The Road to Stardom: Start as a Slam Dunk Master.

Chapter 290 The settled 02 draft
As a jersey that has been retired, it is also a very dramatic scene to be back on the stage.

Today's head coach McMillan is the owner of this jersey. At the same time, he is also one of the people who strongly advocates keeping Sakuragi Hanamichi.

As the team's head coach, he is probably the person who knows Sakuragi Hanamichi best besides Lin Dong. He was moved by this child's unusually sincere passion for basketball.

If Payton is Sakuragi Hanamichi's defensive teacher, then McMillan can be regarded as his mentor. He retired in 98 and experienced the same team as Payton. He was the same point guard and the same player as Payton. He has a defensive style and has won the league's best defensive second team twice. Even when Payton first joined the SuperSonics, McMillan even won the league's steals title once while playing as a substitute for Payton. This shows that this player has a defensive style. Mr. Sonics' defensive skills.

Many of Payton's skills were learned and improved from McMillan. The three are now considered to be of the same strain. The only difference is that his disciple plays power forward.

At that time, the team was discussing the matter of letting Sakuragi Hanamichi's trial training be "ruined". Frankly speaking, the benefits of this matter were all for the team, but there was no guarantee for the players. It was all risks. After all, the Sonics were not Maybe he and Sakuragi Hanamichi signed some "I will definitely sign your contract", it was nothing more than a verbal agreement.

Anyone who is more thoughtful would not agree to such a thing honestly, but that guy agreed without hesitation, with a smile on his face and a heartless and careless look. Schultz, Payton and McMillan were embarrassed.

MD, do you have a good conscience for scheming against a child like this?

So Grandmaster waved his hand and said, I give you the No. 10 jersey!
"Yingmu! Come on!" Lin Dong clapped his hands and looked towards Sakuragi Hanamichi with a smile.

Coach Anxi and others behind him also applauded, while Stephen pushed him on the back and said cheerfully: "Haha, man, what are you doing standing there in a daze? Get up there!"

Until he was in a daze, the microphone was handed to him.

Rukawa Kaede also clapped, with a complicated look on his face. He knew that the Sonics would definitely choose Sakuragi, but he...

At this moment, in distant Japan, thousands of households were cheering.

Haruko covered her mouth in excitement in front of the TV. The Sakuragi Legion hugged each other and jumped up and down. Her former high school league teammates and opponents all looked at Hanamichi Sakuragi who was crying on the TV with smiles on their faces.

Practice hard, study English hard, eat hard, and grow taller.

This is their first domestic player to land in the NBA, the first in history!

He shouted loudly with a crying voice: "Thank you everyone! Thank you! I will play well, I like basketball the most!"

He didn't learn as much in the first ten years of his life as he did in the year he came to Seattle. He actually didn't understand anything, but he was better at being obedient. Whatever Gao Ren, Payton and McMillan asked him to practice, he would do it. What to practice.

Countless images suddenly flashed through my mind.

As that sentence says, those players who can pass the draft, whether they end up playing in the NBA or not, they were all superstars like Jordan in their respective worlds...

At this time, the lights in the audience were also focused on Sakuragi Hanamichi's face.

Sakuragi knew that he was able to get to where he is today because there were so many people helping him. At this moment, he had a lot to say, but he didn't know where to start.

He knew he should say a few words like Takato, but his mind was buzzing until Schultz tugged on the corner of his clothes and Sakuragi Hanamichi bent down at a 90-degree bow.

A small episode, a second-round pick, apart from making the whole of Japan happy, it did not cause any waves on the scene.

Two or three years ago, he was just a degenerate young man who fought with people on the streets of Yokohama and had nothing to do. But today, he has become a basketball star that the whole of Japan is paying attention to.

Coach Anxi’s living expenses were paid to his card on time every month, the bank card that Takato brother handed to him when his mother was hospitalized, Lin’s father would send him a piece of food every time he sent food to Takato brother, Sakuragi Legion After working for a whole summer, I managed to scrape up the money to deliver five pairs of Jordan 6s delivered to him by courier, Payton and McMillan often brought him a feast at the beef restaurant in front of the arena, and letters full of encouragement from Haruko. …

The red-haired guy's face was full of joy at first, and then nervous. When he stood up, his clenched fists were shaking slightly.

effort? He felt that his efforts were nothing.

All the lights in the stadium were shining on him, there was a round of applause from the audience, Coach Anxi’s excited expression, Brother Gao Ren and Father Lin’s smiling encouragement...

Sakuragi Hanamichi's eyes were red, his mind was buzzing, and he couldn't hear what the host and Schulz were saying next to him.

Chosen!
He nervously walked onto the stage and took his jersey and employment contract from Schulz.

The host quickly continued the process. Rukawa Kaede clenched his fists tightly and his palms were sweaty, but his name never appeared.

The scene began to buzz with buzzing sounds, and overall it was no longer as quiet and tense as before.

After all, it is already the second round. Almost all the good prospects that can really be valued by each team have been selected. The rest are just scraps. Each team also has several choices at the same time. Whoever picks whom, No one had any trouble, until the appearance of another name made some people at the scene who had begun to be distracted refocus their attention, and the scene was slightly quiet.

——The 23rd pick in the second round, Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, jersey No. 0!
LeBron is a very special name for NBA teams and today's American media. From the proud son of heaven the year before last, to the street rat last year, to the prodigal son turning back and saving lives not long ago, public opinion has reversed... Such ups and downs, not to mention a high school student, even many NBA stars, have probably never been like this. Wonderful.

Frankly speaking, when the news of LeBron's injury first spread, many teams were really tempted.

I didn’t want LeBron before, mainly because of his bad reputation, and of course his poor performance when he went to the Wizards and Spurs for workouts. It made people feel that after a year of wasting basketball, this kid not only no longer has the competitive level he once had, Even his morale, potential, etc., have collapsed due to the heavy blows over the past year.

But having the courage to face a knife-wielding gangster in such a situation makes people feel that he is not as cowardly as imagined. The lack of competitive status may be due to the lack of professional training in the past year, coupled with the changing public opinion. Due to his reputation, many teams still want to give it a try and recruit him with a low first-round pick or a second-round pick. If he can be restored to 70-80% level after careful training, plus he With its own popularity, it must be a good deal.

It's a pity that the teams with this kind of thinking all went to Akron Hospital to understand LeBron's injury. After knowing that he would need to be hospitalized for at least two or three months to recover, they all gave up this idea.

This means that LeBron will not be able to participate in the team's summer training this year. Whether it is his own competitive state or running-in with the team, he will have no time to adjust. If you really want to sign him, you must first make a good decision. With the plan to support him for at least a year, and after a serious injury and a few months of rest, it is even harder to predict how his competitive state will be restored.

The reputation of a hero is good, but the team must rely on performance after all. No team would be willing to do such a thing to raise an idle guy who is destined to have no future just for that so-called reputation.

Paxson still played a trick. The Cavaliers actually had two second-round picks. He used a high second-round pick to win a center just to see if any other team was willing to take away LeBron. It's a pity that he took the guy who was not under his control and even had the leverage in his hands to another city... He had to use his last rookie pick to buy LeBron.

Although Paxson had a smile on his face, he was very unhappy inside. From now on, he would have to be wary of this lunatic at all times...

The person who went to the stage to receive the jersey and appointment letter on behalf of LeBron was LeBron’s mother, a chubby black woman who had been covering her mouth and crying since she took the stage. Thanks to the previous popularity and media reports, everyone knew that LeBron Brown and her story, the audience also continued to send encouraging applause.

Rukawa Kaede was also applauding, but the applause was somewhat stiff.

The 29th pick of the second round was called just now, and it wasn't his name.

There are two rounds in the NBA draft. The first fourteen picks in the first round are called the lottery, which represents the most talented people.

Regardless of the first round or the second round, each has 29 picks. The 29 teams in the league normally have one pick each in the first and second rounds. If it reaches 29 in the second round, it means it is over. .

Lost?

No, there is still a chance.

Rukawa Kaede stared at the host's mouth nervously until a team manager came on stage and handed over the last draft pick.

Sakuragi, Coach Anxi and others also held their breaths, and Lin Dong was also looking forward to it.

This year's draft is slightly different from previous years.

History has changed again...

In previous years, there were only 29 teams in the league, so there were only 29 picks in each of the two rounds of the draft. However, this year there is a new team joining the league: the Charlotte Bobcats.

At the end of the regular season in the first half of this year, the Charlotte Hornets, who originally belonged to the Eastern Conference, left Charlottetown with the approval of the league due to many conflicts with local fans, moved to New Orleans, officially joined the Western Conference, and changed their name. For the New Orleans Hornets, later known as the Pelicans.

Lin Dong remembers clearly that in history, after the Hornets left, at the request of Charlotte fans, the league approved them to form a new team in 04. The Charlotte Bobcats only joined the league in 04.

But probably because this year's extremely hot ball market has allowed the NBA to make strides under the leadership of Stern, Charlotte fans have been particularly violent about the new team. At the same time, considering the schedule, the league has also It was decided to create a balance between east and west, changing from one less team in the Western Conference in previous years to the current layout of 15 teams in each.

Therefore, Charlottetown responded very quickly to this matter. The city government promised to allocate funds for the new team to build a new arena, attracting a large number of investors to participate in the bidding. Finally, Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, He invested US$3 million and became the owner of this new team. He also decided on the name of the Charlotte Bobcats team through a vote by fans across the city.

This is also the reason why 14 teams are participating in the competition for the No. 13 pick this year. Otherwise, in previous years, only teams that failed to enter the playoffs competed for the No. pick...

And now, the last spot.

——The 30th pick in the second round, Charlotte Bobcats, Rukawa Kaede, jersey No. 17!
Robert Johnson, the first black owner in the history of the NBA, walked onto the stage with a smile. Due to the hasty formation of the team and the new arena was still under construction, many trial training work could not be carried out. However, relying on the relationship between new players in the league, They got a good pick with the 8th pick in the first round, and got Nick Collison, the center rated second only to Chris Bosh in this draft, and also poached some less famous players. But experienced players.

According to the team's current configuration, what they need is an excellent rotation shooter, and they don't expect the team to achieve any results in the first season. It would be good to win 75 or 74 games, and Rukawa Kaede is trying out The excellent performance of -for- shooting, coupled with the fact that he is an Asian player, and now that the Asian market is being developed, it is perfect to use this to enhance his team's overseas reputation.

The clenched fist finally loosened at this moment. Rukawa Kaede wiped his eyes fiercely, then stood up firmly and walked towards the stage.

High pick, low pick, etc., he doesn't care about that, and he knows that he is not qualified to care.

The only important thing is that from now on, I am also a member of the NBA!

(End of this chapter)