Compared to Boston, Morey likes the city of Minneapolis. The two cities are located at high latitudes, and the winter climate is unbearable, and it is not until June that the winter is fully entered into summer, and the tail of winter will not be reluctant to leave the city. But Boston, under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, is forever shrouded in haze, and from late spring to early summer, there will be a lot of hazy weather, which makes Morey, who prefers dry weather, quite uncomfortable.

Born in Midea, Ohio, on the shores of the Great Lakes, Morey grew up in such an area that didn't make Morey like and adapt to such an environment, and to be honest, he hated this kind of place where the wind was cold and snowy for most of the year.

When he arrived in Minneapolis, he felt much better, even though the temperature was colder than Boston's, and even on a summer morning, he would be curled by the cold wind blowing just off the plane. But once you get into town in a taxi and hide in the Minneapolis complex, you won't have to worry about that.

As a city that suffers from heavy snow and cold winds all year round, most of the buildings in Minneapolis are connected by enclosed sky bridges that allow you to get out of your car and enter a building, so you can use these bridges to travel through most of Minneapolis without having to run through the cold streets.

Morey loves the ubiquitous bridges, and every time he walks from one building to another, he feels like he's made a beautiful deal, and he feels like he's becoming a direct bridge between the two teams, mutually beneficial. That's what Morey always wanted to be able to do, like a true basketball manager, opening the way to league-wide trades and building an invincible team for a certain team.

Of course, he seems to be far from such a dream. Especially these days, Leon was sent to Minneapolis just to complete a small and insignificant signing.

But back in Apolis, Morey didn't have time to have a delicious black coffee in the coffee house on the flyover, and immediately rented a car and went to Bert Creek Sanatorium in the northern suburbs of Apolis. As the best and oldest nursing home in Minneapolis, with its beautiful surroundings and the best facilities, the people Morey was going to meet in the sanatorium.

It was noon when we arrived at Bert Creek, and the sanatorium sits on the shores of Fish Lake in the northern suburbs, a state of a thousand lakes in Minnesota full of glacial lakes left over from the glacial period. Morey quickly found the ward where the person he was looking for was located through the front desk, in a single room on the fourth floor.

"Is anyone there? Can I come in? Morey knocked on the door of the room. Although he was asking if there was anyone, he didn't wait for an answer from inside that he had pushed the door in, and the door was not locked. Morey saw Malik Siri, who was lying on the bed with one foot hanging from a steel frame.

It was the fifth day since Malik Ciri had ankle surgery, and the cast had been removed, but he still couldn't move his feet and had to be hung from a steel frame in a special protective sleeve, which made him bored. His wife and son have temporarily returned to their hometown in New York, and only the nurse comes back regularly every day to check on the situation. Kevin Garnett used to visit him the day after the surgery. No one has been here since, including the Timberwolves' management and coaching staff, and he knows he may have been abandoned.

Since the inexplicable attack on a bar in Boston two years ago. Malik Ciri's life has been frustrating, missing all games in the playoffs with a jaw dislocation, and then he suffered a car accident in the summer with an ankle injury. The injuries were not serious. But he's a professional basketball player, and the slightest injury can be devastating.

Finally, towards the end of this year's season, he injured his ankle again in training. Eventually having to undergo ankle surgery, he now has the final year of his contract with the Timberwolves, and now he is 32 years old and has begun to enter the late stages of his career as a professional player, and he has suffered this serious injury and major surgery, and he is likely to face a contract buyout and then lose his job. Either go into the management of the team or start a drifting career in the minor leagues.

In the past ten days, no team has called him, his agent has not contacted him, and like many non-star players in this league, this is roughly the scene at the end of his career. So when Darryl Morey walked into Ciri's room, Ciri was surprised, and when Morey introduced him as a player development assistant for the Celtics, Ciri felt that this guy had come to invite him to the NBDL.

"Mr. Ciri, it's just you and me here, let's open the skylight and say something, the Celtics want to sign you, after you are bought out by the Timberwolves!" Morey now speaks more and more in Leon's style, following Leon for a long time, he also began to like straight talk, and when he speaks, he will show the confident look that Leon often has. It would be even better if he could have a cigar in his hand.

"What do you want from me?" Ciri is a smart man, he is thirty-two years old, he has been in many teams in the league, from Indiana to Los Angeles, from Detroit to Minnesota, he is not the young chick like Wang Zhizhi who is still like a boy, he can be persuaded in a few words, he wants to know more.

Morey imagined in his mind how Leon would answer if he had such a question, so he hesitated, thought for a moment and said, "We hope you can convince Kevin Garnett to be able to join the Celtics next season." ”

Malik Ciri laughed, both the man in front of him and the situation he was in was ridiculous, a team signed a player not because he was good enough, but because he needed to recruit another player. At the same time, Ciri also felt that he might only have this bit of use value left, in the Timberwolves, he was Garnett's best friend, and when Garnett closed himself in his own small world, it was Siri who gave Garnett warmth and persuasion. Now that he's injured, only Garnett has come to see him.

"It's entirely up to him where Kevin goes, I can't influence him, he's a superstar, he has the power and the right to choose where to stay and want me to convince him? I'm sorry I can't. Ciri rejected Morey's offer, which made Morey feel a little speechless, why could Leon be able to convince others with a single movement of his mouth, but he was rejected when he opened his mouth? Obviously, Leon is also a straight gut.

At this time, Morey remembered what Leon had said to him, "If you want the other party to accept your terms, then you'd better give him a condition that he can't refuse." ”

"We'll give you a three-year, nine-million-dollar contract using our middle-class terms." Morey finally threw out his killer idea, and before coming to Minnesota, Leon spent the whole day arguing with Angie about how exactly he should use the team's mid-level clause, Angie wanted to find a suitable interior player in the free agency market, and Leon only wanted to recruit Malik Ciri to prepare him for Garnett.

In the end, Leon gave in, because the team's owner, Pagliuca, expressed his willingness to pay some of the luxury tax for the Celtics, provided that the team had to bring in superstars, and Leon's strategy was to go for the superstars.

In the face of the offensive of money, Ciri was easily shaken, knowing that his salary with the Timberwolves last season was $1.2 million a year, which is less than a tenth of Garnett's. Now because of injury and age, he is likely to quit the league and have no ball to play, but the Celtics are willing to offer him a contract with an annual salary of three million, which is a condition that Ciri cannot refuse. Don't say that if you let Ciri persuade Garnett to join the Celtics, let him persuade **** to surrender, he is also willing to try.

"Kevin is quite loyal to the Timberwolves...... I don't know how... How to convince him, maybe I can accept your contract and conditions, but I must speak first, maybe my persuasion will be useless. Ciri voiced his concerns, and in his opinion Garnett is a very loyal person to the team.

Morey knew that the matter was already more than half, he quickly shook his hand and said: "No, no, no, Xili, I don't need you to persuade him directly, we have our plan." First of all, you need to reach a buyout agreement with the Timberwolves, but at the same time, you need to express to Kevin that you don't want to leave the Timberwolves, and it's best to have Kevin speak for you to stay with the Timberwolves. Second, after you leave the Timberwolves, keep in touch with Garnett, as you were friends in the past, and keep your emotions hot. Third, you need to attack the Timberwolves appropriately, not the kind that tears the skin, but some small criticisms, especially about their team-building strategy and thinking, in fact, you know, the Timberwolves really don't do a good job in this regard. Finally, and most importantly, take care of your foot injury, nine million is more than just signing a lobbyist. ”

When Morey finished saying this, he felt instantly refreshed, and he really wanted to take a cigar from his pocket and light it in front of Ciri, and then wait quietly for Ciri's response, but unfortunately he never put a cigar in his pocket, and he didn't smoke a cigar.

Morey's words, of course, were told to him by Leon, and he wrote them down on a small note, which Morey read and rehearsed in his head on the flight to Minnesota, and finally uttered them in one fell swoop before West. And the last so-called "most important point" was added by Morey himself, and he thought to himself that if Leon heard his impromptu point, he would definitely appreciate it.

Unlike Morey's triumphant, Ciri was lost in thought, and he could feel that the Celtics were playing a big game, with Kevin Garnett at the center of the game and himself as a small piece. Garnett, the league's highest-paid, and all-time high, is an almost impossible figure to get through a trade, no matter what the way it is. But compared to other superstars in the league, especially interior superstars, Garnett's chances of winning a championship are smaller than everyone else, which is his biggest hole and weakness, and it is also the hole and weakness of the Timberwolves.

And Siri is the vanguard and bridgehead that Leon uses to dig up this hole and concentrate this soft underbelly.

"Well, I promise you. But I also want to say that if you want Kevin to join, you Celtics will also show some championship signs in the end. Ciri said to Morey, and he finally agreed to Leon's terms. (To be continued.) )