no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 70
On June 6, Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to a 14-4 victory over the Magic, winning his fourth career title and the first championship trophy since O'Neal left.

If it is said that his league No.1 was still controversial, then with the ownership of this championship, Kobe, who named the "number one loser" after last year's loss and led the American Dream Team to the top of the Olympics, has already lived up to his name.

The era belonging to Kobe and the Lakers has begun.

A week later, Xu Yong took his luggage and set off for New York again.

In a few days, the 2009 NBA Draft will be held in Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks.

There is a little cheese here. The number of people who sign up for the NBA each year is actually not many.

Take this year as an example, a total of only 103 people signed up, and by the deadline for withdrawal (withdrawal before a certain date can continue to participate in the election next year), another 55 people withdrew, and only 48 people remained in the end.

Of course, this is not to say that 30 teams can only choose these 48 people, because the NBA draft has a 22-year-old automatic participation rule.

So you happen to be 22 years old this year, so congratulations, you have the opportunity to wake up like Wang Zhelin and find that you have been selected by the NBA!
However, this number further shows that this year is a small year for the draft. After all, compared with those who automatically participate, the strength of voluntary registration will naturally be stronger.

After arriving in New York, Xu Yong soon met Schwartz again.

Schwartz is a well-known agent with many NBA stars under his umbrella. Xu Yong is not the only one who signed this year's draft, so naturally he can't accompany Xu Yong all the way.

However, Xu Yong is the most promising player among the rookies he signed this year, so he also allocated the most time to Xu Yong.

"You need to prepare a suit, preferably a formal one. That is the first impression you give to the fans. Of course, you can also make some gimmicks to impress the fans as much as possible." Schwartz patiently urged.

"Like kissing a beautiful girlfriend?" Xu Yong asked with a smile.

Schwartz froze for a moment, then nodded with a smile: "That's a very good suggestion."

Xu Yong also smiled.

Kissing a beautiful girlfriend is what impressed him the most about the NBA draft.

In 2011, Jan Veseli, nicknamed "Czech Yi Jianlian", kissed his girlfriend after being selected.jpg.

He doesn't mind, but who will send him a beautiful girlfriend first?

Of course, Schwartz could tell that Xu Yong was joking.

After all, he has been in contact with Xu Yong for so long, and Xu Yong has no beautiful girlfriends, not even women.

But such a joke shows that Xu Yong is very relaxed, and that is a good thing.

He has been a professional agent for so many years, and he has seen too many rookies whose mentality is unbalanced because of the draft not as expected, and finally lost to everyone.

The draft is just equivalent to a college entrance examination. It is very important in life, but it is only a starting point in a certain sense.

"By the way, you can also choose something that will bring you good luck." Schwartz reminded with a smile.

Xu Yongwen patted his suitcase and said with a smile, "I'm all ready."

Although it was his first time participating in the draft, he had seen too many draft conferences as a commentator before his rebirth.

As the saying goes, "I haven't eaten pork, but I have seen too many pigs run away." For that special night, he also made meticulous preparations.

Seeing this, Schwartz nodded with a smile, and then chatted with Xu Yong about the latest draft prices.

Now Xu Yong's most optimistic situation is that the Kings will be selected by the No. [-] pick, then the Suns with the No. [-] pick, and then the Knicks with the No. [-] pick.

But now Schwartz has some information. For example, the Timberwolves are also trying to trade for the fifth pick, and their goal is James Harden.

There is also news about the trial training. Both Rubio and Thabeet did not perform well in the trial training, which may affect their draft prices.

Especially on the Grizzlies side, the Grizzlies may not pick Thabeet now, and both Rubio and Harden refused to go to them for trial training.

Speaking of which, the Grizzlies are not very popular with rookies because of the small market, whether in Vancouver or Memphis.

Xu Yong nodded frequently, but as a reborn, he knew that the Grizzlies would still pick Thabeet in the end. As for the Timberwolves, they failed to pick Harden and missed Curry one after another.

Don't tell me, listening to Schwartz analyze these, and then opening his eyes again, this feeling is still very subtle.

Soon after Schwartz left, Xu Yong went to the airport to pick up Harden and the others.

After more than a month, they finally met again.

Harden's beard looks much thicker again.

"James, you'd better take care of your beard before the draft, you don't think the fans' first impression of you is slovenly?" Xu Yong is learning and selling.

"Yeah, I'll fix it and roll them up," Harden nodded, following his mother's advice.

"How was your trial training?" Xu Yong asked after waiting for the taxi.

Although he is reborn and has heavenly eyes, in fact, the addition of him, a butterfly, will change a lot of things.

Especially since he is so high in the draft right now.

"If everything goes well, I should go to Toronto." DeRozan is very solid, and his tone should be that the Raptors gave him a draft promise.

Xu Yong nodded. He did not perform well in the Raptors' trial training, and he should not be able to drop that pick now. There is a high probability that DeRozan will go to the Raptors as he knows.

He then looked at Harden.

"The Timberwolves gave me a draft commitment, and they don't rule out trading picks up." Harden's answer confirmed Schwartz's previous words.

"The Thunder didn't give you a draft promise?" Xu Yong asked.

Harden shook his head.

Xu Yong was somewhat surprised by this reaction. He had the impression that the Thunder had always wanted to choose Harden.

But this is just his impression. After all, even before rebirth, he couldn't know too many details about the draft.

"I should go to Cleveland." Ayres took the initiative to say at this time.

To assist James?

This is a bit different from history. He had the impression that Ayers went to the Spurs. 【Note 9】

But that's not bad, the current Cavaliers have a good lineup, at least starting in the Eastern Conference Finals, so they can experience high-level competition in advance.

……

Two days passed quickly, and there were crowds of people outside Madison Square Garden on this day.

In addition to the rookies at the draft site on this day, fans from all teams will be present.

That scene may not be grand, but it must be very lively.

Xu Yong took the elevator from the underground garage to the draft site, accompanied by his parents and Cai Xiao.

Except for Ayers, he, Harden and DeRozan were all invited into the small green room.

The so-called small green room is a separate area called the small green room that is isolated before the main stage of the draft.

Each member of the Little Green Room has a small table where they can invite relatives and friends to wait for the results of the draft.

After entering the small green room, Xu Yong saw that his desk was on the far right of the first row of the stage.

Among other things, it is the most convenient place to go on stage.

And next to him is Harden's desk.

Harden turned his back to him, and he walked over and patted the opponent directly on the shoulder.

"What..." Harden turned his head, his eyes widened when he saw Xu Yong's clothes.

Everyone else was wearing very formal suits tonight, but Xu Yong was the only one wearing a red Tang suit with a golden dragon embroidered on the left side.

This is simply too cool!

But he immediately laughed and got up and gave Xu Yong a big hug, which is something Xu Yong would do.

"Chinese style." Willis on the side also spotted him and stood up with a smile to greet him.

Xu Yong rolled up his sleeves at this time and showed Willis the watch he was wearing: "Lucky watch."

It was the sports watch Willis had given him a year earlier.

Willis froze for a moment, she didn't expect Xu Yong to wear it on such an important occasion, and said a little excitedly: "I hope it can really bring you good luck."

"It will." Xu Yong affirmed.

After greeting Harden and the others, Xu Yong made a special trip to DeRozan.

Both DeRozan's father and mother were present, and this was the first time Xu Yong saw them.

DeRozan's mother looks okay, but his father's face is pale.

But when DeRozan introduced Xu Yong to them, they all got up and greeted Xu Yong warmly.

Especially his mother, who kept saying words of thanks.

As a mother, how could she not feel her son's usual emotions?
However, what she can do is really limited. Not telling DeRozan when she got sick like before is the limit of what she can do.

But she can feel the changes in DeRozan this year, especially after helping the school win the championship, she feels that her son is no longer pretending to be happy, but really sunny.

Of course, Xu Yong was not the only one moving in the little green house at this time, many people were greeting each other.

Many of those who can enter the small green house know each other and are familiar with each other.

At this moment, Xu Yong was bumped on the shoulder.

Looking up, it was also an acquaintance, Thabeet.

Tabit saw that Xu Yong frowned. The collision just now was an accident, but he didn't say anything, and walked over on his own with his head held high.

He was extremely depressed when the two teams played in the regional finals before, and he was naturally upset with Xu Yong, and it is impossible to apologize.

And he has basically booked the No. [-] spot for this year. To put it in very realistic words: I am No. [-], who are you?
Xu Yong didn't care too much either. Thabeet, as the [No. [-] in history], didn't play for a few minutes in the NBA.

It's a waste of life to argue with such a person.

After greeting DeRozan and returning to his seat, he chatted with Cai Xiao about the NCAA again.

Cai Xiao just arrived in the morning, and the two haven't seen each other for so long, and they talked too much to each other.

At this time, there was only less than an hour left before the official start of the draft.

The management levels of each team have also come to their draft huts on the second floor one after another, and an invisible war has already started.

　Showing cuteness every day and begging for tickets~Thanks to Meng Zhi, the commander of the forbidden army, for the 500 reward~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)