Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

The reporter was referring to the incident in the last few minutes where Yu Fei was continuously double-teamed by the Jazz and passed the ball to an open teammate who missed the shot.

From the results, those missed open shots not only caused the Wizards to miss the chance to keep up with the game but also allowed the Jazz to score on the counterattack.

But Yu Fei had no better option at that time.

He played for 44 minutes, holding the ball for a long time and taking on the main attack, essentially carrying both offense and defense on his shoulders, and by that point he had no energy left to break through the Jazz's double-team.

In such a situation, instead of choosing to force his own shot, passing to a teammate for an open shot was the safer option.

"Are you suggesting I should have forced a shot under a double team?" Yu Fei questioned the intelligence and motives of the other party, "That's not a smart question. You are either very stupid or have ulterior motives."

Jerry Sloan had a fair comment: "Looking at the entire game, I don't think No. 44 could have done anything more."

Then Doug Collins faced a dilemma.

A reporter asked, "Coach Collins, how are you going to help Frye get out of his one-man struggle?"

Collins was frustrated: "What kind of question is that? I have never put my players in a difficult situation! We lost two players who averaged 20 points per game, and that's not my fault..."

The impact of this defeat was not just fully exposing the problem of Yu Fei lacking support, it also allowed other teams to catch up.

Teams like the Magic and the Bucks, contenders for the playoffs, all won tonight, their records tying with the Wizards, and based on head-to-head records, they pushed the Wizards down from seventh to ninth in the Eastern Conference.

Once the media saw the Wizards fall out of the playoff spots, they began to criticize the team.

They believed that without Jordan, the Wizards had become mediocre and incompetent, with Yu Fei being the only highlight, and the rest were useless.

"Look at this team's roster, the incompetent Christian Laettner, the mediocre Tyronn Nesby, the low-basketball-IQ Tyronn Lue, the disappointing Kwame Brown, the lacking-in-independent-thought Bobby Simmons... This is the most unimpressive NBA team. They are the reason Michael Jordan got injured, they are the reason Richard Hamilton got injured, they are the reason Frye is in so much pain! D.C. has become a wasteland for professional basketball!"

With one sweep of the pen, the New York Times negated all the fighting and effort the Wizards had put in over the past period.

Without Jordan, they were 3-5, and without Hamilton, they were 2-3. So they were trash, rubbish, useless drag?

Then Jordan's team revealed that the injured MJ was not far away from the team; he often went back to visit his teammates and motivated them with "Jordan-style" speeches.

The day after, during a pre-game interview against the Denver Nuggets, an NBC reporter asked Yu Fei how Jordan encouraged them.

"Oh, Michael said something about hard work, struggle, and that he would come back for the playoffs at the Verizon. We all laughed after hearing that."

Then, just before the game started, Yu Fei pulled up his pants, gave them a tug upward, then turned to his teammates and said, "Trash, it's time to prove the value of trash!"

That night, Collins had Yu Fei play for 46 minutes.

From the beginning until the final two minutes, Yu Fei didn't rest for a second.

Collins only substituted Yu Fei when the outcome was already decided.

In those 46 minutes, Yu Fei scored 36 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists, and both Laettner and Bobby Simmons scored in double figures as well, totaling three players with double-digit scoring. The Wizards defeated the Nuggets and brought their wins to 34, pushing past the losing Magic to re-enter the playoff bracket.

When the Wizards started winning, the media's hope was rekindled.

Because Jordan said he might come back for the playoffs.

So the media asked Yu Fei, "Do you think Michael will make a comeback in the playoffs?"

Yu Fei had long been dissatisfied with the media's nitpicking, and upon hearing this question, he became even more furious, "Does it matter? Michael isn't here! Rip isn't here either! We won the game! If we had lost, you would have called us trash and garbage, but now that we have won, you are concerned about whether Michael can make a comeback? What a joke! We're not playing hard to get Michael back for the playoffs, we're playing for ourselves, for this city, to make the Wizards a respected team, and I've had enough of your double standards!"

Yu Fei's emotional response didn't change anything.

The media would still ask about Jordan.

And when the Wizards won, Jordan would always disappear.

Only when the Wizards lost and were on the verge of missing the playoffs would he show up.

Aside from Yu Fei, the rest of his teammates were still considered trash, and Jordan remained unaccountable for this.

The Wizards' situation hadn't changed; they would lose a game or two, then win another on nights when Yu Fei got help from his teammates.

With April approaching, teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs circle had to win at least 38 games, and the Wizards had only won 37 so far.

There were six games left in the season, and the Wizards were undoubtedly the team with the worst schedule among those at the back of the playoff pack.

Sitting in ninth place, they were one or even two wins behind their main competitors, facing the Lakers, two games against the 76ers, the Brooklyn Nets, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Pacers (main competitors).

One could say that every game from then on was a matter of life and death.

The more they lost, the fainter the Wizards' playoff hopes became.

The first stop on this journey of death was Los Angeles.

At the end of the season, the league's powerhouse had regained vitality, and, Shaquille O'Neal knew a little something about Yu Fei—last year at ABCD Camp, Yu Fei had asked Kobe when he might replace Shaquille O'Neal as the Lakers' best, going so far as to say Shaq was lazy and fat, and didn't deserve to represent the Lakers.

Childish innocence? Shaq didn't have that concept in mind.

"D.C.? I know, I know that team. That's Michael's team, but Michael's not here now, so they're just a lousy team, but I know they have a very 'interesting' young guy, I know what he said," Shaquille O'Neal commented in a recent interview, "The Big Diesel knows everything!"

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"Looking at the schedule, the Wizards have a 0 chance of making the playoffs." — The Washington Times

"Frye Yu will win Rookie of the Year with an easy average of 18.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game." — The Washington Post

"Despite the obstacles, the most watched overseas player in the past three years has gained eligibility for the draft, and Yao Ming will easily be the first pick in the 2002 draft." — Sports Illustrated

"With Nike launching the $160 Shox VC last week, they are trying to match Vince Carter's market position with that of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. Even though Carter is the All-Star vote leader, his reputation within the league has slipped. More and more executives, coaches, and players privately criticize him as a superficial superstar who avoids defense and leadership responsibilities, and he will not be successful." — ESPN: Marc Stein column.

"Shaq says he will personally crush the Wizards' playoff dreams, so he will, no doubt about it." — Los Angeles Times

⑴ Let me just directly quote what Pippen said about this in his autobiography: "Sunday, June 1, 1997, in the final 9.2 seconds of the first game of the Finals against the Utah Jazz, with the score tied at 82, their star power forward Karl Malone, also known as the Mailman, was at the free-throw line. When Karl stood at the line, I said to him, 'The Mailman doesn't deliver on Sundays.' Karl was a 76% free throw shooter, but he missed those last two free throws. On the following offense, Michael hit the buzzer-beater The Shot, helping us win the game. We eventually beat the Jazz in six games to win our fifth championship. The trash talk I gave to Karl should've been in the documentary (but they never mentioned it). I'm sure if Michael had been the one talking trash, that moment would become part of his legend and be highlighted over and over again."'