Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Draft Meeting
On June 27, local time, the 2008 NBA Draft will be held in the theater of Madison Square Garden in New York, and ESPN will broadcast live to 203 countries and regions around the world. As a member www.biquge.info of the small green house who was invited to the scene with his relatives and friends, Ye Feng wore a low-key black suit and sat with his parents. Westbrook and Loew were flanked to his left and right, and their families were also on the scene of the draft to cheer them on.
Loew is worthy of being a handsome guy on the UCLA team who can be compared to Ye Feng in appearance, he is wearing a dark blue suit, sitting there quietly, whispering something to his family from time to time. But this kind of occasion is bitter Westbrook, as a fashionista, this orthodox to rigid suit is the clothing he has always tried to avoid wearing on his body, but there is no way, this is a requirement of the NBA, all players who go to the scene to participate in the draft must wear formal clothes. Westbrook couldn't help but complain to Ye Feng: "Ye, why don't you say the alliance lets us wear our favorite clothes?" All formal attire, oh my God! ”
Ye Feng smiled and said, "Calm down Russell, don't you think wearing formal clothes will look very formal on this occasion?" Besides, you're a player sitting in a little green room now, you have to keep your most handsome smile, ESPN's global live broadcast, you don't want your grinning appearance to be seen by fans all over the world, right? Westbrook snorted, but returned to his upright state, and the smile on his face could have been taken directly to the commercial.
Looking around, Ye Feng saw many familiar faces, including Rush and Arthur of the University of Kansas, Beasley of Kansas, Deandre Jordan of Texas Agroworkers, the Lopez Brothers of Stanford University, Bayless of the University of Arizona, Mayo of the University of Southern California, and Ross of the University of Memphis. Although several other people have not played against each other, Ye Feng has seen photos of these people from Coach Holland, including Eric Gordon of Indiana University and Anthony Randolph of Louisiana University. However, there were still two people he felt very unfamiliar with, and one of them was surrounded by a lot of reporters.
Ye Ning also noticed this handsome white young man on the side, he glanced at it slightly, and snorted: "Tsk, what good players can Italy have?" Ye Feng heard this, and hurriedly asked, "Dad, you said that person is Italian?" How do you know? Ye Ning said lightly: "Just look at the signs on the microphones of the reporters around him, although I am not very proficient in Italian, at least I can judge that they are all from Italian media." This draft was interesting. "Italy? Ye Feng's heart suddenly flashed a name, and this was what Duffy told him a few days ago.
According to Duffy, there is an international player in this year's draft who has the potential to be a lottery pick, and it must be that person. Ye Feng once briefly looked at his profile, Danilo Gallinari, 2.08 meters tall, weighing 102 kilograms, mainly playing power forward, played for an Italian B1 league team since the age of 16, became the youngest MVP in the history of Serie B at the age of 18, and won the three-point shooter challenge crown at the Italian All-Star Game in 2007. Thinking of this, Ye Feng nodded slightly: This handsome guy really doesn't rely on his face to eat, he has two brushes, no wonder he can get an invitation from the NBA to sit in the little green house! He told his father about this guy's situation in a low voice, and Ye Ning also nodded and said, "It seems that Italy has indeed produced good seedlings over the years, much stronger than when I played." Ye Feng sweated: Dad still likes to talk about his deeds back then!
Suddenly, a fragrant breeze blew in front of his nose, and a pair of slender and white beautiful legs appeared in Ye Feng's sight, Ye Feng looked up along the amazing curve, and a pretty face was smiling at him. Ye Feng hurriedly stood up and stretched out his hand: "Abby, why are you here?" Did the NBA invite your dad to attend? Abby also stretched out her hand and shook Ye Feng gently, pulled her hair, and said with a smile: "No, my dad is not here, and I ......" She pointed to her chest, Ye Feng found that she was hanging a work card, on which the ESPN logo was clearly visible.
Abby picked up her work card and shook it as if she were showing off, and said, "Look clearly, ESPN intern reporter, otherwise I wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't have met you big idiot." After speaking, she was busy saying hello to Ye Ning and Guo Yu, Ye Feng could only cry and laugh beside him alone, what is the situation with this Nima? Is it all over the place? He looked to the left and right in frustration, and Westbrook and Loew gave him a thumbs up, expressions on their faces that even a fool could understand. Ye Feng angrily gave each of them a middle finger, and decided to ignore these two goods.
After chatting a few words, Abby politely said goodbye to the Ye Ning couple, and the boss was already glaring at the camera. Before leaving, she said to Ye Feng playfully: "Congratulations on becoming an NBA player in advance, if I want to interview in the future, you are not allowed to shut me out!" Ye Feng hurriedly raised his hand and swore: "No problem, I'm afraid I don't have the value of being interviewed by your ESPN, hahaha!" Abby shook her head, stopped talking, waved her little fist in protest, grimaced, and ran away. Ye Feng shook his head and smiled, and returned his gaze to the rostrum.
As soon as the time came, the draft began, hosted by current NBA commissioner Stern, who smiled and seemed happy that so many young talents had joined the NBA. He picked up the first envelope, opened it, and said loudly with a "sure enough" expression on his face: "Chicago Bulls, selected with the first pick - super point guard from the University of Memphis, Derrick Rose!" The audience applauded, and Rose hugged his family and friends one by one, and strode onto the stage wearing a baseball cap with the Bulls logo. Ye Feng vaguely heard Westbrook snort on the side.
After taking a photo with the champion Xiu Rose, Stern smiled and picked up another envelope, opened it and glanced at it, saying: "Miami Heat, selected with the second pick - Michael Beasley, a talented forward from Kansas State University!" Ye Feng smiled secretly, he was another acquaintance, and of course he was also a defeated subordinate of UCLA. However, Ye Feng's mentality is very good, and the draft is often not based on the strength of the player, but depends on what the team's needs are, but Beasley is obviously very good if he goes to the Heat, and he will have the opportunity to hit the championship with Wade and O'Neal soon.
While Ye Feng was thinking wildly, Stern had already begun to unpack the Timberwolves' envelope, and then he read it out: "Minnesota Timberwolves, selected with the third pick - shooting guard from Southern California State University, O.J. Mayo!" Before Stern's words fell, Ye Feng was so surprised that he almost jumped up from the chair, why? Didn't the Timberwolves plan to pick Loew? He turned his head to look, but Loew remained calm and signaled with his eyes that he didn't need to get excited. I guess it's what the Timberwolves are going to trade, right? Ye Feng secretly speculated, but he was still a little anxious in his heart.
"The Seattle SuperSonics were selected with the fourth pick - Russell Westbrook, a powerful point guard from UCLA!"
"The Memphis Grizzlies, with the fifth pick, were selected - Kevin Loew, a two-double-double machine from UCLA!"
"The New York Knicks were selected with the sixth pick - Ye Feng, an Asian forward swingman also from UCLA!"
……
Coincidentally, the UCLA troika was selected with the fourth to sixth picks, but Westbrook and Ye Feng had long known about the team's operations, but Loew ...... Aren't the Timberwolves going to want him? After Ye Feng and Westbrook came down from the stage, they rushed to Loew's side in a hurry, intending to ask what was going on, but before they could speak, Loew took out his mobile phone, called up a text message and shook it in front of their eyes. "Don't worry, we've already talked to the Grizzlies, it's part of the deal, get ready to be a part of Minnesota!" It was a text message from McHale to Loew, and the two of them were relieved.
As Stern opened envelopes and read out the team's options, more and more of the little green house rookies looked strange, intentionally or unintentionally sweeping over the face of a big man. Anthony Randolph was drafted by the Warriors with the 14th pick, and he was already the last in the lottery section, and Jordan Jr. didn't think there was anything wrong with it at the time, and Arthur and Robin Lopez hadn't been drafted anyway. But soon Lopez was picked by the Suns with the 15th pick, and Arthur went to the New Orleans Hornets with the 27th pick, which means that as a Little Green House player, he actually fell to the second round! In the end, he was picked by the Clippers with the 35th pick, but Jordan Jr.'s whole face was stiff when he walked on stage, which was a great shame. And it's worth noting that Bamot, the fourth player in the UCLA draft, was selected by the Bucks with the 37th pick.
When Stern read out "Boston Celtics draft Semi Elden from Turkey with the 60th pick," the entire 2008 draft came to an end. Of course, there are always a lot of trades going to break out at this time, but the UCLA trio only cares about the Timberwolves and the Trail Blazers. Sure enough, both teams did not break their promises, and the Timberwolves traded for Love + Mike Miller + Brian Cardinal + Jason Collins from the Grizzlies with Mayo + Marco Jaric + Antoine Walker + Greg Buckner, and the Trail Blazers traded Webster Gara Frentz plus the handsome Italian Gallinari who was selected with the 13th pick as agreed to exchange Ye Feng from the Knicks.
At this point, the UCLA trio has truly settled the dust.