"Teach you? You're thirty-five. You can't learn it anymore."
"Then teach me free throws."
"You shoot eighty percent from the line. What is there for me to teach you?"
"Teach me how not to be distracted by the crowd when I shoot free throws."
Li Fei thought for a moment. "Just close your eyes."
Sabonis looked at him. "Are you serious?"
"Seriously. Close your eyes, and you won't hear the crowd. You'll only hear your own heartbeat. Then shoot. If it goes in, open your eyes. If it doesn't, keep them closed."
Sabonis stared at him for two seconds. "You're messing with me."
Li Fei laughed.
"I'm messing with you."
The two of them laughed for a while longer.
Li Fei's smile faded slightly. He looked at Sabonis with something in his eyes—not seriousness, but the solemnity of someone who had to say something important after making a joke.
"Arvydas, you know I can't sign you."
Sabonis nodded.
"I know. Business is business, friendship is friendship. You're the owner. You have to be responsible for the brand—you can't sign me just because we're close. My commercial value isn't high enough, my style of play isn't popular, I'm too old, and I have too many injuries. Signing me would mean losing money."
Li Fei did not deny it.
He looked at Sabonis with something in his eyes—not guilt, but the complicated feeling of, "You know it, I know it, but it still hurts a little to say it out loud."
"But you're not my employee," Li Fei said. "You're my teammate. You're why I won championships. Without you, I wouldn't have won the first two. Without you, I wouldn't have won this one either."
Sabonis looked at him without speaking.
"So stop thinking about that. Play well in the Finals, win