Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

The opening jump ball saw both teams' centers as NBA nobodies.

Yu Fei was surprised that Ewing wasn't starting; it seemed the Magic had confirmed that the "big gorilla" had tossed aside the words "youth is an advantage," with only "old" left to describe him.

Magic's starting center Steven Hunter won the ball for them.

The ball went to McGrady from the start.

Yu Fei was matched against Hill, so guarding McGrady naturally fell to Jordan.

It was a rather unwise decision, not to mention Jordan was now 38. Even in his youth, containing an opponent like McGrady who relied on explosive power to breeze past defenders wasn't easy.

Still, the experienced Jordan didn't give McGrady a chance to launch into a violent attack. He firmly blocked McGrady's lower body, thoroughly using his body against McGrady to perform an almost foul-like suppression, causing the latter to shoot in an extremely awkward manner and miss.

The moment McGrady missed, Yu Fei instantly predicted the ball's landing spot.

This feeling wasn't new, but it was always accurate.

Yu Fei grabbed the defensive rebound and tossed it to Chris Whitney; the Wizards' defensive counter-attack began.

Jordan didn't like a fast-paced game, but counter-attacks were among the easiest offensive moves on the court.

If there was an opportunity, there was no reason to pass up the counter.

Yu Fei snatched the rebound and ran forward during the counter-attack, Whitney chose him over the trailing Jordan.

Yu Fei caught the ball and scored with an overhead basket.

2 to 0

"Good pass!" Yu Fei immediately gave Whitney positive feedback.

Then, it was the Magic's turn to attack.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

This time, McGrady didn't single out Jordan right from the start. After his earlier failure, he became a lot more cautious, passing the ball to point guard Darrell Armstrong, who then passed it to Hill.

When Hill received the ball, his teammates consciously spread out, creating a one-on-one opportunity for him.

The atmosphere in the MCI suddenly heated up; it was a one-on-one between Yu Fei and Hill.

In his previous life, when Yu Fei really started paying attention to the NBA, Hill had already retired. Although Hill's career continued until 2013, his prime was in the '90s, and Yu Fei hadn't even been born then, so he had no reason to go out of his way to learn about this player.

Only after his time-travel did Yu Fei gain some understanding of Hill.

Hill's outside shooting was inconsistent and his shooting posture problematic, making his mid-range shots easy to disrupt, but his first step was lightning-fast, possibly even faster than McGrady's.

But that was Hill in the '90s.

Although it had been nearly two years into the new century, people hadn't really seen Hill play in this era.

Yu Fei blocked Hill's strong side and gave him room to shoot.

Hill clearly didn't want to take the shot from the space Yu Fei had given him; he wanted to break through.

Hill lowered his center of gravity and suddenly pulled the ball to his left hand. The speed was terrifying—if Yu Fei hadn't already pulled back, he might not have even had time to react.

Still, Hill's speed had diminished quite a bit since the '90s.

Yu Fei had time to react, thwarting the breakthrough.

Under aggressive defense, Hill struggled to make a layup, but the ball rolled out from the rim's edge.

Yu Fei collected the defensive rebound on the spot, and Hill immediately committed a tactical foul.

"You're nowhere near your Detroit days," Yu Fei said.

Being looked down upon by a junior didn't upset Hill; he laughed self-deprecatingly, "That's why they traded me."

Yu Fei had been in the NBA for a while now.

The more he interacted with these people, the more he felt it was a stage where celebrities shone; although they all had noses, eyes, hands, and feet, they didn't quite seem human, making Hill's normalcy all the more precious.

On the set offense, even though Yu Fei played at the small forward position, he didn't have Jordan's tactical status.

Against McGrady, Jordan wanted to perform, thus he moved with full effort.

But McGrady woke up facing Jordan. Since leaving the Raptors, he rarely defended seriously.

Jordan was worth the effort.

Although Jordan was a strong off-the-ball mover, the Wizards didn't run the Triangle Offense, and their screens and pick-and-roll plays were by the book, not tirelessly set up for the star player as in the Triangle Offense.

Even when Jordan got the ball, he didn't have an immediate shooting opportunity; McGrady's defense was smothering.

Yu Fei did nothing but stand still outside the three-point line.

But Jordan decided to take on the mission of contemporary perimeter stars—when tactics didn't unfold, to rely more on individual skills.

Jordan's dribble fake followed by a quick stop and jump shot hit the mark, and the cheers in the MCI were deafening.

This shot stirred McGrady's competitive spirit.

Now, it was the Magic's turn to attack, and their starting power forward was an old acquaintance of Jordan's from the first Bulls dynasty, Horace Grant. He set a tricky screen for McGrady on the left 45-degree angle, completely snagging Jordan.

Yu Fei rushed to cover from the top of the arc at full speed.

But McGrady, catching the ball and ignoring Yu Fei's defense, made a standstill fadeaway jump shot. His feet formed a scissor shape in the air, one even stretching forward, which made McGrady's airborne posture as elegant as a banished immortal.

"Swish!"

It was just an ordinary off-ball catch-and-shoot, but its aesthetic appeal was terrifyingly high.

Yu Fei began to understand why McGrady, despite leading a team with poor results, still had so many fans.

Performance is temporary, but being handsome is for a lifetime.

Moreover, this McGrady wasn't the one who, by exploiting Yao Ming's popularity, harvested countless Chinese fans for the Houston Rockets.

The Magic McGrady was far stronger than the Rockets McGrady, especially now. Even though the Magic's record wasn't good, McGrady was still recognized as the best player in the Eastern Conference. Even MVP frontrunner Jason Kidd and the previous MVP, Allen Iverson, didn't have the trading value he did.

Looking across the League, only Shaquille O'Neal, Garnett, and Duncan could be traded one-for-one for McGrady.

This was the best McGrady.

Yu Fei wanted to match up against him, even if he was beaten badly, it didn't matter.

"I'll guard him," Yu Fei said to Jordan.

"Don't stick your nose in what doesn't concern you!" Jordan thought it was Yu Fei's concern for a veteran player; he didn't need it, and besides, he was taking the matchup with McGrady very seriously.

In fact, competing with these young, talented players like McGrady on the court was one of his main motivations for returning to the game.

Yu Fei, feeling rather foolish, could only run forward.

Then, Ratner came up high to execute the play.

Yu Fei and Jordan spaced out on both sides.

Cassidy White set a screen on the wing, Jordan made his move first, followed by Yu Fei cutting in. Ratner couldn't possibly pass to Yu Fei. This was something Yu Fei knew very well; he had never expected any coordination with Ratner to begin with.

However, the defensive intensity of the Magic was somewhat unexpected.

While the play started to run, Ratner couldn't find any offensive opportunity. After wasting five to six seconds, the ball was forced back into Whitney's hands.

By that time, the Wizards had only 5 seconds left on the shot clock.

"Chris!"

"Responsibility" was written all over Yu Fei's face.

Whitney, once again choosing between him and Jordan, passed to the former.

"What are you doing?" Jordan shouted.

However, Yu Fei caught the ball, turned around, and took a sharp probing step forward to make Hill back off. Then, seizing that momentary gap, he took off from where he stood.

In the air, Yu Fei remembered the breathing control technique Whitney had taught him.

Yu Fei felt that his breathing matched the rhythm of his shot perfectly, so he released the ball without any hesitation.

A standard three-pointer from outside the line arched high, followed by a pleasing "swoosh" sound.

"Frye has scored 5 of the Wizards' first 7 points! I can't believe this is his first time starting!"

This might be Doug Collins' worst nightmare. If Hill couldn't beat Yu Fei as Jordan had anticipated, they would have to consider giving Yu Fei an official starting position.

After scoring 5 points, Yu Fei felt nothing in particular; Hill wasn't an annoying opponent, so he refrained from the trash-talking he usually did when he had the upper hand.

This also made him seem rather dull that night.

If only he could match up with McGrady… He really didn't understand what the old man was trying to prove. Did he truly believe he could handle McGrady?

Suddenly, McGrady got the ball on the left perimeter, with his other four teammates all on the other side of the court, signaling a standard isolation play.

Jordan's stance was set, arms outstretched, as he focused intently on McGrady.

McGrady protected the ball with both hands, using his left foot as a pivot, his right foot probing constantly.

Just observing McGrady's footwork was dazzling to Yu Fei; how could he be so stylish yet so effective?

Yu Fei watched as McGrady shifted Jordan's center of gravity forward with his right foot, then stepped back, feigning a jump shot to force Jordan to lean in.

Just as Jordan's center of gravity shifted forward, McGrady's right foot exploded to the left, with a thunderous step. Wham, wham—Jordan might have only heard two dribbles as McGrady's burst of speed left his defense perpetually behind. In one long stride, McGrady entered the paint and soared upwards.

Cassidy White totally occupied the area under the basket, but all it took was McGrady colliding into him, ball tucked in arm, to finish a stylish layup off the backboard beneath the basket.

"￥@!￥"

The exclamations of surprise from the crowd were real; McGrady was one of the few players who could consistently make shots that made even the away crowd react with "NMB, that's too outrageous."

After completing the highlight reel layup, McGrady ran past Yu Fei.

That moment gave Yu Fei a new goal.

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Competing with an outdated old man like Jordan was just too low. Look at those who truly stand at the pinnacle of current players.

This was the benchmark!

"Still want to guard him?" Jordan asked coldly.

Anyone else seeing McGrady's performance would think twice.

But Yu Fei wasn't someone to be judged by ordinary standards.

"Yes," Yu Fei said excitedly, "even more so now!"

Jordan might find many things about Yu Fei annoying, but he never regretted choosing the young man at the draft.

Perhaps Kwame Brown was a choice that seemed destined to fail, but Yu Fei definitely was not.

"Then go ahead," Jordan said, "I'll let you take him."

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