The basketball bounced softly against the floor, its rhythmic thuds echoing.
Inside the empty Madison training facility, the hostility of their tense one-on-one showdown slowly faded.
In its place came a complicated, subtle, yet utterly pure feeling shared by two basketball players.
Jordan bent down to pick up the ball that had rolled to his feet and casually dribbled it with one hand.
He stopped provoking Li Fei and no longer dwelled on who had just won or lost.
After fifteen years of ups and downs in the league, he saw things more clearly than anyone.
This hastily arranged showdown, which had brought him from Chicago to New York overnight, had never been a simple, friendly scrimmage.
Li Fei's deliberate demands, his insistence that Jordan come overnight, and the showdown without any time to rest all carried a deeper purpose.
Jordan had understood it all along. His competitive fire had simply kept him from admitting it earlier.
The first thing Li Fei wanted to do was establish the Knicks' identity.
This team had never been built on gentle acceptance, but on uncompromising toughness.
No privileges, no exceptions, no coasting toward retirement, and no compromises.
Even a legendary player arriving out of nowhere had to obey its ironclad rules.
The second purpose was even more straightforward, without the slightest attempt to conceal it.
Assert his authority publicly and establish who led the team.
Tell everyone in the fairest, most direct way possible, through basketball itself.
The leader of the Knicks would always be Li Fei.
Even if Jordan joined them, he could only support him and stand beside him.
He would never be a new king replacing him, much less a privileged legend standing above the entire team.
At that thought, Jordan's lips curled into a self-mocking smile.
He knew this