When Baylor arrived in New York on June 26, there were only five hours left before the start of the draft, and he was the last senior team member in the league to come to New York. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

There is no way, Baylor has to report to Sterling, and he has to find a way to continue to empty the players and make the team's salary space as much as possible.

Before boarding the plane, Baylor announced that he was waiving Stanley Roberts and making him an unrestricted free agent. Then, he deceived and finally sent Murray away. In this way, the Clippers only need to deal with Divac, who has a salary of nearly $5 million, and there will be enough room to compete for O'Neal.

In the end, this time the particularly capable Baylor decided to trade Divac for a high draft pick, and he soon set his sights on the Charlotte Hornets, a team that had just lost Mourning to the Heat at David Fox's asking price, and now it just happened to be short of a good center, and if you traded a draft pick plus an expiring contract or two for an All-Star center, it sounds like a good deal.

Sterling supported Baylor's bold idea this time, and he also knew that trading Divac was risky, because the Clippers suddenly had no center, and if O'Neal could not be dug underneath, it would be a loss to his wife and a soldier. But at the same time, ditching Divac would give the Clippers a whopping $13 million in salary space, and they are officially eligible to compete for O'Neal, and the Hornets' 13th pick looks like enough to pick Kobe.

If all goes well, the Clippers will form a lineup of Barry + Jones + Kobe + Rodgers + Outlaw + Lloy Ott + O'Neal, don't underestimate these people, the combination of Lloy Ott + O'Neal alone is enough to destroy more than eighty percent of the team's interior line.

Last season, Lloy Ott played at the level of a second defense, which is best suited to partner with an offensive killer like O'Neal who is reluctant to defend. If Kobe Bryant can play in two or three years, and the Clippers trade Jones for an excellent point guard, then this team will have no shortcomings and is fully qualified to fight with the Lakers, Bulls and other teams.

Zhang Yu didn't see Kobe Bryant in the small green room at the scene, except for the Nets and Clippers, Kobe Bryant had only been to the Mavericks and Pacers for tryouts before, but both teams were in dire need of big men, although they saw that Kobe Bryant had good potential, but a high school student who didn't know if he could play was of little use to them, could he compare to Miller and Jackson?

Therefore, these two teams would rather choose O'Neal Jr. than choose Kobe.

As a result, most teams don't know Kobe's potential at all, and he is naturally not eligible to enter the Little Green House, which will only be able to watch the draft at home, hoping that he will be selected by the Clippers.

At the moment, in the small green house, the most conspicuous rookie is Alan Iverson of Georgetown University, and even Zhang Qi looks at it from time to time, which is the genius in his mind.

The American media is also unanimously optimistic about this unruly genius, they call Iverson the "court elf", Jordan has been full of praise for him before, Zhang Yi also believes that he is the "champion" of this year, it can be said that Iverson is a rookie who is unanimously optimistic about the new and old emperors.

In addition, there are many promising rookies in the small green room, such as Marcus Camby of the University of Massachusetts, Stephen Marbury of Georgia Tech, Ray Allen of the University of Connecticut, and Anthony Walker of the University of Kentucky, all of whom are the top three favorites. The rest are Eric Dampier, Rahim and others who are also among the best in the university. As for Kobe, he is not as famous as Ilgoskas and Stojakovic from Europe, and of course he is not qualified to sit in the little green house.

"We have a No. 17 pick, a No. 27 pick, and a No. 51 pick this year."

Before the start of the conference, Jerry West briefly exchanged a few words with Zhang Fu. In fact, it is to tell him his team's draft pick, but he doesn't intend to let him give any opinions, and the team will not vote for a player that his core likes.

Zhang Wei didn't bother to participate in this kind of thing, he came here to join in the fun, and use his influence to attract some fans for the team.

Originally, he wanted to use the system's ability to query player attributes to help the team draft, but just like the player's attribute value fluctuates under various influences, the potential value of these rookies is not static, and if there is no outstanding talent but no hard work, the potential will not be very high.

Moreover, players who are too young are generally very low in potential, and the potential is judged by the system alone, that Anthony Walker's potential is higher than Iverson's, and Ray Allen's potential is not as good as Kobe's, does he want to choose Kobe's rookie because of this?

Well, Zhang Zhu's idea will definitely be slapped in the face in the future, the system is not ineffective at all, at least Kobe's potential is really greater than Ray Allen, but he feels that people are rookies.

After the official start of the 1996 draft, Zhang Fu's mind no longer knew where to fly, and it can be seen from the live camera that he has been holding his mobile phone down and not knowing what the hell is going on, and he doesn't give face to David Stern on the stage at all.

There were no big surprises with the top eight picks this year, with Lorenzen Wright and Kerry Kittels coming in higher positions than the media expected, but the top six picks were mostly college geniuses who were favored in advance.

The Clippers have been a little worried, but fortunately, the ninth-place Mavericks and the tenth-place Pacers are in dire need of big men, and they selected Samaki Walker of Louisville and Eric Dampier of Mississippi respectively (via trade), and in short, they did not rob Kobe Bryant of what they wanted.

The Warriors are the 11th pick, and they naturally have no shortage of outside lines, they didn't even choose Zhang Qiu last year, and how can they choose Kobe Bryant now.

The Cavaliers are the 12th pick, and they also have no shortage of outside linemen, so they chose between O'Neal Jr. and Vitaly Portapenko for a long time, and finally felt that the former's performance in the tryout was too bad and immature, so he chose Vitaly Portapenko.

Harris shook his head, because they wanted to choose Eric Dampier and Vitaly Portapanko, who were more powerful in the game, and O'Neal Jr.'s performance in the tryout was devastating, and he didn't have the strength to play in the NBA at all.

Next, it's the Hornets' thirteenth pick.

But before that, the Suns didn't know where to get the news, and they actually wanted to choose Kobe. Originally, they could have traded up to the Warriors, but the Suns owner didn't want to pick a high school student, and the team's head coach misjudged that Kobe Bryant would fall to the 15th pick, and they thought their 15th pick was enough to get him.

The result of course disappointed them, when David Stern came out and announced that the Clippers and the Hornets completed a deal, and the Hornets got Divac, although he didn't say what the Clippers got, everyone knew that it was the 13th pick, and the brainless Baylor seemed to be on the bar with high school students again this time, and this time he was going to pick Kobe Bryant.

"What a brain-dead!"

After Zhang Wei heard that the Clippers chose Kobe, he secretly laughed in his heart.

Of course he knew what that Kobe Bryant was, and he lost a lot of face when he tried out, and he swore in front of him that the guy was more talented than Eddie Jones, but he felt that Kobe was at least one grade worse than Eddie Jones.

When the Hornets drafted Kobe Bryant with the 13th pick, everyone knew he was a player for the Clippers. But at this moment, no one could have imagined that what the Clippers really wanted was O'Neal, and trading Kobe Bryant was not only for his talent, but also to clear enough space.

Kobe Bryant is a rookie, and they can sign a contract with Kobe after signing O'Neal, which is equivalent to making Divac's $4.72 million salary evaporate in an instant, and the space of the Clippers will exceed 10 million at once.

Of course, at this time, it still seems that the Clippers still have a hard time getting O'Neal, they are not the opponent of the Magic, as long as O'Neal is not crazy, how can he leave the Magic who can make it to the Eastern Conference finals and run to a team that was eliminated in the first round.

Zhang Wei couldn't imagine that O'Neill would have anything to do with Los Angeles, and now he only felt that Baylor's brain was convulsive, and he actually traded Divac for a high school rookie, could it be that their boss who slammed the door thought Divac's salary was too high, and deliberately played such a sassy operation?

The Clippers' coquettish operation not only puzzled Zhang, but also made the teams talk about it.

In the midst of everyone's discussion, the draft finally came to the 17th pick, but Zhang Yu did not leave his seat, Jeanie Buss took the stage and handed the Lakers envelope to the president, and they chose - Jermaine O'Neal.

"It's okay, anyway, there are no good goods at this time."

When Zhang Wei bowed his head and discussed with the three senior leaders of his own team just now, he knew who they had chosen.

His opinion of O'Neal Jr. is similar to that of other teams that have selected other centers before, and they all feel that although this guy is physically talented, his ball quotient and emotional intelligence are too low, and his skills are too rough, and he basically has no other strengths except for good health.

There are a bunch of rookies in the NBA every year, and eighty percent of them can't be played, so no one will use a top pick to win such a low probability.

Jerry West and Harris are also not optimistic about this little O'Neal, but how can the really good goods miss this pick, and in the future, except for that Ilgoskas is good, there is really no one to choose.

The Lakers were very interested in Ilgoskas at that time, but the Lithuanian would not be able to land in the NBA until two years later, and they couldn't wait that long, so they had to be short and tall, and chose this Jermaine O'Neal, who was at least physically gifted.

O'Neal Jr. was originally very unhappy that he had fallen into such a low rank, but when he saw that the Lakers chose him, he was happy again for a while.

The current Lakers and Dragons are very similar, both are the fastest rising favorites in their respective fields, Los Angeles and the Lakers are among the most exposed cities and teams in the United States, and every rookie wants to play in such a big ball city, and he is no exception.

After the Lakers selected O'Neal Jr., they waited for a long time before it was Jeanie Buss' turn to take the stage.

This time the Lakers chose Derrick Fisher of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, this is a typical player with a big heart and the talent of a locker room leader, but as a point guard, in addition to solid basic skills and a big heart, there seems to be nothing remarkable about it, his athleticism and offensive ability are mediocre, and he can't hold fast or good skills on defense, at most he is a mature mediocre player.

Harris and West chose Fisher because there was no better rookie for them to choose from, and the Lakers positioned Fisher as a backup for Van Exel, which was enough.

After this selection, the Lakers waited for more than half an hour before being called, and at this moment the process of the conference has come to an end, and the reporters are ready to leave the scene to interview those high-ranking rookies.

The envelope that Jeanne Bass handed over this time had Ben Wallace's name written on it.

No one knew who the player was, not even Zhang Qi, or Harris told him that the team's backup center Fred's contract had expired and that Ben Wallace was their new interior lineman.

"Just kidding, 203cm tall can you play center?"

Zhang Wei feels that the three players selected by his team this year are not very good, among these rookies this year, he admires Iverson, Marbury and Walker the most, among the interior players, that Raheem is also good, and the rest of the rookies are difficult to get into his eyes.

This has to be said that most of the people who play well dare not compliment people, because Jordan has exactly the same opinion as him, although these people are not bad, but those who are better, these two uncles unanimously said: not optimistic.

This may be understood as the fact that these arrogant guys will only use themselves as a reference, and if the other party's style does not match their own minds and cannot play according to their own ideas, then they are all scum in their eyes.

Zhang Wei was very dissatisfied with Kobe's way of playing, and that Ray Allen also seemed to be cowardly.

Also, Zhang Fu's most despised first-round pick was the Canadian who showed off his footwork during the tryout, and Zhang felt that the skinny monkey-like white man would never play in the NBA, and he had a little hope if he went to football.

Zhang Yu unceremoniously made up his mind, if even this kind of scum can be beaten, then he will cut it!

Jordan seconded the proposal, and when Nash came to the Bulls for a tryout, Jordan said bluntly: This guy should go to play streetball, he is good in everything but because he is thin and fast and flexible, maybe go to Europe to play with those girls and have a chance to stay in the professional circle.

In the end, the Lakers successfully selected three rookies who were not favored by the industry at this draft -

Jermaine O'Neal: This is a high school rookie who was always compared to last year's Kevin Garnett before the draft, and he was supposed to be a top-8 contender, but in the past month's tryout, Jermaine had a poor performance, obvious character flaws, low ball IQ, and extremely rough skills, so he fell all the way to No. 17.

Derrick Fisher: This is a decent big-hearted point guard, but he doesn't have the talent or skills to make it to the starter, and his best development in the future should be to be a qualified bench player, and if he can be a locker room leader, he may be able to survive in this league.

Ben Wallace: A typical short man inside, with good reach and athleticism, and a strong style of play, but miserable on the offensive end, interior skills are non-existent, and his serious height defect makes it difficult for him to play defensively, so he can consider switching to a full-time defensive No. 4 position.

This is what the Lakers' general manager and head coach said about the three rookies they selected, O'Neal Jr. can be regarded as a bet, this kind of physically gifted high school student, if one day he opens up, then they will not earn it; Fisher is a well-established backup point guard and a good way to save money; Wallace is a random guy selected by the Lakers, at least he has good physical fitness, defense and rebounding ability, although the height defect is obvious, but it should be no problem to be a water cooler patron, in case this is a Rodman-style interior line.

"ESPN" gave the Lakers a "A-" score in the draft the next day, which is a comprehensive rating of the Lakers' draft pick, they think the Lakers made a very reasonable choice, O'Neal Jr. deserves a gamble with the No. 17 pick, the mature Fisher is a good fit for the Lakers' lineup, and Ben Wallace is better than nothing, so he has to pick someone.

Zhang Zhu had already boarded the plane to Sydney at this time, but he has always been disdainful of this rating of "ESPN", thinking that these media are simply joking, these rookies have not officially played an NBA game, who knows who can play? What is the basis for the rating?

Sister Xiaolin doesn't care much about basketball, he prefers to help Zhang Qiu deal with business affairs, which can give her a chance to be alone with Lin Xilei.

Since serving as Zhang Fu's personal assistant, Xiaolin's sister began to suspect her sexual orientation, especially after seeing Zhang Zhu meet a beautiful white girl on the plane and have a good conversation, the jealousy in her heart was countless times higher than when she saw Lin Xilei and Zhang Fu staying together.

Sister Xiaolin, as Zhang Zhu's personal assistant, even if she has the effect of a card, she can also understand some of Zhang Fu's emotional lines intentionally or unintentionally. At least, she knew the relationship between Zhang Yi and Lin Xulei, and she also knew that the heroine in that diary should be Zhang Baizhi, who had just come from Australia.

This made her naturally conclude that his boss had become distracted after coming to the United States, and that the Zhang Yu she knew from her diary was not such a person.

But she is not jealous of Zhang Fu's ambiguous relationship with these two women, because she also has secrets that Zhang Fu doesn't know, such as her relationship with Lin Xilei, and her relationship with a female netizen.

Recently, Sister Xiaolin has begun to have an indescribable wonderful feeling about Zhang Fu, she doesn't know more and more whether she likes men or women, if Zhang Qi is just swaying between two girls, then she is hesitating between a man and a woman, and she is also ambiguous with a netizen, which seems to be even more excessive than Zhang Fu.

At this moment, seeing other women approaching Zhang Qi, Xiaolin's sister's jealousy made him unimaginable.

Zhang Qi wouldn't think about it so much, because he finally saw Miss Naomi who had been disconnected, and the two of them were on the same flight.

"Very well, I can find a way to invite her on a trip to Asia."

Zhang Wei quickly noticed in his heart, he didn't know that Miss Naomi was a Taurus who believed in fate and liked to secretly like others. This kind of personality can hide the other person in his heart for ten years, twenty years, or even a lifetime when he likes someone, which can be called a desperate love in a secret love, and will never make the other person feel stressed or embarrassed, which is the best choice for maintaining that kind of relationship.

Of course, it doesn't matter if he knows it or not, as long as the system knows.

Of course, Zhang Fu will use the dialogue generated by the system to flirt with the girl, and there is a dialogue that invites the other party to travel to Asia together, and he immediately follows the kindness, and now Zhang Fu is obedient to the dialogue generated by the system.

Someone can take a plane to the girl, but the Lakers' side is not so smooth.

Every year in the draft, there will be a bunch of transactions, and the Lakers want to directly package O'Neal Jr., plus Cebaros + Campbell, and trade the three to the Suns in exchange for Barkley.

But people don't look down on O'Neal Jr., and their boss still doesn't trust high school students, which is why they lost Kobe, so the Suns asked the Lakers to replace O'Neal Jr. with Van Exel, and they will also add their newly selected No. 15 rookie, Canadian Steve Nash.

Zhang has already left the United States, and if he hears about this deal, I believe he will strongly recommend that the Lakers reject it. For nothing else, he is not optimistic about Nash's prospects at all, this kind of guy who is 190cm tall but weighs only 160 pounds, Zhang Mao believes that it is impossible to adapt to the intensity of the NBA.

On July 1, when Zhang Fu was harassed by a bunch of former friends in Sydney, the Lakers immediately did something stupid in the eyes of people on the first day the transfer door opened.

Jerry West quickly traded George Lynch and Malrick, along with a second-round pick, to the Vancouver Grizzlies in exchange for an expiring contract, some cash, and two future second-round picks.

The Los Angeles Times said it couldn't understand the deal, which was tantamount to giving away two Grizzlies players for nothing, and considering that Lynch and Malrick were still an important part of the team's rotation roster the previous season, maybe West's brain was broken.

But it doesn't matter, Lakers fans, including the incomprehensible Los Angeles Times, have unlimited trust in West's operation. Last year, they couldn't understand why West had to get Zhang, but afterwards they were glad that West insisted on his opinion and completed the deal. Now, they also trust the legendary manager of the Lakers.

The NBA has clear rules on summer signing and transfer times, and only after July 1 can teams sign free agents, which means that any free agent can sign any team in July, just like O'Neal can sign a black and white contract with the Magic as soon as he is happy.

On July 1, when the U.S. national team came to Chicago to assemble, some reporters asked O'Neal and Hardaway respectively, and they asked which team O'Neal would most like to go to?

"Orlando is my first choice." What else can O'Neill say, all he can say is, "I've been here all summer, I just want a fair offer, money is not an issue, I have a house here, I have a real estate investment, and two restaurants." ”

The Clippers panicked a little when they heard the news, and to make matters worse, Hardaway was also full of sweet words, saying, "I can talk to him right away, and I'll beg him to stay." Go to his door and say to him, 'We need you!' The final decision is up to you, but we really can't live without you, and I hope to retire with Shaquille O'Neal with the Magic. ’”

At this point, we can predict how Lord Belle will react when he sees the next day's newspaper. And when the Los Angeles Times reporter called Baylor, his secretary said: This is not a good time to call Elgin, it is better to change the time, say...... Next summer......

At the moment, in everyone's opinion, the Clippers are basically hopeless, their roster is not attractive enough, and it is useless to have enough space, and if the Magic and Hardaway really let go of their posture, O'Neal will most likely choose to stay with the Magic.

The Los Angeles Times even began with "Come back, dear Divac, forgive us......."

Sterling also immediately changed his face and quickly threw the pot to Lord Baylor.

He told reporters: "I said that you must not send Divac away before O'Neill promises, but we are now fools.

Lord Baylor knows very well that Sterling is ready to settle the old and new accounts together, and if O'Neal does not come to the Clippers in the end, then his position as general manager will inevitably be lost. Now he can only quickly make an offer for O'Neal, and the Clippers' first bid is $105 million over seven years, which is the same as Mourning's offer, and there is still sincerity.

But Clippers fans didn't even have time to fantasize about it, and the offer was rejected by O'Neal, where Mourning was also 105 million for 7 years, and he felt that he was worth much more than Mourning.

Compared to the Clippers' hardship, the Lakers are moving much faster, and they are in the first and final negotiations with Mutombo, who have long been negotiated, over the amount of the contract.

This makes Fox very painful, the "African mountain" under him is too upright, and people negotiate with each other at the beginning, and then slowly pull the skin, and finally add a little bit to a middle point that everyone can accept, without a month and a half, don't want to talk about anything at all.

However, Mutombo is different, and the African mountains threw out the bottom line in the first formal negotiations, and it was a fixed price - $50 million for five years, $8 million for the first year, $9.6 million for the second year, and $11.2 million for the third year......

Jerry West has never seen this kind of operation, but he only hesitated for a minute, compared to Alonzo Mourning, who is 105 million in 7 years on the Heat side, Mutombo's salary is only half of the former, although his offense is not as good as Mourning, but the defense is stronger, no matter how it is a good deal.

On July 4, the day the league announced two blockbuster signings, one of which was Mutombo's signing to the Lakers on a five-year, $50 million contract. But it's no secret, everyone knows that Mutombo went to Los Angeles to see the house during the playoffs, and it's rare to send it to the door so voluntarily, so not many teams are worried about Uncle Mu at all.

On the same day, the New York Knicks signed Alan Houston on a seven-year, $56 million contract.

This contract made David Fox even more unhappy, he felt that Mutombo was worth more than Alan Houston, he was confident that he would get a 5-year contract of more than 65 million for Mutombo, but this guy was too proactive, so he couldn't pay the price at all.

Thankfully, his cash cow was Jordan, and after the gang leader and Reggie Miller opened their arms to free agency together in July, the real summer drama kicked off......