Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

To avoid more unpredictable variables, the last four minutes of the game between the Bucks and the Detroit Pistons were canceled.

The League decided to take the last score as the result of the game.

The final result was that the Detroit Pistons suffered a humiliating defeat at home to the Bucks by 23 points.

However, the result of the game was no longer important.

The brawl at The Palace of Auburn Hills, the image of Sprewell rushing into the stands to choke a fan, spread across the world like a virus in less than an hour.

It reminded people of the punch that landed on Rudy Tomjanovich's face in 1978, which was the first time the NBA entered the mainstream for all the wrong reasons. Then, Magic Johnson contracted HIV in 1991, and the NBA once again swept across the US with scandal. Then came Jordan's retirement announcement in 1993; though not a scandal, it simply signaled to the mainstream media that without Jordan, the NBA wasn't worth paying attention to as before. Then came the lockout of 1999 and the Eagle County incident during the summer of 2003.

You can see that every time the NBA stepped into the mainstream spotlight, it was generally due to a terrible scandal.

This time, with the scandal happening in the age of the internet, its impact would be far greater than before.

In that short video of less than ten minutes, people would see Sprewell and Big Ben's iron-blooded real man battle, Horry finishing off Hamilton like Hogan, Yu Fei first joining Sprewell in ganging up on Big Ben, then exchanging punches with Prince (as was changed in the previous chapter), Haslem trying to help but being stopped by "Mr. Rationality" Rasheed Wallace, and then the conflict subsided. Until a cup filled with ice hit Sprewell's head...

Sprewell charged into the stands like a ferocious tiger, grabbing someone by the neck.

Then Horry and Haslem realized the situation was out of control, went over to try to take control, but there wasn't just one nasty Detroit person, somehow Haslem and Horry got hit in the crowd, then they went into "I'm gonna kill you" mode.

The most incomprehensible part of the entire process involved Ray Allen.

One could say that the brawl started because of him.

Sprewell got into a fight with Ben Wallace because of him, which led to this crazy chain of events.

And when Ray Allen realized that a brawl had broken out, he did nothing.

He didn't go to help, didn't try to break it up, didn't get involved in the fighting; he just stood there like an outsider, watching until things calmed down.

In the end, security came onto the court, pulled people apart, and the game ended prematurely with Bucks players walking through the tunnel under a hail of objects thrown by Detroit people.

Ray Allen was the last person to run through the tunnel.

He tried to catch up with the team but found himself growing further and further apart from everyone.

"Sprewell, you shouldn't have thrown punches," Ray Allen said as he caught up with the group, "You're going to be in big trouble!"

Sprewell responded as if he had heard the funniest joke: "I'm in big trouble? You think I need you to tell me that? What about you! What did you just do? Who do you think I got in this mess for? Who did I do this for? You tell me, who was it for?!"

It was a consensus within the Bucks that Ray Allen did not fight.

Karl almost traded him because of this, and then, after some heart-to-heart talks in the locker room, they reached a reconciliation.

But years had passed, and circumstances had changed.

Sprewell was deeply involved in contract negotiations; of course, he knew that he had to control himself and not resort to fighting, as any scandal would make his contract extension difficult.

But he couldn't stand idly by and watch his teammates be bullied. Every season, he spent more time with his teammates than with his family, and in situations like this, he had to stand up; it was the philosophy he had learned since he was young on the basketball court.

Except for Ray Allen, everyone else did just that.

The problem was, the person least entitled to stay out of it was the very one who chose to do so, Ray Allen.

Ray Allen's choice to stand by passively might have granted him temporary peace, but accompanying him would be a lasting unease and his teammates' alienation.

Yu Fei sat silently in the locker room.

Sprewell publicly choking a fan was akin to attacking the League's lifeline; no punishment would be excessive in their eyes.

Not to mention Horry and Haslem, who went from trying to break up a fight to getting involved; they too would face severe punishment.

As for Ray Allen... Yu Fei didn't know whether to admire the guy's calm or despise his cowardice.

How did he restrain himself?
Enjoy exclusive content from My Virtual Library Empire

Even pretending to break up the fight would have been better than doing nothing at all.

Now with things like this, Yu Fei wondered how he would face his other teammates afterward.

That night, Yu Fei encountered Karl back at the hotel.

"Frye, I've told you before," Karl said, "that's just how Ray is."

Yu Fei spoke indifferently: "I don't blame him."

This was an unexpected response for Karl.

The aftermath of this brawl could tear the Bucks apart; now, they couldn't even think of pursuing a third consecutive championship, it would be a success if they could recover in the next season.

Sprewell would certainly face harsh punishment, Horry and Haslem would likewise not escape severe penalties, Ray Allen lost the respect and support of his teammates, in his contract year, he would either be traded or test the free agent market next summer, he surely wouldn't stay.

Karl really wasn't sure if Yu Fei had a future in Milwaukee.

"We all know that's how he is, Sprewell knows it too," Yu Fei said, "He won't throw punches for us on the court, that's something we all agreed upon, now he's simply done what we all knew he would do."