Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

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Strangely, Pippen hadn't had any contact with Jordan, but he was still very curious about what Jordan wanted to say to him.

He stopped in his tracks, turned to face Yu Fei, "What did he say?"

"Be good to Scottie," Yu Fei lied without a blush, "he's my best helper."

"Be good to me?" Pippen's discontent rose swiftly, "We won the game easily, and yet he tells you to be good to me?"

Jordan didn't approve of Pippen? No, he did.

Before Pippen's autobiography was published, Jordan would always call Pippen his best helper in any occasion, saying he couldn't have won so many championships without him.

But what Pippen hated most was this condescending attitude and offhand comments.

The term "best helper" was too vague to encompass Pippen's contributions, yet Jordan always felt this was showing Pippen enough respect.

What was Pippen thinking?

Who stepped up to change the game by defending Magic Johnson in the 1991 Finals?

And who was it that led the substitutes to recover from a 15-point deficit against the Trail Blazers during the fourth quarter of the championship night in 1992?

Who took over leadership and nearly carried the team to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1994 after someone irresponsibly retired all of a sudden?

Who whispered that legendary trash talk to Karl Malone at the free-throw line in 1997, giving someone the opportunity for The Shot at the buzzer?

And who, despite publicly feuding with management and demanding a trade, came back after surgery in 1998 to play a full game with a torn back on the night someone pushed his opponent and scored that century-defining shot?

Pippen's biggest grievance with Jordan was that he got everything, but when he performed poorly, the media would say he's just "a person who occasionally makes mistakes," whereas when his teammates played poorly, they were blamed for dragging Jordan down.

Remember, the "It's not his fault they lost; the boss tried his best" law applies to all superstars.

"He seems arrogant," Yu Fei chuckled, "right?"

In that instant, Pippen's resentment toward Jordan rose to a new level.

"That's him!" Pippen said angrily, "That's him!"

Yu Fei could fully sense Pippen's emotions from his discontent, "Exactly, that's him."

In that moment, Pippen and Yu Fei locked eyes, understanding each other.

This was a century meeting between the current and future super Jordan detractors.

Pippen knew about Yu Fei's feud with Jordan; he knew that Yu Fei was not Jordan's lackey, otherwise, there was no need to specifically bring up Jordan in this conversation.

Pippen didn't care what Yu Fei wanted from him. What mattered was that they'd both been tormented by Jordan, they were both dissatisfied with him, and as long as Yu Fei stood up to Jordan, Pippen would offer him all the support he could, aside from actual action.

Do you think Pippen is all talk? No, he's just dissatisfied with Jordan for now; it's far from the point of breaking off relations.

This requires several steps.

Pippen goes bankrupt after retirement/Jordan becomes an owner after retirement—Pippen turns into a media clown after retirement, jumping back and forth with the media/Jordan, as a capitalist, lives a secluded life, disdainful of such associations—During/after the airing of "The Last Dance"—Pippen loses his son, goes through a divorce—Jordan's son hooks up with Pippen's ex-wife.

Any man going through all this couldn't possibly have a normal, fair opinion of Jordan.

Yu Fei knew Pippen was biased against Jordan, but so what? Anyway, all he needed was to consult Pippen on defense now and then, and occasionally share insights on despising Jordan – that would be enough.

Two days later, the Wizards, back in their home court, played against the Golden State Warriors until the very last moment.

The most outstanding player from the Warriors was also a rookie.

His name was Gilbert Arenas.

Yu Fei only had two impressions of Arenas; one was his brazen attitude towards the league, mocking them after the Morant gun incident, and the other was admitting he was curdled by James, even thinking that his James was a dog's treat.

But Yu Fei didn't expect Arenas to be such an excellent player.

That night, Yu Fei scored 24 points, and Arenas had 25 points.

The Golden State employed a zone defense against Yu Fei, which had a certain effect. Yu Fei also suffered from not having Hamilton by his side.

A scorer averaging 20 points a game is truly hard to replace, and no one inside the Wizards could threaten the opposing flanks like Hamilton did.

This emboldened the opponents to use double teams and zones against Yu Fei.

But luck was on the Wizards' side. In the final moments, Cassidy White scored with a putback for The Shot.

Then, in the game against the Utah Jazz, Yu Fei played for 44 minutes.

Facing an even more ruthless zone defense, Yu Fei decisively played as a pivot and shot from the free-throw line. Though effective, no one knew better how to deal with this type of skillful ball-handler than Sloan.

If one wasn't enough, he'd use two, and if two weren't enough, he'd use three – he was determined to smother the player.

Sloan didn't believe Yu Fei's teammates could bring enough help.

When facing double teams, Yu Fei had no choice but to pass the ball, which led to his seventh triple-double of his rookie season; but the outcome was exactly as Sloan had predicted.

114-107

Yu Fei scored 28 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and dished out 10 assists, and despite his heroic performance, he didn't get applause. Instead, it attracted the skepticism of Jordan's cancer patients: "Frye, if you had another chance, would you choose to decide the outcome of this game yourself."

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