Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1081 - 608 Nothing Compares to Time_3

Chapter 1081: Chapter 608 Nothing Compares to Time_3 Chapter 1081: Chapter 608 Nothing Compares to Time_3 This year, the team holding the number one draft pick is the recently luckless Celtics.

A Big Three bumping into the pinnacle GOAT, they traded away over a decade’s cornerstone of the team for Larry Sanders, who they believed would be their interior barricade for the next ten years. The result? This brother, during his injury period, sparked a passion for many hobbies and suddenly didn’t want to play basketball anymore.

Ainge, to get him, had even traded Pierce, could he really let Sanders pursue art willingly? So he worked frantically on persuading him. The result: the more Sanders played, the more injuries he got, the more he despised basketball, and under internal and external pressure, he actually developed depression.

Not long ago, the Celtics officially bought out Sanders’ contract, declaring Pierce’s trade a complete failure.

The most pitiful Celtics garnered their second number one draft pick in team history.

However, they didn’t trade it away like their first number one pick.

The Celtics undoubtedly selected Karl-Anthony Towns, with Ainge remarking, “Karl is like a combination of Kevin McHale and Larry Bird!”

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Many years later, people could understand the profound meaning behind Ainge’s words.

Meaning, Towns possesses a Bird-level shooting touch and McHale-level aggression.

Next, the 76ers boldly chose Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia with the second pick.

About half of the basketball experts predicted a 70% chance that Porzingis would become the next Darko Milicic of the 2010s.

Jahlil Okafor was picked third overall by the Magic Team.

Just as the commentators noted that so far there had been no trades and the draft night was somewhat dull, the Lakers made their move.

Eight years after Marc Gasol was selected by the Lakers.

Another draft night, the Lakers let go of this player, who like Yao Ming, had represented a traditional center capable of excelling in the era of Space Basketball.

The Lakers sent Little Gasol to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for the fourth pick, and then made a puzzling decision.

Ignoring what appeared to be a better fit and higher ceiling in Emmanuel Mudiay, they chose D’Angelo Russell, a skillful and versatile combo guard.

The Lakers had returned to the semi-finals in the season that just ended.

From the outside, it looked certain there was more to this trade.

They couldn’t possibly have traded away Little Gasol just for Russell, since Kobe was already 37, and Anthony wasn’t young either; they wouldn’t want to wait three years for Russell’s growth to lead two old-timers in the charge for achievements.

Such safe and cautious maneuvers are something a smaller family-like team like the Spurs would do, but the Lakers are aristocrats; aristocrats seek to soar to the heavens in one bound.

However, the Lakers’ representative declared in his response reason for choosing Russell that they had no follow-up trade plans.

Why did the Lakers choose Russell?

“Because we didn’t want to miss out on the next Michael Jordan!”

“Jim Buss, fuck you!!! We already have Kobe, no one wants a Jordan who doesn’t even have half the athletic ability of the real Jordan!”

Lakers fans roared on social media.

Clearly, the Lakers’ trade set off a domino effect.

Subsequently, the Knicks sent DeMar DeRozan to Boston in exchange for the Celtics’ 17th pick and first-round draft picks for 2019 and 2020 (lottery protected).

The Knicks used the seventeenth pick to choose Terry Rozier.

This trade indicated that the Knicks had the resolve to rid themselves of Rajon Rondo’s reluctance to shoot, which had caged Durant, effectively giving away DeRozan in almost a giveaway manner to create sufficient cap space for this summer.

Afterward, another heavyweight figure in the 2015 draft class, Devon Booker, pursued his destiny and was inevitably selected by the predestined Suns.

After all that, an hour passed in the draft, the reigning champions finally approached the podium, announcing their use of the 30th overall pick from the University of Tennessee on Josh Richardson.

This was the only thing they did that day.

Renowned draft expert Chad Ford graded the Clippers’ draft-day operations as an “A” and said, “Josh Richardson is a versatile, athletically gifted guard who can play both the 1 and the 2. He’s another sleeper pick in my book. The Clippers’ perimeter strength will greatly improve in the new season. The General Manager of the Year did what he had to do!”

Ironically, last season’s General Manager of the Year himself did not know what in this world was right, and what was wrong.

Luckily, he also happened to know what was absolutely right in a successful organization.

That is the will of the Greatest of All Time; following the GOAT’s will is the Clippers’ political correctness.

After League Commissioner Adam Silver announced every selection in the first round, as per ritual, he was supposed to hand over the stage to the deputy commissioner to complete the remaining draft announcements.

But Adam Silver chose to stay on stage to pay tribute to a recently deceased industry expert.

The man was Harvey Pollack (Harvey Pollack). If you want to know more — Pollack was almost the godfather of modern sports statistics. If you think you are a fan of professional basketball analysis — then you should feel sad about the passing of Pollack.

However, the most famous thing Pollack did in his career had nothing to do with sports statistics.

53 years ago, Pollack took one of the most iconic photos in sports history on the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points.

Half a century has passed, Chamberlain is no longer with us, people have yet to see footage of that game, and now, the person who captured the 100-point photo also passed away. That flashy era has become ancient basketball that people nowadays speak of as needing to devalue its glory, otherwise, you couldn’t crown modern-day players reasonably.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

But in a few decades, contemporary players will also turn into “ancient basketball” in the mouths of future generations, so what can be permanently preserved?

“RIP. We will sooner or later understand that, in the end, nothing can outlast time.”

Yu Fei reposted Harvey Pollack’s obituary and penned his own thoughts.