Chapter 747: Chapter 500: The Person in the Mirror_3 Chapter 747: Chapter 500: The Person in the Mirror_3 In order to maintain the beauty seen in the mirror, Durant needed to convince himself to believe in some unrealistic things.

Tonight, Yu Fei simply let him know that it’s time to stop dreaming about those groundless ideas and face reality, Mr. Durant.

But Durant couldn’t possibly accept the position he found himself in.

If he didn’t deceive himself, then he would have to follow his heart and continue to challenge others, just as Yu Fei had said.

What would happen then?

As Durant pondered, Yu Fei said, “Change your clothes and join me at the press conference.”

Durant instinctively asked, “For what?”

“Do what you’re best at,” Yu Fei responded, “pretend to be a good person who has lost their sanity because of a strong desire to win. You’ve already apologized to the coaching staff, you have no complaints about being subbed out in the last three minutes. We, the SuperSonics, will still support each other as a team and keep moving forward. That shouldn’t be a problem for you, right? It’s what you’re best at, isn’t it?”

Durant couldn’t even argue with Yu Fei; he just numbly replied, “No problem.”

With that, Durant quickly changed his clothes and went out with Yu Fei.

Within minutes, the locker room was still trying to digest what had just happened.

Durant was humble, but Yu Fei didn’t let him off the hook at all and didn’t even bother to disguise his motives, he wanted Durant to face reality.

“Has this kind of thing happened in the past?”

Chris Bosh asked his teammates.

The past he referred to was before this season.

Everyone shook their heads.

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Some people only recognize their value when they’re gone.

Brandon Roy would have eased the tension, not allowing Yu Fei to relentlessly press Durant, and George Karl would have dealt with the aftermath himself, there would have been no need for Yu Fei and Durant to make things clear.

The locker room showed signs of being out of control, and Tyronn Lue once again felt his powerlessness.

That night, Lue reported the situation of the locker room to Karl.

He felt that not taking control immediately was his biggest mistake.

However, after hearing about the incident, Karl said, “Even if I had been there, the situation wouldn’t have been much better.”

Lue knew that Karl was just trying to comfort him.

Karl continued, “Your coaching style isn’t wrong. Compared to me, you’ve given Frye more control. KD’s ball-handling rights have therefore decreased slightly. But would this slight decrease really set him off? I think that his dissatisfaction had been brewing for a long time, and it just happened to explode that night. Neither you nor I could have stopped it.”

Long before the start of the season, Karl had been troubled by Durant’s need for the ball.

The mine was already laid; it just exploded in Lue’s hands.

“What about Frye?” Lue asked, “Was he too…”

“Harsh?” Karl laughed, “Or too cold-hearted?”

“Both.”

Karl had the same feeling, but the longer he coached Durant, the more he agreed with Yu Fei’s point of view.

The young man wasn’t living truthfully.

He showed the world an image designed by Nike, and then truly believed that was who he was. However, when reality didn’t match his desires, the real Durant would occasionally lash out.

Yu Fei wanted Durant to break out of this false persona and deal honestly, otherwise, in front of a self-proclaimed good person, any tacit agreement would ultimately be torn apart by the inner demons.

“Frye is the only one who knows KD’s true face,” Karl said, “We think KD is a prince from planet Earth, but Frye has known since the day he met him that he’s a snake. And snakes, you need to handle them in a way that a snake can understand.”

Lue was profoundly shaken.

Had it not been for his own ears, he wouldn’t have believed that Karl and Yu Fei viewed Durant this way.

However, as he reflected on the words Durant had spoken to him tonight, his expression at the time, the hatred and unwillingness on his face, it was hard for him to believe that such a person could truly be the unique good guy of the NBA, as rumors had it.

“But what about the locker room?” Tyronn said worriedly, “If this continues, the locker room will be in turmoil.”

George Karl laughed: “That’s your problem, Tyronn. You’re the coach. In-game adjustments, pre-game preparations, stabilizing the locker room–you have to get at least one thing right. Otherwise, it would mean Frye made a mistake in judging people.”

George Karl successfully recharged Tyronn Lue’s batteries.

That night, Tyronn Lue saw the press conference featuring Yu Fei and Durant at home.

In front of the media, the two appeared harmonious and friendly, a far cry from how distant they were in the locker room.

It was a typical show for the public, but it worked wonders.

The next day, someone leaked the words Durant had said to Tyronn Lue during the game and Yu Fei’s rebuttal to the reporters.

The leak was mostly accurate, but because Yu Fei and Durant had put on a show of camaraderie in front of the media the day before, the tabloid-like revelations were ignored.

After that day, Durant fell into a catatonic state.

He seemed to be like Sun Liancheng who had seen through everything, losing interest in struggles for power, content with 17-18 shots every night.

Durant was not tanking on the court; he just no longer actively fought for the ball.

If others passed to him, he would do what he was supposed to, if not, he’d just stand still beyond the three-point line.

In other words, he had transitioned from the Durant 1.0 version to a more consistent Michael Porter Jr.

Tyronn Lue breathed a sigh of relief–for the time being, at least, the team had stabilized.

The SuperSonics marched into April with victories.

In the past March, although Yu Fei dominated the league with averages of 34 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists, the team had an unstable record due to internal changes, and the Western Conference Player of the Month was awarded to the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, who led his team to an undefeated month.

With their reinforcements, the Lakers’ team looked like the ultimate small-ball team, unstoppable and unbeatable.

The SuperSonics once had a chance to compete with them for the league’s first place, but as March ended, there wasn’t much mystery left for who would take it.

Unless the Lakers lost all the remaining regular-season games in April, the SuperSonics no longer had a chance to compete for first place in the league.

But in the current situation, it was difficult for the Lakers to lose even a single game, let alone all of them–it was a sheer fantasy.

It can be said that they had already secured the top spot in the league; the only question was whether they could match the 73-win record set by the SuperSonics last season.

Based on their current record, if the Lakers continued to win until the end of the season, they could tie with the 2009 SuperSonics’ record, sharing the best record in history.

But there are always surprises.

The biggest spoiler in the Eastern Conference, The Celtics, gave the Lakers a long-overdue defeat at their home court.

It was a tight defensive battle, with the Celtics restricting the Lakers, who averaged close to 120 points per game, to just 92 points while scoring 94 themselves. Kobe’s attempt to replicate Yu Fei’s LOGO shot The Shot failed, causing the Lakers to miss the chance to tie the historic best record.

When the Lakers lost, the Seattle area celebrated their defeat as if savoring a victory.

Although 72 wins could tie with the ’96 Bulls, that one more loss than the ’09 SuperSonics might forever remain a regret for the Lakers’ players.

It was destined that the Lakers could not have as perfect a season as the ’09 SuperSonics.

Under the shadow of the Lakers’ dominant late-season performance, the SuperSonics were overlooked.

Apart from the media in the State of Washington, their presence was almost unfelt everywhere else.

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The confrontation between Durant and Lue was their last big news during the regular season.

Then, they achieved a 6-2 record in April, entering the playoffs with a 66-16 record, the second-best in the Western Conference.

The 72-win Lakers towered above everyone; they faced the Denver Nuggets in the first round.

And Yu Fei’s recent words to the Timberwolves unfortunately came true.

Ending as the seventh in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves would face the second-seeded SuperSonics in the first round.