Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

After Yu Fei completed his alley-oop, the game had already lost its meaning.

The only interesting thing was that every time Yu Fei scored, he would look towards his former volleyball teammates, especially the one named Donnie.

"When are you coming up to kick my ass?"

"Are you coming or not?"

Then, Donnie disappeared, just like those who successfully dug a hole and buried themselves; he didn't stay to be humiliated any further.

As Yu Fei accomplished another 1-on-3 feat, an air-change layup dunk, the opponents completely lost their will to fight.

"Enough!" Anthony Lawson exclaimed, "You've won!"

Yu Fei, still not having enough, asked, "Can we continue to play?"

"No, let's stop here. No one is your match, not just in K-M... but in all of Kent City!"

Although Lawson had a tough and somewhat comical face, he was a sincere person who could accept defeat. He wanted to know why Yu Fei had always played volleyball before.

Yu Fei didn't tell him; he just wanted to continue playing basketball.

Clearly, no one on the scene wanted to face off with him, but everyone had come to understand what Durant had realized in the summer of 2016.

If you can't beat them, join them.

Everyone was willing to team up with Yu Fei.

The problem was no one wanted to be Yu Fei's opponent.

And so, Yu Fei was granted the privilege of monopolizing the court, which was just as well since he wanted to fully utilize his new body to do all kinds of movements he couldn't imagine in his previous life.

Lawson volunteered to stay and be his practice partner, with Lin Kaiwen handling the passes.

After playing for about half an hour, the negative effects of Yu Fei being Fei started to sweep in.

Yu Fei had poor stamina. Although he had played volleyball before, he hadn't taken it seriously. Volleyball was just a pastime for him, a refuge that let everyone feel he wasn't wasting his innate physical talent. He never wanted to work hard at volleyball, so coaches didn't bother with him either. No one supervised his training, hence his poor physical condition.

"Big Fei, with this stamina, if you had to play a full game, you could last at most 10 minutes."

Big Fei? This nickname made Yu Fei laugh uncontrollably.

This was originally a derogatory nickname earned by the LOL god through one MSI championship and some stubborn trash talk after the game. What had he done to deserve it?

But it seemed like a tradition of the K-M basketball team; the strongest player would always get a nickname with "Big," just as everyone called Mason "Big Tony."

"10 minutes? You're overestimating me. At most 5 minutes and I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of the full game."

Yu Fei and Lawson chatted idly.

In the course of the conversation, they really hit it off, and Lawson brought up Yu Fei's previous comment about wanting to join the basketball team.

He wanted to know if Yu Fei was serious about it.

At that moment, the basketball coach, Hank Sylvan, who was secretly observing them, walked over.

Lawson respectfully said, "Coach."

Sylvan nodded to him in response.

"Coach?" Yu Fei looked at the middle-aged white man with a pot belly in front of him and inexplicably felt like giving him a pair of glasses would turn him into the white version of Coach Anxi.

"Frye, do you like playing basketball?"

Yu Fei decided to maintain his aloof persona and replied proudly, "I think I do."

"Will you join the basketball team?" There was a sense of urgency in Sylvan's tone.

For Sylvan, a low-profile high school coach like him, aside from working at this inconsequential basketball school until his retirement, he had no other prospects; he could never get a head coach job at a strong high school basketball program.

All coaches who transitioned from weak schools to strong ones had one thing in common, they made themselves visible to others.

How could someone be discovered at a school like K-M, which couldn't even make a splash in the Kent School District?

Suddenly, Yu Fei became Sylvan's hope for escaping the "Kent Prison."

Yu Fei seemed oblivious to Sylvan's eagerness and asked casually, "Would you like me to join?"

"Please, you must join my team!" Sylvan said deferentially, adding politely as per the Royal Team etiquette, "Big Fei..."

To end this moment that gave Yu Fei goosebumps, he "reluctantly" accepted Sylvan's invitation.

Afterward, Yu Fei followed Sylvan to the office to fill out the application form to join the basketball team, then went back to the basketball court to continue playing.

Sylvan called over other members of the basketball team and let Yu Fei continue playing half-court 3-on-3 games with them.

Yu Fei's performance was still dominant.

But Sylvan also noticed Yu Fei's issue.

Admittedly, Yu Fei had excellent ball control, and at the low level of high school play, he could even play as a point guard, but if he were to make long-term plans, he had to play forward.

Moreover, he had to play as a forward who leaned towards being a power forward.

However, as a power forward, Yu Fei's experience from his previous life would be of no help because he knew very little about the skills required in the post, with no habits of playing in the interior.

"Frye, if you're willing, I'd like to devise a systematic training plan for you."

This was the reason Yu Fei wanted to join the school team.

Even a low-profile high school coach had a set of systematic training philosophies, and for Yu Fei, who had zero foundation in the post, Sylvan's training plan was just what the doctor ordered.

"Of course, I need that kind of training!" Yu Fei accepted eagerly.

It was currently the spring semester, with four months left until the end of the term, and with no games for the school team to play, Yu Fei had plenty of time to train.

Before leaving school that afternoon, Selvan gave Yu Fei another piece of advice, "I wouldn't recommend you participate in any AAU games until your physical condition is strong enough to sustain you through a whole game. Those mercenary AAU teams will give up on you because of your stamina and weak fundamentals. Don't trust the sweet talk of AAU coaches; most of them are swindlers."

It was clear that Selvan, like many traditional coaches, despised the AAU deeply.

And Yu Fei felt their aversion to the AAU was justified, as he came from the future, a time when American basketball was on the decline.

After 2009, the leading star to emerge from the AAU system was Jason Tatum; thinking about this, American basketball was in trouble.

Yu Fei didn't plan to rely solely on Selvan's training program for improvement.

For physical fitness, he had his own methods.

The primary issue was that Yu Fei was negligent in exercising; his physical fitness was poor, not just in comparison with professional athletes, but even with ordinary people.

So, from that day on, Yu Fei would arrive at school an hour early every day, then go to the field for a slow jog, letting his body get used to the sensation of exercise before moving on to more strenuous activities.

Selvan's training plan was not that appealing.

Because it was just basic training.

For every aspect of the inside line, Yu Fei had to start from scratch.

Starting with sliding steps inside the three-point line, starting with positioning in the left and right short corner areas, starting with fighting for position, starting with pick-and-roll routes.

It was boring, but useful.

Even the most basic of the basics were things that Yu Fei was not good at.

Day after day of basic training laid the foundation for Yu Fei's technical system and game awareness.

Only with a solid foundation could he prepare for higher-level games.

Yu Fenglin hadn't paid much attention to her child for a while, mainly because she thought he was too mediocre.

This mediocrity was comforting in a way that made one uninterested.

Apart from his height and a face that greatly resembled his birth father's, he hardly had any advantages.

But recently, Yu Fenglin noticed something odd about her son.

He left early and returned late every day, his reason? Basketball team training.

It was a legitimate reason, but Yu Fenglin never believed her child liked sports.

He hated getting sweaty.

Being tall was more like a punishment from God; in the United States, boys his height must play sports or be treated as an outcast. That's why he used to play volleyball, a sport that tolerated slackers.

But now, he came home smelling of sweat every day.

Since Shawn Kemp turned himself into a fat pig during the 1998-99 NBA lockout, there was no more Rain Man, but Yu Fenglin felt that this nickname was now suitable for her son.

On a certain day in late May, Yu Fenglin saw her son enter the house as sweaty as Rain Man, but his arms started to show the muscular development characteristic of adult men, no longer looking soft and lacking in masculinity as before.

"Frye!"

She called out.

"What's up, Mom?"

Yu Fei asked casually.

"Have you encountered something recently?" Yu Fenglin asked worriedly, "Is everything going smoothly at school?"

"It couldn't be going more smoothly. Basketball is much more interesting than volleyball. I've made a lot of new friends there, the coach is quite good to me, um, my academic performance has improved too... Not to keep you waiting, I'm going to take a shower…"

The drastic changes in Yu Fei made Yu Fenglin feel unfamiliar.

Can sports really change a person?

Yet, Yu Fenglin couldn't say it was a bad change.

Oh well... she didn't dwell on it any longer. If the Titans could take down the Bills with a touchdown in the last 16 seconds⑴, then her son could transform from Lily Liver⑵ into Shawn Kemp.

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"Timberwolves' Malik Sealy SG died in a car crash." — ESPN

"Rick Pitino's Holy Roman Empire has collapsed!" — Boston Globe

"Red Auerbach is skeptical of MJ accomplishing anything in Washington." — The Washington Post

"Frye Yu, the tallest student in the school, joined the basketball team in February this year, and immediately became a pivotal player. Today we are fortunate to have him with us for an interview — hello, Frye, we know that you previously played for the volleyball team, what made you decide to give up your two-and-a-half-year volleyball career in favor of basketball?"

"You know, I was born to play basketball, but it took me a long time to figure that out."

"All right, next question. Since you joined the basketball team after their season had ended, the next school year will be your first and last high school basketball season. What are your goals?"

"You know, I'm a down-to-earth person. We didn't even make it past the Kent School District preliminaries this year, so I want to be realistic with you, my goal for next year is to help the team become the state champions of Washington."

— Kent Meridian High School School Newspaper

⑴ In the 1999 AFC wildcard game, the Tennessee Titans scored a touchdown to achieve a last-second victory over the Buffalo Bills, in what is known as the "Music City Miracle."

⑵ Lily Liver is a slang term used to describe someone who is weak or cowardly.

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