NBA: Back to 97, to be the Jagged Bishop

Chapter 264 The Lucky One at the Lottery

Since he didn't understand Stern's purpose, Kong Bu was not polite and called Stern directly.

"Old man, I just received a call from Yi Jianlian, have you contacted him?"

"He's just a kid. You're asking him to sign up for the draft right now? It's too early."

Kong Bu asked angrily.

"Morning? When you chose Kirilenko, why didn't you say that he was just a child."

"Kirilenko was also 18 years old at the time, didn't you choose the same?"

Stern said angrily.

Kongbu was speechless. Kirilenko was born in 1981 and was selected by Kongbu, who was at the helm of the Raptors, in 99.

At that time, Kombuk did not immediately let Kirilenko report, so he landed in the NBA at the age of 19, but when he was drafted, he was indeed 18 years old.

"That's not right. Doesn't it mean that foreign players must be 19 years old to participate in the draft?"

Kumbu was confused. When he chose Kirilenko, he saw that he was on the draft list, and then he chose him directly, without paying attention to Kirilenko's age.

"Huh? Who did you listen to? It seems that our alliance does not currently have such restrictions."

"Children aged 17 can participate in the draft, and foreign players can participate as long as they are 18 years old."

"Why do I feel that you are very resistant to letting Yi Jianlian participate in the draft?"

Stern also told Comb that he was confused. It seemed to him that there was no age limit for foreign players.

Kumbu's mind became confused. He clearly remembered that the league did have restrictions in this regard, but Kirilenko did participate in the draft at the age of 18.

Could it be that it is a rule introduced in future labor negotiations?Not released yet?

In fact, Kumbu doesn't really want UAE to enter the league too early. Under normal circumstances, he only participated in the draft in 2007. The good guy is now five years earlier, which is really outrageous.

When Ah Lian participated in the draft in the future, he reported his birth time as 1987. In fact, his real birth time was 1984, which even Ah Lian himself acquiesced.

"Whether I resist Yi Jianlian's participation in the draft or not, what purpose do you have in letting Ah Lian enter the league so early?"

"Let me guess, are you afraid that when Michael and I create a new team, the UAE will directly sign up for the draft and become a player in the new team?"

"Then start a long wave of consecutive championships with the UAE as the core?"

Kong Bu asked strangely.

Stern quickly denied it, "Of course not. Your new army will be established at least after 2004. I don't believe Yi Jianlian can wait until then to participate in the draft."

"It has nothing to do with the new team, I just don't want to make it ugly next season."

"Do you know how many teams in the league are ready to compete for Yi Jianlian?"

"As far as I know, there are at least ten teams! Many of them are frequent playoff teams like the Heat."

"One-third of the league's teams are bad, which means that next season's one-third of the games are not worth watching. Do you think I can not worry?"

"So let them give up their bad intentions and directly let Yi Jianlian run for election."

"Anyway, Yi Jianlian's strength has definitely reached the first-tier NBA level. No matter which team he enters, he will be the absolute cornerstone of the team and will definitely not delay his growth."

Stern stated his purpose, which sounded quite reasonable.

As far as Kumbu knows, there will only be more than ten teams in the league preparing to compete for Yi Jianlian, not less.

Even some teams that have made it to the playoffs this year are hesitating whether to perform poorly next season.

The most outrageous thing is that when chatting with old Thomas before, he was hesitating whether to let the Knicks do poorly next season and get a chance to compete for Yi Jianlian.

You must know that the strength of the Knicks lineup will be greatly reduced next season, and there is little hope of winning the championship. In this case, it is better to give it a go.

If Yi Jianlian had participated in the 2003 draft, the situation would have been worse than that of Duncan.

Duncan said at the time that half of the teams in the league played badly for him. In fact, it was an exaggeration. The teams that really played badly for him were the Spurs and the Celtics. Even the Spurs were only half badly done. rotten.

And after seeing the Spurs play poorly to win Duncan and make such a big bargain, each team feels that relying on poor play to build a team seems to be a good choice.

This has created a situation that even Stern finds difficult now.

"Then which team are you going to let Yi Jianlian go to?" Kongbu asked suddenly.

"Prepare to let him go..."

"Huh? What? What? What are you talking about?"

"Whoever is lucky enough to get the No. [-] lottery will naturally be able to choose Yi Jianlian. What does it have to do with me?"

"Tomorrow night we will know where Yi Jianlian belongs."

Stern almost slipped the tongue, and was almost caught by Kong Bu, so he hung up the phone quickly.

Of course, Kumbu is not that simple. Stern let the UAE draft so early, it is definitely not just because he doesn't want too many teams in the league to be bad.

He took out this year's team record sheet, and after a quick glance, he saw Stern's intentions.

The bottom-ranked teams are the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, and Phoenix Suns, all in big cities.

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, Houston can also be ranked in the top five, which is at the same level as Philadelphia, and Phoenix is ​​at least in the top ten.

No matter which team Yi Jianlian goes to, Stern can handle it. After all, these three teams have the lowest record, and whoever wins the No. [-] lottery is not a low-probability event.

And if so many teams fail next year, it will be much more difficult to operate. For example, the bottom of the rankings are teams from small cities. If Stern wants Yi Jianlian to go to a big city, he has to take a certain risk to go operate.

Kong Bu sighed. Even if everyone knows about this kind of thing, no one can change it. After all, the NBA is a business league, and everything depends on money.

He called Yi Jianlian and told him that he could publicly participate in the draft.

As a result, Ah Lian couldn't sit still that night, and immediately held a press conference to announce his registration for the draft.

It took less than 5 minutes for this news to reach the NBA circle. After all, Yi Jianlian was surrounded by scouts from many teams, and they had been waiting for this news.

For a while, many teams were dumbfounded. They were all ready to compete for Yi Jianlian, but Yi Jianlian participated in the draft early?

And a team like the Bulls, which is the last in the league without taking the initiative to play poorly, is just crazy about it.

If the No. [-] pick can be drawn next, the team will be regarded as a successful reconstruction.

On May 5th, the annual lottery meeting was held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

In recent years, the lottery conference has not received much attention. Except for Yao Ming, there has never been such an amazing super rookie.

As for this lottery, there were not many people who paid attention to it, and many people even confirmed that this draft is a super young year.

The reason for this kind of thinking is that on the one hand, there is no such well-known rookie, and no one knows who the No. [-] pick will be at the moment; Not in this draft.

However, with Yi Jianlian announcing his candidacy, the lottery attracted everyone's attention.

Kumbu called Iverson and Yao Ming to watch the live broadcast of the lottery together.

"Is that Yi really so strong? I see that the headlines in all the sports newspapers today are all about him."

"Is it too exaggerated? Shaq and Duncan didn't get such a high degree of attention when they entered the league."

Iverson himself is the No. [-] pick, and he received a lot of attention at the beginning, but he can't compare with the current Yi Jianlian at all.

After Yi Jianlian bound the Antetokounmpo template, coupled with his own good shooting ability, the overall combat power shown is really too strong.

It is equivalent to saying that this template card allows Yi Jianlian to learn from each other's strengths and make up for his weaknesses. He is now a brother Antetokounmpo with projection ability. What kind of concept is this?Almost as good as O'Pang's free throw percentage.

"No, it's not an exaggeration at all. I think this kid will definitely be taller than me in the future."

"With a player like him, after any team gets it, they don't have to do anything, and they can complete the reconstruction immediately."

"Just find a few blue-collar pitchers, and you will immediately be a first-tier team. His adaptability is too strong, and he can fit into almost any lineup perfectly."

"The team has no point guard. He can play Pippen or Grant Hill. The team has no inside line. He can play the fourth and fifth positions. His scoring ability is not inferior to the first-line shooting guard. His athletic ability is simply abnormal. Seven feet, and then three-step layup from beyond the three-point line, have you ever seen a player?"

Yao Ming wondered.

After what he said, Iverson was also shocked, a three-step layup from outside the three-point line?Hey guys, what kind of monster is this?

If this is matched with those fast-break teams, wouldn't it be invincible?Right now every team is a bulky type of insider, who can keep up with this guy's footsteps.

Take the inside combination of the Philadelphia 76ers as an example. When Yi Jianlian hits a quick counterattack, Yao Ming and Randolph may only be able to eat dust behind Yi Jianlian's ass.

Even if Yi Jianlian has a good position at the basket in advance, Yi Jianlian's shooting ability, [-]-foot height and explosive jumping, let alone a chubby guy like Randolph, even Garnett will be deflated.

Take this year's ESPN newspaper as an example. The columnists evaluated Yi Jianlian as possessing Carter's bounce, Iverson's speed, Jordan's mid-range shot, Kidd's overall view of pass control, Garnett's level of defense, and Duncan's level of defense. His basic skills and strength are not inferior to Ma Long's at the same age. Such an evaluation really makes Kong Bu overwhelmed, it is too exaggerated.

What is the speed of Iverson? Antetokounmpo is 10 seconds for 72 meters, which is much worse than Iverson.

Jordan's mid-range shot, what level is that? The Arab League is too far behind, at least three grades behind.

Carter's jumping is not the best in the NBA, but a standard seven-footer in the UAE cannot jump as high as these defenders anyway.

If it is really the same height, it would be outrageous, and you can definitely touch the top of the backboard with your fingers.

In order to gain attention, these columnists, of course, exaggerate in any way. Anyway, even if the player does not play and the water drops, the fans will only use these comments to laugh at the players, and will not laugh at the writer's blindness.

Fortunately, Kumbu doesn't think there is any possibility of Yi Jianlian's loss. His technical characteristics are destined to make no difference in statistics. He may be a tall version of Grant Hill. Can he lead the team to win? Leaving aside, the data will definitely not be bad anyway.

As long as the data is not bad, it cannot be said about water.

"By the way, boss, that Desmond, why don't you let him go?"

"It's almost been a season of punishment for him. He usually performs pretty well. He has done everything he was asked to do. He would deliberately lose to me in mahjong."

"It's okay, and he will come to my house to give some gifts. My child likes him very much."

Taking advantage of the fact that the lottery has not yet officially started, Iverson chatted with Kong Bu with a smile.

For a moment, Combe didn't know who Desmond was, and after a moment of daze, he remembered that it was the little Mason who was thrown into the sidelines by himself.

He didn't let Mason go, and even took him with him every time he played, but don't think about playing for a second, just let him wear his jersey and sit on the sidelines, which has the effect of killing chickens and monkeys.

Looking at Little Mason on the sidelines, I am afraid that few players dare to attack Kumbu's players, because as long as they do, their end may be the same as Little Mason, facing a situation where there is no ball to play at all.

This is no joke, no ball to play means the end of your career.

During this season, Mason Jr. has been trying his best to please Konbu, but it's a pity that Konbu doesn't like that at all.

Kumbu doesn't like this, but Iverson does. He is a guy who eats soft but not hard.

"Dayao, what do you think?" Kong Bu didn't reply to Iverson, but asked Yao Ming beside him.

Yao Ming nodded with a smile, "Let's just let him go, he's so pitiful."

"They are all young people, and sometimes it is inevitable to make some mistakes. We usually play on the field, and there will be fights in a hurry."

Kong Bu smiled wryly and shook his head, "Dayao, we have an old saying that kindness does not lead soldiers."

"You must never be a manager in the future. With your temperament, you can't control soldiers at all."

"Since you two sufferers feel that there is no problem, then let him go."

"Get him ready and maybe play him in the next game."

Iverson immediately took out his phone and told Mason the good news. Yao Ming started to think about it. He felt that Kong Bu's telling him that kindness does not lead soldiers must not be aimless.

After a while, the results of the draw were announced.

As a result, Kumbu was a little surprised that the No. [-] pick was not the Bulls'. He thought Stern would let the Bulls get the right to sign Yi Jianlian.

Not rockets either.

Under normal circumstances, the Rockets got the No. [-] pick this year and then selected Yao Ming.

It turned out to be the Phoenix Suns. They were extremely lucky to get the No. [-] pick, and general manager Danny Ainge jumped up on the spot.

Fans who are familiar with Angie can swear that even when he was a player, he never jumped so high.

The Suns won the No. [-] pick, which means they won Yi Jianlian. Next, Yi Jianlian will join forces with Nash, and the Suns will be completely supported.

(End of this chapter)