Chapter 634 Postscript
After the 2018 NBA Finals, Yu Fei, who held 12 championship rings, announced his retirement after the game, ending his seventeen-year career.
Seventeen years is a long time, but after such a long time, Yu Fei is only 35 and a half years old.
To many, he could play another four or five years.
If he is willing, he will not only be the tallest mountain in the NBA, but also the longest river in the NBA.
However, he, who has always met the fans' expectations, did not follow the fans this time.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer posted a screenshot on his Twitter of a text message exchange between him and Yu Fei.
"Fry, I think you can play until you are 40, it is too early to retire now!"
This is Ballmer's persuasion.
Yu Fei's reply was: "I have dedicated the best 20 years of my life to basketball. For the game I love, Steve, I have had enough."
GOAT's journey ended in 2018.
In 2017, he accumulated more than 37,000 total points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists. He won 12 championships, was elected FMVP 12 times, and was elected MVP eight times
This is not only the season of farewell, but also the season of remembrance.
Countless people shared their beautiful memories of Yu Fei on social media.
And Yu Fei seems to be ready to take the next step in life.
He did not change from a player GM of the Clippers to a real GM as the outside world thought.
He didn't stay in professional basketball.
His next step was Hollywood.
He has appeared in a variety of movies. Although his acting skills are often criticized, as long as the movies he appears in are always good at the box office.
The NBA seems to have entered a new era.
An era without GOST.
This means opportunity.
Why? Putting aside the lockout in 2012, Yu Fei has won 12 championships in the past 16 years.
He has almost enveloped a generation, eclipsing the superstars of the post-Jordan era, and causing the 2003 Platinum Generation represented by James to suffer repeated setbacks.
Now, they have finally waited for this day.
Yu Fei retired, and only his legend remained in the world.
That's fine, a supremely great character must live in legend.
Although the Clippers are no longer flying, this does not prevent them from starting the new season with the goal of five consecutive championships.
"Does Frye have no influence on the team after he retires?" Rivers said, "I don't think so. He profoundly affects everyone on the team. Giannis wants to take over his scepter. He’s ready, just wait and see!”
This is truly a transformational season for Antetokounmpo and Jokic.
Two powerful unicorns began to move towards a new field.
The most unexpected thing is that Pascal Siakam, selected by the Clippers in 2016, has improved rapidly and became the team's starter in the third season of his career.
Just when people thought that without Yu Fei, the Clippers would face tremendous organizational pressure, Jokic averaged 9 assists per game as a center, completely making up for the team's lack of a No. 1 position.
As a result, Antetokounmpo's rise was unstoppable. He averaged 27 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists per game and led the team to 70 wins and was elected MVP.
In the subsequent 2019 NBA Finals, the Clippers once again met their old rivals, the Heat.
They believe this is their best chance to beat the Clippers and win the championship.
However, the growth of Antetokounmpo and Jokic, Thompson's outside shooting and Siakam's improvement as a third-year player have completely exceeded the Heat's expectations.
The Clippers narrowly defeated the Heat with a score of 4-1, completing their impossible fifth consecutive championship.
But this supposedly perfect season for Antetokounmpo did not have a perfect ending.
In the selection of FMVP, Jokic, who scored 22 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in five finals games, surpassed Antetokounmpo and was elected FMVP.
In the first season when Yu Fei retired, the two successors he appointed won the MVP and FMVP respectively. This seemed to be the best way to hand over the game.
But for Antetokounmpo, this is not the best outcome.
GOAT has never let FMVP fall by the wayside.
Maybe someone can take advantage of the stinking "aesthetic fatigue" to steal GOAT's MVP, but no teammate has ever snatched GOAT's FMVP.
FMVP is a strange award. Its gold content is locked in a best-of-seven series. Just because this series is related to the success or failure of the season, its gold content is constantly being raised.
The champion who owns it is the boss champion. Otherwise, the status of the boss will be questioned.
Fortunately, this is an era dominated by Fei Fei, and Iguodala did not use a thief-level FMVP plagiarism case to bring the gold content of the award to a historical low like in the main timeline, because he was stolen by him. Curry’s FMVP.
How could this person, whose influence on basketball be far greater than all the basketball stars combined in the 21st century, be snatched away from the FMVP by his teammates at his peak? If this isn't Curry's problem, it can only be the award itself.
Thanks to Yu Fei, this didn't happen.
The value of FMVP has not declined, and the world has forgotten that a Celtics player named Cedric Maxwell stole Larry Bird’s FMVP decades ago, and will not remember it earlier than this. Wes Unseld, who averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds per game in the Finals, won the FMVP with 9 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists.
Moreover, Jokic’s numbers look worthy of his reputation.
The moment Xiao Hua announced the candidates for the FMVP award, you could see Antetokounmpo's face quickly turning red visibly to the naked eye.
They are still happy.
Five consecutive championships is an achievement worthy of being recorded in history.
Doc Rivers proudly said: "I am certain that no one will ever come to our position again!"
Moreover, he believes the Clippers will keep winning.
Because "Frye has deeply infused his winning philosophy into the team."
Then, Yu Fei sent him a text message asking him to pay attention to appeasing Antetokounmpo's emotions.
Rivers said everything is under control.
Then the world took a weird, winding path. Before the start of the 2019-2020 season, the relationship between the NBA and China was in trouble due to a tweet from a certain GM. Then, the pandemic arrived. Kobe boarded that plane in February 2020. The NBA was suspended due to the pandemic. The basketball turned gray.
On this dark occasion, Netflix announced that it will broadcast the documentary "From Bottom to Top - The Incredible Rise of the Seattle SuperSonics in 2008" during the NBA suspension.
It is not difficult to tell from the title that this is a documentary about the 08 Supersonics.
That year, the NBA entertainment department sent a camera crew to follow the Sonics throughout the entire process, and had nearly tens of thousands of hours of ultra-high-definition footage and panoramic ultra-high-definition videos of dozens of games.
The documentary ran into trouble over copyright issues a few years ago, with Clay Bennett refusing to be aired by the platform.
But recently, Bennett encountered financial difficulties due to the pandemic and decided to sell the team to cash out. This allowed Yu Fei, who wanted to become the complete owner of the team after retiring, to see an opportunity.
Although both sides still dislike each other, Bennett won't turn down a generous buyer.
Moreover, selling the team to Yu Fei is something that the entire state of Washington is willing to see.
When things have reached this point, the copyright issue of the documentary is no longer an issue.
The documentary is divided into ten episodes and tells the story of the Sonics from facing relocation problems to their subsequent rebirth from multiple narrative perspectives.
This brings the world back to that somewhat depressing but beautiful era.
That era when the financial crisis occurred, that era when social media was not yet developed, that era when Bitcoin did not determine the rise and fall of countless people like it does today, that era when Yu Fei was still very young - he left a team for five years A team that had won four championships and could win three consecutive championships almost effortlessly came to Seattle in the name of salvation and ultimately rewrote the history of the league.
Today, the Sonics remain in Seattle. The new arena is still one of the best in the NBA. The flag he won flies above the arena. The 2008 championship was the first act of the Sonics empire, but not the last. , but it is the most memorable scene.
At the end of the documentary, Yu Fei faced the camera and was asked a question: "If you knew your final ending in Seattle in advance, would you make the same choice?"
"The final result will not affect my initial decision." Yu Fei said. "I was 26 years old, still young, and I thought I could be a superhero, like Tony Stark in that last snap of his fingers. Now I'm almost forty, and looking back, even though I ended up in Seattle. It’s a bit regretful, but I definitely don’t regret this decision. Think about it, when have I been so needed in my life? That’s the wish of millions of people, and nothing can stop me!”
Yu Fei watched the documentary at his company headquarters.
It was obviously something he had experienced personally, but now that he was watching it from the beginning as an audience, he actually felt a little excited.
That's what he did when he was 26, and now he's 38.
For some reason, he had the urge to make a comeback recently.
"You must be kidding, right?"
When his friends heard his idea, they said in surprise.
After retiring, Yu Fei's career blossomed for the second time.
Not only has his Hollywood career entered a golden period, but his media company has also produced many excellent works and is deeply tied to Netflix, which is currently on the rise.
He has an entertainment empire behind him.
But now, he actually said that he kind of wants to go back to play. What's the point?
"I heard something." Yu Fei said, "Some people said that the Clippers completed five consecutive championships without me, which shows that I am not indispensable. I also heard people say that I choose Retiring at the age of 35 is because I dare not accept the challenge of young people.”
"It's only been two years and they've forgotten what I was like when I played."
Yu Fei faced his friends and said coldly: "That's because they haven't seen Fry Yu play in two years."
However, he has nothing left to prove.
He thought a lot about his comeback manifesto.
Draft after draft was torn, but in the end, he did not come back.
Because the Clippers' six consecutive championships were broken by the Warriors in the same district in the park in 2020.
Outsiders claim that the conflict between Antetokounmpo and Jokic is irreconcilable.
Because the Clippers were reversed by the Warriors 3-1.
Klay Thompson suffered a torn ACL because of this, and fourth-year Pascal Siakam was dissatisfied because he didn't get enough ball rights.
Empires are often destroyed in an instant.
At the end of the game, the media asked Rivers: "Why didn't Frye's winning philosophy work tonight? Are Giannis and Nikola okay?"
Rivers, who was stunned after losing, actually replied: "I don't know the answer to this question."
The Clippers have many problems to face and many kinks to untie, but their failure just proves how valuable a leader who can calm the team is.
Antetokounmpo looks like that guy, but he's not that guy.
GOAT's obsession has faded.
A year later, he was 39 years old.
When Yu Fei lost in a shooting contest with his 8-year-old son Yu Feifan at his home court, he realized that he might never go back.
That was the day his soul as a player died.
From then on, player Yu Fei truly retired.
At the end of 2021, the Clippers' new arena (named after Yu Fei) was put into use. Yu Fei also formally reached a deal with Clay Bennett and bought most of the Sonics for nearly US$3 billion. of equity.
After Yu Fei became the team owner, something unique in NBA history happened.
The first thing the boss did after taking office was to retire his No. 44 jersey.
Not long after Yu Fei retired, the Bucks were the first to retire his jersey, followed closely by the Clippers, then the Wizards, then the Cavaliers, who could only hit one of the eight poles. Now, it’s finally the Super League’s turn. Team Sonic.
The 39-year-old Yu Fei walked into the court and still looked the same as when he was 26 years old.
Time has not changed his appearance. He picked up the microphone and said loudly: "Long time no see, I will never leave again this time!"
Yes, he won't.
No. 44 will forever be a part of Sonics history.
Just like his name will also become a part of the first 20 years of the 21st century. When you look at this period of history, you will see his story and the championships he won.
A few years later.
In 2024, LeBron James, who is still working hard for his first championship in 21 years, completed 40,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists in the game against the SuperSonics. Since the team they faced happened to be the Sonics, some media wanted to know what the team's owner thought of this.
"I don't care." Yu Fei said, "You know, only the turtle will live longer than anyone else."
(End of chapter)