Between September and November 2000, there were a number of things happening in the basketball world, some of which were big things, and some of which were not big things at the time, but which could have far-reaching consequences in the future.

First of all, on September 15, the 27th Summer Olympics was held in Sydney, as the American basketball representative of the dream team participated in the first sports festival of the 21st century, the fourth professional dream team in history composed of stars such as Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Alonzo Mourning, Ray Allen and other stars won the Olympic basketball gold medal.

Although the process was not as easy and enjoyable as it was at the 1992 Olympics and the 1994 World Championships, they almost lost to European powerhouse Lithuania in the semi-finals, which shows that the level of basketball in the rest of the world is narrowing the gap with the United States in less than a decade.

So the Olympics have also become a feast for scouts, with scouts from the United States flocking to Sydney to watch every game between the national teams, not for the NBA stars who are already making a lot of dollars, but for players from Europe and Asia, and there is no doubt that this is a virgin land that has not yet been fully developed, and many prescient teams and scouting groups have begun to dig into 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 Olympics, the NBA in the United States had a multi-party trade involving the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns.

The Knicks acquired veterans Glen Rice and Terris Best from the Lakers, Luke Longley from the Suns, Maxwell, Stanpania and Lazaru Burrell from the SuperSonics.

They get players who can almost make up a team, and there are some good players in them, but that was a long time ago.

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

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

As a stop, Tai won Chris Dudley and a future first-round pick.

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

For New Yorkers, an era is over, and they thought that sending away the dying Ewing would win a new light, but judging by the outcome of their deal, they will only be greeted by endless darkness.

And Seattle and Phoenix, one thought that the former superstar could still play his residual heat, and the other thought that there would be red envelopes in the future draft, but the reality could only be left to fate.

On September 25, Paul Pierce was stabbed in the bar, and more than half a month later, on October 23, in the preseason game against the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena, Paul Pierce returned and played 19 minutes in the game to score 11 points and 6 rebounds. Pierce was surrounded by three bodyguards to keep him safe before the match, and three bodyguards escorted him back to the hotel after the match, apparently having a psychological shadow on him after the violent attack.

Of course, this incident is not all bad for Paul Pearce, after experiencing the test of life and death, he has a new perspective on the world, he began to really grow, began to take basketball and life more seriously, compared to Antoine Walker, but more and more casual, the former twin stars because of this incident, life began to be different.

On October 25th, less than a week before the start of the new NBA season, the relevant staff of the NBA were busy with the round, and a small incident happened at the NBA headquarters in New York, which was not even reported by any news media at the time, that is, after the preparatory meeting of the NBA's Development League, after more than two weeks of gathering and consultation, a small scouting group was officially formed, and their main task was to provide teams with scouting reports of some undrafted players and marginal liberos, Recruit players for the upcoming development league for next season and build a player database.

This small scouting group is made up of some little-known basketball people, including Fox Leon, as well as some department minions from other teams, or some sports media reporters, or even some columnists, in short, since this scouting group is for the little people in the players, then naturally they are also some small people.

And although these guys are nominally a group, they don't work together, they don't have a common office, they don't have an organizational structure, they don't have superiors and subordinates, they don't have work schedules, they don't have work plans. They both have their own jobs, just have contact details for each other, and occasionally meet up together, plan their schedules, and produce a few scouting reports to report to their sole leader, Adam Silva.

And then one day they may quietly disband, leaving no name in the history of the league, and nothing left for them in the pen of critics who can only write superstars.

No one knows how strong they will be.

……………………

On November 1, the NBA regular season has kicked off, and the Boston Celtics' first game of the 2000-2001 season will begin at their home court, North Shore Garden, against the Detroit Pistons, who were on the same page in the late eighties, although they are already brothers and sisters.

The Celtics had just changed coaches, and the Detroit Pistons sent away their top star in August, Grant Hill, who is known as Jordan's successor, to get Ben Wallace, a short center who is just over two meters tall and has rough skills that can't do anything but defense.

But regardless of his situation and opponents, it was the first game of the new season, but Leon, as a member of the team, did not stay in Boston to watch the game in peace, but was exiled to Las Vegas to watch a low-level league game here as part of his 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 scouting team, a guy named Adrian, he was on camera to record the doomed and boring game.

Leon has watched no less than ten games from the 25th to now, sometimes three in a day, and those who either lack talent, lack self-discipline, or are too old to have potential, mingle together, and fight the court for a basketball dream that cannot be seen or touched.

"Sometimes I don't 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 a game like this?" Adrian, who was joined by Leon, complained that he was now working as a writer for a magazine in New Jersey and had joined the scouting group in order to dig up more insider information about the American professional basketball community.

Unexpectedly, when the NBA kicked off, as an avid basketball enthusiast, I couldn't go to Las Vegas to watch the NBA in person, but had to go to Las Vegas on a business trip to watch this kind of unexciting game, I really don't know what the significance of these games arranged by Adam Silva is.

"If you gamble with me, you won't lose...... It doesn't look like there's really any player to watch here, maybe our requirements are still too high, don't you say, if you think he's only 30 points, then multiply it by a two, give him 60, you can't ask for more, it's just a development league. Leon reminded Adrian that for those who are used to watching the NBA, these low-level leagues are really unwatchable.

"That No. 11 looks pretty good...... If he could jump a little higher, shoot a little more accurately, or dribble a little better...... Well, no, not at all. ”

The two of them sat on the sidelines and watched the game for a whole hour and a half, and finally they were able to circle three players who were doing well, put them on the watch list, and ask for their phone numbers after the game, and if they were lucky, one of them would get a trial call one day.

Now Leon is finally starting to use his phone directory, which he didn't need at all when he used to have only a few contacts, but now he knows more and more people, people from Boston, people from the scouting team, players he likes, agents who like players, high school coaches or their parents who look at players, people who work in the media.

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

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

After the match, Adrian decided to invite Leon to the casino with him, but Leon shook his head and didn't speak, and finally he went with Adrian.

When he arrived at the casino, Adrian knew why Leon shook his head, not that he didn't want to come, but that the casinos didn't let Leon enter, and it seems that Leon's gambling name didn't just stay in Star Harbor City in Sydney, and he was also blacklisted in Las Vegas.

In the end, the manager of a large casino stepped forward, took five thousand dollars in cash from the counter and stuffed it directly to Leon, politely refused him entry, 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, this glasses and looks polite, Adrian is the most suitable for this Leon in the scouting team, and the two have established a cooperative relationship to deal with the future work together.

When they arrived at the door of their respective hotel rooms, Leon asked Adrian one last question: "Adrian, you know that I have a very good memory, but I can't remember your surname, because your surname is so strange, you are of Polish origin?" Can you tell me your name one more time? I promise I won't forget. ”

Adrian smiled, it didn't seem like the first person to ask him such a question, he cleared his throat and replied, "Remember, my name is Adrian Wojnarowski." ”