Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

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"Go say hi," Riley knew Curry got along well with Yu Fei.

Curry went.

Riley looked at the motionless Wade, "Don't you want to greet Frye?"

Wade replied, "MJ is my GOAT."

"Michael will be pleased to hear you say that," Riley said with a faint smile, "but I hope you haven't said this to Frye's face."

Wade was also shrewd, he had his stance but knew what to say in different situations.

"Of course, I wouldn't express that in front of him."

Attending the Hall of Fame wasn't just about the unpleasant things, there were positive aspects too.

Yu Fei saw many familiar faces here.

Stars from the previous generation and the one before that, as well as many active players.

Yu Fei met with Duncan, Kidd, Nash, Parker, and others.

Among the legends, he chatted happily with Scottie Pippen.

"Today is Michael's big day, I wouldn't recommend embarrassing him," Pippen said.

Pippen, the "high EQ individual" who publicly declared he didn't want Isiah Thomas to be selected for the Dream Team, was actually giving Yu Fei a lesson in EQ on-site.

"What if he embarrasses me?" Yu Fei asked.

From Pippen's understanding of Jordan, this was highly probable.

If Jordan saw Fei at the event, he would definitely improvise a few words to mock the latter.

"If that happens, I think you indeed have the right to defend yourself," Pippen said in the manner of a peace envoy.

Yu Fei decided not to dwell on the matter.

"Are you here alone?" Yu Fei asked.

Pippen chuckled, "Larsa came too," he said, glancing ahead, "over there."

Yu Fei took a glance, "Who's the young man with her?"

"Marcus," Pippen said, "he's Michael's proudest kid, used to follow me around when he was little."

As an ally of the anti-Jordan faction, Yu Fei felt he had to give Pippen a heads-up.

"Does Larsa like Marcus?" Yu Fei asked, thinking his question was quite intrusive.

But Pippen didn't find it strange at all, "Of course, she used to hold Marcus at the United Center when she was younger."

Considering it was still over a decade before the incident would take place, there was no point in providing an early warning.

Yu Fei said no more.

That evening, the Hall of Fame Committee specially allocated a prominent seat for Yu Fei.

It guaranteed that the cameras could easily spot him and assured that Jordan could see him at a glance.

The speeches by Robinson and John Stockton could be ignored.

There was only one highlight for the day.

When he appeared, the audience indeed gave the GOAT-level honor.

The applause lasted for over a minute.

Jordan became flushed with emotion over his own player's funeral, and he cried.

Yu Fei felt like he was watching a crocodile shed tears.

Jordan's speech started off no different from the others, introducing his family, discussing how the competition among siblings had profoundly shaped his personality, yet his arrogance was evident everywhere.

His Hall of Fame presenter was "Skywalker" David Thompson; recounting his decision-making for his presenter, Jordan naturally said, "I know he will be surprised."

Then the foreplay was over, and he started firing.

From the high school coach who cut him from the team to the upperclassman who overshadowed him in college and then mentioning how angry he was that Dean Smith didn't start him his freshman year.

Jordan's Hall of Fame speech was unconventional; as he told stories, he emphasized that those who didn't pick him were wrong.

While discussing his past rivals, his words began firing like a machine gun, the "Freeze Out Jordan" incident with Isiah Thomas, Riley's Knicks who were broken by the Bulls and then sent Jordan a note for a future rematch, but everyone knew the outcome, and poor Byron Russell who warned him not to come back during his time playing baseball because it was no longer his era.

Some who witnessed Jordan's career wondered when he would mention Jerry Krause?

At the same time, another group of new-generation media genuinely believed Jordan wouldn't pass up mentioning Yu Fei today.

This was the most authentic side of Jordan shown to the world in decades.

Cruel, competitive, never forgetting what had happened.

"44 VS 23," on the topic of the times, could he really hold back on his last player's day not to say anything about the only adversary he couldn't settle with?

Suddenly, Jordan mentioned the person he could never forgive.

"Jerry Krause (to the boos of the audience)—I don't know who sent him an invitation, I certainly didn't invite him today—I hope he understands. Our story is too long, he's as unyielding as me. He says the 'team (management)' won the championships. I say, I didn't see 'management' playing with the flu in the Utah finals, I didn't see 'management' play injured. I know it's the management's job to put the team together, but ultimately, it's the players who play the game, so I believe it's the 'players' who win the championships, and management's job is to support the players. Don't always use management to press down on the players, because we're the ones playing the games."

Sitting at the side, Yu Fei just felt like Jordan had learned nothing from the failures of managing the Wizards and Bobcats.

Without great management, he would never have had a teammate like Pippen at the peak of his career.

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