In the 2001-2002 season, the Washington Wizards went 3-1 in the final week of the game and finally advanced to the playoffs with a 43-39 record of eighth in the East.

Their journey to the playoffs was treacherous, with them dropping from fourth to ninth in the East by the time Jordan was out for the season with a torn meniscus, and then it wasn't long before Richard Hamilton was out indefinitely with a groin injury.

Yu Fei became the lone star of the wizards.

But he lived up to expectations, leading the team to a 55% win rate in the final period, and his personal data also came to an average of 19.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.1 blocks and 1.2 steals per game, and the three-point shooting rate was 47%, 83%, and 35%.

This statistic comprehensively enveloped Grant Hill in the 1994-95 season and followed Magic Johnson in the 1979-80 season to become the most comprehensive rookie performance in the past 22 years.

For his rookie performance, how much does Yu Fei score?

"80 points, if you put aside the fact that we're in the playoffs, I'll give myself 60 points."

"Is the bar so high?"

"Because I have higher aspirations."

Then, the question of whether Jordan will return in the playoffs came up again.

"I've already said what I need to say."

Yu Fei refused to answer, and then the reporter asked him about his outlook for the playoffs.

Unfortunately, while the Wizards made the playoffs, they had to face the New Jersey Nets, who are first in the East, in the first round.

As the latest example of "the dead move the dead alive", this year's Nets brought quite a surprise to professional basketball.

They are undoubtedly the strongest team in the East.

The reporter was expecting Yu Fei to make another astonishing remark.

Yu Fei is pragmatic this time: "I want to reach the second round, but for now, our goal is to win from the Nets." ”

Yu Fei is right, the Nets are very difficult to entangle.

In the first game of the playoffs, even if the Nets were the first in the East and the eighth in the East, they did not take the opponent lightly at all.

They used a combination defense against the Wizards throughout the game.

For no other reason, the joint defense is to limit the flight.

Yu Fei's shooting rate on the outside is 35%, although it is higher than the league average but still not accurate, and although the mid-range shooting is more, the shooting rate is also up and down.

At this stage, Yu Fei's most reliable skill is breakthrough.

If he shoots well, with roll call tactics, almost no one can stop him.

But today, the Nets' joint defense is to press Yu Fei, and force Yu Fei's teammates to stand up and score.

Yu Fei's teammates didn't find the shooting touch.

92 to 81

The Nets won their first game against the Wizards.

After just playing this game, Wizards head coach Doug Collins felt that the two sides were not at the same level.

On the surface, there is only an 11-point gap, but in terms of the Nets' offensive rhythm, the 11-point gap is already very large.

The biggest gap between the two teams is on the defensive end, the Nets' joint defense is simply a work of art, and the rotation is also very skillful, unless Yu Fei finds the shooting touch of the Lakers night, it is really difficult to deal with the Nets' defense with the projection threat of his teammates.

The second home game that followed, almost exactly the same process.

What was a little different was that Yu Fei tried to throw a shot from outside the paint area, which had an effect, allowing him to score a team-high 24 points.

But his teammates didn't open up, and his 24 points were not enough to win.

In terms of offensive performance alone, tonight's Wizards are not even as good as themselves in the last game.

In the last game, they scored 81 points when Yu Fei scored 24 points, and tonight, when Yu Fei scored 24 points, the whole team scored only 75 points.

Of course, the Nets didn't score much, and they scored 86 points.

86 to 75

Again, an 11-point gap.

This kind of frog-like winning in warm water makes the Nets' game almost not spectacular.

This season, the first season in the NBA to legitimize joint defense, was not expected by the league's top brass who wanted to suppress the traditional interior line, which instead gave the defense some extra convenience.

A team with a good defense can keep the opponent's score very low by defending, which greatly hurts the spectator of the game.

It's just that the spectacle of the game is not what Yu Fei has to consider now.

He just wanted to win.

The Nets' defense has made it clear to him his biggest offensive hole.

With a playoff-level defense, his three-point shot is not a positional threat.

Under the high pressure of the joint defense, the mid-range shooting in the regular season was not reliable enough.

But he couldn't be blamed, he trained hard enough, but only in the last 1/3 of the regular season did he get a real unlimited fire.

It was a good game, but it was only the regular season.

The playoff is always on the next level.

The defeat in the first two games made Yu Fei understand that if he wants to win against the Nets, he must be on full fire, and it is impossible to expect his teammates to fire to relieve his defensive pressure.

Because the Wizards are a lone star team.

Only one star is flying.

When the lone star is not shining, it is impossible for those who follow him to find the feeling.

Now, the Wizards, who are down 0-2, have no way back.

In the days when the first round of the playoffs was still a best-of-five system, every game after that was a do-or-die battle.

On the afternoon of the third game against the Nets, Yu Fei came to MCI two hours early to shoot to warm up.

Anthony Lawson felt that Yu Fei was shooting well.

"Is the basket better at home?" Lawson quipped.

At that moment, Yu Fei inexplicably remembered the famous words of IG assistant Baolan: I have a reason why I have to go to the World Championship.

"I had a reason to go in."

"What?"

"Many, the main one is what the old stuff will say if we get swept away?" Yu Fei imitated Jordan's deep tone, "Hey, I told you a long time ago, this team can't do without me, Frye is too young, I am the soul of the Wizards!" ”

Lawson smiled dryly, did not answer, and had an idea that if someone wanted to hold a Jordan imitation contest, Yu Fei should be able to score 100 points.

Oh no, skin color is an issue, so deduct 1 point lest he be too proud.

The night was packed to the full.

As much as Washingtonians would love to see Jordan play for them in a Wizards jersey, it's not bad to have Yu Fei.

Originally, Yu Fei fought hard to qualify for this year's playoffs, and no matter what kind of play he played, they all supported it.

Even if the Wizards are going to be swept by the Nets tonight.

But Yu Fei will not give those pessimists a chance to say to themselves, "I knew you would be swept away".

At the beginning of tonight, Yu Fei faced Corey Kittels and scored a three-pointer, which showed that his hand was completely different from the previous two games.

The Nets soon found out about that as well.

Yu Fei found his touch at home.

Of course, they knew how much pressure Yu Fei would put on the defense, so they adopted a rough defensive strategy.

However, Yu Fei, who returned to his home court, is a lone star of the Wizards with a star whistle bonus.

The Nets' rough defense caused their foul count to skyrocket, which allowed Yu Fei to seize the opportunity to create more fouls.

Another knock-on effect on the defensive end of the air for Fly's runaway is that the rest of the Wizards' players are starting to step into their own roles.

They have become accustomed to flying leadership.

Only when Yu Fei brings outstanding performance can they be themselves.

For Collins, it was a trademark "new star test" contest.

A lot of rising stars will face an invincible opponent early in their first trip to the playoffs, where they will be frustrated, then bounce back, win a game from their opponents, and inevitably lose the series.

By the time the rising star has made a name for himself, people will look back and see that his greatness was foreshadowed as a rookie.

Collins had an if.

If Yu Fei grows into the league's best player in the future, he won't be surprised.

At that point, his followers will look back and see that tonight's game, the stunner against the Lakers, and his relentless fight against Jordan are all signs of his destined greatness.

At halftime, the Wizards led the Nets by seven points at home.

Yu Fei's data is close to three doubles.

Collins said to Fei with concern: "Tired or not? Do you want to rest more in the second half? ”

"No!" Yu Fei shook his head and said, "We must make sure to win this game!" ”

Collins insisted, "But you have to rest." ”

Because Yu Fei only rested for one minute in the first half.

And Yu Fei insisted on his opinion: "Unless we have a great advantage."

In Collins' view, a team like the Nets, which relies on defensive grinding and positional offense is all guided by Kidd, has a huge advantage of eight points ahead of them at halftime.

But Yu Fei just doesn't feel at ease.

Then, Yu Fei became more and more brave in the second half, but the Nets lost their crosshairs in the positional battle.

Yu Fei quickly extended his advantage to 16 points with multiple rotation opportunities brought by multiple defensive rebounds, and he could finally rest.

That advantage ultimately helped the Wizards win the game.

In the end, 94-81, the Wizards defeated the Nets by 13 points and tied the score at 1-2.

Yu Fei, who scored 35 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, once again became a hero, and he even felt that winning in the playoffs had earned him more reputation than his previous defeat of the Lakers.

Yu Fei's feeling is right, it is true.

The last time the Wizards won in the playoffs was 14 years ago, in 1987-88, when they were still called the Bullets. And when owner Pauline changed the team's name to the Wizards in the summer of 1997, they only made the playoffs once without winning.

In other words, Yu Fei won the first playoff victory for the Wizards in team history.

It's just that happy times are always fleeting.

Two days later, when they played against the Nets again at the MCI, Yu Fei received the highest standard treatment from his opponent - Jason Kidd personally led the defense, the joint defense team waited, and used all the wings to take turns to tear Yu Fei apart.

Two series that are not at the same level, and the only way for a weak team to pull off a miracle is to rely on a big burst of stars (or injuries to key players of the opponent), and mature stars may be able to burst out in a row, but this kind of power is not likely to appear in rookies.

Yu Fei still had 23 points and 8 rebounds, but the Nets were in control.

88 to 74

3 to 1

The Nets knocked the Wizards out on the road.

Post-game interview with the Wizards

"I'm telling you, this is the greatest season in Wizards history! I'm telling you, there's no team like us that lost the first and second most important players and still made the playoffs and led us with a rookie! Nothing like this can happen again! I'm so proud of my players, each of them deserves to be themselves! —Doug Collins on the season.

"After going through this period when Frye was leading the team independently, I feel like I've gotten to know him a lot. He's special, probably the most maverick rookie I've ever met, he's the hardest working guy I've ever met, the most indomitable guy I've ever met, and the hardest guy I've ever seen to coach (with a smile). If he can grow up in a team that revolves around him completely, I think we'll see the best of him. But it's hard, we've got MJ, we've got Rip, and Frye is the number three, but he's proven himself, and the experience has led us to believe that he can pick up the beam, both in and elsewhere. —Doug Collins on Yu Fei.

"I feel like I suck, I'm sorry for Fry, it's all my fault." - Jasidy White on being blown up by an opponent on the inside.

"MJ always stands up front and yells, he's experienced, that's his most valuable asset, and Frye started the same way as me, he didn't win anything, so he can go with me, that's the difference between him and MJ." - Kwame Brown vs. Yu Fei and Jordan.

"All the criticism of him (Yu Fei) is unfair, he is just a rookie, but he is our leading scorer, rebounder, assist and even steal in the playoffs, without him, the series would have ended in Game 3. Maybe for you, it's no different from the end of the fourth and the end of the third, but I'll tell you, there's a difference, he did his best, he gave us the reason to walk out of the pitch with our heads up, and it wouldn't have happened without him. —Tyronn Lue responds to media criticism of the instability of the Flyer's offense.

"Frye almost averaged a triple-double in the first round, and then you're here criticizing his inconsistent shooting? Are you kidding? —Christian Leitner furious in the media interview room.

On the night of the end of the season, Yu Fei did not give an on-site interview to NBC, but instead gave team reporter Thomas Flynn the opportunity to do a quick interview in the players' tunnel.

Flynn asked him five questions.

"What do you think was the reason for losing tonight?"

'The other side is better than us as a team, that's all.'

"There have been a lot of critics lately who have thought you're a inconsistent version of Lamar Odom, what do you think?"

"Is Lamar's team in the playoffs?" (This is not a problem)

"Nope."

"Then I don't have much to say."

"Kenyon Martin thinks you're overdone and the results of this series are proof of that, what do you think?"

"I don't think his speech works very well with his Chinese tattoo (tattoo: gain and loss)."

"What do you think of the rumors from the outside world? About you and MJ. ”

"This is the last night of the season for the Wizards, can you please not mention MJ?"

"Well, one last question, what's your offseason plan?"

"Oh, well, I guess I'm going to be busy, well, I'm sure I'm going to be busy."

That's the fate of a superstar who pays for himself in his rookie season.

The interview is over, Yu Fei is about to go back to the locker room, he still has a press conference to attend.

Flynn remembered the recent rumors and the irreconcilable rift between Yu Fei and Jordan, and he really felt that the Wizards' seemingly bright future would change completely this summer.

"Fry, I have one more question."

Yu Fei stopped and turned back, "Don't get an inch, Thomas." ”

"That's the last question."

"Say it."

"Would you consider repairing your relationship with MJ?"

"Never."

This indirectly answers the ultimate question that surrounds Thomas Flynn's mind.

With him without me, with me without him.

This is the final outcome of the relationship between Yu Fei and Michael Jordan.

(End of chapter)