No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 106 - 83. Draft Conference_3

Zhang Yang had not received an invitation either, and he waited in a conference room at Madison Square Garden along with Bynum.

The two high school players chosen for the green room were Martell Webster, ranked third nationwide, and Gerald Green, ranked sixteenth.

In the conference room, Zhang Yang saw Monta Ellis, the scrawny second-ranked high school player in the country who looked like a monkey.

Ellis sat alone in a corner, resisting contact with others.

From Ellis’s body language and expression, Zhang Yang inferred that he was thinking, "I’m so embarrassed," "I want to escape," "Everyone must be laughing at me."

This second-ranked high school player in the nation was too proud and took himself too seriously.

Zhang Yang looked around; the players in the conference room were very tense. Not many were talking, and even though Ellis was the second-ranked high school player in the country, no one cared.

This was the moment that would decide their fates: those whose names were called would become millionaires; those whose names weren’t would plunge into the abyss...

Quite thrilling!

Zhang Yang also encountered Louis Williams, who ignored him, making him feel quite sad.

After so many encounters and so much practice together, even if they weren’t friends, a nod or a greeting would have been appropriate, right? How excessive!

Regaining his focus, Zhang Yang noticed Bynum appeared quite conflicted.

Out of curiosity, he asked, "Didn’t the Lakers promise to pick you with their lottery pick?"

Bynum glanced at Zhang Yang and said, "They did promise, but I saw on the news that the Lakers might snatch you at the tenth pick to fend off the Grizzlies."

Zhang Yang was stunned, "Has the script been updated to this point already?"

Bynum: "What script?"

Zhang Yang: "Cough cough, don’t worry, that’s fake news."

Bynum: "You don’t need to console me, how could it be fake news, the media’s analysis is so on point, I know you’re amazing, though not as good as me, but you’re still younger than I am by half a year, and already so impressive..."

Zhang Yang: "What on earth are you rambling about? Forget it, just prepare to shake hands with David Stern."

The huge TV screen in the conference room displayed that the first three picks of the draft had already been made.

The Bucks picked Bogut with the first pick, the Hawks selected Marvin Williams with the second, and the Jazz chose Deron Williams with the third.

The top three most high-profile rookies were selected in the first three picks.

The hope for "the last high school MVP" did not materialize as Webster dropped out of the top three picks.

However, while Deron was on stage shaking hands with Stern, the picture-in-picture cut to Felton.

Zhang Yang could see that Felton’s expression was extremely sour!

He could understand that feeling at this moment, having just defeated the hefty Deron in the fierce finals, only to lose to him at the draft.

If Zhang Yang had been in the green room, he would have gone over to console Felton, "Don’t be sad, there are harder times still to come."

Soon, the event that would make Felton even more irate occurred — the Hornets selected Chris Paul with the fourth pick!

Felton, having been continuously compared to Deron and Paul over the past two months, believed he was better than both men, yet here they were, both picked before him!

Felton was selected by the Bobcats with the fifth pick, and his expression still wasn’t managed well as he went up to shake hands with Stern.

With the sixth pick, Martell Webster became the biggest high school winner of the year, selected by the Trail Blazers.

The TV commentator took a jab at Ellis hidden in the corner of the room — "That spot should have been Ellis’s..."

When the 7th pick came along, Zhang Yang was guessing whether it was the pitching center Channing Frye, the all-around "uni-browed hero" Villanueva, or the unbeatable strongman from the little green house, Ike Diogu?

Then, the TV broadcast switched to the side stage, where the host announced, "The Los Angeles Lakers have traded Caron Butler, the 10th overall draft pick, and the 2007 first-round draft pick for a three-way deal with the Wizards and the Toronto Raptors, bringing back Kwame Brown, the 7th and 16th draft picks of this draft conference!

Next, the three-minute draft time arrived, and David Stern returned to the stage with the envelope, and read out, "Ladies and gentlemen, in the 2005 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select... from St. Joseph High School in New Jersey, Andrew Bynum!"

Andrew, muttering under his breath nearby, suddenly turned his head toward Zhang Yang, "What did that Jew just say?"

"He asked you to go and shake hands with him."

...

The staff waiting at the meeting room door came in and led Bynum away.

Zhang Yang was initially surprised that the Lakers traded up to select Bynum, but soon felt it was a normal situation.

Tellem hyped things up by forcibly associating Bynum with the young O’Neal and Kobe from the ’96 class, and while he was ridiculed a lot, Bynum, on the other hand, had been constantly compared to the young O’Neal by the media and fans for the past two months; it was very normal for the Lakers to fear being outbid.

Zhang Yang’s guess was right; inside the Knicks’ draft office, James Dolan was angrily pounding on the table.

At that moment, Zhang Yang suddenly remembered that when the Lakers had traded up, they had also traded back for the first-round 16th pick... Could it be?

Now, his heart was pounding rapidly, not quite as calm as before.

Was he going to be teammates with that one? To perform in the Los Angeles Symphony?

Expectation arose on Zhang Yang’s side, and commentators on all major TV networks were discussing the matter.

The Logo Man intended to use the 19th pick to select Zhang Yang to prevent him from being snatched up by the Lakers, who had now given up their 2007 draft pick and made the outrageous move of trading Caron Butler for Kwame Brown to increase their draft picks for this year, including the 16th pick... It all seemed to tie in with the rumors of the last two days.

Lakers’ draft office.

Kupchak watched Bynum on TV shaking hands with Stern, and he let out a deep breath.

The buzzer-beater trade was indeed thrilling. He opened the door, heard the sound of someone pounding on a table, and it was music to his ears.

He had received the news that the Knicks wanted to scoop up the new version of young O’Neal; they had been planning trades for days but hadn’t finalized anything, obtaining a higher draft pick than the Knicks wasn’t difficult, especially with Caron Butler, a quality chip, on the table.

But he still needed another pick higher than the Grizzlies’ 19th. The trade dragged on until the start of today’s draft conference.

Initially, Kupchak didn’t believe the rumor, knowing it was just one of Tellem’s old tricks.

Still, he wanted to investigate the "truth" and called his mentor to ask about the authenticity of the news, to which the mentor responded summarily, "You guess?"

Kupchak had thought of gambling that his teacher’s gun had no bullets.

But the "Miss" and the "Second Young Master" insisted on competing with the Logo Man to ensure they could snatch someone from his hands while trading for a higher draft pick than the Knicks, securing one higher than the Grizzlies’ as well.

This nearly caused him to lose Bynum too.

It was close, but after adding the unprotected first-round pick of ’07, the Raptors agreed to the three-way deal at the last minute.

Meanwhile, at the Grizzlies’ draft office, the Logo Man called Randy Yormark, the general manager of the Nets, "Randy, help me use your 15th draft pick to select a player..."

...

...

Little Feng will try to stabilize the update timing of the daytime Chapter from tomorrow, see what time it gets done tomorrow, and then set that as the regular update time.

I originally wanted to write a big Chapter to finish the draft today, but now I’m too sleepy, I’ll continue writing tomorrow morning after reaching the office. Although it’s said to be a holiday these past few days, it turned out to be more exhausting than usual, almost making it seem better not to have a holiday.

Asking for monthly tickets, seeking recommendation tickets!

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺