Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

After returning to Kent from Seattle, Yu Fei's life quietly began to change.

Calls from First Division League colleges started coming to Yu Fei's house.

In most cases, it was Yu Fenglin who answered the phone.

Initially, Yu Fenglin, mistaking the university recruiters' overly ingratiating tone for deceit, presumed them to be con artists.

Then, the phone calls grew more frequent, from all sorts of universities.

One day, Yu Fenglin found an offer from the University of Washington in her mailbox, which greatly surprised her and led her to reassess her son and the incessant calls to their home.

Yu Fenglin never expected her son to amount to much.

It wasn't that she didn't have aspirations for her child; rather, she had sensed early on that he wouldn't achieve greatness and would be grateful if he could simply take over her shop in West City peacefully.

Lately, these recruitment calls, akin to scam calls, kept painting a future for her son as if he were a future superstar.

They said that Yu Fei could play professional basketball.

If he went to their school, he would be better prepared before entering professional basketball.

When Yu Fenglin determined these calls weren't scams, her view of her son did a 180-degree turn.

Yet she still did not interfere with Yu Fei's comings and goings.

Every day when Yu Fei came home, Yu Fenglin would tell him how many colleges had called.

And Yu Fei's response was always, "Mom, just deal with them."

This damn kid, always making things difficult for his mother. If I knew how to handle it, would I still be worried?

Yu Fenglin privately sought advice from many people.

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But the issue was that she knew mostly Asians or fellow Chinese living in the United States; neither the Chinese nor the Asians ever imagined their children playing professional basketball.

They hoped their children would grow up to be lawyers or doctors.

Only Black families would hope for their children to change their destinies through sports.

Yu Fenglin was open-minded enough; she allowed her son to be a wastrel, but to her surprise, in less than six months, the kid seemed to have transformed completely.

As Yu Fei's life changed, Yu Fenglin also had no choice but to change.

She began looking up information online, trying to figure out how to deal with the annoying college recruitment calls.

Ironically, the most reliable advice she found online was to change the phone number...

But she also found some information online—only high school stars with brilliant futures would be pursued by college basketball teams. For such individuals, attending college wasn't the issue; choosing which one was the challenge.

Yu Fenglin, who once thought her son had no brighter future than attending community college and living an insignificant life, experienced the second most profound shock of her life.

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Yu Fei was unaware of the emotional roller coaster his mother had been on during this period.

And it wasn't just his mother who felt life was changing; he himself sensed a profound shift.

He was no longer known as "the tallest guy in school," but rather as "Big Fei, who might play in the NBA in the future," or "K-M's Big Fei."

Anthony Lawson once wanted to make Yu Fei the captain of the next team.

But Yu Fei was well aware of his limitations; he had been on the school team for less than half a year and hadn't played in a single official game for the school. Why would he qualify as captain? So, even though Lawson tried to step down three times, Yu Fei never accepted.

After returning to Kent, Yu Fei found himself a local celebrity.

Sports Illustrated reported on him.

The city newspaper of Kent reported on him too.

A local television station in Seattle wanted to have him on their show.

Suddenly, Yu Fei became a moving symbol of the region.

As long as he was in Kent, wherever he went, he would be recognized.

"You're the basketball legend of Kent Meridian High School, Big Fei?"

When someone said this to Yu Fei, he felt so awkward he wished he could dig a hole and bury himself.

That's the downside of becoming famous.

But there were also plenty of upsides, the most noticeable being that Yu Fei's rate of getting free meals in Kent City shot up dramatically.

Then, his popularity with the school's females also started climbing at an extremely ferocious pace.

Yu Fei wasn't celibate; he just had never seen a woman at school who caught his eye.

This had to do with his taste in aesthetics.

It goes back to his previous life when his classmates in the car club were discussing which of the dark industry teachers from the island nation was the best—some said Mikami, some said Aoi, some said Kizaki, while some went retro talking about Matsushima and Aoi, and Yu Fei quietly commented, "Angela White is the greatest!"

If you understand and agree with this statement, congratulations, your preference is aligned with Yu Fei's. If you don't know these two, or you do but disagree, then congratulations, your taste is relatively normal, and you would never encounter the troubles Yu Fei faces.

If we have to detail these two styles, it's like one could join a dark industry version of "Sister Wave," and the other could compete in a dark industry natural European cup size contest.

And without any scandals, while others could form a group in the dark industry's "Sister Wave," Angela White might barely make it into the top 15 of the dark industry natural European cup competition history.

Neither style is mainstream in the United States at the moment.

"American Pie" debuted two years ago, contributing an epic pop culture term to the general public—MILF. But it would still take some time for MILF to become a trend, while the ladies with large cups still suffered from the influence of Jane Fonda's nationwide fitness craze from the 1980s.

Slim aesthetics are still mainstream.

Therefore, the chances of Yu Fei finding a woman he liked in Kent were almost nonexistent.

Luckily, he wasn't in the mood for that at the moment.

After returning from Seattle, Yu Fei started a new round of intense training.

But Yu Fei had no time to rest; he had to build the stamina to handle most of a full-court game before his senior year.

He needed to continue to consolidate his fundamentals in the paint.

His shooting training, however, hit a standstill.

Neither Yu Fei nor Selvan knew what kind of shooting form was right.

In half a month, Yu Fei tried many shooting forms, but none felt comfortable.

Having no other choice, Selvan had to seek help from former players who had graduated.

Quint DiMio was a legendary figure in the history of Kent Meridian High School.

In the barren basketball history of K-M, there was only one instance of breaking out of Kent and advancing to the 4A Championship elimination games in the State of Washington.

That was back in 1995 when DiMio, a senior, carried the Royal Team to the state championship stage with a versatile core performance averaging 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists per game.

DiMio was a 180cm shooting guard, and with neither his height nor his position having professional prospects, his talent was enough for the high school level.

DiMio was known for his shooting and once hit three ultra-long three-pointers in a row in a game. There was also a campus legend about him receiving an inbounds pass from a teammate and nailing an ultra-long three-pointer at the buzzer to defeat their opponent.

Even such a character could only secure offers from second-division leagues, ending up sitting on the bench for four years and graduating without a sound.

As impressive as his high school career was, his college career was just as unremarkable.

After college, DiMio stayed at the university as an assistant coach, which is the ideal job for most basketball specialists lacking professional prospects.

When DiMio heard from Selvan that K-M had a once-in-fifty-years genius, he thought it was just bragging.

"You don't believe it? Then come and see for yourself. I guarantee that if you play one-on-one with him, you won't score a single point!"

"Alright, alright!" DiMio thus bought a ticket to go home, "I want to see for myself what this once-in-fifty-years high school student is capable of!"

Thanks to Xiangyang Yijiu, Silent Lamb, Wounded Fireworks, Light Blue Love, and Spartacus Bus 2 for their rewards; thank you for the support.

Asking for follow-ups, recommendations, and monthly tickets... As for inflated praise like the starry sky, that, I don't want—NOOOO!!!

PS: Lately, many have been asking me if there's a future for men's basketball.

My answer is: Join me in making a wish for Guo Haowen, Zeng Fanbo, Cui Yongxi, Wang Junjie, and Yang Hanshen to reach their potential, and for Zhao Weilun to grow an additional 5-10 centimeters. What, you're an atheist? Well then, you should wish even more. If atheists start making wishes, then aside from bouncing back from rock bottom, men's basketball can only end up perpetually terrible like the national soccer team, and you wouldn't want that outcome, right? If not, then hurry and join our wishing brigade. Even if it's not effective, life isn't just about basketball. Dreams can be realized in basketball stories, and we all want to be champions in life, to win!