NOVPUBChapter 862: Chapter 535: The Door That Opened but Wasn’t Fully Opened_3 Chapter 862: Chapter 535: The Door That Opened but Wasn’t Fully Opened_3 Less than a second, Sun Yue lost the ball, and Yu Fei dribbled up to just two meters outside the three-point line before launching a successful chase-down three-pointer.
The men’s basketball team requested a timeout.
“The bad news is, Frye has started playing seriously,” the CCTV commentator with the last name Yu said cheerfully, “the good news is, the men’s basketball team has forced Frye to play seriously.”
The men’s basketball team certainly had a great advantage inside, but they had a persistent problem: they couldn’t get the ball to the inside players.
Especially now.
Yu Fei, George, and Beverley started a full-court press with high intensity, and suddenly the ball couldn’t even get past half-court.
In less than four minutes, Yu Fei led a run of 15 to 4.
...
Dunhuad called for another timeout, this time, pulling out the tormented Liu Wei, whose defense reminded him of the 2006 World Championship game against Greece.
Replacing Liu Wei was the eagerly awaited rising star, Guo Ailun.
The consensus in China was that Guo’s ball-handling skills completely outclassed Liu Wei’s, so while Liu Wei was afraid of pick-and-rolls, Guo wouldn’t be.
But as it turned out, this was faulty reasoning.
It’s true that Guo’s fundamentals were better than Liu Wei’s, but the main pressure from a full-court press came from physical fitness, speed, and size. Skill was the least of the concerns.
Guo might have had better ball-handling, but he lacked explosive power, and even though he could accelerate quickly, Beverley could prevent him from even getting the chance to do so.
Although the men’s basketball team kept changing players, breaking a full-court press during Yao Ming’s era was like sideline ball following 2019 – a phrase that made every Chinese basketball person tense up.
Why was breaking the press not a problem after 2019?
Because, by then, the men’s basketball team had become so weak that strong teams didn’t need to use a full-court press against them.
In other words, the men’s basketball team had eliminated one difficult problem with their own weakness but created another because of a certain someone’s abstract thought-processes.
Using the full-court press, Yu Fei turned an eight-point deficit into a nine-point advantage and then stopped.
After all, a full-court press was very draining on stamina, and there was no need to push so hard in a warm-up game — or more accurately, a friendly match.
Finally, Guo could normally bring the ball over the half-court line and see the opponent’s basket.
What he hadn’t expected was that Yu Fei would personally guard him.
Yu Fei didn’t press too hard on defense, giving Guo plenty of space to make his moves, and he began a series of crossovers between his legs.
Just as he thought he saw an opening on Yu Fei’s weaker side, he broke through, only to have his layup blocked.
Fortunately, Yao Ming was there to grab the offensive rebound and score the putback.
The next play, Yu Fei didn’t budge at all, containing Guo right there for a solid 15 seconds, forcing him to take a buzzer-beater.
“Too much useless dribbling,” Yu Fei said, “but your skills aren’t the problem.”
What the heck does that mean?
Guo hadn’t expected Yu Fei to speak Mandarin so well, nor had he anticipated that the opponent would initiate conversation with him.
“If there’s no problem with my skills, why was it useless?”
Guo snapped back before running back to his position.
A minute later, another play.
Guo tried several times to bait Yu Fei with a sham move, but Yu Fei suddenly boxed him into the sideline, causing a direct turnover.
Afterward, because of his ugly performance, Guo was directly subbed out by Dunhuad.
As he stepped off the court, Yu Fei said, “You won’t solve your problems back in China.”
Guo Shao was taken aback but said no more.
The subsequent game progressed smoothly, with Yu Fei controlling the intensity. The men’s basketball team tried hard to catch up, but every time they closed the gap, Team USA rained down three-pointers.
Ultimately, with overwhelming overall talent and Yu Fei in official competition mode, the men’s basketball team lost by a slim margin of 5 points at home.
The live audience was thrilled.
Initially, many people didn’t believe it when they heard that Yu Fei was leading a team to China for a friendly match, considering his extremely high status in the industry. To everyone’s surprise, he really showed up, and he even played for 27 minutes, hardly seeming like he was there just for sightseeing.
“Blame me, I was too aggressive in the first quarter and made him desperate,” Yao jokingly said after the game.
Yu Fei affirmed the men’s basketball team’s performance with official-sounding praise.
When reporters asked him about Guo Shao, Yu Fei said with implied meaning, “With his height combined with the ball-handling skills he possesses, he would qualify to play in the NBA. He has a very high talent, but if he wants to get better, he must aim higher.”
Later that day, through Yao Ming, Guo Shao got Yu Fei’s contact information.
They had a phone conversation.
Guo Shao wanted to know what Yu Fei meant by his last comment.
Yu Fei shared his thoughts with him.
He believed that Guo Shao’s current technical bottleneck could not be resolved by a professional team in the CBA. In the United States, every year, dozens of players with sufficient talent but critical technical flaws like Guo Shao’s get trained. Some of them can make a breakthrough with advanced training methods and reach higher levels, while others will hit a wall, depending on the training team they choose and their personal efforts.
“Are you saying I have to go to the United States?” Guo Shao asked.
“You’re only 18 years old and haven’t entered the professional league. Theoretically, you still have the qualifications to play in the NCAA,” Yu Fei said, “If you’re willing, I can help you make the contacts.”
If it were anyone else telling Guo Shao you have such and such problems that can’t be solved domestically,
Guo Shao might not have even listened.
But the opinion of Yu Fei, the current GOAT, was different.
Two days later, Yu Fei and his team played another warm-up game against the men’s basketball team and also won by a margin of 6 points.
After the game, Yu Fei told Guo Shao that he would be in China until early October. If he decided, he should give him a call.
Guo Shao was indeed persuaded; he wanted to take Yu Fei’s advice.
However, as a youth training player, the sports bureau and Liaoning Youth Team had invested a huge amount of manpower and resources in him. They hoped that Guo Shao would join the first team as soon as possible to contribute to Liaoning basketball.
Even with Guo Shao’s uncle having connections, they couldn’t free Guo Shao from the constraints of the club and the sports bureau.
Unless he had permission, he could not go to the United States.
Yu Fei finally got Guo Shao’s reply: I want to go, but the situation doesn’t allow it.
This is the gravity of reality. Wang Zhizhi had blazed a trail to the NBA for those who came after, but was that path truly open? It opened just a little.
The issue is, that path wasn’t meant for players like Guo Shao with decent talent, but who could not possibly enter the NBA on talent alone.
Those privileged to benefit from the predecessors are the Yi and Zhou kind of once-in-a-generation talents.
But for those who, despite coming from youth training systems, lack the necessary talent, they still face the shackles of their mother teams.
Yu Fei could only reply, “If you ever want to come to the United States for special training, you can contact me.”
“No problem, thanks, bro!”
His reply came as quickly as lightning. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Interestingly, Yu Fei could completely imagine the tone in which Guo Shao would say that.
(1) If Stephen A. Smith is the United States’ enthusiasm personified, then the personified enthusiasm is China’s version of Stephen A. Smith. Though I think these two, in terms of eloquence and professionalism, are not on the same level…
