Chapter 654: Chapter 471 Not a Threepeat, It’s a Fivepeat Chapter 654: Chapter 471 Not a Threepeat, It’s a Fivepeat “Before you arrived, Kevin kicked all of our asses,” Brandon Roy broke the silence at the Furtado Center. “From that perspective, I think he’s improved a lot.”

That had been one of Roy’s main jobs over the past two years.

Fei was responsible for heating Durant up while Roy’s job was to cool him down.

They skillfully controlled Durant’s temperature, making him feel uncomfortable without breaking his defenses.

“When were you nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?” Fei asked blandly.

Roy joked self-deprecatingly, “Since I don’t have the power to mobilize an army and start a war for peace and justice, I’m fated to have nothing to do with it.”

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the training camp returned to normal.

Fei walked over to the sidelines and greeted Chris Bosh, who had watched the whole practice: “Getting used to Seattle yet?”

“Aside from the rainy weather, I like everything here,” Bosh said.

Fei laughed, “Then you’d better change that view quickly. It’s like Kevin Feige chose Scarlett as Black Widow not for her curves, but because of her acting skills.”

Fei’s words had everyone feeling on edge just moments earlier.

Although most of them had spent time with Fei, no one knew if he had changed since returning this time.

Now, he had kicked Durant’s ass, reasserted his position, and then brought up Scarlett voluntarily.

Durant’s gaze flickered.

To him, Scarlett was like his muse goddess, yet over the past summer, the gossip about her and Fei was endless.

Fei suddenly brought up Scarlett, prompting others to ask, “Frye, is the rumor true? Are you and Scarlett…”

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Fei shook his head with a smile, “Remember, I’d never touch a married woman.”

“Sorry, I was just curious…” DeAndre Jordan immediately realized he had misspoken.

The mood at the scene lightened considerably as Fei casually chatted about his summer adventures and his experiences in Hollywood.

What his teammates found peculiar was that, while listening to Fei talk about those stories, it was easy for them to recall the gossip about Frye, but the real-life Frye in front of them was a completely different person from the one in the rumors.

As Fei was enjoying the conversation with his teammates, Tyronn Lue, the newest assistant coach of the Supersonics, walked over, “Frye, George wants to see you.”

Seeing Coach Lu dressed in the standard assistant coach attire, Fei easily remembered his coaching style from a previous life.

“Is there a problem?” Fei inquired.

Coach Lu said, “It’s probably just to have a chat.”

So, Fei stood up and headed for the coach’s office.

After Fei left, Kwame Brown raised an eyebrow, “Who believes there’s nothing going on between Big Fei and Scarlett?”

“Guys, you all know me, I don’t doubt Big Fei, I doubt Scarlett,” DeAndre Jordan said. “Big Fei is a man among men!”

Brown smiled teasingly at Durant, “Which means, Kevin, your goddess might…”

Only a few people knew that Scarlett was Durant’s goddess.

That summer, Durant had tweeted a lot, and the actress he retweeted the most was Scarlett, which had not gone unnoticed by Twitter king Brown.

Facing Brown’s jest, Durant stated with innocent earnestness, “I believe Frye.”

“Sure, I believe him too. But do you believe Scarlett?”

Seeing the conversation getting less and less serious, Coach Lu immediately interjected, “Frye has already denied it, let’s not talk about this anymore.”

“Tyronn, we were just chatting…”

Coach Lu emphasized, “Kwame, you should have heard Frye deny it.”

“Damn, you’re right,” Brown’s reaction drew laughter from everyone. “I can’t believe I doubted Big Fei on this. There’s no way he’d fall for Scarlett’s temptation. After all, he’s a man among men!”

Durant remained silent.

He was burning inside but controlled the urge to erupt because he knew it wasn’t the time.

When he felt like cursing Brown for being an egomaniac, a voice in his head reminded him not to be impulsive. This wasn’t something Kevin Durant would do.

Fei arrived at the coach’s office.

Karl’s office was sparse, almost devoid of decorations. Aside from office supplies, the only thing on the desk was the Supersonics’ schedule for the new season.

“Let me guess,” Fei said. “Is our first game against the Lakers scheduled for Christmas Day?”

Karl replied irritably, “You could guess something a bit more challenging.”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What kind of question would be enough?”

Karl got straight to the point, “You could guess whether or not we can complete a three-peat this year.”

Fei hadn’t expected Karl to ask that.

With the new season about to start and the offseason moves for each team wrapped up, the Supersonics had lost Marion, Barnes, and Channing Frye but acquired Bosh and Little O.

With that, the originally weaker inside line had become strong.

On the other hand, while the Lakers’ partnership between Zhan Ke was intimidating, their roster didn’t match up as logically as the Supersonics’.

“George, do you have any doubts?”

It was then Yu Fei realized that Karl’s invitation for a chat wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed on the surface.

“We have at least three issues to resolve,” Karl said, “The first is preventing Chris Bosh from feeling too much of a drop-off. Before joining us, he was the top power forward in the Eastern Conference, easily scoring 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. But on our team, the sacrifices he’ll need to make are much more than he imagines. Whether he’s ready for that, I don’t know.”

“The second issue is KD’s ball rights,” Karl saw through Yu Fei’s psychological tactics at a glance, “Even though you publicly defeated his aggression, Brandon is right. He is already our team’s second-best player. He just turned 21 and is in a phase of rapid improvement; he needs ball rights. It’s no longer workable to place him on the outside to catch balls, as was done in the past. For the team’s long-term needs, as well as for his personal development, we have to give him ball rights.”

In Karl’s view, this issue was extremely thorny.

Last season, Durant averaged 20 points per game.

Now, with the arrival of Bosh to the Supersonics, where would the extra ball rights to aid Durant’s evolution come from?

It can be said that a significant reason Durant could average 20 points in his sophomore season was that Yu Fei had the most efficient season performance in history.

Yu Fei scored an average of 28 points per game with fewer shots than the MVP average. If he wanted, he could have taken more shots to win a scoring title.

If he had done so, his stats would have been more impressive, but Durant’s progress wouldn’t have been reflected in the numbers.

Yu Fei was thankful he wasn’t the coach.

He jokingly asked, “And this is only the second issue?”

“Correct,” Karl looked straight into Yu Fei’s eyes, “The third and biggest issue for me is–how do we build team honor under the ‘one-man empire’ public opinion? How do we convince others to fight for the glory of the championship?”

The master of the ‘one-man empire’ was standing right in front of Karl.

So, the direction of the question was unmistakable.

“Will that become a problem?” Yu Fei asked.

Karl countered, “Won’t it?”

“It shouldn’t, we’re a generation that grew up watching Hollywood heroes save the world.”

“Exactly, absolutely right,” Karl said, “You can be the hero who saves the world, and others won’t take that honor from you. Everyone knows who Seattle’s Bruce Wayne is, but the ‘one-man empire’ deprives others of the chance to become Alfred Pennyworth, James Gordon, or Lucius Fox.”

Karl had made his point clear.

He spoke to Yu Fei with a serious demeanor, on behalf of the entire coaching staff.

This moment, Yu Fei couldn’t regard him as the butler-like coach who had helped him win six championships.

They had differences.

Some interests can be separated, some grievances can be put aside; in history, for the greatest cause in the world, some people can even betray their own class. But these aren’t the rules of the sports world, much less those of the adult world.

Professional sports, like movies, must provide the best stories to achieve the highest level of commercialization.

Yu Fei himself was the incarnation of the story.

His legend earned him the empire, and as its owner, he could not betray his empire.

“George, you should have used Marvel superheroes in your analogy,” Yu Fei continued.

“What we need to figure out is who in the team would be unhappy about this,” Yu Fei recited the names definitively, “Brandon, Kwame, DJ, Chris, Nick (Collison), Anthony (Moro), Jermaine, Michael (Finley)… or KD?”

Karl thought he understood Yu Fei.

But his knowledge of Yu Fei was stuck in 2007.

That was before Yu Fei came to Seattle.

A small place like Milwaukee could never elevate someone to a pedestal; no matter what Yu Fei achieved there, he was hardly influenced by the outside world.

But Seattle was different.

After Yu Fei led the Supersonics to the championship in 2008, everything changed.

“Brandon and Kwame both have ’empire’ branded products under their names– they recognize the ’empire.’ DJ and Anthony are rookies; they don’t have the right to say no. Chris and Jermaine are here chasing a chance for the championship, they were there when Marc Stein went on and on about the ’empire.’ They listened, and then they joined us.”

“I guess the only uncertain one is KD,” Yu Fei said, as if talking about a homeless man on the street, “For the past two years, Nike has been working hard to shape him into a good guy. If he is as good as they believe, I think he won’t be upset about this during the season.”

Karl asked, “And if he isn’t?”

“I can reduce my shooting to expose his progress to the world, and he can continue to live in the fairy tale,” said Yu Fei in a calm voice that sent shivers down the spine, “In other words, as long as I’m willing, he can be brought back to reality at any time.”

Karl was silent.

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“Is the problem resolved?” Yu Fei asked.

Karl replied, “I don’t know.”

“You can think about it slowly, I’m going to leave,” Yu Fei was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something and turned back to say, “Hey, George.”

Karl looked at Yu Fei.

“It’s not a three-peat,” Yu Fei corrected, “It’s a five-peat.”