Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Upon learning that Yu Fei was in trouble, Arne Trem immediately called to inquire.

Yu Fei recounted in detail what had happened in the gym.

For Trem, the fight between Yu Fei and Ratner was not worth mentioning, but the altercation with Jordan was headache-inducing.

"Frye, you know MJ's status in D.C., right?" Trem said with a wry smile, "Competing against him won't do you any good."

"I'll say it again, he was the one provoking, I was just responding."

Yu Fei didn't understand why everyone assumed Jordan was innocent.

Even his agent wanted him to make peace with Jordan, "putting aside the facts."

Make peace? Of course, that's possible, but today he had experienced Jordan's character face-to-face. Was this a person easy to get along with? Wanting to make peace without compromising his dignity was a difficult task.

Then, Trem added a few more words of advice, basically the same old rhetoric.

That same rhetoric had been repeated to Yu Fei by several people already today.

Yu Fei wasn't ungrateful, but with Jordan pressuring him at every turn, if he didn't fight back, he would just be trampled on, and that was unacceptable to him.

The next day, Yu Fei was ready to be "thoroughly tested" by Jordan.

However, Jordan did not participate in the team practice today.

He came to the scene but only stayed with Tim Grover.

The confrontation between Yu Fei and Ratner had blown up, and media from all over the country had come rushing in. It was the biggest news of the training camp, and no one wanted to miss the headlines.

Before the interviews, Yu Fei and Ratner had already learned a set of talking points to handle the media.

Yesterday's brawl was described as a trivial incident.

Ratner said, "We're all adults here, we won't take it seriously."

Were his words credible? All one could say was that a swollen right cheek, black eye, and a bruised nose bridge can't lie.

Jordan seemed more amiable today than yesterday, laughing more, perhaps because there were multiple media outlets present, he was very conscious of his image.

When Yu Fei completed a fast-break dunk during an open intrasquad game, Jordan, who was watching, happily came to the sidelines to give him a high five.

Yu Fei extended his hand and completed the gesture.

Such hypocrisy!

Yu Fei thought to himself that if there were no media present, Jordan would definitely not perform these superficial acts. If Yu Fei was Anti-Mike, then what Jordan was doing now was something an "Anti-Jordan" would do.

Many had overestimated the negative impact of Yu Fei's actions the day before and underestimated the positive ones.

Whether it was Yu Fei standing up for Kwame Brown, confronting Jordan directly, or getting physical with Ratner, all had fundamentally altered the power structure of the Wizards Team.

The player hierarchy in the Wizards Team had been like this.

Jordan, Hamilton, and the other veterans.

Their status was strict and stepped.

With his actions yesterday, Yu Fei catapulted his personal status. He was no longer a rookie whom everyone could bully but a prickly thorn. Veterans like Ratner could not control him, and Hamilton's influence on Yu Fei depended on how the latter viewed him. Now it was clear, he dared not confront Jordan and hence, Yu Fei would not regard him as a respected senior to trust.

Suddenly, Yu Fei's power status rose above the veterans, wavering between Jordan and Hamilton.

Jordan did try to bond with the high schoolers.

On the fourth day of the training camp, during a break, Jordan organized a card game and invited Yu Fei and Brown to join.

Yu Fei had no interest in cards, but Brown was eager to use it as an opportunity to mend his relationship with Jordan.

He was mistaken again.

Brown didn't realize that the rift in his relationship with Jordan lay in the fading of his own halo. If a first-round pick fails to perform as expected, those who selected him come under scrutiny. Jordan is a god, impervious to doubt. Should undeniable doubt arise, the god's anger turns to those who cast that doubt.

That was the root of Brown's tragedy.

His relationship with Jordan stemmed from his draft position. When his first pick status was uncontested, Jordan was his dearest uncle. As soon as he came under scrutiny and was unable to respond, Jordan's fury would burn in his direction.

Brown participated in Jordan's card games multiple times. Although they had fun, the camaraderie at the card table was as transient as drink-fueled friendships; once sober, the relationship faded, and it could not replace true rapport.

When Brown's performance and training enthusiasm fell behind others, Jordan and Collins began to lose patience.

What was most terrifying was that there was no "good cop, bad cop" strategy between them; both were bad cops.

Yu Fei was the only one willing to support and help Brown.

But if Brown couldn't stand up for himself from the PUA of Jordan and the head coach, support from anyone was useless.

As the training camp progressed into the middle and later stages, Jordan no longer missed team practices due to tendinitis. The more he participated in training, the more cantankerous he seemed.

The high-and-mighty Jordan didn't just target Yu Fei and Brown.

He was determined to implement the "champion crash course" model across the entire team.

Tyronn Lue faced Jordan's hairdryer tirade for refusing to take an open three-pointer.

Coach Lu obediently shot as told, but when he missed, Jordan's eyes widened in disbelief, much like an American witnessing a plane crash into the Twin Towers.

When Hamilton and Fei weren't in the correct positions, Jordan criticized them with a mean tone.

The scariest part was that sometimes, Jordan would act like a gentle mentor.

He smiled benignly, as if everyone didn't know exactly what he was.

Kwame Brown was the biggest victim of Jordan's Jekyll-and-Hyde-style PUA.

Sometimes, Jordan felt he had pushed Brown too hard, so he said a few words that clearly felt well-meaning—some were reminders, some instructions, others jokes. But that was only a momentary Jordan. The next time Brown repeated the mistake, Jordan would reveal his true nature, humiliating Brown with the ugliest words in the world. Brown's psyche wasn't strong, and he couldn't withstand such inhumane bullying.

With his personal dignity trampled and his psychological defenses destroyed, Brown became dull and sluggish.

Brown turned into a child who never grew up, completely unable to grasp Collins' tactical system, and always half a beat slow in following Jordan's orders.

When Jordan insulted him, he would listen silently, then immerse himself in solo training after the group practice ended.

In his personal training, he repeatedly dunked the ball, a method of self-consolation.

Yu Fei was the only one who could effectively communicate with him.

Fei didn't know how to help Brown, because the blows dealt by Jordan and Collins far exceeded the threshold.

One day, back in the locker room, Jordan patted Brown on the shoulder like an elder, whispering to him as if that could negate his whole day's worth of personal insults.

After Jordan left, Brown said with self-deprecation, "He said I worked hard today, keep it up."

"Thinks you're hardworking, then relentlessly curses you during scrimmages?" Fei rolled his eyes.

"Yeah..." Brown muttered, "How the hell can I put an end to this life?"

Fei didn't answer, perhaps no one could give Brown a definitive answer.

Fei should thank Brown because with Brown around, Jordan focused his rookie-taming efforts mainly on him.
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Although Fei was a troublemaker, he was one who played hard and ignored unwritten rules.

For such a person, Jordan preferred to make Fei submit through a slow and steady display of dominance, whereas someone like Brown, who had started to seriously undermine his holiness, needed to be harshly reeducated.

The problem was, Jordan didn't understand that too much is as bad as too little.

Moreover, his leadership was in question.

In 1998, or even earlier, Jordan had the decisive strength that kept everyone in line regardless of their discontent; now, Jordan lacked that kind of power.

At the same time, tendinitis was still Jordan's Achilles heel, which wouldn't heal as long as he kept participating in collective training.

Fei noticed that Jordan often limped away to sit by himself after training, using any chance he got to ice his knee with a cold pack.

Fei could see that he was troubled by injuries, but even Jordan, three years off the court and still injured, quickly regained his game sense after going through team practice.

Jordan's skill application, game experience, and presence were something none of the others on the team had.

If Jordan had been willing to sincerely guide the younger players, many would have benefitted.

Unfortunately, Jordan didn't want to be a respected mentor. He might have tried, but quickly found that tyranny suited him better.

Fei could only watch Jordan as closely as possible and remember every mistake he made, especially those pointed out by Jordan.

He was still the first to arrive for practice and the last to leave.

Practicing three times a day was a habit he developed during the offseason, which he brought to training camp and persisted with.

Ratner thought Fei was showing off, but nearly every staff member of the Wizards Team had encountered Fei at the gym late at night.

Fei's competitive form and training attitude were the best on the team, earning him recognition from the coaching staff.

By the end of training camp, Fei had become one of the top five players on the team.

If Doug Collins had autonomy, he would have made Fei a starter for the new season, but with the Wizards, the decision was in Jordan's hands.

What was Jordan's attitude?

On the last day of training camp, Jordan told The Washington Post's Steve Wyche in an interview, "These young guys need to work hard to prove they deserve more chances on a team striving for the top. So far, they haven't proven it."

Likening to hearing a dog whistle, Doug Collins told the media something similar: "Frye has been great; he's in very good form, trains hard enough, hm, he's really good, but he still needs to wait for his opportunity to come."

Frye isn't cutting it? What about Kwame?

"Kwame's fine," Collins said sarcastically, "Perfect for high school basketball."