basketball never sleeps

Chapter 1 What Happened?

Nov. 2003, 6

Madison Square Garden is now filled with lights and hustle and bustle. As the names of one lucky winner after another are read out, this year's draft is drawing to a close.

The bustling reporters are quite satisfied with what they have gained. After all, this kind of opportunity to get news while lying down is rare throughout the year.

The camera returns to the stage, and after getting the Mavericks draft envelope, Russ Granik, the executive vice president of the NBA at the time, slowly opened it, looked at the names on the envelope and smiled.

"The 2003th overall pick in the second round of the 28 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks chose Xue Yuyang, from the China CBA Xiangjiang Flying Dragons."

Mo Wen in front of the screen shook his head and said it's a pity. It seems that this little butterfly didn't change much history. This draft that made a lot of feathers happened.

In the second round of the draft, there is still the last Pistons who has not made a choice, but Mo Wen is no longer in the mood to continue watching. The Pistons have no shortage of small forwards. Forward, the team also has "Little Prince" Prince who played well in the playoffs last year.

His defeat was almost certain.

Turning off the TV, Mo Wen let out a long breath. If there is no accident, he will most likely follow the legendary "bad firewood counterattack trend" and "prove against the sky" as an inferior horse who was not selected.

Don't ask him why he is so confident, just ask.

In the scout report, Mo Wen averaged 9.3 points, 4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in college.

The advantage is that the static talent is good, the height is 198, the wingspan is 210, the defense is active, the free throw is relatively accurate, and there is a certain ability to catch and shoot.

The disadvantages are poor athletic talent, lack of independent offensive ability, and average confrontation ability.

Generally speaking, the evaluation is not too bad, but compared with the "NCAA Garnett" Bosh who averaged 18 points and 9.7 rebounds per game on the same team, Mo Wen's starlight is more than 01:30 points behind.

Coupled with the fact that the team stopped at the top 32 in March Madness, Mo Wen's performance in a few games did not have any commendable highlights.

His position on the draft prediction list is outside the 70th place, and the opinions of scouts are mostly at the end of the second round or lost.The unselected buffs have already been stacked.

At the beginning, when he awakened Goldfinger, he thought he could eat a big fat man in one go, so he hired an agent to participate in the draft excitedly, but it was too late when he found out that he couldn't do whatever he wanted even if he had a cheat. (NCAA players are barred from returning to the league after hiring an agent, though that rule has been lifted in previous years.)
Mo Wen picked up the basketball on the shelf, shook it and put it down again.

In the dungeon last night, he was tortured ruthlessly by the young "Second Jazz" with big moves mixed with small moves. After coming out of the dungeon, he can still feel the pain. He will not practice today and go to the gym to practice his elbows.

Playing under the "old version" of the rules of the last century, let alone the skills, it's really not good if you don't have a little kung fu.

Why was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar able to play well in that era, and he played until he was in his 40s, because this old man studied under Bruce Lee!

Before going out, he took his Nokia N-gage, which looked like a Kamen Rider transforming device, but he didn't notice that there was still 5% of the battery left.

In this era, there is no problem of looking at mobile phones when there is nothing to do. Expensive 3G network fees and ancient LCD screens make it difficult for people to rely on current mobile phones.

Mo Wen walked out the door casually, and a middle-aged black man in New York's Madison Gardens also made up his mind.

"Are you sure you want to choose him, Joe, we have no shortage of people in the third position?" The assistant next to him was a little puzzled.

"The Argentinian guy we picked in the first round just called and said he might not come this year, the old Mike was thrown to the Raptors, Collis couldn't defend, Prince played well in the playoffs before, but we can't count on a second-year player Didn't the kids cover the defense all season long?"

Joe Dumars, the general manager of the Pistons at the time, pointed to the table with a somewhat helpless expression.

The original Pistons starter at No. 3, Michael Curry, was an old teammate of Dumars when he was a player. Although the data is not obvious, he is "5+1+1" all the year round, but his defense is definitely an expert level.

After Dumars retired and transformed into the Pistons manager, Michael Curry took over the captain position of the Pistons and has always been the team's reliable striker gate.

It's a pity that in the playoffs last season, the 35-year-old Michael showed his old age and stretched his hips.

Although the first-year teenager Prince was forced to take over, although he didn't hold back much, he performed significantly better. The most important thing is that Prince is still on a rookie contract, which is cheap!So the stingy boss gave instructions, and Michael Curry, who had an annual salary of 300 million, was sent away by him.

As for the previous No. 3 substitute, the team's sixth man Collis Williams, this brother is the exact opposite of Michael Curry. He has good offensive efficiency, but insufficient defensive efficiency.The statistics alone are wonderful, but the defense is completely unqualified.

Of course, the problem with the Pistons is not just small forwards, the Pistons are also short of insiders, so even if Milicic Dumas is selected, he is still hesitating whether to choose the fat Greek big man for a gamble, or choose the An Asian small forward with solid free throws and good defense.

"Forget it, it's just a last pick. Larry will probably go crazy if he chooses too many players to train." Joe Dumars frowned and made a decision.

After receiving the draft envelope from the Pistons, Granik returned to the stage again. Before the spotlight, Granik showed a satisfied smile again.

"With the 2003th overall pick in the second round of the 29 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons chose—"

······
Passing by the Coca-Cola headquarters building after the workout, Mo Wen swallowed subconsciously. All kinds of temptations are really everywhere in this decadent capitalist country.

Atlanta is the base camp of Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola's headquarters building is just next door to Georgia Institute of Technology where Mo Wen is located. Just around the corner from the school gate is the big red Coca-Cola logo.

Originally, the Coca-Cola headquarters building was not open to ordinary tourists, but as a neighbor, Georgia Institute of Technology, one of the three major universities in the beautiful country and as famous as MIT, obviously still has a bit of face.

As long as you have a student ID card from Georgia Tech, you can enter and exit after registration. Of course, it is limited to the reception area, exhibition area and pavilion snow area on the first to third floors.

In the exhibition area, there are not only new types of drinks to taste, but the most important thing is that there is also unlimited drinking of Coke, free of charge!
This is simply a fat house's paradise!
Mo Wen squeezed his fist and then let go, he didn't have the capital to be presumptuous.

Sometimes he really missed the days when ordinary people could do whatever they wanted. A bottle of fat house water was five yuan, half of the money was used to buy water in the supermarket, and half of the money was used to fill teeth at the dentist.

Traveling and cheating are not the capital to do whatever you want, on the contrary, not only has he been deprived of the right to sleep by cheating, but now he has to hesitate for a long time to have a sweet bite.

Dragging his tired body back to the dormitory, he charged the "transformer" that had turned into a brick.

Immediately afterwards, the resurrected mobile phone sent out text message notifications one after another.

Huh, what happened?

(End of this chapter)