By the time the outside world spread Kobe's so-called "I'm never going to play with that bastard again," the Lakers had reached a crossroads.

Now it's the boss's turn to take a stand.

At the end of each season, the Lakers throw an internal party that everyone in the organization attends.

There were Kobe Bryant, Malone and Peyton, and Fox and Fisher. And, of course, O'Neill with his wife.

O'Neill still has the demeanor of a leader, with a kind smile on his face, making everyone's jokes, and then ordering himself a drink.

He then saw the owner, Jerry Bass.

O'Neal wanted to pay his respects to Buss Sr. to show how much he wanted to continue playing for the Lakers. However, the elder Bass left the others aside, came to Kobe Bryant and Vanessa alone and said a few words, and then left.

Despite nothing happening, Buss Sr's move has made it clear who he will choose to continue leading the team forward.

At the same time as the elder Buss made his decision, the number one news in the rumor zone was that Kobe Bryant was getting infinitely close to joining the Clippers in the same city.

If this happens, it will hit no less than someone digging out the heart of old Bass with a rusty knife and then handing it to Donald Sterling for dinner.

Losing a 26-year-old superstar is devastating for any team.

A day later, Bryant met publicly with Elgin Baylor, and it is said that they had a great conversation.

The Lakers began to seek a contract extension for Kobe Bryant at all costs.

Bryant's agent, Rob Pelinka, made two demands on behalf of his employer: "Bryant doesn't want to play for Phil Jackson anymore, and he doesn't want Shaq O'Neal on the team. ”

So the Lakers decided to have a dream with Jackson in life, each wonderful, bye-bye.

On the third day after the finals, general manager Mitch Kupchak announced that the team would listen to all offers related to O'Neal.

It is said that O'Neill was eating potato chips at home when he saw the news.

The Lakers wanted to trade him, and he didn't even give a word.

The farce of OK has finally developed to a climax.

At the same time, Yu Fei had just finished recording "Two on Two" and stayed in Los Angeles for a while, living a two-person world with Christina.

Subsequently, both the O'Neal trade and the approaching draft forced Yu Fei to return to Milwaukee.

If he is the core of the general team, he may respect the professionalism of the team management in terms of draft, but he is a time-traveler after all, although he doesn't know much about the NBA before 2015, but through the accumulation of weekdays, he still knows a few people.

On Yu's final night in Los Angeles, he asked for this year's mock draft predictions and looked specifically at players whose draft prospects were at the end of the first round and the second round.

He hoped to find a few acquaintances here.

It turns out that as long as you are willing to give, there will always be gains.

Yu Fei saw Kevin Martin's name in ESPN's draft expert Andy Katz's draft predictions.

Yu Fei hasn't watched Martin's games, but he has watched a lot of James Harden's games.

In Harden's heyday, he was subjected to polarized evaluations because of his perennial stable penalty power, and when it comes to Harden's free throws, basketball experts will compare Martin, an old-timer in the free throw world.

Therefore, although Yu Fei didn't know Martin, he knew that Martin was a scorer who was light and accurate in shooting and could make free throws.

Although Martin ranks second on the NCAA scoring average this year, he plays at Western Carolina University, where the school is weak and the division is weak, and his college stats are not valuable in the eyes of NBA scouts, so his draft simulation predictions have been hovering between the end of the first round and the beginning of the second round for a long time.

The current Bucks are already a quasi-dynasty team, looking glamorous on the outside, but the decline and aging on the inside are visible to the naked eye.

Yu Fei is still young, but the people around him are old and crippled, and the capable Ray Allen is not the same as himself, not to mention that this year's playoffs also exposed the lack of strong offensive players in their bench lineup.

Moreover, the salary space of the Bucks is no longer as good as when Yu Fei first arrived.

They need quality child labor contracts to alleviate the salary pressure on the team.

After Yu Fei, he went to find Martin's college game highlights to see, the more he watched, the more he liked it, this kid's shooting posture looked strange, but the feel was extremely silky, and he was a rare shooter.

In addition to Martin, Yu Fei also spotted Trevor Ariza in Katz's draft simulation predictions.

In his previous life, Yu Fei watched Ariza's game in the Rockets in the latter part of his career, and he had the impression that he was a good 3D, and in this life, he had already heard of this person's name.

Ariza was on par with James in high school, but high school was just a temporary scenery after all, James's talent was affirmed by the NBA without the test of the college game, but Ariza plummeted after entering the NCAA, exposing all the problems of rough technology and lack of tactical literacy, and the draft prospects fell all the way, and now there is only a market in the middle and late stages of the second round.

Yu Fei immediately called the team's general manager, Larry Harris, and recommended the two to him.

Especially Kevin Martin.

"Whatever you do, we've got to pick Kevin Martin."

Harris Jr. verbally said that the team would carefully study Kevin Martin, but as soon as he hung up the phone, he asked his assistant how to raise his first-round pick by five places to ensure that Martin was selected.

Although Yu Fei's move was suspected of overstepping the command of the management, the two players he recommended last year played well, so his suggestions this year have received more attention.

Unlike last year, this year is a draft year, and both the top pick and the top pick are 6-foot-9" short centers.

Except for these two people, the rest seem to be mixed, that is, the talent with high combat power is insufficient, and the skills with high talent are rough, and anyone who chooses is likely to step on the pit.

Now that Yu Fei is interested in someone, the team only needs to operate with all its might.

Even if you choose a melon skin, it can be regarded as pleasing the best player in the current service.

After all, this guy is going to renew his contract with the team next year, and coaxing him to be happy and stabilizing the basic market is the top priority of the Bucks.

On top of that, the Bucks and other teams in the NBA have one more thing to worry about.

That's this year's expansion draft.

The Charlotte Bobcats will officially join the league for the new season, and as is customary, an expansion draft will be held before the draft begins.

The Bucks' eight protected lists go to Yu Fei, Ray Allen, Sprewell, Pachuria, Mutombo, Haslem, Gazuric and Quentin Richardson.

With Anthony Mason and Devin George out of contract, only Leitner, Horry and (Shanton) Anderson are on the Bucks' non-protected list.

In the end, the Bobcats gave up Leitner, who had aged significantly last season, and Horry, who liked to play dead in the regular season and make a playoff effort, and selected Shanton Anderson, who had a tough style.

Seeing that the lynx chose Anderson, Yu Fei could only sigh that BYD Danzi was still that Danzi, and it was really accurate to see people.

Anderson has one year left on his contract, but he has already signaled to the team that he wants to retire.

The Lynx chose him, which means that the Bucks have nothing to lose.

In addition to Anderson, veteran Anthony Mason, who won two consecutive championships with the Bucks, has also decided to retire.

In fact, Mason has degraded a little last season, coupled with frequent injuries, most of the time the help to the team is actually not as good as Pachuria, and it was only when the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons suddenly exploded, but that was just a flashback.

During the Finals, the Bucks were showing off their talents, but Mason was the only one who averaged 3 points and 2 rebounds per game with a shooting rate of less than 40%.

As far as Mason himself is concerned, there are no regrets.

The last two seasons dispelled the gloom of the 95 Rockets and improved his reputation, allowing him to leave the game as a winner.

Therefore, at the Bucks' championship celebration ceremony, Mason thanked Yu Fei heavily.

Here's what he said: "None of this would have happened without Da Fei!" ”

Yu Fei wore sunglasses and smiled at the praise of the old thing.

He felt that this was the best way to end.

Mason resisted the desire to hold the ball and became a blue-collar worker completely, and in the end, he fulfilled his dream of becoming a champion and retired as a result.

Yu Fei fulfilled his promise, and Mason was grateful for it.

It's like a happy ending in a movie or TV series.

But the reason why a happy reunion is the popular concept of a good ending is because the story stays forever in that moment. If the story continues, then there will be a myriad of questions to plague the characters in the story.

Now, Mason is out of the game.

But the journey of the quasi-dynastic bucks is not over yet.

A few days later, the draft took place as scheduled.

There are two biggest differences between this year's draft and Yu Fei's previous life.

One is that because Ray Allen was not traded to the SuperSonics, the SuperSonics, who lost Payton for nothing last summer, entered a swing rebuilding mode and won this year's No. 4 pick.

Another change is that the Washington Wizards sent their No. 5 pick to the Mavericks in exchange for Antoine Jamison before the draft, along with Leitner, Stackhouse and others. This transaction did not happen in this world.

Instead, another deal took place.

The San Antonio Spurs sent Tony Parker to the Wizards in exchange for the No. 6 pick.

In the end, the SuperSonics selected Stanford University's Josh Childries with the No. 4 pick, while the Spurs selected Lore Deng with the No. 6 pick.

The front-end team was trading lively, and the Bucks also participated in the draft night trade storm in order to satisfy Yu Fei.

The Bucks traded Dan Gazuric, the 30th and 30th picks in the first round and the 30th pick in the second round, as well as the 2005 second-round pick to the Trail Blazers, for the 23rd and 16th picks in the first round.

After getting the draft pick, the Bucks decisively selected Kevin Martin with the No. 23 pick, but did not wait for Ariza with the 16th pick in the second round.

Ariza was selected by the Magic with the 14th pick in the second round.

With the rankings so close together, it's not that the deal is impossible to negotiate.

Bucks general manager Harris Jr. immediately called Magic management, sent the 16th pick in the last round and a million dollars in cash, and successfully obtained the right to sign Trevor Ariza from the other party.

In this way, the Bucks made a fortune in a muffled manner, got the talent they needed in the storm of draft night, and then walked away in a low-key manner.

(End of chapter)