Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Yu Fei's dominant performance at Kentwood High School swept through Kent City like the wind.

The statistics of 45 points, 20 rebounds, 13 assists, and 9 blocks were absurd, but Yu Fei believed that any top 40 high school player in the United States could achieve such a performance in this kind of game.

Moreover, Kentwood High School was their strongest competitor in the Kent School District.

In the remaining two games, he could easily put up even better numbers if he wanted to.

Yu Fei did not revel in the joy of crushing weak opponents.

After playing against Kentwood High School, he felt he still had plenty of energy left, so he went back to school to train for an additional two hours.

After nearly half a year of training, Yu Fei's physical fitness was no longer an issue.

He could now easily handle a full game.

When he went back to school for extra training, Quentin DiMio mentioned something unusual to Yu Fei, "Fulai, did you notice those people with cameras on the sidelines today?"

While practicing his dribbling and jump shots, Yu Fei asked, "Seem like college scouts, right?"

Attention from college basketball was nothing new.

Although Yu Fei hadn't officially visited any college yet, there were always colleges from the Pu Xin that proactively offered him full scholarships, harboring some fantasies.

"If those college coaches could see your highlight reel from today's game, I believe you'd receive 50 offers tomorrow," DiMio said.

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"Isn't that a bit exaggerated?"

Yu Fei responded nonchalantly.

DiMio was probably the first person to see through Yu Fei's thoughts.

"Right, for a talent like you, going to college would be a waste of time. It's more practical to enter the NBA as soon as possible," DiMio said.

DiMio's words made Yu Fei stop what he was doing.

He looked at DiMio and asked with a smile, "Is that what you think?"

DiMio countered, "Don't you think the same?"

Yu Fei just smiled, without answering.

DiMio felt he had an understanding.

He was sure that Yu Fei shared his thoughts, which excited him.

Although Yu Fei had no intention of building his own team, the few T1-level high schoolers at the top of the pyramid all had a large group of people strategizing for them.

DiMio wanted to be Yu Fei's assistant, but he also knew he had to prove he could be of help to Yu Fei.

Yu Fei didn't have time to guess DiMio's thoughts. After school started, the intensity of his training dropped a little because the team had daily practices and games to play.

In his free time when not playing basketball, Yu Fei would read some books.

Unlike James, who would sometimes color in the books as he read, Yu Fei seriously read several sports biographies.

This helped him understand the era.

The book he was currently reading was titled "Born to Believe," the autobiography of former Raptors coach Butch Carter.

To many fans, Butch Carter was an utterly unknown figure. He had a mediocre career as a player and, as a coach, only led the Raptors for three years before leaving the front line.

History was full of people like him.

However, coincidentally, the time when Carter caused the most trouble was precisely the period when Yu Fei had just arrived through time travel.

He witnessed Carter's last madness in Toronto.

Carter's troublemaking skills, among the coaches Yu Fei had seen in both his past and present lives, were quite explosive. When the team started doing well, he sued Marcus Camby, who had once played for him, for US$5 million for slander. Then, during a losing streak, he criticized the veterans on the team for lacking leadership and cut their playing time. When he realized he was gradually losing control of the team and no one was willing to follow his lead, he wrongly thought his authority was insufficient, so he shamelessly applied to the team owner for higher powers—"Hey, Boss, is the general manager position vacant? How about this, don't assign me a general manager; I'll do both the general manager and coach jobs."

His final move angered the de facto general manager (Vice President and Assistant General Manager) of the Raptors, Glenn Grunwald, led to the team's disintegration, and Carter was swiftly fired after the season ended. Less than half a month later, it was announced that his personal autobiography would be listed on Amazon.

Carter might be an idiot, but that didn't stop Yu Fei from buying his autobiography.

Because Yu Fei felt that he would definitely play in the NBA in the future, and his luck couldn't be so good that he'd only encounter wise coaches and management throughout his entire career.

He needed to see these negative examples of coaches and GMs to understand how their foolishness was triggered through what sort of thought processes.

Unfortunately, it was a boring autobiography. Carter skillfully avoided his real-life mistakes, extensively discussing the hardships and difficulties of black athletes achieving the American dream. He also blatantly betrayed his college coach, Bob Knight, accusing Knight of openly calling Isiah Thomas the N-word during practice.

At that time, Knight was at a historical low point regarding his personal reputation. Last spring, the release of a videotape showing Knight's choking of former player Neil Reed sparked an investigation by the university, after which Indiana University President, Myles Brand, announced that the school would implement a new "zero tolerance policy." If Knight made another mistake, he would be fired immediately.

Yu Fei did not want to link these two events together because it seemed like Carter was kicking Knight when he was down and using the race card to promote his autobiography. But considering Carter's character at the Raptors and the involved party Thomas's categorical denial of Knight calling him the N-word, it only proved that Carter was indeed the asshole Yu Fei thought he was.