Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 478 - 328: The Person Who Changed Fate
Chapter 478: Chapter 328: The Person Who Changed Fate
In the days following the championship finals, Fei’s life revolved around just two things.
One of them was “settlement.”
Averaging a triple-double in the regular season, averaging a triple-double in the playoffs, MVP, Finals MVP, and a season win rate as high as 84%.
Sports Illustrated published an extremely high-profile long article lifting Fei above the heights of Jordan, writing, “Michael Jordan had never had such a successful season. At 24, Frye is heading towards the future and will become a candidate for the greatest player in history.”
This was the first time Fei had garnered the momentum to challenge Jordan’s status.
Of course, if we delve into the details, Frye currently only has half the decisive honors that Jordan does.
And the greatest thing about Jordan is his two three-peats, which makes it super challenging for any successor to surpass him. Even if someone won six championships separately, it would likely be difficult to exceed him.
To completely surpass Jordan in this respect, one would need to secure seven or even more than seven championships.
Of course, the smoothest path to surpassing Jordan should look like this: accomplish a three-peat, then a four-peat (in the same decade), be selected MVP six times, Finals MVP seven times, All-Star Game MVP four times, be included in the All-Star lineup 15 times, All-NBA Teams 12 times, All-Defensive Teams 10 times, be named Defensive Player of the Year twice, Scoring Champion 11 times, Steals Leader four times, Slam Dunk Contest champion three times, and win three Olympic gold medals.
Whoever achieves this will be able to surpass Jordan in every aspect on the court unequivocally, rendering even the most stubborn Jordan fans speechless and relegated to comparing incomparable aspects like “influence” and “cultural phenomenon.”
As for Fei, he had now merely earned the eligibility to be compared with Jordan. Due to the powerful recency effect and enthusiastic “sports evolutionists,” many people thought he had surpassed Jordan, but once the fervor cooled down, everyone would return to reasoning.
To capitalize on this wave of popularity, Reebok even hoped that Fei would make some outrageous statements.
Fei thought, make an outrageous statement? That’s easy, just join a show, and when discussing the feelings of winning the championship this year, he could easily say, “The moment I won the championship, I felt like I had become the best player in history.”
He believed that once he said this, a large number of staunch Jordan fans would jump out to criticize him: The best in history is not something you claim with words, it’s about getting everyone to recognize you!
In the end, Fei didn’t do it.
The reason was simple: other than making his own fans more extreme, and incidentally attracting a wave of haters and negative public opinion while he himself was in a favorable position, it wouldn’t bring any other benefit.
And he now had to deal with another matter: the call-up to the national team.
USA Basketball was determined to cleanse the shame of the 2002 World Championships and the 2004 Olympics. For this purpose, they hired Coach K from Duke as the head coach and included all of the country’s elite in their training roster.
Veterans like Shaquille O’Neal and Garnett had reasons not to go.
But for a player like Fei, who just dominated his way to his third championship, he was considered to have the responsibility and obligation to lead the Dream Team to redemption.
After the finals, Fei’s camp announced: Due to recurring groin injury, Frye would postpone his decision regarding participation.
However, unlike Fei, Dwyane Wade who also played in the finals raced to Las Vegas to join the national team’s training immediately after the series ended.
Wade’s actions made clear, “It is my supreme honor to fight for the Dream Team.”
This fully illustrated one thing — Wade grasped what James’s camp already knew.
Since Fei’s performance on the court is flawless, they seek to surpass him off the court.
Not just James and Wade, but almost all young players participating in Team USA liked to contrast their patriotism against Fei.
Fei was unconcerned by this.
You love your country, I enjoy my vacation; everyone has a bright future.
After using the groin injury to temporarily delay the announcement of whether he would join the national team, Fei began to actively participate in his team’s draft work.
This year, the Bucks’ management truly had no reason to refuse Fei’s involvement in the draft.
Originally last year they had regained control, because with the short contract, a rift had emerged between Fei and the team, and Kevin Martin’s shitty rookie season made people question Fei’s judgments.
However, Martin rebounded swiftly in his second season, turning from a piece of shit that could be thrown out at any moment into an All-Star, thus restoring Fei’s reputation in the draft.
This year’s lottery drawing was almost exactly the same as in Fei’s previous life.
The only difference was that the Seattle SuperSonics, entering a rebuild phase earlier, once again secured the fifth pick in the first round. Why “once again”? Because in recent years, their lottery picks have basically been floating around this position.
But in a draft year that was unanimously considered weak, the fifth pick was not expected to net any well-regarded prospects, making them consider some secondary factors.
For example, after Fei, there was another Seattle son who became a lottery candidate — that was Brandon Roy from the University of Washington.
Roy wanted to enter the NBA draft last year, but Fei told him that waiting another year to declare might result in a better draft position.
Fei didn’t lie to him.
A player who only has first-round late draft prospects in a strong draft year could rise to the middle of the first round or even lottery status in a weak draft year, and Roy didn’t just maintain his standing during his fourth college season, he also showed scouts his improvement.
This made him the Danny Granger of this draft class—a highly skilled super ready-to-go player, the safest choice in the lottery zone.
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Roy, who was basically a lock for the lottery, didn’t require Fei’s concern.
What Fei needed to do now was to use his advantage to maximize the use of the team’s draft rights this year to add young blood.
Since the Bucks had secured the league’s best record, their picks were last in both the first and second rounds.
With these two picks, they could only draft someone like Paul Millsap going down, but trading up could give them a shot at Kyle Lowry and Rajon Rondo.
So, it was really a matter of choice.
Which position did the Bucks need to strengthen?
The option of Millsap was dismissed by Fei, and looking at the team’s roster, Lowry was the best fit.
In the case of Rondo, it wasn’t just that he had a higher draft projection, but as someone who had traveled through time, Fei knew this player had a difficult personality and was a commander who very much needed the ball; this would not only bring uncertainties to the team, but also conflict with his own style of play.
Therefore, Fei’s recommendation to the team was to choose Lowry, and if the draft order wasn’t high enough, to trade up.
This was a minor issue for the Bucks.
They had enough assets to make a trade, but not every asset was for sale.
To acquire a draft pick high enough to select Lowry, some careful calculations were needed.
The characteristic of a weak draft year is that draft rights are not worth much, especially those far from the lottery like late first-round and second-round picks.
Initially, Lowry’s stock wasn’t high, starting as a second-round prospect, but his performance at the UCLA pre-draft camp was outstanding, which raised his draft projection to the end of the first round.
Fei gave this one piece of advice and then stopped worrying about the draft.
A few days later, Fei headed to Seattle, accompanied by his agent Arne Trem.
Like Fei, Roy chose Trem as his agent.
It’s hard to say that Fei’s influence wasn’t a factor.
This year Roy had become a draft magnet, extremely sought after, with many agents approaching him, including Trem. Knowing that he was Fei’s agent, Roy called Fei to ask for his opinion of him.
Fei replied, “If you don’t like causing trouble off the court like I do, Arne is a good choice.”
Roy ultimately chose Trem, while Fei went back to his hometown to rest before attending the draft with Roy in a few days.
This year, Trem also had a number of high-quality rookie clients, amongst whom, Roy had the greatest uncertainty.
The 2006 draft, like other weak years, wasn’t necessarily inferior in terms of the potential of the top prospects compared to other drafts, but the talent dropped off significantly after those top prospects.
This made the mature and ready-to-play Roy a hot commodity.
Several teams in the lottery were interested in Roy, even the Bobcats, holding the third pick, hesitated over whether to bet big on him.
“If you’re willing to give up Kevin Martin, maybe you could get the fourth pick from Atlanta,” Trem told Fei during the trip, “That way, you and Brandon could play on the same team.”
Roy was a rare large combo guard, but in terms of compatibility with Fei, he couldn’t beat Martin.
“Where’s Brandon most likely to go?” Fei simply ignored Trem’s comment.
Trem said, “Atlanta has already made a draft promise to Tyrus Thomas, so, he’s most likely to be picked by Seattle.”
“Oh?”
Fei hadn’t expected Roy to have the fortune of being chosen by his hometown team; how come he didn’t have such luck?
“He must be very happy, right?”
“Of course,” Trem said casually, “and having a local player like Brandon join will significantly help boost the fanbase; maybe he could even change the fate of the SuperSonics.”
PS: Overslept, sorry, the next chapter will be at 4 p.m.
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