Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

January 10, 2002, marked the Wizards' first game of the season against the Timberwolves.

In the Timberwolves' roster was a well-known superstar – Kevin Garnett.

In Yu Fei's eyes, the Timberwolves era's Garnett wasn't much different from Anthony Davis during the Pelicans period: fragile body, lousy team, unattractive market. But Garnett had a stronger mindset than Davis, who, after the team brought in Cousins and suffered unexpected injuries, completely lost his heart.

Yu Fei didn't know how ultimately Garnett would fall out of love with the Timberwolves, he just knew that in a few years the guy was going to join the Celtics.

For the game against the Timberwolves, Collins drew on the experience of facing Jermaine O'Neal, fully aware that nobody on the Wizards could match Garnett's talent. Kwame Brown was the only choice.

Therefore, Collins started Brown in this game.

The result, of course, was no surprise: Garnett exploded for 28 points, 18 rebounds and easily defeated the Wizards again.

The most terrifying moment of the game came when Collins, after becoming disappointed in Brown, roared at him: "Are you going to let this continue? Are you going to let him do whatever he wants over your head? He's beating you senseless! What's wrong with you? What are you doing?"

Yu Fei didn't know what kind of expectations Collins held for Brown, but if someone had to take the blame for this game, it indeed had to be someone from the frontcourt.

Jordan, after going 11-for-34 in the last game, hit 14 of 30 shots tonight to score 35 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, while Yu Fei also got 21 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists. But they were the only two Wizards players with scores in double digits. On the Timberwolves side, Garnett dominated the paint, and Chauncey Billups had an exceptional game, scoring 29 points with 11 assists.

After the game, Jordan said the team needed to be stronger, while Collins plainly expressed regret: "I thought Kwame was like Frye, I gave him an opportunity too early, he's just not ready, he's just not ready, and all this responsibility is on me!"

Not ready? Zhou Qi thought that this was spot-on expertise!

Was Collins defending Brown? No, he was just making himself look like a manager who had misjudged a young player, when the real mistake was with the young man who wasn't prepared.

Regardless of whether Brown was ready or not, wasn't it normal for a rookie to be blown out by a superstar like Garnett in his heyday?

Would Brown not have been blown out if he had been ready?

Yu Fei didn't know if Collins' actions had any effect other than further undermining Brown's confidence.

The next day, the Wizards returned to D.C.

Everything seemed to return to calm.

As January's schedule was about to be more than halfway through, the NBA's All-Star roster was also nearly announced.

Jordan's All-Star selection was a foregone conclusion, and Yu Fei was definitely going to be selected for the Rookie Challenge. Although there was still about a month left until the All-Star weekend, Wizards fans were eagerly looking forward to the All-Star Game again after a long time.

Afterward, they faced the Spurs at home.

This was the Wizards' second meeting with the Spurs this season, and unless the two teams met in the finals, it would also be their last encounter this season.

Yu Fei was the best performing Wizards player that night, despite Popovich insisting on using Bowen to match up against him, utilising a zone defense, and having Duncan ready to help in the paint at all times. But Yu Fei found his three-point touch and kept firing from the outside, ultimately taking a season-high 18 shots and scoring a season-high of 37 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.

The Spurs possessed the tightest defensive system Yu Fei had ever seen.

After they realized they couldn't stop Yu Fei, they began to shift their attention to the other players on the Wizards.

Jordan was the focus of the Spurs' relentless defense.

The confident Jordan, after a lovely night against the Timberwolves, had the worst game of his career under the Spurs' defensive pressure, going 2-for-14 in 40 minutes, and scoring only 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists for the entire game.

Scoring only 6 points made it the first time since 1986 that Jordan didn't reach double figures in nearly 900 games.

Tonight, no one asked Yu Fei what he needed to do to help Jordan anymore.

He had done enough, the problem was with Jordan.

"Everyone has nights like these, you can only hope he bounces back quickly," Yu Fei told reporters.

Then Jordan "disappeared."

That night, Jordan didn't attend the press conference, with Collins telling the public that it was due to illness and he had gone to the hospital for examination.

But the discussion about Jordan's 6 points never stopped.

The next day, Jordan missed the Wizards' practice session.

Then, another day passed, and Yu Fei saw Jordan at the practice court.

Jordan had not only come back, but today's training session was fully open to the media.

That meant a lot of the media would be here asking questions.

A reporter from the "Philadelphia Inquirer" approached Yu Fei with a question: "Frye, your current average score has reached 18 points, ranking first among all rookies. If the season ended today, how would you rate your rookie season?"

"If we make the playoffs, I would give myself an 80. If not, then just a 60."

"Do you feel you have provided Michael with enough help?"

Here we go again... Yu Fei rolled his eyes.

Not far away, Jordan, after being out of the public eye for a day and a half, returned. As the most skilled person in the sports world at convincing himself, he knew the night of 6 points would bring him a lot of skepticism and disdain.