When pride still matters

Chapter 66 Kwame Brown’s 911
After returning to Washington, D.C., from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the Wizards had a day off before preparing to play a preseason game at home.

Normally, the NBA will hold preseason games in cities with a stronger business atmosphere, but after 911/[-], some people believe that the NBA's richest people have an obligation to remind Americans that this country is still great.

In fact, Yu Fei thinks this is American formalism.

It doesn't make any sense, because it's hard to see NBA news either on TV or in mainstream news. Even Jordan's comeback only made some ripples.

Even though it's all just a formality, the Wizards still use "Homecoming" as a marketing method.

The Wizards will face their first preseason opponent, the Phoenix Suns, at their home court, MCI Center Arena (hereinafter referred to as MCI).

Just before the Wizards players entered the locker room, a uniformed police officer led a German Shepherd in first.

"Oh, this is a damn big dog!" Kwame Brown asked in surprise, "Why are there strips and big dogs here?"

Team reporter Steve Wyche explained: "This is to prevent someone from putting dangerous items inside."

Before 911/[-], Brown may not have understood the meaning of this sentence, but now he reacted immediately, "Is someone going to plant a bomb in there?"

"Don't be so surprised!" Jordan scolded, "They are just doing a routine."

Both the Wizards and Jordan's team have seized on the hot spots of 911 to lend sanctity to his return.

But in fact, Jordan is a rare superstar in the history of American sports who has no interest in social hot topics and current affairs. During the training camp, the Wizards players were never asked about 911.

Even though the smoking World Trade Center was shown on TV and in newspapers day and night, the Wizards players remained indifferent.They live in a tube, completely isolated from the outside world, and the only thing that matters is basketball.Under such circumstances, it is hard to imagine that any NBA player would go on strike just because his compatriots were killed by violent law enforcement.

Rather than asking about the impact of 911 on their lives, the media wanted to know whether the Wizards could make the playoffs in the new season, so they asked more than twice a day.

Yu Fei hates the issue of playoffs. It's not that he doesn't want to enter the playoffs, but that the media has packaged it into a "mission" in their own way.

You're going to make the playoffs before Jordan retires, right?What are you willing to do to make the playoffs with Jordan?
Yu Fei could calmly speak in an official tone at first. Later, when he entered the locker room after every training and saw veterans like Jordan Laettner asking to ice their joints one by one, turning the locker room into a cold storage for storing corpses, He really wanted to throw these people's ice packs in the media's face.

Yu Fei shot random shots on the court, and then saw police dogs sniffing every place in MCI.

Everywhere from the locker rooms to the hallways, from the trash cans to the restrooms, to the stands.

After the police dogs completed their mission, MCI immediately allowed fans to enter with tickets.

As one of the most exciting teams in the new season, even in the preseason, the tickets are sold out.

Yu Fei saw team owner Abby Paulin and league president David Stern.

Suddenly, this is no longer just a preseason game, but also a mission to cooperate with the league in publicity and enhance the image of the NBA.

Yu Fei silently warmed up by shooting.

Director Lu, who had been observing Yu Fei since the start of the training camp, noticed the improvement in his shooting stability, "Fry, you feel good today."

"Yeah, it's a pity it's just a preseason game."

Before the game started, the most important part of the night began - although it had nothing to do with the game.

Wizards owner Pauline took the stage and delivered his speech like a rock star.

Pauline seems to be full of insights about the 911 incident, starting from criticizing the terrorist attacks, then moving to the positive significance that basketball games bring to society, moving to Jordan's comeback and how many Americans he can inspire as a hero, and then returning to the Wizards - faintly To improve his own image - Pauline announced to the entire community that all firefighters and police officers involved in 911 rescue work will receive free season tickets.

Highlights: All firefighters and police officers involved in 911 rescue efforts.

Finally, although the generous Pauline was great, he had to end the speech with greatness itself, so the topic returned to Jordan again.

Pauline pointed out that letting these heroes involved in disaster relief work see with their own eyes how important Jordan's game is to him and how important it is to this society. As an owner, he hopes that Jordan will bring a heroic performance just like he did in the 90s. Filling the arena, he finally said: "The terrorist attack is such a tragedy. It has separated tens of thousands of families, but I believe that even if countless tragedies have happened before our eyes, as long as one good thing happens, the world will change." Better yet, let’s get started!”

It was so well said that Yu Fei's hands almost started to smoke.

But he didn't expect that after Paulin finished speaking, Stern would also go up to give a speech.

Stern's speech was very similar to Paulin's, and the theme was the same, that is, Jordan's comeback is important to the world.

Strictly speaking, this sentence is correct. If you add "Kwame Brown's" in front of the world, it is completely correct.

Without Jordan, it would have taken at least two years for the Browns to fall from the No. [-] pick to a team worse than a dog.

But Jordan did just that on the first day of training camp.

His presence is not only important to Brown, but also plays a role in changing the future.

When Stern's speech ends, as tonight's "Tonight to Forget", the game between the Wizards and the Suns is about to begin.

This is going to be a very long ending.

There is a tradition of inspecting players in the preseason, so Yu Fei and Brown both entered the starting lineup.

But the hero Stern and Paulin said was firmly on the bench.Insiders will not disagree, because Jordan has tenosynovitis and naturally needs to rest more when he can. The preseason is irrelevant.

However, fans who bought high-priced tickets just to watch Jordan play will not be so tolerant.

The game hadn't even started yet, but Doug Collins had already been verbally fucked thousands of times by the fans.

After the opening, the two sides played relatively relaxedly, with basically no intensity. After several back and forths, the score was already 3 to 14 in less than 12 minutes.

Yu Fei’s energy and playing style surprised some.

During the draft, fans generally believed that it was a failure for Jordan to pay such a high price in exchange for Yu Fei.

Because Yu Fei is an inside man, and the Wizards have already selected an inside man with the No. [-] pick.

As a result, Yu Fei was actually in the third position?
The Suns sent rookie Alton Ford (Alton Ford PF/SF) to face off against Yu Fei.

As a result, Ford, whose size and movement speed are at the fourth position, can't keep up with Yu Fei on the outside.

At halftime, Yu Feiguang scored 21 points with air cuts and counterattacks.

In the second half, Collins replaced Yu Fei and said, "Fry, you won't play again tonight. This is just a preseason game."

Yu Fei knew what Collins meant.

He has already been exempted from inspection by his performance in the first half.

If we don't play in the second half, we may not even play much time in the next few preseason games.

Professional teams at any level will not play seriously in preseason games to test the players' level and let the main players and rotation players find the feeling of the game. This is the most basic.

Instead, it’s Collins’ feelings about Brown that are a little worrying.

Brown played well in the first half. He played a lot with Yu Fei at the same time and scored 12 points, 6 rebounds and 1 block in the half.

But Collins noticed that the cakes Brown ate were all fed by Yu Fei, and the balls given by others either failed to finish or were not connected firmly and made mistakes.

Looking at the data, Brown performed well, but this data was obtained in exchange for 14 shots, plus 3 turnovers.

Collins wanted to see how Brown played without Yu Fei on the court.

Most importantly, it was Jordan who ate up Yu Fei's playing time in the second half.

With the Wizards, Collins moved Jordan to the three position.

Replacing Yu Fei with Jordan would be a huge contrast for Brown, at least it would be a fall from heaven to hell.

After more than half a year of rehabilitation and training in the preseason training camp, Jordan has completely regained his feeling for the game. He made three out of three shots, as if people can see the shadow of his peak period.

Then, Jordan's trash talk forced the Suns to increase their intensity, and the opponent sent three double-teams.

Jordan jumped into the air, but found that his bounce was not as good as before.

He couldn't find the space to shoot. In a flash of lightning, he grabbed the ball and passed it out like lightning. The receiver was Brown.

nice shot!

Even the Wizards' number one "anti-Mike" couldn't help but cheer for Jordan.

However, Brown's little hands were not ready to catch this fast pass with great rotation.

The ball scraped around in his palm and fell to the ground.

The Suns immediately took control of the ball and launched a counterattack.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jordan said angrily, "If you don't want to fucking play, get out of here!"

Brown shrank his neck, not daring to talk back.

Yu Fei wanted to laugh out loud, but Brown was his friend. How could he gloat when the other party suffered?

But this scene is really funny.

It’s also scary, this is Kwame Brown’s 911.

The difference with what happened at the World Trade Center is that it happens every day.

PS: It’s on shelves during National Day, and tomorrow is the last day of the new book period.Well, what should I say? I wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

(End of this chapter)