Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters Chapter 678 678 480 Damn Good Person (Combined)2

Chapter 678: Chapter 480 Damn Good Person (Combined)_2 Chapter 678: Chapter 480 Damn Good Person (Combined)_2 And Jas took pleasure in the malice from the crowd.

Far from having weak knees from dread as the outside world had anticipated, he even smiled at the cara.

This was an atypical ga.

Like in a sports movie, the Lakers were the villains, the Cavaliers the wounded side of justice, who should prevail despite being the underdogs.

TNT’s Kenny Smith said he had never felt so much hatred in an NBA ga before.

Kobe wanted to tell him, that ant you haven’t really been watching my gas.

And as the country singer invited to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” took the stage, Yu Fei felt displeased that they hadn’t invited Jay Chou to sing “What Kind of Man Are You.” Okay, that song wasn’t out yet, so lowering the bar to “You Oughta Know” would’ve been acceptable.

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Then the ga began, each side scoring alternately, with the fans incessantly booing and shouting barely intelligible slogans.

It wasn’t until Jas stepped onto the free-throw line with four minutes left in the first quarter, with the Cavaliers leading by 2 points, that piercing jeers of “Akron hates you!!!!!” filled the air.

At that mont, the comntators couldn’t help discussing.

“You just can’t be prepared for sothing like this, ever since you made ‘the decision,’ all eyes have been on you… Standing there, as ti keeps ticking, standing at the free-throw line, everyone watching you. You can’t know what’s going through the mind of that 25-year-old young man.”

Those were Mark Jackson’s words.

Even LeBron critic Jeff Van Gundy felt that the malice toward Jas was too much.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

That’s how Van Gundy assessed the mont.

If Cavaliers fans heard him say that, Van Gundy might have a hard ti leaving the arena intact tonight.

Because they would grab him by the throat and ask, “So, are we supposed to go through all this?”

This was Jas’ first ti at the free-throw line tonight, and it was Yu Fei’s first ti watching his ga this season, and for a long ti, his first chance to get a close look at his expression. Jas had finally realized the extent of the fans’ hatred for him, but was he supposed to shrink away as Kwa Brown would have hoped, displaying self-reproach like a wimp?

The noise in the arena began to swell. TNT cut to the spectator seats, where everyone was booing Jas.

A bearded man angrily shouted, “Coward!”

The wide-angle shot showed fans waving banners labeled “Traitor” and “Choker.”

Then Jas made the first free throw, and high-fived Kobe with a smile as if to say, “Wow, this is crazy!”

Next, Jas hit the second free throw, and from there, the Lakers launched a 20-0 run, fully demonstrating the disparity in strength between the two teams. The storyline of a hero overcoming the dragon didn’t unfold; Jas’ confidence soared, and he began to dominate the ga.

The intensity of the fans’ voices lessened, and they fell into the self-pitying dilemma of “God hates Cleveland.” So hoped for a Cavalier player to step up and punch Jas, but that wasn’t going to happen. Jas wasn’t a disliked teammate, and no one within the Cavaliers would stand up to do this.

Still, the Lakers’ lead continued to grow.

They encountered no resistance, and the fans’ pride was shattered there, no mont sadder than this.

The Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, who once firmly believed “LeBron’s ergence was heaven-sent for Cleveland,” sat courtside with an ashen face, watching his team being slaughtered. The team this season, missing only Jas and Big Z from last, had beco the worst in the Eastern Conference. Wasn’t this indirect evidence that Jas’ decision was the right one?

It was disrespectful to the fans, but it was right. It insulted Cleveland, but it was right. It hurt all the locals who loved Jas, but as long as he could secure the championship, these factors would be defined as trivialities by soone destined for greater things. It was right.

The Lakers showed a Jas tonight who had been missing for a long ti.

It was Jas with his offensive desire maxed out, Jas who was a giant presence, Jas who always had the ball in his hands, Jas the unstoppable, who on this night controlled the ga, devastatingly scoring 40 points in 28 minutes, then sat out the entire fourth quarter.

Dressed in his warm-up clothes, he chewed gum boredly, and by the ti the cara focused on him again, he was nearly asleep.

The Cavaliers didn’t earn any respect tonight; they rely proved that Jas’ departure was justified.

Yu Fei only managed a few bites of his pork cutlet rice because Jas’ performance tonight was a little nauseating, too stellar.

The highest praise on so forums was: Nothing to criticize.

“He can only bully teams this bad,” Brown stubbornly said.

And Yu Fei didn’t make any comnt, just subconsciously glanced at the date. There was more than half a month to go until the Christmas showdown. How he wished ti would move faster.

That night, Jas’ performance won back so appreciation.

Bill Simmons, who had harshly criticized “the decision,” wrote in his column, “To be frank: I no longer care about ‘the decision.’ He handled it wrong. He got bad advice. He can’t take it back. Anyway, anyone who claims they could handle everything flawlessly in their twenties is lying. As a basketball fan, I am glad to see LeBron not continuing to waste his talent in Cleveland. He will never be like Frye. Frye can make everyone around him better, but it cos at the cost of stealing the lilight that should belong to them. LeBron’s willingness to co under Kobe’s command and be his Scottie Pippen is sothing I always believed. The KJ dynasty of 24 and 23 will eventually bury the empire of 44.”