Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Since the Bucks had the third best record in the League before Thanksgiving, owner Herb Kohl was overjoyed and invited the entire team to his estate for a Thanksgiving party.

At the party, Kohl thanked everyone in the Bucks organization from top to bottom.

Yu Fei was especially acknowledged.

This was completely different from last year's New Year's Eve in D.C.

Even though Yu Fei had also been a key figure in the Wizards' push into the top four of the Eastern Conference, the team's peculiar internal atmosphere meant that the owner did not thank him significantly.

Kohl, on the other hand, clearly appreciated Yu Fei as the primary individual on the team.

Even Yu Fei's seating was deliberate.

As a common practice to avoid close association with the owner, most players would sit opposite, while the owner would typically sit next to the head coach and the general manager.

However, Yu Fei replaced general manager Wally Walker and sat next to head coach George Karl by the owner's side.

"Fei, are you getting used to Milwaukee?" asked owner Kohl with concern.

Yu Fei replied with composure, "There's nothing I can't get used to, I feel like I'm already half a Milwaukeean."

"In that case, you must know what locals hate the most?" Kohl seemed eager to hear Yu Fei's answer.

Wisconsin, home to Milwaukee, is a pure football region where everyone is a fan of the Green Bay Packers.

From that perspective, Yu Fei figured the local's worst enemy ought to be the Packers' arch-rival: "Chicago Bears?"

"Haha!" Kohl laughed, "You're half right."

To be correct, it was a half educated guess!

Kohl said, "What locals hate is people from Chicago, or rather, everyone in the Midwest outside of Chicago despises those from Chicago."

Yu Fei had no interest in these regional hostilities, but he had to listen as Kohl continued.

"They despise Chicagoans for being rude, arrogant, conceited, and show-offs. In Milwaukee, we refer to anyone from Chicago and Illinois as FIBs."

Okay, in Yu Fei's understanding, the F in FIB stands for a curse word, I represents Illinois, and B? Hm, being a refined and amicable individual, he guessed the B represented a word with seven letters.

To Yu Fei, Chicago, the city of sin in his eyes, was to the Midwest what New York was to all the major cities in the United States.

Having grown up in Kent, Yu Fei was indifferent to these matters; his job was simply to establish some connection with the owner.

After Thanksgiving, Kohl gave Yu Fei a direct phone number to reach him personally.

"You can come to me with any issues at any time."

This meant that if Yu Fei had any ideas, he could communicate directly with the owner, bypassing the coaching staff and management.

After a year of dysfunction in D.C., Yu Fei finally touched a level of privilege akin to that of Jordan.

And this was just the beginning.

Following Thanksgiving, the Detroit Pistons, arguably the League's top defensive team, powerfully ended the Bucks' winning streak at home.

The Bucks were dragged into a defensive quagmire, no one found their shooting touch, and even the team's highest scorer, Yu Fei, had only 16 points.

The combined score of both teams did not exceed 150 points.

"A flock of soft teams gave us the illusion that we were tough; look at Detroit tonight, now that's a tough game!" George Karl had immense respect for the Pistons' defense.

Then, the Bucks flew to Texas, where they would face a Western three-game road trip, challenging the Rockets, Mavericks, and Spurs, respectively.

The Bucks' game against the Houston Rockets was highly publicized due to the gimmick between Yu Fei and Yao Ming.

Current statistics for Yu Fei on the Bucks showed an impressive average of 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists, leading the team to the top record in the Eastern Conference, effectively securing his spot as the best player of November ahead of time. As the Bucks' influence rose, so did the appeal of Yu Fei's image; as a rare Asian star in the North American League, he carried a strong minority attraction.

Yao Ming, as the most hyped rookie since Shaquille O'Neal, recovered from a scoreless debut slump in just three days, quickly found his groove, and made Barkley's "impossible 19 points" curse go bankrupt, which prompted American sports writers to pull out all the stops in praising this foreign prodigy.

Those who lauded Yao the most came mainly from ESPN's Bill Walton and Ralph Wiley. Walton's fondness for Yao needs no discussion. As a rare African-American sports writer, Wiley's praise for Yao was so intense that even Yao's compatriots might blush when reading his words.

After Yao scored 30 points and 19 rebounds against a Shaquille O'Neal-less Lakers, Wiley boldly praised in his article, "If you haven't heard of him, you're a bit behind the times—Yao is already a world celebrity! He's on a mission, has made his mark, and has redrawn the world map for us, depicting a future where he will reign over the League. The Ming Dynasty will not collapse like the Holy Roman Empire—at the story's end, he'll become the modern Genghis Khan and LeBron James' nightmare."

Watching Yao, Yu Fei could more directly feel the power of the media.

Milwaukee's media couldn't compare with Houston's, and Reebok's marketing machine couldn't match the power of Nike, which Yao currently represented.

One great game could elevate Yao to the shoulders of gods, which wasn't necessarily good for him as a rookie; many would crumble under such pressure.