Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

The Wizards returned to D.C. from Boston, and after a day of rest, the Golden State Warriors became the first visitors to challenge them.

Ever since the Warriors botched the Chris Webber trade, they had gone seven consecutive seasons without making the playoffs, and this season, in the wild Western Conference, there seemed to be no hope for the playoffs either.

As a team aiming for the playoffs, if the Wizards truly had the ability to make it, they should have been able to win against such non-playoff teams.

The result was laughable. The fans expected to see a big win at home to dispel the gloom from two consecutive losses; however, Jordan and Hamilton turned into the Brick Brothers, combining for 8 out of 23 in the first half.

Hamilton was also harshly embarrassed by the Warriors' 3D player Larry Hughes due to his physique.

A furious Doug Collins once yelled at Hamilton from the sideline, "Rip, you can miss shots, but you can't fail to grab rebounds!"

Hamilton never thought rebounding was his job, so he didn't take Collins' advice to heart.

As a result, Hamilton was mostly benched for the second half.

The person who replaced him was Yu Fei.

Benching Hamilton for the second half and moving Jordan back to the shooting guard position seemed to be the best solution Collins could think of.

The height and athletic ability of the Wizards' wings improved, and the rebounding pressure dropped significantly, yet Jordan still couldn't find his shooting touch. Since Hamilton was out, he felt the need to take on more, so he shot 15 times in the third quarter, making only five and scoring 11 points.

This performance was easily overshadowed by his fellow North Carolina alumnus Antawn Jamison, who outscored Jordan with 7 out of 10 for 16 points in the quarter. Also, Jordan missed so many shots that the Warriors had plenty of opportunities for defensive rebounds and fast breaks.

Yu Fei lived up to Collins' expectations; the team needed rebounds, so he focused mainly on that, leaving the offense to Jordan.

As a result, Yu Fei grabbed five rebounds in the quarter, but with Jordan going 5 for 15, the Warriors led 85 to 70 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Hamilton came back to go 1 for 3 in shooting; he still played no defense, still didn't rebound, and Collins completely gave up on him in this game.

Yu Fei was back on the floor.

It was as if to compensate him; even Collins knew it was ridiculous to let him play only 6 minutes in a game, so he allowed him to play over 20 minutes for the second time in his career.

But Yu Fei wasn't satisfied because Collins asked him to be a blue-collar worker, with the ball mainly in the hands of the point guard and Jordan.

Yu Fei did as Collins asked and got the rebounds, but the trend of the game didn't change at all. Jordan was still off, but Collins would never react to him the way he did to Hamilton. With Hamilton's scoring out and no change in tempo from Yu Fei having the ball, the Wizards' offensive firepower was seriously lacking.

The fourth quarter was effectively garbage time.

At the final buzzer, the score was 114 to 98, with the Wizards suffering a third consecutive loss at home and facing massive boos from the audience.

"Aside from Michael, I didn't see anyone else making an effort to fight for the game," Collins ranted at other players in front of the media. "We can't have performances like this anymore!"

Yu Fei had a different opinion; he fought hard too. Coming off the bench for 22 minutes, he scored 8 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and made 3 assists, leading the team in rebounds, tying for first in assists, and third in scoring. Wasn't that fighting? It might be more pertinent to ask what exactly that person Collins said was fighting really did.

Scoring a game-high 32 points on 13 out of 30 shooting, what was the point of that?

How can you win a game? It's simple, like Antawn Jamison on the other team, who scored 28 points on 10 out of 17 shooting, spreading the remaining 13 shots to other teammates with a hot hand.

Luckily, Collins didn't direct his criticism at Yu Fei; he knew who the soft targets were.

Richard Hamilton was the main target of Collins' outspoken criticism.

Speaking of the loss, Collins began, "There are two ends to a basketball court, and we need to make sure everyone can play on both ends... and I'm not just talking about Rip; we had many people not maintaining their energy on both offense and defense. I won't single out Rip," he said and paused, then suddenly added, "but especially Rip..."

In the NBA, it's rare for a head coach to complain about his own stars to the media.

For Collins, it was just a "relapse."

Back when he was in Detroit, after the Pistons lost a game by a large margin, a reporter asked Collins how they would improve their defense.

Collins retorted, "Improve defense? Including Grant (Hill)?"

Then he went on a rant about how Hill's defense was dragging the team down.

Collins' criticism of Hamilton reflected his disappointment in him.

By the time the next game arrived, Collins made a decisive move.

Richard Hamilton was removed from the starting lineup.

Who replaced Hamilton in the starting lineup? Tyronn Nesby. Nesby would play the small forward position and free up Jordan to move back to shooting guard.

Collins discovered in the last game that at the two-guard position, Jordan was playing with more ease.

But who could make up for Hamilton's output of 20 points per game?

Who could keep Hamilton's mentality from collapsing?

There was no denying that Jordan, taking on the shooting guard role, indeed seemed much more comfortable.

In the three games Hamilton came off the bench, Jordan scored 31, 44, and 33 points with shooting percentages of 50%, 51%, and 55% respectively.

But Hamilton was falling apart. In his three games as a substitute, he shot 4 out of 15, 3 out of 16, and 2 out of 13. Unsurprisingly, the Wizards lost all three games.

The losing streak suddenly reached six games.

From the three-game winning streak at the start of the season to the current six-game losing streak, Jordan's magic had vanished quite abruptly, the weight of reality too heavy.

On November 22, Hamilton returned to the starting lineup, but the Wizards still lost at home to the Charlotte Hornets, swallowing a seventh consecutive defeat.

During this time, Collins changed the starting lineup eight times; apart from Yu Fei, everyone who could start, did start.

That included Kwame Brown.

Yu Fei had been waiting for his day to join the starting lineup, but it never came.

Everyone had started a game. The team's situation hadn't improved; they faced a seven-game losing streak, and still, he wasn't given a chance to start?

Even as permutations went, it should have been his turn by now.

On November 24, the Wizards played at home against the SuperSonics.

The starting lineup was Tyronn Lue, Richard Hamilton, Michael Jordan, Tyrone Nesby, and Christian Laettner.

Yu Fei's patience had worn thin; he felt like a lovestruck fool doggedly pursuing a goddess, to no avail.

Because the answer is you're not even in the queue.

During the game against the SuperSonics, Yu Fei didn't even watch the game. He kept his eyes closed until Collins called his name.

When Collins called him up from the bench, there were 5 minutes left in the first quarter, 19 to 8, the Wizards were already crumbling, and Jordan had scored 0 out of 5 shots. This was the reason Yu Fei was substituted in early.

The more this happened, the angrier Yu Fei got.

What do they take me for? Toilet paper? Or fucking enema syringe?

Am I only needed when the old man can't shit?

"Give me the ball."

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After getting on the court, Yu Fei said just that to Coach Lu.

From the moment Yu Fei entered the game, the ball was in his hands.

He called for an inside screen with a grim expression, then isolated his man, threw in a couple of hard stops, exploited mismatches, speed against slowness... His pent-up rage found an outlet, but it was far from enough, nowhere near enough.

In those 5 minutes, Yu Fei scored 11 points.

Collins let him keep the offense rolling for the first 4 minutes of the second quarter, and in those 4 minutes, Yu Fei scored another 8 points.

In the second half, Yu Fei wasn't called in until the team was down by 18 points and Jordan shot a dreadful 1 out of 8 in the quarter. He didn't look at the scoreboard, he didn't look at his teammates, he just wanted the ball, then attacked.

It was clear to everyone that no one on the SuperSonics could stop Yu Fei.

It seemed no matter who he played against, it was a mismatch.

The NBC commentator said it was because Yu Fei got excited playing against his hometown team, but come on, it would've been the same no matter who came.

Tonight's Yu Fei was unstoppable; the only person who could stop him was Collins.

When Yu Fei scored a team-high 25 points and had to watch Jordan play an ugly 4 out of 10 in the fourth quarter, he left the court two minutes before the game ended.

Back in the locker room, Yu Fei called his agent on his cellphone.

The moment the other side picked up, Yu Fei said, "Whatever you do, get me out of D.C. Anywhere, I've had enough!"