Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

In mid to late January, the NBA announced the list of players selected for this season's All-Star Weekend.

The most eye-catching was naturally the roster for the main game.

In the Eastern Conference, the selected players were Vince Carter, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Antoine Walker, Paul Pierce, Grant Hill, Alonzo Mourning, Jason Kidd, Dikembe Mutombo, Ray Allen, Baron Davis, and Jermaine O'Neal.

Since Hill was sidelined for the season, there was one more reserve spot up for grabs in the East All-Star starters, and the suspense was between Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Yu Fei.

All of a sudden, fans of the Wizards were over the moon—could Yu Fei actually have a shot at the All-Star game in his rookie season?

Even as a replacement selection, that was still the All-Star game!

In terms of votes, Abdur-Rahim, from the legendary '96 draft class, naturally had a more substantial fan base than Fei. Fei didn't start until the second month, and his popularity fluctuated due to the previous "he said he wanted to trade me" incident, trailing Abdur-Rahim by nearly 100,000 votes and ranking fifth among Eastern forwards.

Looking at stats, Abdur-Rahim was averaging 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, while Fei averaged 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.

As for team records, Abdur-Rahim had no advantage.

The Wizards were currently ranked fourth in the East, while the Atlanta Hawks were in the lottery zone.

The league, driven by the desire to promote new talent, should have allowed Fei the honor of "being selected for the All-Star game in his rookie season." However, since entering the NBA, Fei had been conspicuously brilliant, known nationwide as someone who is "uncoachable," a recognized talent that needed to be kept in check. If he were selected as an All-Star in his rookie season, who could restrain him in the future?

In this reserve spot debate, Abdur-Rahim had an evident advantage—his seniority.

For Abdur-Rahim, this could be the only opportunity in his career to be selected for the All-Star game.

Fei was still young, but Abdur-Rahim no longer had a "next time."

Even in MVP competitions, judges often chose a compromise candidate due to such narratives, and the All-Star game was no different.

After a day of discussion, the league decided to let Abdur-Rahim fill the vacant East All-Star spot.

Fei missed the chance to be selected for the main event of the All-Star Game in his rookie season.

The Washington D.C. media and fans were heartbroken, unanimously crying foul over the league's injustice, but Fei felt it was just as well to miss this All-Star game.

He hadn't signed any endorsement contracts with All-Star bonus clauses, so whether he was selected or not this year made no difference to him.

Had he been selected for the All-Star team, he would have been bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands, of questions related to Jordan.

However, being around Jordan, despite the hassle of those questions, was not without its benefits.

When something significant actually happened to a player, the media's focus was still only on Jordan.

For instance, last week Kwame Brown got caught speeding and was pulled over, resulting in only a minor internal punishment from the Wizards. The media didn't pay much attention to it at all.

The news of Jordan's divorce suddenly attracted all media focus.

This angered Jordan greatly, and Tim Grover, after warding off the reporters for Jordan, also felt indignant for his long-time friend, "Just because he's Michael Jordan, does he not deserve his own privacy?"

After the roster for the main event was set, Fei actually had one more thing to consider.

Both the league and Reebok wanted Fei to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest.

Although Fei was just a rookie, he was already famous for his dunks, ranking among the top ten in total dunks for the season, and he was also the only small forward on this list.

But after careful consideration, Fei declined.

It's not that he had some unspeakable issues like James; he merely didn't think the Slam Dunk Contest was the right fit for him. He was a dunker for live games, while the Dunk Contest required flair and difficulty.

Fei didn't have enough variety, given his height and weight.

Unless he wanted to win with a single windmill dunk from start to finish like Zhang Zhelin, which was simply not feasible in the NBA, so he let it go.

The only thing Fei was certain of was participating in the Rookie Challenge.

Then, before the All-Star Weekend arrived, the Wizards had a few more games to play.

The last game in January saw the Wizards heading to Milwaukee.

Simultaneously, it was Christian Laettner's comeback game.

When the Wizards arrived in Milwaukee, Fei realized the different ways small and large cities treated NBA teams.

In a big city, there would definitely be media waiting outside the airport.

Not so in Milwaukee.

The overall atmosphere in Milwaukee, much like the state of Wisconsin, confirmed it as a true football region. Basketball was a less popular sport there.

The Green Bay Packers were the local fans' favorite.

Fei, who lived under intense media scrutiny, found an indescribable fondness for this lack of attention.

After checking into the hotel and resting up, they headed for the Bucks' home court for a walkthrough.

This was something Fei had to do every time he reached a new away court.

When Fei arrived at the Bradley Center, he unexpectedly ran into Ray Allen.

Allen had arrived even earlier than Fei.

What was he doing here?

Simply shooting hoops.

Ray Allen received the ball from the trainer and then shot a three-pointer. If it went in, he would move to the next receiving point; if it missed, he would have to make 10 consecutive shots on the spot before changing locations.

Even Yu Fei wouldn't come to the home court on game night early to practice shooting.

Because no one was more familiar with the home court than he was.

Ray Allen, however, seemed to insist on doing this regardless of whether it was a home or away game.

This Eastern Conference All-Star guard, who claimed not to like Jordan and felt the Wizards took away the attention that should have belonged to the Bucks, was exceptionally focused at the moment.

In the past, Yu Fei had often heard that Ray Allen's shooting form was like something out of a textbook; upon closer inspection, it really wasn't textbook perfect.

His catch—to lift—to flick motion was too smooth. Without sufficient coordination and touch, it would be impossible to shoot like him.

Yu Fei approached with Lawson and asked, "Can we train together?"

The trainer wore a face that anticipated a good show.

Ray Allen looked at Yu Fei seriously and then shook his head forcefully, "I don't think so."

"As tonight's opponent, don't you want to see how good my touch is?" Yu Fei asked.

Ray Allen said, "I do not."

He behaved with precise formality, like a detached scholar who was indifferent to worldly affairs.

"But I really like your shooting, can I share some techniques with you?" Having said that, Yu Fei took his own shot.

Ray Allen was somewhat displeased, "You can go to another court."

"No, I'll stay here."

Ray Allen glanced at the trainer, then back at the overly familiar Yu Fei. Although unhappy, he didn't show it completely.

In the end, Ray Allen gave up the court, preferring to go to another spot to shoot rather than stay with Yu Fei.

Curiously, after changing courts, Ray Allen's touch rapidly declined.

While initially he had been shooting with frightening accuracy, now he struggled to stabilize his arc.

The trainer, who had worked with him for a long time, knew that this was the result of changing courts.

Was there something strange about this court? Not at all, but Ray Allen was a person with a serious case of OCD. He acted according to plan, and if someone disrupted his routine, he would get angry, frustrated, and lose his rhythm.

He had been shooting smoothly on the previous court, but Yu Fei's sudden intrusion disrupted his pace and forced him to switch courts, was this something Ray Allen could adapt to? Was he still feeling okay? Were his thoughts still clear? Could he be lacking oxygen?

When Ray Allen missed 3 out of 10 shots, the trainer knew there was a serious problem with his rhythm.

"Ray, do you want to take a break?" the trainer asked.

Clutching the ball fiercely, Ray Allen glared at the cheerfully warming up Yu Fei, "That bastard!"

"These young people today really are becoming more and more unruly," agreed the trainer.

By evening, the fans began to enter the arena.

Players from both teams also came onto the court to warm up.

The Bucks players felt something was odd because Ray Allen typically arrived two and a half hours early to get a feel for the court, and he always chose to practice at the opponent's basket (first half).

But today, Ray Allen occupied their own basket.

Teammates were curious about what had happened, but Ray Allen didn't want to explain much.

After the warm-ups, the lights in the arena dimmed, and the DJ began introducing the starting line-ups for both sides.

For the Wizards, aside from Laettner returning to the starting lineup, the other positions were fairly standard.

The Bucks' starters were: Sam Cassell, Ray Allen, Anthony Mason, Tim Thomas, and Joel Przybilla.

Currently, the Wizards were at 24 wins and 19 losses, while the Bucks were at 27 wins and 17 losses, a matchup between the fourth in the Eastern Conference and the second.

Even with the Bucks' standing as second in the Eastern Conference, their performance was still seen as below expectations by the outside world.

No one knew why the Bucks were just average when strengthening the team with Anthony Mason in the off-season seemed more like a weakening to them.

After the starters took the floor, Yu Fei looked at his opponent—Cassell, and then shifted his gaze to Anthony Mason.

He felt somewhat relieved that he wasn't playing forward tonight; Mason's build seemed admittedly intimidating.

Too muscular. It was hard to imagine why a basketball player would need to be that buff. What were the likes of him and Karl Malone thinking? Did building such huge muscles really help with basketball?

Of course, facing Cassell was not a pleasant thing either. First off, the opponent was strong, and secondly, he had a face that was rare in the history of the NBA for its uniqueness.

Yu Fei had thought that Popeye Jones's appearance in his team was shocking enough, but it seemed the NBA had higher standards.

Before the game even started, Cassell smiled at Yu Fei, revealing his white teeth, "Rookie, I won't go easy on you."

Then, Jahidi White won the jump ball, and Yu Fei caught the ball one-handed, shook off Cassell's defense with a sudden behind-the-back dribble, and surged to the free-throw line before fiercely passing the ball to the cutting Jordan.

Jordan steadied himself and scored with a jump shot.

After that, Yu Fei looked at Cassell, intending to say some feisty trash talk, but upon seeing Cassell's face, he couldn't help but retract his words, "Old man, I don't want to see your face again; have you ever considered playing with a mask?"