The Whip of the God of Basketball

Between September and November 2000, some things happened in the basketball world, some were big things, and some were not big things at the time, but they may have far-reaching effects in the future.

First of all, on September 15th, the 27th Summer Olympic Games was grandly held in Sydney. As the representative of American basketball, the dream team participated in the first sports ceremony in the 21st century. This team featured Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Alonzo - Mourning, Ray - Allen and other stars in the history of the fourth professional dream team won the Olympic basketball gold medal as expected.

Although the process has long been less relaxed and enjoyable than in the 1992 Olympics and the 1994 World Championships, they almost lost to the European powerhouse Lithuania in the semi-finals, which also shows that the level of basketball in other countries in the world has changed in less than ten years. The gap with the United States is constantly being narrowed.

Therefore, this Olympic Games has also become a feast for scouts. Scouts from the United States flock to Sydney to watch every match between the national teams. Their goals are not those NBA stars who have already earned a lot of dollars, but Players from Europe and Asia, there is no doubt that this is a virgin land that has not yet been fully developed, and many forward-thinking teams and scouting groups have begun to dig this treasure.

From this time on, the NBA free agent market is about to begin an era of internationalization.

On September 20, five days after the start of the Olympic Games, in the United States, a multi-party transaction occurred in the NBA, involving the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns.

The Knicks acquired veterans Glenn Rice and Telvis Best from the Lakers, Luke Longley from the Suns, Maxwell, Stepania, and Lazaru from the SuperSonics. Burrell.

They got almost a team of players, including some good players, but that was a long time ago.

Correspondingly, the Knicks sent their former superstar, the cornerstone of the team, Patrick Ewing, the generation king who played in the Big Apple for 15 years, and threw him to the distant Seattle.

The Lakers received Hollis Grant, Greg Foster, Chuck Burson and Emmanuel Davis.

As a transfer station, Taihuo got Chris Dudley and a future first-round pick.

For the Lakers, after completing the first championship in the new century, their only goal is to defend the title. Jackson Jackson's old subordinate Hollis Grant and smart forward Greg Foster will be a powerful boost for the Lakers on the road to defending the title.

For New Yorkers, an era is completely over. They thought that sending away the aging Ewing would win a new light, but judging from the results of their deal, what greeted them would only be endless dark.

As for Seattle and Phoenix, one thinks that the former superstar can still play the remaining heat, and the other thinks that there will be red envelopes in the future draft, but the reality is that they can only resign themselves to fate.

On September 25, Paul Pierce was stabbed in a bar. More than half a month later, on October 23, in the preseason game against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Arena, Paul Pierce returned and played in the game. Played 19 minutes and scored 11 points and 6 rebounds. Before the game, Pierce was surrounded by three bodyguards to protect his safety. After the game, three bodyguards escorted him back to the hotel. Obviously, the violent attack gave him a psychological shadow.

Of course, this incident was not all bad for Paul Pierce. After experiencing the test of life and death, he had a new view of the world. He began to really grow and began to take basketball with a more serious attitude. Compared with life, Antoine Walker is more and more casual. Because of this incident, the life of the former Gemini began to change.

On October 25th, less than a week before the start of the new NBA season, relevant NBA staff were busy going around, and a small incident happened at the NBA headquarters in New York, which was not even reported by any news media at the time This matter, that is, after the preparatory meeting of the NBA-affiliated Development League, after more than two weeks of gathering and consultation, a small scouting group was formally established. Their main task was to provide teams with some undrafted players and The scouting report of the fringe Liberty recruits players for the development league that will be established next season, and establishes a player database.

This small scouting group is composed of some little-known basketball figures, including Fox Leon, some small figures from other teams, or some sports media reporters, and even some columnists. People, in short, since this scouting group serves the little people among the players, naturally they are also some little people.

And although these guys are a group in name, they don't work together. They don't have a common office, no organizational structure, no subordinates, no work schedule, no work plan. They all have their own jobs, but they have other people's contact information, and occasionally meet together, plan their schedules, and report several scouting reports to their only person in charge, Adam Silva.

Then one day they might quietly disband, leaving no names in the league's annals and zero space for critics who can only write about superstars.

No one knows how powerful they will be.

…………………

On November 1, the NBA regular season has kicked off. The first game of the Boston Celtics' 2000-2001 season will start at their home court, the North Shore Garden. The Detroit Pistons are in the same situation, although they are already brothers and sisters at this time.

The Celtics have just changed coaches, and the Detroit Pistons sent away their top star in August this year. Grant Hill, who is known as Jordan's successor, got a two-meter-tall man with rough skills and nothing but defense. The short center Ben Wallace who can't do it.

But regardless of his situation and opponents, this is the first game of the new season, but Leon, as a member of the team, did not stay in Boston to watch the game with peace of mind, but was exiled to Las Vegas Si, here to watch a low-level league game, which is also part of the job as a member of the scouting team.

An hour before the start of the game, Leon arrived in Vegas by plane, and then in a gym with another member of the scout team, a guy named Adrian, against the camera to prepare to record the game Doomed to be a boring game.

Like this low-level game, Leon has watched no less than ten games from the 25th to now, and sometimes there will be three games a day. Those who either lack talent, lack self-discipline, or are old and have no potential The veteran players mingled together, fighting hard on the court for a basketball dream that could not be touched.

"Sometimes I don't even know why I joined this scouting team. Is it just to go to a Las Vegas casino and lose a few hundred dollars after watching such a game?" Ann complained that his current job is as a writer for a magazine in New Jersey, and he joined the scouting group in order to dig out more inside information about the American professional basketball circle.

Unexpectedly, when the NBA kicked off, as an avid basketball fan, he would not be able to watch the NBA in person. Instead, he would travel to Las Vegas to watch such a lackluster game. What is the significance of these games arranged by Erva.

"If you follow me to gamble, you won't lose money... It seems that there are really no players worth paying attention to here. Maybe our requirements are still too high. Didn't you say it? If you think he only has 30 points , then multiply it by two and give him sixty, you can’t ask for more, this is just the development league.” Leon reminded Adrian that for them who are used to watching the NBA, these low-level leagues are too much. Can't see.

"That No. 11 looks good... If he can jump a little higher, shoot a little better, or dribble a little better... Well, no, not at all."

The two sat on the sidelines and watched such a game for a full hour and a half, and finally circled three players who performed well and put them on the observation list, and asked for their phone numbers after the game. If they were lucky, one of them One of those people gets a call for a tryout one day.

Now Leon has finally started to use his phone book. In the past, when there were only a few contacts, he didn't need an electronic phone book at all, but now he knows more and more people, people from Boston, people from the scouting team , those players he is optimistic about, those agents who are optimistic about players, those high school coaches or their parents who are optimistic about players, and those media workers.

His network of relationships began to gradually become more complicated. Although they all looked low-level and did not have much energy, in the basketball circle, he was no longer the kind of robot scout who could only analyze and write reports. He is slowly becoming a node in a huge network.

He's on his way. That's exactly what Auerbach wanted.

After the game, Adrian decided to invite Leon to go to the casino to play together, but Leon shook his head and did not speak, and finally he went with Adrian.

It wasn’t until Adrian arrived at the casino that Leon shook his head. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to come, but that all casinos didn’t allow Leon to enter. It seemed that Leon’s gambling reputation didn’t just stay in Sydney’s Star City, but in Las Vegas. He was also blacklisted in Vegas.

In the end, the manager of a big casino directly stepped forward, took 5,000 dollars in cash from the counter and handed it directly to Leon, politely refusing him to enter, so the two gave up and left.

On the way back to the hotel, the two talked about a lot of issues, from basketball to life, from history to nature. Adrian, who looks elegant and wears glasses, is the most compatible with Leon among the scouts. People have formed partnerships to tackle the future of work together.

In front of their respective hotel rooms, Leon asked Adrian the last question: "Adrian, you know that I have a very good memory, but I can't even remember your last name, because your last name is really That's weird, you're Polish? Can you tell me your name again? I promise I won't forget."

Adrian smiled, it seemed that he was not the first person to ask him such a question, he cleared his throat and replied: "Remember, my name is Adrian Wojnarowski. "