When pride still matters

Chapter 90 How dare you! ! ! ! !

Chicago

Six team members, including Jordan and Tim Grover, came to the hospital and met John Heflon, a sports medicine doctor who had been working with him for many years.

"Michael's knee is swollen again." Grover explained the situation.

Even Jordan cannot deny that tenosynovitis has developed to a state that cannot be ignored.

At this time, Jordan's assistant made the suggestion he least wanted to hear: "It might be better to take a few games off."

Jordan gave him a hard look and he quickly backed away.

"I want to continue playing, that's why I'm here, but if... it gets to that point, if Dr. Heffron and Dr. Haas both think I should take a break, I'll consider it."

Heffron, who had been working with Jordan longer than Grover, wasn't sure Jordan would commit to a long layoff to recuperate before going to the wall.

There is precedent for this. As early as 1985, in Jordan's second season, when he fractured the scaphotarsal bone in his left foot, he entrusted his career to Heffron and accepted the offer. Treatment by renowned Chicago orthopedic surgeons.Rehabilitation was planned to last six to eight weeks, but it actually took much longer until Jordan had enough and played in a pickup game at North Carolina during his recovery, which made Jerry Krause and the rest of the Bulls The staff were dissatisfied.

Jordan came out of that game convinced he was recovered, angrily stating that his foot had healed enough for him to return to the game.He told Heffron he needed to play, he needed to compete.

Heffron agreed with Jordan's comeback plan and guaranteed it. He believed that the young Jordan had recovered.But now, Jordan is no longer young, but Heffron knows that any advice is meaningless because Jordan will eventually do what he wants.

Instead of admonishing Jordan as Grover did, Heffron followed the procedure and scheduled him for an MRI and his second knee drain surgery since September.

After the MRI results came out, Heffron saw no structural damage on it, but there was obvious tenosynovitis. Therefore, his advice to Jordan was: "Reduce your playing time, stop playing back-to-backs, reduce training intensity, and try to Rest your legs if possible to let the swelling go down."

Jordan was noncommittal.

But this is the reality. There is no quick fix to his problem. Age and years of hard work on the ruthless basketball court have severely damaged his body. Three years after retiring for the second time, Jordan is eager to come back. After arranging for himself a training intensity that exceeded his body's endurance, his knees had passed the "wear and tear" threshold.

"Michael's knees have gone through a lot of wear and tear, and human knees are not designed for wear and tear." Heffron also noted Jordan's recent terrible playing time. "Early in the season, a lot of playing time may lead to more... Irritation and inflammation, then be sure to let Doug control your playing time.”

Like Tim Grover, Heffron believes Jordan's knee might have been in better shape if it weren't for Jordan's rush to return after a three-year retirement.Doctors knew better than sycophants: Jordan was not a god, but a human being—an amazing athlete with an extraordinary body, but still a human being—whose muscles were declining at about the same rate as other athletes his age, except Jordan had more talent.

During his absence, Jordan's physical condition deteriorated, and the leg muscles that provide core strength and stability around his knees atrophied and lost most of their protective power due to long-term inactivity and age.If Jordan had never retired, he would still have faced some degree of decline, but it would never have been this result.

"You generally lose some strength in your legs at your age," Hefferon points out. "The muscles at 38 are definitely not as good as at 25. Your thigh muscles are not as strong. You have less speed than a younger person." muscle fibers and a lower percentage of muscle fibers and your athletic career is coming to an end.”

Just as Heffron was earnestly advising Jordan to take a comprehensive look at his physical condition, the assistant who had just answered a phone call came over and whispered a few words to Jordan.

Reason disappeared from Jordan's mind, replaced by rage.

"That bastard, how dare he!!!?"

※※※

After meeting with Abi Paulin, Yu Fei discovered that the Wizards were not simple inside.

On the surface, Jordan dominated everything, but Pauline was obviously very dissatisfied with his actions.

For some reason, Paulin, the big boss and the actual team owner, did not dare to come forward to confront Jordan, so when Yu Fei appeared, he targeted the young man.

Due to the sensitivity of the matter, Yu Fei called his agent after the training and informed him in detail of what happened in the office.

He wanted to know if he had made the right decision.

Even Arn Trim expressed shock at Fei's situation.

"DC is even as complex as LA." Trem said with emotion.

"Can you catch up?" Yu Fei asked unexpectedly, "Are you trying to say that Kobe's situation is worse than mine?"

Because Kobe's agent is also Trime, so Yu Fei asked.

Traim said meaningfully: "I really want you to know what kind of life Kobe lives. You may think DC is terrible, but believe me, there will always be people in this world who are struggling to survive in worse circumstances. "

Yu Fei had no interest in Kobe's environment. He just wanted to know what to do next. "what do I do?"

"There are only two ways in front of you, cooperate with Pauline, or bow to MJ."

"I have rejected BOSS."

"Then there's only one way for you."

"Kowtow to the old thing? Impossible."

"Then there is no way out. What happened today will definitely reach Michael's ears. If you don't say anything, he will assume that you have surrendered to Paulin. But in fact, you have rejected Paulin, that is to say, If Michael intensifies his crackdown on you, you won't get any help from Pauline."

Yu Fei asked back: "Is it because of Paulin's help that I went from being a substitute with only 15 minutes of playing time per game to being a starter now?"

"No, he didn't give me anything. From the beginning of the training camp, he has been letting the old things go freely. This is the reason why I don't believe him and the reason why I will not cooperate with him. He just wants to use me to give the old things If things cause trouble, once the situation changes, he will be the first to give up on me!"

Treme couldn't refute Yu Fei's point of view. He had too many players, as well as superstars like Kobe and Tracy McGrady, to focus all his attention on Yu Fei.

Therefore, given the complex objective environment of the Wizards, Trem came up with the idea of ​​letting Yu Fei defect to one of the two forces to gain a buffer.

But Trem didn't expect that Yu Fei's will to fight was so strong that even a Hall of Fame-level paranoid like Kobe would pretend to be a "perfect team player" in the face of reality, and Yu Fei But there is an indomitable determination to go into battle. This is the most difficult road.

If Yu Fei knew what Tlem was thinking, he would just laugh.

His situation and Kobe's situation are completely different.

Kobe was "aggrieved", "aggrieved" to win two championships at a young age, "aggrieved" to be led by the league's No. [-] boss, "aggrieved" to be close friends with the big boss Buss, that was a man who could fight for Kobe was the one who sent away both O'Neal and Jackson.

You know, Phil Jackson, who put Kobe in a "difficult environment", was one of the founders of the Bulls dynasty, and Shaquille O'Neal, who put Kobe in a "wrongful" role as a team player, is the most dominant player in the post-Jordan era.

What do wizards have?Can someone like Pauline be trusted?He didn't even dare to criticize Jordan publicly.Collins?After leading the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Finals, being directly replaced by his own assistant coach is enough to prove his "gold content."Jordan?How can this old guy compare with the current O'Neal?
Really, if you swap Yu Fei and Kobe, he can also be a team player, he can also recognize Shark as his big brother, and he can also listen to his boss.

"If you insist on remaining unaligned, you have to continue to perform well and be so good that even Michael and Pauline cannot find fault."

"I try my best," Yu Fei said, "but actually, it doesn't have to be that troublesome. I don't have to be the best. I just need to be better than most people. If I don't play well in a game, I think I will To liquidate me, they are overthinking, I am not Kwame.”

Speaking of Kwame Tlem wondering how he was doing, he appeared sullen every time he called to say hello.As for the reason?Of course it's Jordan.And when Jordan bullied Brown, but Brown couldn't respond on the court, there was nothing he could do as an agent.

"Is Kwame okay?"

"Alive."

"That's good."

"Let me know anytime."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"I'm thinking about coming back now. I miss playing. It's hard to see Michael struggling alone. I think I can give him some help, but I need to lose another 25 pounds or so first so that I can really to help him. I don’t know if I can help him, but I don’t want him to fight alone because I’m one of his true friends.” - Barkley said publicly on TNT.

"MJ met with his personal physician, John Hefferon, at a hospital in Chicago today. Does this vindicate long-standing concerns about his knees?" - Chicago Globe

“Doug Collins declined to respond to MJ’s questions.” —The Washington Times

“Karl Malone is unhappy with an Internet article by an anonymous Jazz executive that attributes the 38-year-old Malone’s decline in performance to his lack of practice last summer.” — Utah Star

"Fry, do you think there's something wrong with Michael's knee?"

"How dare you!!!! I refuse to answer such a question!"

(how dare you)
"May I ask why?"

"Michael played nearly 38 minutes per game last month. You actually think there is something wrong with his knee? What's your intention? Who instigated you to raise such a question? Are you the one spreading rumors outside? How dare you!! !!!" - Yu Fei said in an interview with the Washington Chronicle.

(End of this chapter)