Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

If one considers that the swan song of an old era was played in late August when Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon both announced their retirements, the Dream Team—led by Bucks coach George Karl and filled with NBA All-Stars but lacking a consistently dominant superstar—facing two consecutive defeats at the World Championship held on home soil and finishing in sixth place changed Americans' perception of world basketball completely.

It seemed that the era when a group of American stars could casually outplay the second-best team in the world by a wide margin had ended.

"Reggie was injured, and we had a lot of problems, the players were not united. You should have heard the stories from here. Some wouldn't pass, some wouldn't defend, and some treated the game like an All-Star game. We didn't have Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady—America's top five players weren't on this team!"

George Karl chose to exonerate himself and did not hesitate to place the blame squarely on the players.

This would bring him a lot of animosity as well as considerable sympathy, but it meant that he could forget about ever being in charge of the national team again.

For Karl, it was a disgrace and a nightmare.

Coaching the Dream Team was supposed to be an honor, and as a patriot, he was very willing to fight for his country, but soon, this experience became the thing he loathed the most.

With most superstars refusing the call, the second-tier stars not cooperating with each other, and the growth of European basketball far surpassing expectations.

It was the first major international competition setback for a Dream Team made up of NBA stars since 1992.

Karl lost not just one, but two games, and the Dream Team finished sixth on home ground.

Yu Fei saw it differently; even if there were problems with the players, was the coaching staff blameless?

Playing an FIBA game, yet stubbornly starting with Ben Wallace and Antonio Davis, who had no offensive threat once they left the paint, resulting in no penetration from the perimeter and forcing the team to rely on shooting from the outside.

Underestimating the intensity of FIBA, making arrogant selection and tactical errors, who else should lose if not him?

Yu Fei didn't really care about Team USA's win or loss; he was more interested in the coach, who even before making official contact, had already left him with a full set of stereotypes.

Would their cooperation be pleasant?

Yu Fei didn't know, but Karl's stubbornness and strong-willed nature meant that he was bound to have various issues with the leading stars.

Currently, Yu Fei was training intensely.

This summer, he focused on three things: shooting, small muscle group training, and slight weight gain.

Excluding the month of the Asia tour, from the end of the Wizards' season, Yu Fei's intensive training had lasted nearly five months.

Besides the improvement in small muscle groups that was invisible to the naked eye, one thing that showed visible numerical change on Yu Fei was his weight.

Yu Fei had gained about 5 pounds and now weighed 106KG.

The trainer believed that if Yu Fei would mainly play as a forward from now on, the current weight was sufficient to withstand the NBA's physicality and rough play. If he continued to gain weight, his speed, lateral movement, agility, action rate, as well as coordination and feel for the ball would all be affected.

Yu Fei accepted the advice, no longer focusing on weight gain for the sake of strength training, and increased his small muscle group and shooting training.

"Fulai, what do you think about the Wizards trading Rip?"

During a break in training, Lawson brought up last month's big news from the Wizards.

The Wizards unexpectedly sent away Richard Hamilton, who had promised Collins to gain weight and pay more attention to strength training.

The Wizards traded Hamilton to Detroit, just like in history, bringing in Jerry Stackhouse who claimed he had found his home in Motor City and suggested as much to Jordan.

"What's there to see?" Yu Fei said sarcastically, "That guy keeps screaming 'New Jacks, New Jacks,' who doesn't know what he means? He's so overt in positioning himself as the future of the team to get the Wizards' management's attention, but what he doesn't know is that upper management doesn't care about him at all."

"That's true, a guy who's unwilling to stay in the gym is doomed not to fulfill the old man's wishes. He won't gain weight to play the small forward position." Lawson said with a chuckle, "In that case, actually, you and Michael are made for each other." Find adventures on empire

"Shut up, don't make me sick!"

Seeing that Yu Fei disliked the topic, Assistant Alex Clark diverted the conversation, "The Bucks have gone through a lot of changes this year. What do you think their place for Fulai will be?"

Lawson thought that with Cassell being sent away and the most veteran Robinson being traded, plus Ray Allen always being somewhat detached from the team, it was unquestionable that Yu Fei would directly take the top spot on the Bucks.

"Besides D.C., I can't think of any rebuilding team that would stop Fulai from being NO.1."

"But would a rebuilding team keep Anthony Mason and bring in a troublemaker like Latrell Sprewell?"

"Cut it out, it's not that simple." Yu Fei interjected with a glance, "Nothing is predestined, in the end, it's all about proving yourself through strength."

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For a team like the Bucks, the location of the preseason training camp isn't that important, as there aren't many media outlets interested in them.

Therefore, sometimes they don't deliberately choose a training site.

For example, this year, they decided to stay at the St. Francis Training Center (Bucks practice facility) and hold their training camp there.

George Karl, due to the embarrassing experience of leading the failed Dream Team, became a laughingstock. Some said that John Thompson should send him flowers, to thank him for making new history in American basketball; the Pillar of Shame had a new addition, and he was no longer alone.