On Dec. 10, the Bucks arrived in Detroit for their first game of the season against the Pistons.

Interestingly, Latril Sprewell, who was banned for a year last year for the Auburn Hills palace brawl, was released not long ago, but has not officially returned until today.

The returning Sprewell lost one thing – the starter.

In the NBA, a lot can happen even if it's a month's absence, let alone a year's time.

Now, the Bucks have replaced Sprewell with Raga Bell and are working hard to develop Kevin Martin, who is highly likely to be voted the Most Improved Player of the Year.

For a former star, losing his starting status is hard to accept, but Sprewell has nothing to complain about.

He got a big contract pension, which was enough for him to accept all the adversity.

Since Yu Fei secured the pension contract for him last season, Sprewell knew that he owed a huge favor that he had to repay with the rest of his career.

He has only one mission, and that is to defend the glory of Yu Fei.

If Yu Fei needs him to be replaced, he will substitute.

Tonight, Yu Fei had a rare night of inefficiency as he used a lot of back play against the Pistons.

However, his low shooting percentage is not high, and whenever he starts to play back, the image of an old man wearing Wizard No. 23 often comes to mind.

Whenever he tried to imitate the old man's movements against the pistons, his body would develop an instinctive resistance that made him want to dispel the figure in his mind.

But he can't, it's like in the dead of night, you lose sleep, but your mind keeps thinking about a catchy song that plays in your head, no matter how much you divert your attention.

This is what Yu Fei experienced.

However, the Pistons are no longer the iron-blooded division of the past two years.

Larry Brown's system has been torn apart by their current coach, Philip Saunders, with the Bucks' outside shooters vying for the power and Kwame Brown eating up the big shots.

Because the Pistons' defensive focus is on Yu Fei, Brown will get one opportunity after another to eat cake without doing anything.

This also made Brown play a masterpiece of the season against the Pistons, with 26 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks in a single game.

"I feel like my experience in Milwaukee proves one thing." Brown said like a philosopher, "With the dogs, you can only eat, but hiding behind the wolf king, you can pick up meat to eat." ”

As for whether the dog in Brown's mouth refers to Nowitzki or Jordan, it is a matter of opinion.

However, it is also possible to have both, a German German pastor, an American black back, well.

Yu Fei was 7-of-21 tonight, scoring only 22 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, but he still won, but he became a big core who was dragged forward by four teammates tonight.

But he's enjoying the state he's in.

When his teammates can play in Carey, he takes the opportunity to practice the low post, and against a defensive team like the Pistons, his low post offense cannot be used as a normal offensive means.

He did use some Michael Jordan-esque low stride, though, and while formulaic, it didn't quite combine footwork with technique, but it still worked.

Tonight's low hit rate has something to do with your own feel.

Yu Fei felt that he might need dozens of more games before he could get started.

After getting started, if you want to improve, you need to find a famous player to train well in the offseason.

At the press conference that night, reporters mainly focused on Sprewell's comeback performance.

Although the Auburn Hills Palace has tightened security and is not in the same bad condition as it was a year ago, there is still a lot of unfriendly things going on.

Sprewell played 18 minutes in extremely bad conditions and finished with eight points and three rebounds.

"I'm pretty sure Spree won't storm the audience again." Yu Fei said, "This year, he not only has to keep training, but also participate in mutual aid meetings to calm the anger in his heart, his emotional management has become better, I believe he has prepared a lot for tonight's game, and as you can see, he has not been affected." ”

Brown's departure and the decline in the Pistons' strength seem to have eased the conflict between the Bucks and the Pistons.

Reporters didn't get any bad words about the Pistons here.

Then, a reporter from ESPN asked, "The Bucks currently sit first in the East with a 14-5 record, how do you balance developing young players and staying competitive as a team with a lot of young players?" ”

"You don't have to have to do both, as long as our youngsters are as good as Kevin Martin, their potential will naturally develop and the team's record will be guaranteed."

Then there was the strangest question of the day, one that had nothing to do with the Bucks, the Pistons, or even the Flying themselves.

"What do you think of Stan Van Gundy's dismissal?"

Yu Fei said casually: "I think, Coach Riley may be coming back." ”

This is not a prophecy, nor is it the eye of the traverser, Yu Fei just said something that the outside world has been talking about for more than a year.

Since the Heat traded to O'Neal, Riley's comeback rumors have been getting worse day by day.

In the playoffs last season, the Heat lost to the Pacers and stopped in the semifinals, and the relationship between the two deteriorated after Van Gundy's coaching style was questioned by O'Neal.

Now, the relationship is gone, and with Van Gundy losing control of the team, Riley, who has been behind the scenes for several years, is acutely aware that this is his last chance to win the title as a coach.

On the day the Bucks beat the Pistons on the road, Big Van Gundy left class, and Riley returned to the front of the stage and picked up the whip again.

It's like a declaration.

The Heat have championship-caliber players and coaches, and now they're going to turn that into a championship.

Two days later, the Heat arrived in Milwaukee.

This is the first time the Heat have played against the Bucks this season.

The arrival of the heat reminded Yu Fei of the reporter who asked him about Da Van Gundy's dismissal the night before.

Now it seems that that problem is not untargeted, after all, the Bucks are about to play the Heat.

Riley's Heat should be the perfect body of the Heat team that defeated the Mavericks in 2006.

Yu Fei regards the Heat as the biggest competitor in the East, and he also paid attention to tonight's game.

Bradley Center

At yesterday's press conference, Pat Riley, as president of the Heat, announced that Pat Riley would succeed Stan Van Gundy as the new head coach of the Heat.

It was a little joke Riley made to the media.

A reporter from Sports Illustrated asked him: "Do you feel that the world is a very different place now than it was in the past?" ”

Riley admits that his time has passed, but he still has faith in himself and wants to be as cunning, driven, resourceful, passionate, creative and with a way to put ideas into practice. In the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, Riley was the epitome of success, he was a sassy shark who made NBA coaches look as cool as the players by dressing up exquisitely.

Today, Riley came to the dressing room with the team, but not voluntarily.

It's 6:45 p.m., and with just over an hour to go until the Miami Heat's away game against the No. 1 Bucks in the East, media is pouring in from outside the door. Whether at home or away, Riley is isolated; When reporters were required to spend 45 minutes in the locker room, he almost never showed up-—— as did most of the team's key players.

Riley usually hides in his office and the players take refuge on the training ground, but the Bradley Centre is an old arena designed to be as unfriendly as the older generation. Legend has it that Cardinal Reid Auerbach often turned up the temperature in the away team's dressing room to increase fatigue among the visiting players.

The Bucks did the opposite, opening their doors to the media, not only did there be no small doors in the visiting locker room, but also banned the visiting team from training half an hour before the game, and the visiting coaches and players had to hide in front of their lockers in front of the swarming reporters.

Soon, Mourning, O'Neal, Wade, Jason Williams, Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, the team that was expected to win the championship this season found themselves under siege.

Only Riley stood there undisturbed, as if there was a force field around him that would scorch the stupid journalists who wanted to approach him in vain. He was staring at an oversized tactical board filled with text, slashes, arrows, and tactical diagrams.

"Erik, what's the board book today?"

Riley asked suddenly.

The so-called board book, in fact, can be understood as the team's game slogan of the day, which is a habit of Stan Van Gundy and inherited by Riley.

Riley's head assistant coach, Eric Spoelstra, said: "How about 'the first step towards a championship'? ”

Riley nodded without thinking, "Yes." ”

Spoelstra wrote this on the tactical board.

Looking at Spo's words, Riley couldn't help but think of the tearful speech of Van Gundy when he resigned the day before yesterday, he said that it was to return to his family.

What a good reason to return to your family? Every man needs a harbor.

But if a man can't be strong enough to hold back his tears, no matter how beautiful the harbor is, it will be destroyed.

So, why did Riley make a comeback?

Riley vividly remembers this as his answer to reporters: "To win the last championship." ”

That last word reminded Riley of his old nemesis – Phil Jackson made the 1997-98 Bulls season theme the Last Dance – that lucky bastard, who had the honor of coaching Michael Jordan OK, yes, tongue-twisting, but you can understand that, right? That's how "lucky" he is.

So, what about me?

"Eric." Riley said, "Your handwriting is much worse than Stan's." ”

Spo was stunned.

"Let's put it another way." Riley said, "For the championship." ”

"For the champion?"

"Yes." Riley repeated, "For the championship." ”

(End of chapter)