Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Jordan's body swayed back and forth, making Whitney hesitant to pass the ball because of the unstable position.

"Can't you just pass it directly?!"

In a hurry, Jordan was frantic.

Being unable to catch the ball and pressuring his teammates only led to them becoming flustered.

In the chaos, Whitney made the worst decision, pulling up for a three-pointer from outside.

"What's the old man doing?" Brown couldn't understand.

"Alright, now let's see what the boss will do," Fei was thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.

Brown looked at him curiously, "You've said that several times today."

Then, The Celtics' starting point guard, Nick Anderson, also fried his CPU, forcing a shot without shaking off the defense.

However, the shot didn't go in, but The Celtics still had the rebound.

Apart from height, Nesby was nowhere near Big Ben in any other aspect of the game.

Walker grabbed an offensive rebound first, but his put-back didn't go in.

Pierce rushed in for another, but that still didn't go in.

Walker jumped again, snagging a second offensive rebound, and this time, he scored.

In the following possessions, the Wizards overfocused on passing, creating opportunities, yet Hamilton, as the finisher, looked like he didn't want to win tonight, repeatedly messing up, even getting his point-blank shots blocked.

Eventually, Jordan had to take over, at the free-throw line he used a pump fake to draw contact from Joe Johnson, and the referee decisively called a defensive foul on the latter.

It had to be Jordan!

After that, it nearly turned into a Jordan showcase.

Again facing Joe Johnson, bullying the rookie seemed to activate muscle memory in the legend, as he put on a dazzling display, the ball dexterously controlled in his hands at his belly, his unpredictable left-right swaying made Johnson lose his defensive positioning, and Jordan shook him without even dribbling.

Jordan drove into the paint, switched hands for a layup and scored. A minute later, he made a brilliant pass to Christian Laettner to finish at the rim.

Fei was emotionally unmoved by what was happening on the court, as these were performances Jordan should have been delivering all along.

Pierce continued to feast on Hamilton's defensive lapses at the offensive end.

On the Wizards' side, Laettner's sudden long-range shot exposed Walker's fundamental lack of defense.

This bolstered Laettner's aggressiveness significantly, and in the next possession, from almost the same spot, he took another shot at Walker.

This defensive lapse from Walker left Laettner feeling satisfied and made the situation on the court even more contested, with no clear advantage for either side.

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Seeing Jordan and Laettner's standout performances, Fei had no expectations for his playing time tonight.

Having 15 minutes would count as a victory.

It was ironic; his playing time seemingly depended on poor performances from Jordan and Laettner—Jordan in particular.

Since Collins positioned Jordan as the small forward and was convinced that Fei played the same position, and after establishing the notion that Yu Qiao couldn't play alongside Jordan based on the recent game against the Detroit Pistons, Fei's playing time was now directly linked to Jordan's performance.

This was something Fei couldn't accept.

Directly communicating with Collins would yield no results, and bowing to Jordan was even less of an option. The first thing he needed to do was to make the most out of every minute of playing time he was given, ensuring that every second he played was valuable, thereby exerting pressure on Collins.

The better he played, the more effective the pressure would be. If Collins decided to ignore it all for the sake of Jordan, then Fei would be left with only one choice.