On this day, the Grizzlies, who had the second-place pick in their hands, posted an email reply on their official Weibo account, which sparked a heated discussion.
The reply was from Wang Zhe. He wrote,"Thank you for your team's invitation to try out, but the city of Miami is too small and not my ideal city, so I don't want to play for you there.”
It was understandable for players to choose their favorite team before the draft, but most of them would choose to participate in the trial and politely reject the team.
Wang Zhe's direct rejection of this email was indeed not giving face to the second-place bidder.
"This Wang Zhe is really awesome. The second-place lot rejected him like this? Aren't you afraid of offending the team and guarantee that you won't play for the Grizzlies in the future?”
"What's wrong with that? Don't you know what kind of person Wang Zhe is? During the university league, he went to nightclubs every day and even had a conflict with the coach. It was said that the coach of Davidson College was so angry that he abandoned him.”
"For such a problematic player, no matter how talented he is, it's useless. He'll become an explosive in the locker room and might even destroy the team.”
Some nosy fans discussed again,""The problem player originally wanted to play in a big city, so he must have gone to the New York Knicks with the number nine pick.”
……
At the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the management team of the Los Angeles Clippers was decorated with celebratory slogans that symbolized the championship.
They had just won the championship, the parade had just ended, and the players had gone on vacation, but the management's work was far from over.
They had to deal with the draft. Even though the Los Angeles team only had the 29th pick, and it seemed that the probability of finding a good player was very low, this team with a long history and tradition did everything meticulously.
This year's finals weren't easy. They still needed to find more useful helpers for Kobe Bryant to maintain their competitiveness and once again launch an attack on the championship next season.
They would send out trial requests to some players who were expected to be in the top 20 in the draft, which matched the draft pick of the Los Angeles Clippers.
On this day, Brock, the leader of the scouting team, received an email with a request for a trial. When he saw the sender, he was shocked and immediately forwarded the email to the general manager, Cook, and then rushed to find Cook.
"General Manager, did you see that? The player who is expected to be in the lottery area has taken the initiative to send us a trial request.”
Cook nodded and said slowly,""Wang Zhe, I know him. He's indeed very strong, but he's also a controversial player…Call an emergency meeting immediately.”
Under the call of General Manager Cook, an emergency discussion began.
At this time, the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, Phil Jackson, was having a tryst with Jenny Buss at home. Kobe and Gasol were preparing to go on a vacation in Hainan...
However, under the strong request of General Manager Cook, everyone still took time to participate in this discussion.
After hearing Cook briefly explain the content of the discussion, Pau Gasol shook his head and said,""Wang Zhe, I have paid attention to him, but he is definitely a lottery player. We only have the number 29. Even if he is willing to come, the other teams will not let him go.”
Pau Gasol's question hit the nail on the head. Even though Wang Zhe's draft expectations had dropped a lot because of the label of " problem player," he still remained in the lottery.
As a result, the Laker's scouting team never had any " extravagant hopes " for the rookies in the lottery.
Of course, the others also had the same question, and their eyes were all focused on Cook.
Cook explained calmly," Wang Zhe said in the email that he refused all the training requests from other teams. He only wants to play for the Los Angeles Clippers and doesn't care about being selected as the 29th pick.”
As soon as he said this, everyone's faces revealed an incredulous expression.
To prevent NBA rookies from asking for too high a contract during their rookie years, and to prevent " parallel goods " from appearing in the future, the NBA had to be very strict.
The NBA had introduced rookie salary rules, which allowed rookies to be paid according to a set of uniform standards during their rookie period. The amount of salary was directly related to their draft pick.
Moreover, after the rookie period, when the team signed the first long-term contract with the player, the draft pick also had reference value.
Regardless of whether Wang Zhe's approach would work or not, he didn't care about getting less money just to play for the Los Angeles Clippers.
……
Cook continued to explain," There are indeed a few players in the history of the NBA who would give up something in order to play in the city and team they like. It is also possible for Wang Zhe to be selected by our team. Although his performance in the college league was explosive, his style on and off the court was extremely bad. He showed the style of a problem player in college, which will inevitably make some teams flinch from him. Therefore, this is the key issue we want to discuss.”
After saying that, Cook looked at the head coach, Phil Jackson.
Phil Jackson didn't even consider it and shook his head.""No, I don't want this kind of disobedient player either. He will destroy the team's chemistry and become a big trouble in the locker room.”
At this moment, the team's boss, Bath, came and said,""We can give it a try. Let's give him a trial first. He's a Chinese player!”
Everyone understood what the boss meant. After all, Chinese players had a huge Chinese market behind them.
Kobe, who hadn't said much, nodded and said,""Let's try training first and see how strong we are.”
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。