Back in 84, he became Jordan’s lifelong enemy!

Chapter 25 The latest draft ranking prediction!

"Hi Dick!"

"Oh, my old buddy, Marty Blake."

"Why are you here? Didn't you get promoted?"

Bill Burtka followed the league's official scouting director all the way. When he arrived outside the entrance of the arena, he met a man of about the same age and exchanged greetings.

Burtka looked carefully and quickly recognized who the person who appeared behind was.

New York Knicks veteran scout Dick Maguire.

A Knicks rookie, he was selected to the All-Star seven times in his career and was one of the best guards in the 7s.

After retiring, he served as the head coach of the Knicks for three years, and then became a scout for the team. He played for the Knicks until his death, and left a legacy to the Knicks - his son Scott .

His son would also be one of the Knicks' top scouts.

It is true that the son inherits the father's business.

Maguire has made contributions to the Knicks for decades and has made many achievements. Among them, the team's famous star Mark Jackson was selected by him against all odds. The latter became the best rookie of the year and remains the Knicks' best player to this day. The team's assist record in team history.

The No. 7 chosen by Carmelo Anthony after he moves to New York in the future is the team's famous player and former superstar, Pearl Earl Monroe.

But senior Knicks fans know that this No. 7 also belongs to Dick Maguire.

In the words of Mark Jackson, Maguire's relationship with the Knicks is the god of basketball in New York City.

Now the New York City god, faced with Marty Blake's inquiry, replied:
"The transfer order just came out, and I haven't had time to prepare yet. Work has to have a beginning and an end, right? What about you? Why are you here?"

"I happened to be passing by." Blake joked, intending to pass it by, but Maguire didn't quite believe it and looked at him sideways, "Tell me, who are you interested in?"

"As far as I know, you guys, the league's official scouting directors, don't care about these things."

"You, the scout teachers who train us, are still taking away the jobs of your disciples?"

Being questioned in this way, Blake was not embarrassed at all and continued to joke: "What a coincidence, Dick."

With that, he motioned for the other party to walk towards the entrance to enter the arena. As he walked, he said: "I heard you were here and wanted to talk to you. There is nothing else."

The two were scouts at almost the same time. They flew back and forth to inspect players. It was normal for them to meet frequently, and they got to know each other over time.

Anyway, Blake has been promoted to the league's scouting director, and there is no conflict with the Knicks' scouting business. There is no benefit transfer, and there is no talk of undercover or buying and selling intelligence. It is natural to become friends.

Burtka looked up at these two seniors and couldn't help but continued to follow them until they entered the stadium.

At this time, there was still half an hour before the game started, and players from both sides of the court had already entered the court to warm up.

To his surprise, the four to five thousand spectator seats in this public memorial stadium were actually full.

Countless heads, a large area of ​​black mass, quite lively.

Not only that, fans from the Auburn Tigers also accounted for a large proportion, almost reaching 40%.

In the past, this was extremely rare.

The Auburn Tigers are old and fat and have never made any achievements in the national championship. Therefore, they have never been paid attention to by their own fans.

Who would have thought that so many fans would come today.

Of course, this is also due to the fact that the opponent is one of the strongest basketball schools.

In what is widely regarded as a 'powerful dialogue', it does not seem difficult to understand that it has received more attention.

Their results this year are not bad, with 11 wins and 1 loss, ranking behind the University of Kentucky.

Bill Burtka quietly sat down in a seat behind the two seniors. From this position, he could clearly hear the two chatting.

"Why are you here? Why are you still here?"

Blake teased his old friend and said with a smile: "Your first-round pick this year, I remember, was traded to the Indiana Pacers, right?"

"Without the first-round pick, you can't do anything in this year's draft. Why are you here to inspect players?"

The Knicks are out of first-round picks.

This is something that most everyone in the league knows, and Bill Burtka is no exception.

Because of this operation, people are very confused. They don't understand the significance of the Knicks making this deal at all?

Just over two months ago, on September 9, before the NBA regular season had begun, the Knicks packaged the 17th overall pick they selected in last year's second round with this year's first-round pick and sent them to Indiana. In exchange for a defender, Billy Knight.

Billy Knight averaged 28+10 per game during his peak period. He was once selected as an All-Star, but he is a veteran of the league for ten years. Although he averaged 17.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game last season, who knows what he has in the tank? How much oil is left.

Forget it, they immediately sent Knight to the Kansas City Kings in exchange for point guard Ray Williams, whose performance dropped significantly last season, from 20 points per game to 15 points per game.

Williams is not a veteran, he is a showman who debuted in 77, but he has changed four teams in just five seasons. There is nothing wrong with his character. Who would believe it?

The Kansas Kings already lack a point guard.

After Williams left, they didn't even have a serious backup point guard.

For this reason, the Kings want to send him away, a point guard who averages 20+ points per game. The reason behind it is worth pondering.Moreover, Williams was born in the Knicks, and this time he was traded back to his original club with a slap in the face. This is his second entry into the palace.

It is really incomprehensible that the Knicks spent such a high price to exchange a second-year rookie and their first-round pick for a second-year player with serious character flaws and declining condition.

They themselves have a point guard of the same age and a more stable performance in Roy Sparrow.

Since he didn't understand it, Bill Burtka didn't intend to study it. He listened to the chat between the two and looked at the surrounding audience.

He found that besides himself, there were many people in suits and ties among the fans.

Although he did not know the specific identities of these people, he knew very well that some of them were definitely colleagues.

Let’s not mention Auburn University for the moment, but the attention brought by the University of Kentucky is overwhelming.

"We lost the first round, we still have the second round, the third round and the fourth round."

Dick Maguire's voice came again from the front, refuting Blake's words.

Burtka listened intently to see what Blake would say.

The latter quickly replied sarcastically: "But your most important thing is to see the high-ranking rookie, right?"

"Sam Bowie, Melvin Turpin, Charles Barkley, and even that freshman Sue, these are not low on the recent draft prediction list."

Oh?
Has Su also entered the draft prediction ranking?

Burtka, who had not paid attention to this information for a long time, was a little stunned. Before he could recover, Maguire responded: "You don't need to remind me, I know it."

As soon as Burtka raised his head, he saw Maguire holding up a newspaper in his field of vision. It was from ESPN. The title clearly read, 'The latest draft prediction rankings'. '

Unless the other party took it out, he didn't even notice that the other party had these newspapers in his hand before.

“1. Patrick Ewing;
2. Hakeem Olajuwon;

3. Michael Jordan;

4. Sam Bowie;
5. Melvin Turpin;

6. Sam Perkins;

7. Kevin Willis;

13. Charles Barkley;
23. Su Wen;”

Burtka took this ranking seriously, and it was not much different from the ranking he expected.

Patrick Ewing has attracted much attention since he entered college and has always been the center of attention.

He is tall, has good shooting ability, excellent talent, solid basic skills, and strong frame protection ability.

The most important thing is that in his freshman season, he led the team to the NCAA finals.

Although he was almost defeated by Jordan at the last moment and lost the championship, his ability and performance were affirmed.

Last year, he led the team to the second round, his performance went further, and his statistics also improved tremendously. He ranks first on the list, which is very reasonable.

The only thing that limits him from finally landing this ranking is whether he decides to participate in this year's draft?

There is no need to mention Olajuwon in second place.

He only started practicing basketball when he was 14 years old. Although his performance during his freshman year was average and his performance was overshadowed by the sharpness of the team's star guard Clyde Drexler, the team reached the semi-finals of the national championship. Based on this alone, He still got a lot of attention.

Then, in the second year, he and Drexler led the team to the finals, and his performance and statistics also improved significantly. Although he was defeated by his opponent in the end and lost to North Carolina State, he was still regarded by the industry. recognized.

It's just that in terms of statistics and performance, he is much inferior to Ewing, so he ranks second on the draft prediction list.

Now it depends on how well he can lead the University of Houston to achieve results after leaving Drexler, so that he can truly compete with Ewing.

As for the third Michael Jordan, this person has become more famous than Ewing and Olajuwon in the past three years. He has always been a superstar player in the NCAA, a favorite of heaven, and attracts everyone's attention.

However, due to his height, his ranking has always been suppressed by the latter two.

If he gains another 10cm in height, the number one pick may be certain.

After all, his famous scene was the buzzer-beater he made at Ewing's Georgetown University, which made him famous.

Sam Bowie ranked fourth, simply because his serious injury absence in the past two years brought too much uncertainty.

Otherwise, with his height and talent, Olajuwon may not be able to beat him.

Let's not talk about Melvin Turpin. In the two seasons without Bowie, he has led the team to the second round of the NCAA and has contributed most.

Although Barkley did not achieve much while leading the team, he was able to outperform Turpin in the Southeastern Conference and is also worthy of this ranking.

The reason why he ranks so low is that, like Jordan, his height is too embarrassing.

Sam Perkins. Just because he is Jordan's teammate and North Carolina's core inside player, this is enough for him to be ranked in the top six.

The only thing that surprised Burtka was that Suvin made it to the first round.

(End of this chapter)