After Li Wei talked with Garnett, he returned to the two old coaches and continued to learn tactics.

The secretary, Xia Cuirong, sat silently on the sidelines, listening to those weird basketball terms popping out of their mouths, which could only be regarded as practicing English listening.

At noon, we had lunch together at the training gym, and then boarded the team's special plane to Charlotte.

The 1997 NBA Draft was held in Charlotte. Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina and home to the Hornets.

North Carolina is one of the states with a very strong basketball atmosphere in the United States, and the two giants of the NCAA, Duke University and the University of North Carolina, are located in this state. In addition, the state's Wake Forest University Devils Deacons, led by a top psychology major, won more than 20 games in four consecutive seasons and reached the top 8 of the NCAA Championship in 1996!

This psychology major is naturally Tim Duncan. He graduated from college this year, got a degree in psychology, and instead of applying for a psychiatrist, he came to the NBA draft!

He's going to be a pro!

Li Wei looked at the number one striker in the history of his previous life sitting in the small green room from a distance and sighed. Why can't such a genius belong to the Knicks?

If Duncan can come to the Knicks to play big forward, Garnett to play small forward, Nowitzki to play shooting guard, plus center Big Z, the death big five will be formed. The average height of the starting lineup is seven feet, so I ask if you are afraid!

Along with Li Wei, there were also the management of the other 27 teams in the league. Of course, they don't have Li Wei's bizarre idea of constructing the Five Deaths, but who doesn't have a genius like Duncan?

At this moment, only the Spurs are smiling from ear to ear!

At eight o'clock in the evening, the draft officially began.

League President David Stern stepped up to the front and said loudly: "The San Antonio Spurs selected Tim Duncan from Wake Forest University with the first pick in the 1997 draft!" ”

The scene was jubilant!

Duncan stood up amid screams and applause, wearing a light-colored suit, white shirt, and no tie. When he put on the Spurs hat, history was frozen in that moment.

Duncan, it's San Antonio!

The live broadcast screen gave Spurs general manager and head coach Popovich a shot, and I saw this forty-eight-year-old guy in the prime of life smiling like a spring flower!

For a team to succeed, it needs both a smart head coach and players who defy the sky, and the Spurs have it all!

The road to the championship has been paved at the feet of the Spurs!

This year's newcomer who has been with Duncan for a while is not Li Wei, but Keith Van Horne, a top student from the University of Utah.

Van Horn averaged 22 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in the NCAA, and made multiple hits to lead the University of Utah to the last eight of the tournament, and the media unanimously agreed that he was the second Larry Bird.

The Philadelphia 76ers have the best of the day this year.

The 76ers won the No. 1 pick last year and got the peerless genius Iverson. This year they have won four more games than last year and are in fifth from bottom with a 22-60 record.

76ers fans are overjoyed, hoping that Van Horn and Iverson can form a terrifying forward and guard combination and sweep the league!

Unfortunately, their head coach is Larry Brown!

Larry Brown hates rookies the most, and when you look at Van Horn as a white man with average defensive ability, where is he willing to ask for it?

Not to mention the second Larry Bird, even if it is Larry Bird himself, he is not uncommon!

"Trade it, trade it!"

So after the 76ers drafted Keith Van Horn, they used him plus three rotation players to trade the Nets' Jim Jackson, Eric Montrose, and two later draft picks!

The New Jersey Nets got a second Larry Bird, and the management was so happy that they almost fainted!

It seems that their rise is also close at hand!

76ers fans were dumbfounded!

It was the Celtics' turn.

The Celtics worked hard last year, but they only got the probe lot, which was also extremely helpless.

The new president and head coach, a generation of famous coach Rick Pitino, after careful consideration, chose Colorado State University guard Chauncy Billups!

After that, the Vancouver Grizzlies selected Antonio Daniels with the No. 4 pick, and the Denver Nuggets selected Tony Barty with the No. 5 pick......

In this day and age, the NBA looked down on high school students and international players. Kobe Bryant, last year's talented high school student, was only selected with the thirteenth pick, and this year's talented high school student, Tracy McGrady, was picked up by the Toronto Raptors with the ninth pick.

Li Wei knows that when Kobe, Maddy, Nowitzki and other high school students and international players play their prices, the NBA has entered an era of chasing high school students and international players.

'01 champion Kwame Brown was a high school student, '02 champion Da Yao was an international player, '03 champion James was a high school student, '04 champion Howard was a high school student, '05 champion Bogut was an international player, and after banning high school students from participating in the draft in '06, Oden, a talented high school student who could have been the champion, could only go to college, and the champion was international player Banjani.

Ten years of reincarnation, ten years of NBA is also changing with each passing day.

The short head coach sighed, and the draft was going on.

Sitting next to Li Wei is the team's general manager, Dennis Johnson, and the first assistant coach, Chuck Daley.

Dennis Johnson saw that the players he liked were all selected by various teams, and said helplessly: "David, we only have one second-round pick, have you decided on a good candidate?" ”

Li Weidao: "I've decided, choose myself!" ”

"What, pick yourself?"

Dennis Johnson and Chuck Dalizzie faint!

As mentioned earlier, the NBA is a league, and in order to ensure that the interests of the owners of each team are equal, it does not allow any player to join the league without a draft.

Every player who joins the league must first pass the draft!

There are two types of people who participate in the draft: active and passive. If you do not meet the passive conditions, such as not being old enough, or have not completed your studies, and still want to participate in the election, you can take the initiative to register. If you don't take the initiative to sign up and meet the passive conditions, you will also be put on the shelves of the draft!

The detailed rules are more troublesome, so I won't go into detail here. In short, all graduates of four-year colleges in the United States, if they do not run in advance, will become rookies in the year of graduation. International players look at their age, and if they reach the age of 22 in the natural year of the draft, and they have not participated in the draft before, they will automatically join the ranks of the rookies of the year!

Players who meet the passive conditions will not be able to participate even if they do not want to run. This is to prevent players from picking their own teams by postponing their participation in the draft!

You don't have to play in the NBA, but you can't stop someone from picking you!

Li Wei graduated from Harvard University this year and met the passive conditions for participating in the draft, even if he himself did not want to participate, he could not help himself.

He is not the only one who passively participates in this kind of election, and every American college student who has graduated from college for four years is treated like this!

So the Knicks can indeed draft him with draft picks!

But theoretically, it's one thing to be chosen, and it's another thing to be able to choose.

Draft picks are so precious that under normal circumstances, each team can only pick them twice in the draft. If you trade draft picks, such as the Knicks this year, both draft picks are traded, and if you don't get one from the Suns, you can't even pick one!

If you had to choose one or two from thousands of young people across the United States and around the world to join the team, what would it be?

Of course, it's a genius in basketball!

As long as the team management has a normal IQ, it will never set its sights on ordinary people, let alone waste the draft pick on a one-meter-four-five dwarf!

Dennis Johnson said: "David, don't be kidding, if we choose you, the New York media will definitely not stop scolding for a hundred years!" ”

Chuck Daly said, "Dennis is right, you better stop making trouble." Although you can't pick too good players for this position, if you have a unique vision, you may be able to get a qualified rotation. ”

Li Weidao: "But I think I am indeed the best player this year, and the selection with the second round is too low. ”

"Hahaha!" Dennis Johnson hugged his belly and laughed, "David, you're so humorous!" ”

Li Wei: "......"

Daley also laughed breathlessly, and at the same time said loudly: "David, even if you are the best player this year, it is not worth us to waste draft picks, because you will definitely lose the draft." We'll wait until you become a free agent and give you another contract! Dennis, do you have a profile on this year's hot rookie? ”

"Yes." Dennis Johnson opened a document, "This is a list that I put together after careful analysis by KC and I the other day, and the higher the name, the more valuable it is." Now almost all of the ones in front have been chosen, David, take a look at them too! ”

Chuck Daly said: "David, you can pick any one of them, it's better than yourself!" ”

"Okay." Li Wei shrugged helplessly, and then looked for his familiar name in the long list.

Although '97 has Duncan, Maddie, and Billups, it can't be called a big year for the draft, and there are very few good materials. For example, although Van Horn is very powerful, he soon faded out of the line due to injuries and other reasons, and failed to reach the heights that people expected for life.

Of course, Li Wei also knows that a team can't only have superstars, and qualified rotation is also essential. Now that you have the list, look carefully and see if you have the right puzzle pieces!

First, he saw Mark Blunt. This seems to be a substitute for the Celtics in the previous life, and I can't remember what the specific performance was, but it was probably a defensive basketball leader. Dennis Johnson seemed to like him and also made a note after him.

Li Wei read the annotation, and was a little embarrassed, because it said: "There is no center in the team, and Blunt has a certain ability to protect the frame, which is a reliable choice." ”

What does it mean that there is no center in the team, we obviously have a big Z, okay?

Further back, past several unfamiliar names, Li Wei's gaze stopped at "Elvin Williams".

This person seems to be a substitute for the Raptors in the previous life, and his ball skills are acceptable. Whether it was the person he remembered or not, he couldn't be sure, because the name was a bit common.

Next, there were many unremembered names, and he had to turn another page.

At this time, the president's eyes suddenly widened, because he saw a familiar guy!

In his previous life, this person was so famous, and the fame of the previous two dragon set players added up to ten, I'm afraid it was not as good as this one!

Stephen Jackson!

The Stephen Jackson in Li Wei's memory, who has played in the NBA for more than ten years, can average more than 20 points per game in his peak season, has been the leading scorer of Bobcats and other teams, has been the Mavericks with the Warriors' "Black Eight", and helped the Spurs win the championship ring!

In terms of strength, this product can definitely be ranked in the top five of this year's rookies!

It's a pity that this person is a problem player, and what impresses Li Wei the most is not his performance when he plays, but his performance when he plays.

That year, at the Auburn Hills Palace, Stephen Jackson punched seven in and seven out among the fans, just like Changshan Zhao Zilong on Changsaka Slope, no one could stop him. His bravery stunned the world, frightened the league stupidly, and was finally banned for thirty games!

After this battle, among Chinese fans, he also has a nickname, called "Martial Saint"!

Lord Martial Saint is not a vegetarian off-the-field.

On 6 October 2006, he was involved in a traffic accident while leaving a nightclub to have fun. Lord Martial Saint directly took out his pistol and fired five shots at the car that hit him.

In addition, he has various scandals such as drug addiction, speeding, etc.!

At the end of his career, the Spurs even deliberately cut him before the start of the playoffs, because Popovich couldn't do anything about him, for fear that the locker room atmosphere of the whole team would be ruined by him!

After a pause on the name for a while, Li Wei chuckled and said, "Dennis, you put Stephen Jackson so low?" ”

Dennis Johnson said: "This guy, I interviewed when I was with the Celtics, he was very arrogant, and he always felt like he could be a superstar. He's an easy cancer for the team, and I personally recommend not to choose. ”

"Oh." Li Wei nodded.

It's the second round, and there's really nothing good left, so let's discuss it, he can't make people feel that the team is his word.

Ticking the names of Mark Blunt, Elvin Williams, and Stephen Jackson, Li Wei said: "My personal opinion is to choose one of these three." Chuck, what do you think? ”

Chuck Daley glanced at the list and said, "Stephen Jackson, I have the impression that he was a genius high school student last year, right?" ”

In last year's McDonald's All-Star Game, talented high school students such as Stephen Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and Jermaine O'Neal gathered together to compete with each other, and Stephen Jackson scored the most points, beating Kobe Bryant and Xiao O, which was impressive.

Next, Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O'Neal both participated in the draft, but Stephen Jackson made another decision: he was going to college!

Knowledge can change fate, and life without university experience is incomplete!

If such a gifted high school student wants to go to college, it will naturally lead to many college rushes. Stephen Jackson chose the prestigious University of Arizona after repeated comparisons, and he wanted to play with Mike Bibby!

And then, he was tragic!

He failed his cultural class and didn't get in!

He didn't participate in the draft, he didn't get into college, and he had to go to Butler Community College to make a living.

What is this concept?

In China, this situation means that you didn't get admitted to the undergraduate program and went directly to Lanxiang Technical School.

What's worse is that Lan Xiang Technical School does not have a basketball team, this year Lan Xiang finished studying, Stephen Jackson fell sharply, plus he was born with a problem with his personality, and now there is no candidate in the second round!

Chuck Daley said: "It's the second round, and there will definitely be no all-round excellent players, either choose to have a temper and ability, or choose to have no temper and no ability." Stephen Jackson is the most promising of all the people left, and I think he should be chosen. ”

"Oh, that's terrible." Dennis Johnson frowned, "David, it's better for you to make the decision!" ”

Li Wei thought for a while.

Stephen Jackson has all his problems, but he is indeed one of the top five players in this rookie class. Instead of choosing those who are incapable, it is better to try to see if you can lower this tempered one.

It doesn't matter if you can't hold it, just give it up, it's just a second-round pick anyway. But if you stop, then you will make money, and this year's rookie can stabilize the Martial Saint Lord at the same time, only those three peerless Tianjiao!

"I agree with Chuck and let's make Stephen Jackson our first choice!"