On the evening of June 25, after the NBA rookie reception, Stephen Curry boarded a plane to Los Angeles along with his father, girlfriend, agent team, and Clippers team.

Curry's heart was both lost, excited, and a little nervous.

The journey of this draft was definitely unforgettable, and he had a hunch that his future destiny had been changed.

The plane took off on the runway of New York's JFK International Airport, flying higher and higher, and Curry sighed as he watched the bustling night view of New York City under the clouds.

Before the draft, he had thought he would stay in New York and be part of the Nisker team.

When Stern read his name with the first pick, the New York crowd booed as the Clippers snatched the guard they wanted with the No. 1 pick.

Although in terms of the degree of rottenness, the current Knicks are on par with the Clippers, from 01 to the present 8 years, the Knicks have entered the playoffs once.

But in terms of team history, the Knicks are much more brilliant than the Clippers, they are one of the NBA's founding 11 veteran teams, have been a strong team in the East for a long time, won two NBA championships, and the team is star-studded, and is the most profitable team in the league.

The city of New York is the first city in the United States, the birthplace of professional basketball, located in the center of the stage, and the Madison Garden Plaza is a basketball mecca, where superstars are proud to score highs.

In comparison, the history of the Clippers is much more shabby, and there is a bad team.

Although based in Los Angeles, the West's most glamorous metropolis, the talent at L.A. Lake is the true master.

The Clippers are just outsiders in Los Angeles.

The gap between before and after made Curry a little depressed, and before the draft, he imagined himself shooting one three-pointer after another in Madison to lead Niske out of trouble and back to the top and become the true king of New York.

Who knew that the Clippers didn't choose Griffin and picked himself away, and he had neither any understanding nor any interest in the Clippers team.

The only advantage is that you can work in the same city as your girlfriend Ayesha.

So, in Curry's draft team, Ayesha is the only one who is in a good mood.

The rest of the agents, as well as Daddy Dell Curry, are all worried, and it is natural to be happy that his son has become the champion.

But the higher the rank, the greater the pressure, the more attention you receive, and the more you can't afford to fail.

Greg Oden is an example of this, crushing not only his fragile knees, but also the heavy attention and expectations of the media and fans.

Every year in the draft, there will be players who fall out of the water, but only the parallel champion will be mentioned again and again and written in the history books as a negative textbook.

Dele Curry still has faith in his son, but he doesn't have much faith in the Clippers.

Not only are the Clippers bad, but the two No. 1 picks in history aren't good.

They drafted Danny Manning in 1988 and went on to become an All-Star forward, a talented player who clearly fell short of the expectations of the top pick.

Ten years later, in 1998, the Clippers signed one of the league's most famous parallel imports in the history of the league - "Sugar Man" Olovo Kandi.

For this "Olajuwon second," the Clippers missed behind Vince Carter, Paul Pearce, and MVP-level Dirk Nowitzki (Nelson Sr.).

This level of draft is really a dog shaking his head when he sees it.

The two champions are just the tip of the iceberg, and the Clippers' 40-year history draft is not useless, it is also a mess, otherwise it wouldn't have been so bad.

Now that the Clippers have chosen their son, Dell Curry is a little worried, is my son a parallel import?

It can be seen how bad the Clippers' draft history is to make the selected top pick doubt that he is not good, and the whole thing is a tool to eliminate the wrong answers.

Curry Sr. sighed sadly and looked at Gary Sachs, the Clippers' head of player personnel sitting diagonally across from him, and Sachs happened to be looking at him, and the two looked at each other awkwardly, because they didn't know each other very well.

Before the draft, the Clippers management didn't consider any players other than Griffin at all, so naturally they wouldn't have been in contact with other rookie teams.

From the time the Clippers took Curry to the present, the Clippers have not communicated well with the Curry team, and the Sachs is also beating the drum in his heart.

He knew that Curry wanted to play in New York, and he was worried that Curry's team would do what Francis did back then and refuse to report to the team.

In 1999, Francis was drafted by the Grizzlies, but because he felt that the Grizzlies were too bad and Vancouver was too far away (the Grizzlies were still in Canada at the time), he refused to report to the team, and claimed that if the Grizzlies did not trade him, he would rather retire directly.

The Grizzlies backed down at the time, not wanting to waste a pick, so they traded him to the Rockets, which led to the later team-up of Francis and Yao Ming.

If Curry also comes out like this, then the Clippers really have nothing to do, either trade Curry or blindly sign a top pick, no matter what, it will be a loss.

Fortunately, Curry's team didn't raise any objections after the draft and boarded the plane to Los Angeles with Sachs.

From this point, it can be seen that Curry should not be particularly resistant to playing to the Clippers, and the two sides can negotiate.

Sachs swapped seats and sat with Dell Curry, knowing that the former NBA's top shooter had important advice on his son's career development.

Sachs gets straight to the point and explains the real reason the Clippers chose Curry.

"We... We got a new general manager, and his name was... His name is Smart, and he asked for Curry. ”

"Smart? Keith Smart, he's the manager of your team? No wonder......"

"No, no, no, it's not Keith Smart, I don't know his full name, he is airborne, supposedly a Chinese."

"What? Chinese? You don't even know his name? ”

Dale Currymon thought this Smart was the Warriors' assistant coach Keith Smart.

If it were him, it would indeed be possible to take Curry, because the Warriors were rumored to have been interested in Curry.

It turned out to be a Chinese who didn't even know his full name, and the only Chinese Curry knew in the alliance was Yao Ming.

Where did this Smart come from?

"Sachs, you're making a bit of a joke." Dale Curry said incredulously.

"I think so too, he called at the last minute and said, take down Stephen Curry, and then hung up without a word."

"When did this person become the general manager of your team, why haven't I heard any news?"

"Uh... Yesterday, and I only got the news today, that Sterling boss has put all the affairs of the team in his hands..."

Hearing Sachs say this, Curry, who was sitting next door, also became interested.

He walked over and asked, "Has he worked in the NBA before?" ”

"I don't know, there shouldn't be, very few Chinese work in the NBA."

"Has he ever seen me play?"

"I don't know, I shouldn't have seen it, I haven't even seen it."

“……”

"Do you know why he chose me?"

"I don't know, I don't even know what he looks like."

Sachs didn't know, it's not that he was unprofessional, it was too sudden, and he really didn't know anything.

With a belly full of question marks, Curry and his party arrived in Los Angeles in the early hours of the morning and stayed at a hotel arranged by the Clippers — originally booked for Griffin's team.

Waking up early the next morning was originally scheduled to meet with team management at 10 o'clock to attend a press conference to officially announce Curry's joining to the media, and then talk about the details of the contract in the afternoon and sign the rookie contract.

As a result, Sachs called early in the morning and said, "I'm sorry, the general manager said that the time of the press conference was adjusted to two o'clock in the afternoon, and he said that you are coming from afar, you should sleep well and replenish your physical fitness...... I'm so sorry. ”

Curry's father and son couldn't laugh or cry when they got the news, they couldn't even communicate well during the press conference, and the bad management of the Clippers really deserved its reputation.

Dell Curry was a little shaken in his heart, whether to let his son play in the Clippers, after all, a good growth environment is very important for rookies.

And the reputation of the Clippers as a rookie is really not very good.

Curry comforted: "It's okay, at least it shows that this general manager is still very concerned about the health of the players' sleep and is a gentle person." ”