Just as the Dream Team prepares to show the world a new look of themselves, American sports at the same time have not been quiet.

Or rather, for sports fans, this year has been a nightmare.

David Beckham's foray into the United States has been overhyped to the point of being disgusting; Barry Bonds, who was drugged to boost himself by a real hammer, broke Hank Aaron's home run record, but put a disgrace on that glorious record; In comparison, NFL star Michael Vic's illegal dogfighting looks less hateful.

The NBA looks calm, and that's what David Stern wants.

His league is recovering fast, and although it hasn't reached the pomp of the Jordan era, Yu Fei's rise has injected a new breath of vitality into professional basketball.

As long as scandals like the Eagle County scandal in the summer of 2003 don't happen again, Stern has a hunch that they will return to the early '90s within a few years.

You know, at that time, the old king was withering, and Jordan, the new king, was waiting to ascend the throne, and the eyes of the entire basketball world fell on him.

However, Yu Fei's situation is different from Jordan's back then, and he faces an unprecedented dilemma, redeeming the Dream Team, saving the SuperSonics, and revitalizing the league, which has been deteriorating since the shutdown in 1998.

In Stern's view, it is impossible to do all of them, but Yu Fei only needs to do one of them to establish his status as the undisputed No.1 player of this generation.

Just as Stern and the league practitioners were entering fantasy time, an NBA referee named Tim Donaghi was arrested.

Cause? Suspected of illegal gambling.

Since Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, there have been questions about the ability of NBA referees to enforce the law.

But no matter what the media or fans say, they have no evidence that the referee blows the black whistle for some benefit, and Donathee's appearance gives the victim ample reason to believe that the NBA game is under control.

Despite coalition officials insisting — and the evidence so far proves — that Donaghi is an "isolated rogue criminal" (Stern's preferred formulation), the unsettling clamor must be addressed. Nothing will be a missed opportunity to regain image, and as Stern says, "We're going to spend a lot of time improving the [refereeing] system and dealing with things like recruitment, education, coaching, teaching and rules on and off the field." ”

It's just that the impact has already appeared.

Even if Donaghi insists that he never blows the black whistle for the sake of gambling, but only predicts the accuracy of his judgment based on his knowledge of the referee's grievances with the teams, this argument is ridiculous, like a thief saying "I just rubbed it in when I did that".

The NBA can contain the situation, but the negative impact is huge enough that it is even more terrible than the Eagle County incident, because fans will question the correctness of the game.

Donaghi's shadow appears with every bad decision.

Stern had no other choice, and for him, he had done everything he could to keep things from getting worse.

He could feel that the thriving league was moving away from him, and that the explosive business growth of the Jordan era might be gone.

"David." Vice President Stu Jackson said, "The Dream Team won the qualifiers by a big win, and Frye was named MVP. ”

Stern asked, "Did it go well?" ”

"There is almost no suspense." "Frye is more comfortable with FIBA than he thought," Jackson said. ”

This may be the only thing that makes the league's practitioners happy, and their best players are finally willing to set an example with the Stars and Stripes.

Before Donaghi's affair erupted, Stern's biggest struggle was that his best players played in a small market where basketball wasn't the number one sport.

Although Yu Fei has been involved in many controversial incidents and staged many revenge dramas that the people like to see, the low appeal of the Bucks has significantly hurt the ratings.

Yu Fei's four Finals with the Bucks, except for the first time against the Spurs and the 2006 Lessers with higher ratings than the historical average, the other two Finals were only barely average.

Of course, this cannot but take into account the impact of the continued decline in the attractiveness of the league since the shutdown in the summer of 1998.

If it weren't for Yu Fei, maybe the ratings over the years would have been even more ugly.

After all, the only finals in the past five years without Yu Fei had the lowest ratings in history.

Kobe Bryant's thunder is heavy and the rain is small, James may need time, maybe it's just a bubble, the Celtics Big Three lack a flow effect, and Stern's all his hopes are on Fei, but the problem is, Yu Fei is now in Seattle, and his goal is to save the SuperSonics?

Thinking of this, Stern's face became even more solemn.

It's an impossible task.

※※※

This summer has been a bit overworked for Fei.

In the past, he used to take advantage of the summer to get plenty of rest, but now, he didn't have a holiday until the end of August.

From the warm-up competition to the Olympic qualifiers, plus the training camp for most of the month, Yu Fei spent an extra few months, and finally won the ticket to the Beijing Olympics for the dream team with a complete victory.

During this period, Yu Fei averaged 18 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists per game, ranking first in the team in all statistics, worthy of the hype of Captain America.

As soon as the dream team's task was over, while there was still some time, Reebok arranged a trip to China for Yu Fei.

Yu Fei's market in Asia is larger than that in the United States, and the Chinese market is the largest part.

Many factors contributed to Yu Fei's explosion in China, his strength, his skin color, his inaudible Chinese, his knowledge and respect for the place, and his close relationship with Yao Shu. Unless he is a fan of James, Jordan, and O'Neal, Yu Fei has almost no characteristics that disgust Chinese fans.

Yu Fei visited the unfinished Bird's Nest, ate Chinese food that is absolutely impossible to eat in the United States, and finally accepted an exclusive interview with "Basketball Park" before leaving.

What he didn't expect was that the person who interviewed him was Yu Jia.

In China, as long as you watch a basketball game, even if you don't know this person, you have heard his voice.

"You know that before this summer, there were a lot of Chinese fans who believed that you would wear the Chinese jersey." Yu Jia asked in a joking tone, "Have you thought about this?" ”

"I really thought about it." Yu Fei also responded with a joke, "Then I researched the Chinese team, and it turned out that they spent half a year training each time, which made me decide to support them only mentally." ”

Yu Jia asked, "What made you decide to hold a big sports meeting in Sichuan in your own name?" ”

"My grandfather's grandfather is from Sichuan, so strictly speaking, I am also a doll from Sichuan."

"Do you speak Sichuan?"

"I'll say a few words."

Yu Jia showed an expectant expression.

"Immortal Plate Plate. Gua Wazi."

A week later, Yu Fei returned to the United States.

On the plane, Lawson showed him an ESPN news.

It reads: LeBron had an intimate meeting with Michael.

"It looks like he's really thrown himself into MJ's arms." Lawson scoffed, "He wouldn't think that after listening to MJ's lectures, his ball skills would be as good as MJ's, right?" ”

Now that the two sides have made a clear break and are like fire and water, James naturally doesn't need to care about Yu Fei's reaction.

This really made Yu Fei feel ironic.

James in his previous life was very sensitive to Jordan, because the media wanted him to surpass Jordan, and he himself took this as his goal.

Jordan chose to do the math problem in Janko's comparison: I don't know who is better, but I know that 5 is greater than 3 (before 2020).

James doesn't want to compare with Kobe, because comparing with Kobe means that he hasn't clearly surpassed Kobe, so what can he do to touch Jordan?

Therefore, he directly proclaimed himself GOAT on the show.

Unexpectedly, the two people who should have been on the tip of the needle against Mai Mang actually became allies because of their appearance.

Yu Fei didn't know whether to feel that he was too powerful, or that the world was impermanent.

However, he can't take care of James for the time being. The Cavaliers' roster doesn't look like they can compete for a championship either, which means that James doesn't even qualify for his track right now.

He has more important things to do.

Before the start of the SuperSonics' preseason training camp in mid-September, Yu Fei noticed a noticeable change in the coaching staff.

Carl came to Seattle with him, and naturally brought his own coaching staff with him, which was fine.

But Yu Fei noticed that some old people who had worked for supersonic for many years were dismissed.

Among them are Lenny Wilkens, who is very prestigious in the local area, and Jack Sikma C, who is very interested in Yu Fei.

Yu Fei has been practicing low-post offense for the past two years, although there is some small success, but if there is a low-post master like Hikma to guide him, the progress will be faster.

As a result, he approached general manager Sam Presti directly and asked him about the reason for Hickma's departure.

Presti didn't expect Yu Fei to care so much about an old man who had left the team, "After George's team came in, our coaching staff was a bit bloated, and we had to lay off some personnel for financial reasons. ”

Is this still Carl's fault?

Yu Fei asked rhetorically: "Then why did Lenny Wilkens leave?" You don't want to tell me he's part of the coaching staff too, do you? ”

Sam Presti comes from the Spurs, a place where management, coaching staff and players have their own roles to play.

Popovich is the center of power, others just need to give advice.

Players don't dictate to management.

Presti left the Spurs because Klay Bennett gave him Popovich-esque permissions.

But Yu Fei's appearance upset the established balance.

is also a superstar, Yu Fei and Duncan are completely different existences.

He will say what he disagrees with, openly oppose the operation of management, dictate everything until he is satisfied.

Presti suppressed her displeasure with Fei's condescending posture and explained, "It was the boss's decision. ”

"That's fine."

In Presti's view, Yu Fei's reaction perfectly illustrates what kind of existence the management is in his eyes.

A tool that must obey him and that's it.

If this instruction comes from the highest level - the boss - then he will not waste his tongue on management, he will go directly to the person who can solve the problem.

After Yu Fei left, Presti felt that she could breathe normally again.

It's going to be a long season.

PS: The second shift will also be 30-60 minutes slower.

(End of chapter)

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