Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

After winning the opening game, the Clippers raised their second banner, and the players received their rings. This process symbolized that all achievements from the last season are now sealed away, and from now on, everything is brand new.

But for the Clippers, these events were not new.

They knew their goal was to win three consecutive championships, yet the long regular season stood as a challenge before them.

They had no choice but to wait.

This period was the most grueling.

In such situations, many people tend to slack off.

For instance, Clay Thompson, the most easygoing starting player in the Clippers.

His performance was poor at the beginning of the season; as a shooter, in the first week of the season, he only made 3 out of 24 attempts from the three-point line.

Fortunately, the team had an outstanding bench lineup to compensate for Thompson’s temporary lack of firepower.

But this was still a concern.

“Clay, what’s wrong, didn’t the team pay you last month?” Antetokounmpo, who considered himself the next team leader, tried to counsel Thompson jokingly.

“Don’t talk like Nikola.” Thompson didn’t need anyone’s counsel. “Mind your own business!”

Antetokounmpo got a bit angry: “If your three-point shooting percentage wasn’t so low, I wouldn’t need to talk like Nikola!”

“I’ll adjust.” Thompson said. “That’s what I need, just tell me directly if there’s a problem.”

Antetokounmpo looked somewhat helpless.

He had been watching videos of Yu Fei’s games from his younger days, seeing how his opponents greatly feared this GOAT. Besides extraordinary skills, what else makes GOAT so scary?

After careful observation, Antetokounmpo concluded that Yu Fei always had an intimidating expression on the court. He thought this was key, so he began to mimic it.

To perfectly replicate the expression, Antetokounmpo even practiced it on various occasions.

The most standard method was standing in front of a mirror, recalling the image in his mind, fine-tuning his facial expression, and then suddenly shouting loudly.

Once, Yu Fei caught him in the act and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’m imitating your expression.”

Yu Fei swore: “I’ve never made such a stupid expression!”

Antetokounmpo earnestly said, “That means I’m not mimicking it well enough.”

Thus, he spent more time continuing his practice. What he was striving for, in Yu Fei’s view, was merely trying to establish a sense of authority.

This was like Sakuragi Hanamichi trying to intimidate opponents with his stare, a complete misplacement of priorities.

If Yu Fei hadn’t messed up D.C in his rookie season, forcing Old Jordan to trade him to retain his position; if he hadn’t made enemies with Shaquille O’Neal, humiliating him in various ways in the following years; if he hadn’t retaliated publicly against James after their fallout—then nobody would find Yu Fei terrifying.

True authority comes from well-known deeds, not just from an expression.

However, Yu Fei believed that Antetokounmpo would eventually understand this. After all, considering his performance in the 2022 Eastern Conference semi-finals, it was evident that this guy was naturally wise and bound for great achievements.

However, after training, while Jokić was drinking a soda, he commented on Antetokounmpo’s “imitation show”: “I really don’t understand why someone insists on desperately trying to become someone else. Isn’t it good to be oneself?”

Jokić’s casual comment easily ignited Antetokounmpo’s anger.

“You’re such an undisciplined fool; you just can’t understand what it means to become a great player like Frye!” Antetokounmpo angrily screamed in his native language, “Continue drinking that damn soda!”

Jokić’s personality was the complete opposite of Antetokounmpo’s. When he pointed out the Greek’s faults, the Greek exploded in rage, criticizing him in return, while Jokić himself never cared about these so-called shortcomings.

At that moment, Jokić, labeled as undisciplined, didn’t care at all, happily took another sip of his soda, and burped contentedly.

Training had already ended.

Now it was relaxation time before dismissal.

Yet, some were still training.

Yu Fei was nearly two months shy of his 34th birthday, yet he was intensifying his three-point shooting practice.

This was Antetokounmpo’s third season, and Jokić’s second. Their potential was like a volcano ready to erupt at any moment, ready to shock everyone.

However, since the Clippers were a championship-contending team, their talents couldn’t be fully unleashed but had to be gradually displayed in coordination with teammates.

Even so, the performances of Antetokounmpo and Jokić were already hard to restrain.

Sometimes, Yu Fei felt that he might be the obstacle to their full explosion.

Although his presence laid the foundation for the Clippers’ championship contention, realistically, it also restricted their space in the game.

To lessen this mutual constraint’s negative impact, Yu Fei decided to increase his three-point shooting. To achieve this, he had to solidify his shooting accuracy.

Therefore, he was now practicing shooting every day.

Seeing Yu Fei work so hard, Antetokounmpo naturally felt uneasy slacking off. He would choose to practice extra on another court.

Once Antetokounmpo joined the training, the other team members had to start complaining.

With the Big Gang Leader and Young Master leading the charge, who dared not to follow?

“Damn, you’re really a troublemaker!” Yao Ming complained, “Because of you, the whole team is practicing extra now!”

Yu Fei snorted, “With so many young players in the team, an extra half hour of practice isn’t a big deal, but you, with so many people practicing extra, can you really sit still?”