Yu Fei's last night in Seattle was spent at Brandon Roy's home.

It was Roy's invitation because he was a Seattle native, and the Nike Regional Invitational was held in northwest Seattle, just near his home.

After Yu Fei and Hank Selwan spoke, they went home with Roy.

There are three main reasons why Yu Fei accepted Roy's invitation. The main reason is that he and Roy get along. Roy doesn't fit Yu Fei's stereotype of black people all over the body, he's humble, polite, considerate of those around him, and doesn't have a mouthful full of regional slang and catchphrases like "ouch" and "what's up."

From this point of view, Roy tends to be white in behavior.

Because he saw too much negative news about blacks in China in his previous life, Yu Fei had a bit of stereotypical discrimination against blacks, even if he was friends with pure blacks like Anthony Lawson, this impression did not disappear.

This is where Roy is valuable, he is in tune with Yu Fei's personality, and he does not have the black temperament that Yu Fei doesn't like.

Then there are two secondary reasons, Roy is the only person in the training camp who has confirmed that he can play in the NBA in the future, and he wants to know what life a future NBA All-Star will live before he becomes famous.

The result surprised Yu Fei.

Unlike the Hollywood-style clown duck-to-phoenix storyline that is common in the NBA, Roy's life is normal. His father, Tony, was a bus driver outside the Seattle subway station and often left for work at 5 a.m. and came home at 7 p.m. Roy's mother, Gina, worked in the cafeteria, and she often provided free lunches to children who couldn't afford them.

In that regard, Roy has won too much compared to most blacks, at least he has a dad.

At this point, even Yu Fei lost.

The Roy's family didn't live well, but they never got stuck. At its hardest, a family of six would be crammed into a two-bedroom apartment or staying at their grandmother's house in Seattle's Beacon Hill. But Roy never felt that there was anything wrong with his life.

When Roy asked about Yu Fei's family, Yu Fei replied simply: "I live with my mother, well, I don't have any shortcomings." ”

Roy didn't ask Yu Fei about his father, because Yu Fei didn't mention it.

Normally, there are only a few situations in which Dad will be absent in this situation.

A, for whatever reason, he died.

B, divorced from his wife and indifferent to the family.

C, he's an irresponsible human scumbag.

Roy avoided topics that would embarrass both him and Yu Fei, and after dinner, the two of them stayed in their room and sharply rated the GOAT.

A native of Seattle, Roy has been a SuperSonics fan since he was a child, and he doesn't like Jordan.

So, he directly unleashed a curse on Jordan's Wizards GM career: "I can safely say that MJ's tenure in Washington is already half lost!" ”

Yu Fei ate the snacks sent by Roy's mother, and asked with a smile: "How can you see it?" ”

At this time, Roy's face took on one of the most complex expressions Yu Fei had ever seen, where there was schadenfreude over Jordan's impending fiasco, a momentary retrospective of painful memories of the past, and a fear of Jordan's dominance.

All kinds of emotions were mixed into Roy's expression at the moment, he wanted to laugh but didn't laugh, he wanted to make a bold prediction but didn't have enough confidence.

"Because he's never lost!" Roy's words are more philosophical than prophetic.

Yu Fei didn't want to be a prophet, so he said, "But he's the biggest bastard ever, you can't underestimate him." ”

"That's right, he's the most hateful bastard ever!" Between Roy's words and expression, there was a fear of being ruled by Jordan, "Whenever you think he can only go this far, he will rise to the realm of a more asshole!" ”

That's right, but one thing to say, although the 96 SuperSonics had no hope of winning the series against the Bulls, they also successfully defended Jordan as Kobe Bryant through what Ron Harper called "restricted defense". It was the one that Jordan relied on his teammates the most among the six championships, and the Bulls, who held the match point early, were overturned by the SuperSonics twice, but it made Jordan's story-telling Father's Day victory.

In later generations, the media tended to blow Jordan from the narrative point of view of "Jordan deliberately played two games to win the championship on Father's Day", and the supersonic fans at that time were already numb and unwavering, because their team was stolen after 2008.

The team is gone, what's the point of going back in time?

That's where Roy hates Jordan the most. Jordan's team hyped up the Father's Day championship so much that the poster photo of Jordan lying in the locker room with a basketball in his arms to mourn his deceased father was very popular for a while.

"Have you seen that poster? That's the most shameful hype I've ever seen! Every discerning person can tell that Michael's shoes are brand new and that he is totally selling his shoes! ”

Well... Yu Fei admired Roy's insight, just as he admired those who discovered that James was reading the title page every time he read a book.

However, that doesn't prove that the GOAT used his deceased dad to sell his own shoes, right? Unless something as grassy as James' Malcolm X autobiography reads (1).

After a sharp review of Jordan, Roy talked about his plans for the future.

He is ready to continue to compete in AAU with the Five Tigers.

Moreover, Roy also invited Yu Fei to join the Five Tigers.

It can be seen that this was Roy's original plan.

In terms of strength, Roy is definitely among the top players in high school, but they lack dominance on the inside. If Yu Fei can join, then the strength of the Five Tigers will change qualitatively, even if they go to California to participate in those highly competitive AAU competitions, they will have the strength to fight.

"Thank you for the invitation, Brandon, but I would like to solemnly decline you." Yu Fei finished eating the dim sum made by Roy's mother alone, "Because I have other plans later." ”

Roy further lobbied: "Fulai, you have just made a name for yourself, and you still need to continue to consolidate it through AAU competitions, otherwise, I dare to guarantee that within half a month, others will forget about you." ”

Yu Fei believes in the hype power of AAU, but he doesn't need hype now.

The purpose of participating in the Nike Regional Invitational has been fully achieved, and through this competition, Yu Fei has at least established his status as a top high school student in Washington State.

In the months that followed, although there were AAU competitions everywhere, those competitions did not help Yu Fei other than increase his college offer and improve his high school rankings.

Going to college has always been a candidate for Yu Fei.

His goal is to go straight from high school to the NBA.

The aura of "Washington State's Top High School Student" was a ticket to him.

A ticket to the nation's top high school seniors.

If he can become one of the top high school seniors in the country next year, he will be eligible to skip college, sign up for the 2001 Draft, and be drafted in the first round by an NBA team.

Until then, Yu Fei needed to continue to cultivate internal strength.

His physical problems have not been completely solved, and the interior foundation needs to be further consolidated, and shooting is a weakness to focus on in the senior season.

There are so many shortcomings that need to be filled, and a large number of games are not beneficial to Yu Fei at the moment.

Roy, who failed to convince Yu Fei, sighed and couldn't help but feel regretful.

But this is ultimately a matter of personal will, not forced.

Then, Roy mentions another thing, "Fulai, have you heard of ABCD camp?" ”

Yu Fei looked dazed.

"It was the best training camp in the country." Roy said, "KG, Kobe, T-MAC are all famous there. ”

Yu Fei asked, "Have you participated?" ”

"I got an invitation this year, but I didn't dare to go," Roy said with a look of remorse, "I wasn't in good shape. However, I'm definitely going to go next year, and if I do well in ABCD camp by then, maybe I'll be in the NBA Draft right out of high school. ”

I didn't expect Roy to have this plan.

Yu Fei always thought that Roy was the kind of person who would go to college obediently, but he even had the idea of skipping college?

Is this something you should be thinking?

"You don't want to go to college?"

Yu Fei asked.

"Yes."

Roy replied.

"Then you still want to skip college and go straight to the NBA draft?"

"If you go to college if you have a college to go to," Roy incarnated as a pessimist, "If I have a 10 percent chance of going straight from high school to the NBA, then my chances of going to college are zero." ”

Although there is a difference between Chinese and American courses, Yu Fei quickly adapted to the high school curriculum after crossing over, and it can be said that training and learning are not wrong, and he can't believe that Roy can't go to college because of his lack of grades.

Although he wanted to laugh, Yu Fei couldn't help but see Roy's mother's dim sum and said, "Hmm... Brandon, I'm sorry to hear that. ”

(1) "Well, I started reading almost the other day, and I've read a lot of books in the past few years, and this is the first time I've read this book from beginning to end. Well, Mark is a very... Very smart people, very, very very smart people. Actually, what he said and did in the '60s, what happened in those days, is happening now. He also let me know how strong the power of the black man is, and how strong we are, but we need to unite and unite the front, because there will always be difficulties, and difficulties will weaken us, and make us feel that the black man is not a king and queen, he is a man of strong ideas. —LeBron James's Malcolm X Autobiography (2).

(2) A podcast asked Richard Jefferson: "Richard, does LeBron really like reading in the locker room?" ”

Jefferson: "I'll be honest, he just likes to doodle on it (3)." ”

(3) I think this is the only reason why he reads a book and says it so incoherently.