Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters
Chapter 79: Chapter 70: The Man Without Awe

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The 2001-02 NBA season had many major storylines that captivated attention, such as Toronto ultimately keeping hot commodity Vince Carter in Canada and acquiring historically top-five center Hakeem Olajuwon;

Orlando's Grant Hill was set to make a comeback, and his pairing with McGrady stirred the imagination;

Chris Webber nearly left Sacramento during the summer, but in media narratives, the process isn't important, the outcome is. Webber stayed and signed a lucrative contract;

The widespread belief was that Tim Duncan and the Spurs' romance was down to the last two seasons because David Robinson was almost certain to retire in 2003. That summer, Orlando would have enough space to welcome The Stone Buddha, who always had a soft spot for Orange City. However, Duncan still had things to do in Saint City, like picking up another championship to prove that the 1999 lockout season championship wasn't a fluke.

Besides, were Utah's Malone and Stockton and Phoenix's Marbury and Hardaway the most and least compatible pairings in the NBA? Could Nowitzki get any better, or would he struggle in a lousy team like Garnett did in Minneapolis?

But the most eye-catching were the Lakers and Wizards, the turmoil within OK and Jordan's second comeback. However, in last night's opener, a rookie successfully caught the media's attention and made the headlines.

"Gary Smith said Frye is 'The Chosen One', and that might be true," wrote The Washington Post's Steve Wyche in his report the next day.

In his career debut, Yu Fei drew plenty of attention with an almost game-winning shot.

Reebok, which previously harbored doubts about Fei, started heavily promoting his performance.

Yet Fei didn't spend much thought on these matters.

The Wizards' season began on the road, and their next stop was also away.

On November 1st, they would challenge the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta.

But in the meantime, they had a day to rest back in D.C.

Verizon Center

Fei returned with the team bus to the training facility as soon as he got off the plane.

He decided to start training immediately.

The solid performance in his debut convinced Fei that hard training pays off. Of course, he could slack off, but only after he had established his position.

On the Wizards Team, nothing is guaranteed as long as Jordan doesn't fall from power.

Kwame Brown joined Fei's camp.

The praise received by Fei made Brown envious; he was the number one draft pick, those compliments were supposed to be for him, but who could blame the media when his debut performance was so poor?

Brown tried to train to Fei's standards but found that he just couldn't get the hang of it.

Fei's training was too monotonous.

"Frye, what exactly should I be doing?" Brown sat down on the ground, feeling defeated.

Seeing Brown's three-minute enthusiasm for training, Fei could only lament that his lack of progress was a result that came from within.

First, he himself was inadequate, then the ones who developed him were inadequate, and finally the ones coaching him were inadequate. When "you, me, and he" were all inadequate, there was no way to fulfill Brown's potential.

"Let's put training aside for now, what's important is to get familiar with the movements," Fei called Brown and Anthony Lawson over to simulate a bit of real combat.

Lawson acted as a defender guarding against the pick-and-roll plays between Fei and Brown.

Fei wanted Brown to get used to the feeling of catching the ball and finishing after setting a pick and rolling.

However, Lawson's defense was not much of a threat, allowing Fei to pass all kinds of bad balls, and Brown could still catch them.

But in a real game, many of these balls would slip through his hands.

Although the quality of practice was mediocre, it at least helped Brown understand what he could do on the offensive end.

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As the training time approached in the afternoon, many players had already arrived at the Verizon Center.

Richard Hamilton was always on time, arriving and leaving as scheduled. He was never late, but don't expect him to stay for extra practice.

He was in a good mood today because they had won the season opener yesterday, and not many journalists had asked him how he was going to work with Jordan, since all eyes were on Yu Fei.

A game-winning shot in his very first professional match? What a lucky rookie!

When Hamilton walked into the locker room, he thought he had seen wrong.

Jordan was sitting in a folding chair in front of the locker room, not wearing socks, his feet sporting North Carolina blue bath slippers, but otherwise already dressed in his uniform, with another ice pack on his left knee. Grover was sitting in a stall next to him. That stall used to belong to Tyrone Nesby, who spent \\$10,000 to buy the spot from Ratner.

Now, it was Tim Grover's stall.

Why could a trainer have his own stall inside the players' locker room at the training base? This was the players' domain, what right did Grover have to his own stall?

"Rip, you're one minute late."

Hamilton was likely one of the few on the team who frequently saw Jordan's smile.

Jordan treated Hamilton as his second Pippen, a powerful "Robin" who could bring a lot of help to himself.

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Hamilton never saw himself as a Robin, nor did he want to be Batman.

In Philadelphia, the AAU Team he formed with Kobe swept the nation, and in college, he led the University of Connecticut to defeat Elton Brand's Duke and win the national championship. He had never failed anywhere, nor could he imagine failing. This maturity and steadiness of mind was why he rapidly grew to be a starter in the NBA after entering. Last season, after the team traded Juwan Howard, Hamilton rightfully became the core of the team, but then, just one summer later, he lost his leadership position because of Jordan's arrival.

Hamilton was willing to follow Jordan's lead; after all, his generation grew up watching Jordan play, and following an idol was fine. During training camp, Hamilton trained hard, trying as much as possible to please Jordan, yet he was still repeatedly scolded by His Airness. His defense was poor, he sometimes wasn't aggressive, his body was too skinny, he had no defense… Hamilton acknowledged Jordan as the leader but didn't think their relationship was that of a superior to a subordinate.

Unfortunately, that's how Jordan saw it.

So when Hamilton jokingly asked if he'd ever get to endorse AJ, Jordan said he wasn't qualified to wear them.

Keep in mind, Jordan always showed respect to Pippen, even planning to thank him first in his future Hall of Fame speech, but he showed no such respect to Hamilton.

Under these circumstances, how could Hamilton willingly play Robin?

Look at Kobe. The Lakers had won back-to-back championships, yet Shaquille O'Neal decided to have toe surgery just before training camp started, claiming "I'm not going to miss my summer recovering from injury" which greatly annoyed Kobe. For this, the wily and thick-skinned big man still told everyone on media day that Kobe should be voted NovelFireP. Even with that, Kobe didn't want to be a Robin anymore. Hamilton himself had teamed up with Kobe to sweep through high school basketball; how could he continually accept Jordan's unemotional bullying?

Hamilton wanted to rebel, but he lacked the courage.

Then Yu Fei appeared like a deus ex machina, showing Hamilton a glimmer of hope to break free from Jordan's domination.

Now, back in the locker room, Jordan's joke didn't elicit a playful response from Hamilton.

"Oh, is that so?"

Hamilton casually responded, swiftly changing into the University of Connecticut Huskies track suit.

Just like Jordan always trained and played in North Carolina basketball shorts, everyone liked to use various ceremonial items to reminisce about the good old days in college.

Hamilton left without even a greeting.

Grover said, "Rip seems off."

"Can't you see he's very unhappy with you?" Jordan teased his old partner with a playful look.

Grover smiled faintly, "I can tell."

"But it doesn't matter, he's the kind who only keeps the dissatisfaction to himself." Jordan habitually pushed his tongue against his lips, making a pouting gesture, "It's those who have no sense of awe that should be watched out for."