Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

"Uncle, where did your mind wander off to?" Brown snorted, "The answer is an ironing board, I knew you'd think something crooked, just like Frye, you're both nothing but pretenders to decency!"

Whitney stared at Brown incredulously, then turned to Yu Fei.

Yu Fei shrugged and said, "That's just some weird game he's gotten into recently."

Riddles with sexual innuendos? Whitney sighed, MJ was still too soft on these young players.

It was Yu Fei's idea to have Brown and Whitney interact more.

Whitney was the team's unwavering starting point guard, and Brown was a bit prone to fumbling, so communicating more with Whitney, like this pre-game training where he came to the court early to get tips, could inform Whitney on how best to pass the ball to Brown and perhaps reduce the frequency of his butterfingers.

Thanks to Jordan, Brown was now thoroughly devoid of any first pick attitude, very obedient and teachable; he did whatever Whitney told him during training.

After training for an hour, Jordan arrived.

The previous four regular season games could be considered warm-ups, but the game against The Celtics was critical, and Jordan didn't want to become a stepping stone for the rise of young stars.

That was also why he came back; he wanted to prove that even at almost 40, he wasn't someone the current stars could just push around.

As for being blown away by Jerry Stackhouse a few days ago, well, that's best forgotten. It's just the internal dealings of North Carolina alumni; don't take it seriously.

At this moment, Yu Fei had finished his shooting warm-up and was doing various footwork drills on the side of the court.

However, Jordan actually called out to him from a distance, "Rookie, come play a few with me!"

Yu Fei's first reaction was "You've got the wrong man, right?" But Jordan was still pointing at him, "You, come here!"

Yu Fei pointed at himself, "No mistake?"

"What are you dawdling for?" Jordan shouted impatiently, "Come here!"

Almost everyone had a look on their faces that said, "There's going to be a good show," and Ratner, that son of a bitch, even went to grab a bucket of popcorn.

Clearly, everyone remembered what had happened the last time Brown and Jordan played one-on-one.

"I'll run offense, you play defense, got it?" Jordan didn't even ask Yu Fei's opinion, displaying the attitude of a superior assigning a task to a subordinate.

Yu Fei made a baffled face, "You better pick someone else, I go hard against old men."

"Hmph!" Jordan just had to laugh, "Rookie, don't get cocky. No matter how hard you hit, can you hit harder than Paul Pierce will tonight?"

Yu Fei wasn't sure whether it was Pierce's willingness to step over Jordan or his own accumulated malice towards Jordan over the past few months that was greater.

But since the boss had spoken, it would be impolite for Yu Fei to refuse again.

And so, the one-sided offensive and defensive showdown began.

Yu Fei was true to his word; saying he'd bring intensity meant he actually brought it. Jordan tried to break through, only to be firmly repelled by him.

Then, Jordan created shooting space with his delicate dribbling and scored a jump shot in front of Yu Fei.

"What are you defending?" Jordan began to trash talk.

Yu Fei really didn't want to say anything; Jordan's performance in training had always been good, but he hadn't yet played at that level in a game.

But he truly didn't want to see that smug old dog's expression again.

Yu Fei's concentration rose to another level. From that moment on, he had not only intensity but also focus. His attention to defense was as if he was in a real game.

Jordan's current offense actually only had three moves.

Catch and shoot off the ball movement, pull-up jumper after dribbling at the top, and using footwork after a post-up to create space for a jump shot.

All three moves required good touch; without it, he was done for.

Moreover, when his stamina declined, his efficiency in dribbling at the top and post-ups was very poor.

Jordan's attempts to post up were abandoned because of Yu Fei's size, so he was left with dribbling at the top.

Without absolute speed, Jordan relied on rhythm. He might shake Yu Fei once or twice, but as the same tricks were used repeatedly, Yu Fei gained experience.

On Jordan's second shot attempt, Yu Fei caught him straight up, started abruptly, and blocked the shot, sending the ball flying ten meters away.

"I really don't want to play against someone as old as you, all you've got is your damn useless dribbling and weak shooting. Shots like that, I'd block every single one on the court."

After Yu Fei said that, Jordan became visibly frustrated.

During the training camp, that version of Jordan had destroyed Kwame Brown.

But the same thing didn't happen on the Fleet Center's court.

An enraged Jordan played more fiercely, but his accuracy didn't improve. Roughly every three times on defense, Yu Fei managed to clearly interfere or outright block the shot.

The session lasted 20 minutes, until finally, Jordan had to admit that he couldn't beat Yu Fei in a one-on-one with his current ability.

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And this was when they were only playing half the game – one on offense and one on defense. If they had played by the standard rules of one-on-one, giving Yu Fei offensive opportunities, the outcome might have been even more surprising.

Steve Wyche was one of the witnesses to this match-up.

Unfortunately for Jordan, he did not succeed in defeating Yu Fei as planned.

To Wyche, this might represent a watershed moment for certain things.

What happens when you let someone with a destructive antisocial personality discover that this place's strongest person can only compete with him at an equal level?

Wyche glanced at Doug Collins, who, as expected, was deeply concerned about the outcome of the match-up – a diligent servant maintaining the authority of the deity.

Wyche could feel something fading from Jordan.