Chapter 76: My Happiest Day In Memphis
Many things will happen, many prices will have to be paid, and many people will die. There is little bloodshed on the basketball court, but it is more cruel than war: it nails a person’s failure forever in memory.
Rudy Gay did not join any celebration; he didn’t even go to shower. He just sat stiffly in front of his locker, towel draped over his neck, head bowed, like a statue of defeat.
In his ears were the teammates’ suppressed excited low conversations and the sounds of packing up; every laugh stabbed his back like a needle. Xu Ling’s stats of 44 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists rolled like a red-hot iron, repeatedly crushing in his mind.
“Without you, everything is better.”
That sentence rang out again, vicious and clear.
Impossible! he roared in his heart. It was just that the Nets were too bad! Just that they were hot tonight! Those frequent three-pointers—if they kept going in, that would be the devil!
He jerked his head up, his gaze ferociously scanning the statistics sheet, trying to find flaws in Xu Ling’s flashy stats—26 shots, over 50% shooting. Facing this superb efficiency and all-around triple-double, even the devil couldn’t pick faults.
Gay’s gaze finally fell on his own pathetic stats: 12 points, 4 rebounds, -11 plus-minus. Like a cold slap, it left him speechless.
“Rudy?” Assistant coach Andy Grice approached cautiously. “The reporters are all waiting.”
Gay shot to his feet, the motion so forceful that the nearby chair scraped with a piercing sound. The locker room instantly fell silent, all eyes focused on him.
He ignored those gazes—some sympathetic, some awkward, and more with an unbearable knowing—see, he was the problem.
He grabbed his bag, roughly pushed open the locker room door, head down, like a wounded beast, striding quickly down the tunnel.
Afterward, someone noticed Darko Milicic praying.
“Darko, what are you doing?” Hakim Warrick asked with a laugh. “Praying for the Lord to grant you a good girl tonight?”
Milicic’s prayer ended quickly, and he rolled his eyes at Warrick: “Vulgar!”
“I was just praying for the Lord to arrange a good landing spot for Rudy.” As he spoke, Milicic glanced intentionally or not at Xu Ling. “He’s definitely leaving, right?”
Xu Ling didn’t answer, as if equipped with a shield blocking all topics related to “Rudy”; he’d heard enough from the media.
Instead, Pau Gasol made a cold joke: “Maybe he’ll leave before me.”
Then laughter filled the locker room.
Happiness was theirs; that feeling didn’t belong to Gay.
Gay was like a wounded beast, refusing to go to the media interview room to face the media’s questions, but that couldn’t shake off the omnipotent reporters.
When he reached the outskirts of Continental Airlines Arena, reporters were already waiting there; as soon as they saw Gay appear, they all swarmed him, microphones nearly poking his face.
“Rudy, do you have anything to say about Eli’s statement?”
“Has your relationship completely broken down? What happened in the locker room?”
“Do you think the team’s second-half lineup change was correct?”
“Is it true that you and Eli really can’t coexist?”
“Eli publicly thanked you for not playing in the second half; what do you think?”
Gay swung his arm fiercely, nearly knocking away a microphone.
“Get the fuck away from me!!!”
Gay roared this, face ashen, and under security escort, he dove straight into the team bus.
Seeing his reaction, those reporters looking to stir trouble smiled knowingly.
Sometimes, the involved party not facing the issue directly can cause even graver consequences.
Gay’s anger spoke louder than a thousand words.
An hour later, the Grizzlies, having handled post-game affairs, boarded the bus back to the hotel.
In his hotel room, Gay paced like a trapped beast; the TV was playing sports news. On the screen, Xu Ling’s calm, even slightly mocking face was in close-up, that sentence “I thank all the teammates who contributed to the victory.” exploding like a missile at a weak spot, precisely piercing Gay’s defenses.
“Aaaah!!!”
In rage, Gay grabbed the remote control and smashed it hard at the TV screen, emitting a loud crash.
This was of course humiliation, a complete showdown; Xu Ling wouldn’t let him have any foothold in Memphis.
Gay picked up his mobile phone and angrily dialed his agent Arn Tellem.
“They can’t do this to me!!” As soon as the call connected, Gay roared. “That self-righteous bastard! He and that stupid coach are ganging up on me! That coach is his puppet! No, that damn son-of-a-bitch coach is his dog! Hear me? I want to leave this goddamn place! Now! Immediately! Call Jerry West, tell that old guy to trade me! Now! I don’t want to stay here one more minute! If tomorrow I still have to be in the same locker room with that Chinese guy, I’ll”
At this point, November was not yet half over.
“Then just cut me now! Buyout! I don’t care! I don’t want to step foot in FedEx Forum for one more fucking second! I don’t want to see those traitors’ faces!” Gay’s roar nearly shattered the microphone, his voice filled with hysterical despair, like a giant infant deprived of his favorite toy, unable to think of any solution but destruction. “They can’t do this to me! I’m Rudy Gay! They begged me to be the core before! Now because of that damn… they just… they just.”
Gay grew more incoherent, left only with raw anger and humiliation.
Tellem sighed silently on the other end of the line. He knew this type of gifted but immature young player too well: arrogant in good times, seeing the whole world as enemy in adversity.
Now rationality was needed, faith was needed.
So Tellem continued to soothe: “Rudy, listen, precisely because they’re doing this to you, you can’t let them have their way. The more you rage now, the lower your trade value; you’ll be the one losing out in the end.”
“Value? What value do I have left?!” Gay recalled Xu Ling’s press conference statement. “That damn Chinese guy made the whole world believe I’m a cancer!”
“Your value lies in you still being one of the most talented forwards in this league.” Tellem said firmly. “But now, you need to endure. Go to training on time, sit on the bench, stay quiet. Trust me, anger solves nothing, but silence builds strength.”
On the other end, only Gay’s heavy, unwilling gasps remained. He knew his agent was right, but the fury in his chest nearly incinerated him.
Finally, he stopped speaking, viciously hung up, and hurled the mobile phone onto the hotel’s soft carpet.
The next day, ESPN’s morning sports news didn’t focus on Rudy Gay, but turned to the victor.
“Eli Xu ended the losing streak with a legendary 44-point performance, and thoroughly ended Rudy Gay’s era in Memphis.” Host Stuart Scott’s tone was calm and sharp. “The intense confrontation in the game, that icy ‘thanks’ after, all prove the locker room rift is no rumor.”
“Xu Ling won the victory, but what he showed wasn’t Yao Ming-style warmth and humility, but a cold ruthlessness willing to do anything for victory. He is a sharp sword, clearing obstacles, revealing his true face: a powerful, proud superstar who also chills the heart.”
“Memphis got the leader they desired, but this leader’s rule will begin with a ruthless purge.”
FedEx Forum
The air in the president’s office seemed frozen; Jerry West wasn’t sitting at his desk but standing before the huge floor-to-ceiling window, back to the door, overlooking Memphis’s gradually lighting lamps.
On the TV screen, sports news looped Xu Ling’s “thanks for his absence.”
Xu Ling pushed the door in and stood quietly in the room’s center. He didn’t speak first.
After a long time, West turned around; his face lacked the fierce anger from media day scolding Xu Ling, replaced by a deep, almost embarrassing disappointment. He held a freshly printed statistics sheet, the paper trembling slightly in his hand.
“44 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists.” West’s voice was low and cold. “A fucking legendary performance, Eli. A fucking game worthy of the history books!”
The Logo Man stepped forward two paces, gently placed the statistics sheet on the desk, then raised his eyes. “Now, tell me. Behind this flashy data, what have you truly won for our team’s future?”
Xu Ling stayed silent, awaiting the accusation.
“You won a regular season game! You fulfilled your no-losing-streak promise! Great!” West’s voice suddenly rose, suppressed fury finally erupting. “But you also won a mortal enemy! A negative asset whose value is zeroed out, nearly untradable! You won the whole league laughing at us! You won the media circling like vultures for months, staring at every crack in our locker room!”
West’s roar echoed in the office.
“Is this what you wanted? Gambling the entire locker room’s stability for one game’s victory?! Is this how you lead the team?! Solving a problem that could have been handled smarter, more professionally, with the most brutal, no-room-for-maneuver method?”
“I remember our preseason talk, Eli. I told you, you need to learn to lead, not just dominate. I told you, true leaders make those around them better! Look what you’ve done! You crushed a man completely, then told the world ‘see, we’re better without him’! That’s the cruelest victory, the stupidest declaration!”
“You’ve left me no choice, Eli.” West’s voice trembled slightly with anger. “You’re forcing me to dump our second-most talented player less than ten games into the season! Because you burned all the exits! Because you left him, and the team, with no room to maneuver!”
“Tell me,” the Logo Man took a deep breath, trying to calm his emotions, “when you did all this, when you said that into the microphone, did you for even one second think of this team’s overall interests? Think of the massive trouble this brings me, management, everyone trying to make this team better?”
“Or,” West stared into Xu Ling’s eyes, asking word by word, “for you, proving you’re right matters more than the team’s interests?”
Xu Ling didn’t answer immediately. Meeting West’s almost fiery gaze, he was silent for seconds, that silence like a volcano gathering strength.
Suddenly, Xu Ling laughed—a mocking, warmthless smile.
“I did think, Jerry.” Xu Ling’s voice suddenly rose, no longer calm but filled with flames erupting after weeks of suppression. “I think about it every day, every second! I think about how I went from NCAA Final Four MOP to media’s ‘locker room cancer’ and ‘system destroyer’! I think about why I train extra every day till last to leave, yet endure a guy who only pads stats, leaks on defense, and is self-righteous dragging the whole team! I think about why I must keep enduring, pretending all is normal, just to maintain your locker room harmony facade!”
At this point, Xu Ling stared unyieldingly at this most influential NBA behind-the-scenes figure of the past decades.
“You ask what I won? I won the truth! I shredded that damn, hypocritical peace! I made everyone see clearly who the real problem is! Yes! Rudy Gay is now worthless! But not because of me! Because he was always fucking worthless! It was me and this team carrying his tab!”
“You say I used the stupidest way? Then tell me, what’s the smart way? Keep watching him ruin every offensive possession? Keep watching him stand like a Buddha in the corner, then post-game Nike media hyping his potential while pinning losses on me and Pau? Or wait for him to be in a good mood one day and bestow some of his talent?”
“I’m fed up! Fed up taking the blame for a bum! Fed up struggling in a system that doesn’t work! And most fed up with you—Jerry West—sitting in this fancy office, blind to the real issues, only caring about surface peace! You don’t care about victory; you care about fucking stability!”
Xu Ling’s face flushed red with fury made him look like a red demon from horror stories, but his outburst wasn’t over.
“You say leaders make those around them better? Right! So I fucking cut out the cancer cell making everyone worse! That’s my responsibility as leader! As for trouble?” Xu Ling said loudly. “That’s your job as general manager! If your job is just managing obedient good boys, your salary is too easy!”
“That’s my answer. I poked the mess; how to clean it is your business. But if you want me back acting that disgusting play? No way.” Xu Ling left West no room to soften. “Either rebuild my way. Or trade me too!”
Not just Laura Genco outside the office; Xu Ling’s undisguised fury spread—even teammates downstairs could hear clearly; one more snitch, and the Grizzlies would be the league’s most watched team for the next half month.
The president’s office was deathly silent.
Jerry West stood there, chest heaving violently. Xu Ling’s roar, especially the last “your job,” “good boys,” whipped his most sensitive nerves. An extremely complex fury churned in him.
There was offended rage, elder humiliated by junior’s defiance, frustration at losing control, but deeper, an embarrassment at truth exposed—Xu Ling’s words were harsh, but not entirely without reason.
And at the bottom of that chaotic emotional swamp, a darker ripple stirred. This young man’s undisguised, almost barbaric aggression clashed with his subconscious stereotype of Eastern humility and endurance. That familiar tough stance from the distant East was like a rusty key, unwittingly touching a box he’d rationally locked for years—holding the winter his brother David never returned, his entire gray childhood.
No, he immediately reined himself in. The matter at hand had nothing to do with those; this was just basketball.
But this exhaustive self-restraint made that beyond-basketball offense, extremely discomforting, feel even more real and sharp.
West’s face turned from green to white, lips a bloodless thin line. He found himself unable to muster a forceful retort immediately. All logic, all weighing, seemed powerless before the other’s “it’s me or him” mad declaration. This gave him unprecedented powerlessness.
This powerlessness finally turned into primal expulsion impulse.
West raised his hand, finger trembling slightly from extreme anger restraint, pointing to the door.
His voice no longer high, as if using all strength to say these words.
“Get out!” West paused, as if gathering last strength to spit the final words. “Now! Get the fuck out immediately!”
Xu Ling turned and walked straight out without hesitation.
Outside, assistant Genco was pale from the office’s final low roar; seeing expressionless Xu Ling emerge, she couldn’t help asking timidly: “Eli… everything… everything okay?”
“Couldn’t be better.” Xu Ling said. “This is the happiest day I’ve spent in Memphis.”
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《Memphis Commercial Appeal》
Publication Date: November 15, 2007
Tear and Rebirth: Blues City’s Crossroads
Author: Frank Merto
Memphis—If this city’s sports soul has a voice, last night’s echoes in FedEx Forum were no blues, but a thunderclap tearing everything.
Eli Xu, this controversial third overall pick, with a 44-point triple-double and an icy “thanks,” not only crushed the Nets but thoroughly demolished the Grizzlies’ crumbling old era.
Rudy Gay, our once-hoped tomorrow’s star, now sits out today’s activities “due to physical discomfort,” an embarrassing towel-covered presence on the bench. His talent is undeniable, but his indifference to victory and post-game evasion force us to face cruel reality: we may have loved the wrong person.
Yes, Eli’s way is ruthless and cold, far from traditional leadership. It has management in a frenzy, global media swarming.
But ask yourself, Memphis, do we need another era of “seeming harmony, actual mediocrity”?
Xu Ling brought the most precious thing: clarity.
No more ambiguous roles in the locker room, no more two coexisting cores on the court. The road ahead may be thorny, but the signs are clear.
Change always brings pain. In this “city of bluff,” we’re tired of endless failure. We crave victory, a leader daring to flip the table.
Is Xu Ling the answer? Time will tell.
But with one shocking performance, he pushed us to the crossroads of choice: whitewash mediocrity’s past, or embrace uncertain future?
Blues City, the answer is in your heart.
PS: Starting tomorrow, normal two updates, time changed to 10am and 12pm; 8am is a bit early, sometimes rushed revisions are very hasty. A few more alliance leaders yesterday, meaning extra chapters owed; I think… I can still pay them back, but everyone stay rational following, follow to read and subscribe satisfies me.
Final prime subscription report: When I woke, it was 7600. Bizarrely, highest subs aren’t the first post-pay chapter, but later ones. Anyway, this prime sub surpassed 《Pride》, thanks everyone for support.
