needed him to attack the inside more, he chose to put on weight.

At the start of the preseason training camp, teammates saw a bulked-up Kobe weighing nearly 230 pounds (103KG).

Ironically, Kobe’s calculations were off.

With Phil Jackson also gone, the new season’s Lakers needed not only to adjust their tactics but also to find a coach. Initially, they wanted to lure Coach K, whom Kobe deeply admired, from Duke to the NBA. But this was not the first time Coach K was rumored with the NBA, and for NCAA practitioners, rumors like these surfaced every few years, invariably resulting in Coach K getting a pay raise and staying at Duke.

In the end, Coach K indeed stayed in college, so Jim Buss, the Lakers’ de facto manager, initiated Plan B and immediately signed Rudy Tomjanovich.

What was most baffling about this decision was that Little Buss signed Coach Tomjanovich without communicating with anyone on the team, not even Kobe, who found out later.

This hasty decision led to the failure of Kobe’s weight gain.

Under Coach Tomjanovich’s plan, Kobe was to serve more as a rotation offensive focal point, so he needed to maintain agility and speed, instead of frequently charging inside like Jordan did in his day.

The error-ridden Lakers could only play mediocre games at the start of the 2004-05 season. Their strategy involved taking turns breaking in from the outside to distribute the ball, thus creating an open shot or an outside three-pointer. If all else failed, they would leave Kobe and Odom to play one-on-one.

Afterward, they also went through the incident with Karl Malone flirting with Vanessa, the pre-Christmas clash between O’Neal and Old Buss, and Kobe’s serious ankle sprain early in the New Year, resulting in a loss of trust in Coach Tomjanovich during his recovery period. He considered Coach Tomjanovich’s coaching capabilities mediocre, clearly not the right choice to lead the Lakers back to their peak.

Losing Kobe’s trust, Coach Tomjanovich’s situation with the Lakers deteriorated rapidly, and he resigned in early February.

Suddenly, the Lakers were headless and chaos reigned from the top down; for a while, they could only have assistant coach Frank Hamblen take on the role of interim coach, as the situation continued to worsen.

This state of affairs persisted until today when the Bucks arrived at the Staples Center to face a disjointed, undisciplined, and fragmented Lakers Team. Karl gave Yu Fei unlimited freedom: “Play however you want, I’ll tell you if there are issues after the game.”

Yu Fei felt that Karl had changed a lot over the years.

Originally, Karl was representative of over-coaching, wishing he could maintain a live voice connection with the point guard on the court and remotely control his play.

Now, Karl rarely focused on details but instead placed all the burden on Yu Fei, responsible only for timeouts, substitutions, and defensive matchup adjustments.

Having everything a star player needs, Yu Fei reflected on how ball-dominant stars of his past life played and began to mimic them convincingly.

The first player Yu Fei chose to emulate was Harden. Against the Lakers, he called for countless pick-and-rolls and used step-back three-pointers after multiple pump fakes.

That night, Yu Fei attempted an astounding 14 three-pointers; although he only made 5, it put the Lakers on high alert.

The Lakers’ interim coach, Hamblen, even resorted to double-teaming Yu Fei in the second half.

This was because in the first half, Yu Fei made 4 out of 9 three-pointers, and although he only made 1 out of 5 in the second half with the double-team, the Lakers still paid the price for their defense.

Brent Barry and Old Cat Mobley, after receiving passes from Yu Fei, punished the Lakers with their precise shooting.

On the Lakers’ side, Kobe scored 30 points on 11 for 24 shooting, with three of his teammates also scoring in double digits, but they still ended up losing.

The Bucks defeated the Lakers 111 to 100.

Looking at the stats, Kobe’s performance wasn’t bad, but this is the biggest difference between typical perimeter stars of his era and current ball-dominant stars.

When the rosters of the two teams are comparable, teams with a ball-dominant core often have a higher floor.

Because ball-dominant stars can radiate their performance to teammates, whereas stars like Kobe, typical of the turn of the century, were fixated on the impact of one-on-one offense and defense.

When Yu Fei is in good form, he can support the team by himself; on the flip side, if he is off, his teammates can similarly play a supporting role. Kobe, regardless of his condition, couldn’t directly influence his teammates, everyone played their own game based on their abilities.

This phenomenon gave Karl food for thought.

If it had been years earlier, he would have appreciated a player like Kobe more.

Now, he only felt that Kobe’s style of play was inefficient and his game thinking rigid, lacking enough impact on the team.

He didn’t know if he’d been successfully “tamed” by Yu Fei.

“Fourteen three-point attempts in a single game…” Karl teased Yu Fei, “If you played under Larry Brown, you’d be benched for taking that many threes.”

Yu Fei said, “That’s why I’ll never play for him.”

“Good shooting,” Karl said approvingly. “Keep it up.”

Afterward, Yu Fei headed to the media interview room.

44 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists—that was the stat line Yu Fei delivered that night.

“What makes you always give your best performances against the Lakers Team?”

“What kind of question is that?” Yu Fei retorted, “Everyone wants to play their best in a game, and if I always excel against the Lakers, then it means the Lakers are a great team that can bring out all my potential.”

Another reporter from Los Angeles asked, “Will you take back your superficial comments about LA?”

Yu Fei remembered, the only diss he’d made about Los Angeles was calling it the pettiest city in the world.

So much time had passed, yet they were still holding onto it—what else could it be but taking it personally?

“I think your question just proves that my assessment was accurate,” Yu Fei said, “Since it’s accurate, there’s no need to take it back.”

After finishing the interview, Yu Fei ran into Kobe on his way back to the locker room.

“You played well tonight, next time it’s my turn,” Kobe said.

Even as Kobe looked forward to their next encounter, the presence of the burly bodyguards surrounding him made him tense up a bit.

Since last season, Kobe was accompanied by a whole security team wherever he went.

This included entering and exiting the team’s locker room.

Under these circumstances, Yu Fei wondered how Kobe managed to bridge any distance with his teammates.

“Not saying anything?”

Seeing Yu Fei silent, Kobe asked.

“I was going to say ‘see you in the finals,'” Yu Fei smiled, “but that would be hypocritical since you guys won’t make the finals this year. See you next year.”

Kobe countered, “How can you be so sure we won’t make the finals, and how can you be sure you will?”

In Kobe’s view, the Bucks, after the brawl at The Palace of Auburn Hills, clearly had even less of a chance to reach the finals.

“Because a team with 32 wins definitely has a better chance of reaching the finals than one with 28,” Yu Fei decided to leave but not before saying to Kobe, “I’m sorry for what happened in your family recently.”

This was news Yu Fei had heard from Trem; his agent was quite fixated on Kobe—naturally, this had to do with Kobe’s family as well.

Kobe’s family acknowledged Trem, and one of the conditions for mending their relationship with Kobe was to let Trem become Kobe’s agent again—you know that’s not going to happen—and then, Trem also learned from Kobe’s family that Vanessa had suffered a miscarriage at the beginning of the year.

Kobe didn’t expect Yu Fei to offer condolences for this.

He had come to greet him because Yu Fei had claimed to be a fan of his.

You should know, even as a diehard Jordan fan, after becoming famous, he went to great lengths to avoid being labeled as a Jordan fan, but Yu Fei was totally upfront about it.

To this, Kobe simply said, “It’s in the past, I’ll look forward.”

“Then, goodbye.”

Yu Fei went back to the locker room, collected his things, and headed outside the Staples Center to board the team bus back to the hotel.

Since they had another game against the Clippers in Los Angeles in a couple of days, the Bucks stayed in town.

The next day, Yu Fei got up early just as he would in Milwaukee and then watched the Los Angeles media spewing hyperboles about his team.

The media in Los Angeles likened the Lakers to the Yankees of the NBA, while the Bucks were likened to the Vietnam team of the NBA.

Moreover, the explanation for this strange analogy went something like this.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Vietnam (Bucks), a small country, became known to the world for its wars against France and the United States last century, before mostly disappearing from the public eye. The Lakers, on the other hand, represent the United States, with the most money, the most powerful weapons, and a track record of almost never failing. Hence people (Yu Fei) hate the United States, just like how some (Yu Fei) hate the Lakers, mainly because they wish to be born in the United States (Lakers) so they could cheer for the true dominators and winners, instead of making radical comments as they do now.

Lastly, the media cursed, “You know, Vietnam (Bucks) will celebrate wildly after defeating the United States (Lakers), then fade from sight, continue to resent the United States (Lakers), reminiscing about past victories, and then work diligently to manufacture shoes for Nike (hinting that Yu Fei will transfer to the Lakers like Jabbar did in the future).”

To be honest, such articles didn’t anger Yu Fei.

Because they seemed more like a prank than actual mockery.

Afterward, the Bucks faced off against the Clippers on the road.

Yu Fei continued his hot streak from the Lakers game, firing off 14 three-pointers. Only tonight, his touch was even better. He nailed 7 three-pointers, added unguardable drives, against the lackluster Clippers defense, and exploded for a season-high 57 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, leading his team to another victory.

“Stop calling Yu Fei the modern-day Magic; he’s a combination of Magic and Larry Legend!”

That night, Yu Fei declined the post-game interview.

The reason was:

“Our Milwaukee Vietnam team still has to make shoes for Nike, so I won’t entertain anymore. If you have any questions, go interview those two disgraces to America who were captured by the Vietnam team.”

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