Bishop of the Devil

After returning to Detroit with the No. 1 pick, owner Davidson seemed to have rejuvenated, smiling as if he were twenty years younger.

Getting the No. 1 pick is a good sign!

The old man is quite superstitious, otherwise, Richard would not have had to bring the holy water to draw lots.

Now that the No. 1 pick is in hand, in the old man's opinion, this is a sign that the Pistons are about to rise.

This is proof of God’s providence!

With God's blessing, the Pistons can't even think about rising...

…

When the news that the Pistons relied on holy water to get the No. 1 pick was made public by the old man, it directly made every team in the league uncomfortable.

Those teams that did not bring their "mascot" to the draw are already regretting it.

What if I had brought some mascots to participate in the lottery? Maybe it’s their team that gets the No. 1 pick now…

And those teams that brought holy water, cigars and red pants to participate in the lottery felt even more uncomfortable at this moment.

We also brought holy water, so why did Richard take away the No. 1 pick?

Is this fake holy water? !

No, we have to ask old man Davidson to find out where they got their holy water.

…

"Hey, Golden Dragon..."

"Yes, this matter must be settled as soon as possible."

"The company will be in your name. It's not convenient for me to come forward."

"Let's divide the profit 30-70, you and me 30-70, how about that?"

After Richard finished the lottery meeting, he immediately approached Golden Dragon and asked him to quickly handle the affairs of the brokerage company.

Now that the playoffs are about to end, the draft is about to begin, Yao Ming has to sign his rookie contract, and many West Lafayette players are facing contract renewal issues.

Richard must have wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to gather all the West Lafayette players together and sign with an agency.

The establishment of a brokerage company was not a difficult task. Huang Jinlong found a few young people with broker qualification certificates, and then the company was completely established.

The name of this brokerage company really makes people think wildly.

The name is West Lafayette Agency, headquartered in West Lafayette...

Although judging from the name, it is obvious that it has an inseparable relationship with Richard, and many people also know the relationship between the Golden Dragon and Richard.

But just knowing that Richard has a relationship with this agency is useless, because they can't provide evidence.

…

It is foreseeable that it won’t be long before a giant-level company appears in the player agency industry.

When you think about the number of players in West Lafayette, when you think about the quality of players in West Lafayette, it's scary.

I am afraid that the players under other agents in the league combined are not as high as the salary of the West Lafayette agency.

As for resources, that is, finding endorsement contracts for players, there is actually no need to worry too much.

When a company grows in scale and becomes number one in the industry, countless resources will come to its doorstep.

Richard firmly believes that Golden Dragon can definitely do this perfectly.

In terms of ability, Richard is quite convinced by Golden Dragon's ability...

Just like the player fighting event organized by Richard and Golden Dragon a few years ago, although Richard has been too busy and has not paid attention to this event for a long time.

But when Golden Dragon started it alone, it was still successful.

Now the scale is no longer limited to the NBA. During the offseason last season, there were even WNBA players entering the competition.

The battle between these female players was extremely effective and directly brought huge profits.

Mainly just a gimmick...

One of the two female players competing against each other in the WNBA was Becky Hammon, who would later become a female assistant coach of the Spurs.

Domestic fans don’t know much about Becky Harmon’s career.

But the American side praised Becky Harmon in the early stages of her career. She was known as the most beautiful woman in the world in women's basketball.

…

As a woman, it is not normal for women to be jealous. It may be because of the reputation of the most beautiful woman that Becky Harmon is ostracized in the WNBA.

How far has it been squeezed out...

Becky Hammon later wanted to join the U.S. Women's Basketball Team to participate in the Olympics, but other players jointly rejected her. Becky Hammon was so angry that she directly joined the Russian Women's Basketball Team.

The relationship between the United States and Russia is competition in all aspects anyway.

Anyway, this Becky Harmon is also a hot-tempered boss, who will "turn in the enemy" if she disagrees with her.

…

This time she had a fighting match with her teammate Theresa Witherspoon.

On the one hand, the two people have old and new grudges, and they have completely broken up with each other. On the other hand, it is also because of the high appearance fees and bonuses.

WNBA player salaries are not as high as NBA players, and the gap can even be said to be ridiculously large.

In 2018, the WNBA's maximum salary was US$115,000, but what about the NBA? It's more than 40 million US dollars...

The salary of James or Curry alone is higher than the combined salary of more than 300 players in the entire WNBA!

The maximum salary is just over 110,000, and the rookie contract is only 40,000 to 50,000 US dollars!

Think about it, this is the price tag in 2018. The maximum salary of a WNBA player in this era may be less than $100,000.

If they win this fighting match, they can earn close to three million US dollars, which is a salary that they cannot earn in their entire careers.

No one would refuse such a good thing...

As a result, Becky Harmon won the fighting match and received a huge bonus!

…

What Richard and Golden Dragon didn't expect was that this incident directly caused an uproar in the WNBA.

Women always like to fight, but as Becky Hammon earns millions of dollars, all kinds of fights in the WNBA intensify.

Sometimes, the fights on the field are even more exaggerated and larger than that of the men's basketball team!

Under such circumstances, the WNBA has really attracted a large number of male fans.

After all, a bunch of women are fighting on the field, and the tickets are cheap. No matter how you look at it, this kind of thing is cost-effective.

…

Right now this offseason, the Golden Dragon has already scheduled three groups of WNBA female players to face off.

As for the NBA, it's a bit lacking, with only two groups.

There are five groups of duels in one offseason, which is already a pretty good scale. At least in Richard's view, this fighting event has completely risen.

…

The lottery is now over, and Richard successfully got the No. 1 pick.

The next step is to train Yao Ming well, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came in handy at this time.

Two trainers, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, are now training Yao Ming.

After all, Yao Ming joining the Pistons is a sure thing.

In later generations, James would train with the Cavaliers and then be punished, which is different from the current situation of Yao Ming.

At that time, James had not signed up for the draft, so the Cavaliers' operation was illegal.

And now Yao Ming has signed up for the draft, so the league can't find any fault.

…

Richard has already obtained the list of players for this draft from Miles.

Only one West Lafayette player is in the running, and that's Prince.

After Prince left the team, the West Lafayette players at Purdue University were almost extinct, except for David Lee.

This makes Richard very uncomfortable...

It's not that he doesn't want to help Purdue, but the quality is not as good as the previous one, and he has absolutely nothing to do.

If they really put in more effort, Richard could help Purdue find more players, but the key is that Richard is extremely busy right now.

Where can I find the time to stare at Purdue University every day...

As the only West Lafayette prospect in this draft, Richard naturally has the idea of ​​​​taking Prince.

And this idea is not unrealistic.

Because Purdue University's record in the past two years has not been outstanding, Prince's draft pick may not be very high.

In Richard's opinion, Prince's draft pick may be similar to normal.

That is the 23rd pick in the first round.

After the craziness about West Lafayette players in previous years, the league's teams are now a lot calmer.

The main reason is that Pudu is celebrating the Chinese New Year at Wang Erxiao, and every year is worse than the previous year.

From the perspective of each team, Richard may not have helped select the current Purdue players. Under such circumstances, there is no need to specifically select Purdue players.

This is naturally a good thing for Richard, and he will have a better chance of acquiring West Lafayette players in the future.

…

In Richard's opinion, the quality of the 2002 draft was just okay.

Of course, it can only be said to be just okay, not very good.

Yao Ming, Stoudemire, Boozer, and Caron Butler are the players who have been selected as All-Stars in this rookie class.

There are only four, which is really not much...

In addition to these four people, there are some players who are pretty good.

Dunleavy Jr. with the third pick, Drew Gooden with the fourth pick, Nene Hilario with the seventh pick, Prince with the 23rd pick, Matt Barnes with the 45th pick, Diamond Scola with the 55th pick.

There are quite a few high-quality inside players produced this year...

But now that Richard has taken down Yao Ming and Boozer, there is not much of a shortage of insiders.

Richard will definitely not consider the three young Dunleavy, Gooden and Nene.

That’s not to say that these three people are not strong...

The strength is okay, but it is still difficult for Richard to accept such a player with the top ten picks.

Think about the players selected in the top ten picks when Richard was with the Trail Blazers, including Kobe Bryant and Nowitzki.

Both of these are historical giants...

And these three people can only be said to be quasi-All-Stars, not even All-Stars, and maybe not even quasi-All-Stars.

In this case, if Richard is asked to choose with a high draft pick, he will definitely not be able to do so.

It feels like a waste...

Moreover, apart from the No. 1 pick, Richard has no such high-ranking draft picks.

So Richard can only target the players after Prince...

…

Right now he only has two draft picks in his hands.

A No. 1 pick, and a second-round pick with the 37th overall pick.

The No. 1 pick was undoubtedly used to get Yao Ming. As for the 37th pick in that round, Boozer was not enough.

Under normal circumstances, Boozer would be selected with the 34th pick in the second round. The 37th pick in Richard's hands will definitely not work.

Then the only option is to trade up. Trading up for a second-round pick is not particularly difficult.

Or directly trading for a first-round pick at the bottom of the first round is not impossible.

Sometimes a pick at the bottom of the first round is not as valuable as a pick at the top of the second round.

The reason is that the first-round pick must be given a four-year guaranteed contract, and at most it will be followed by a team option.

This is very risky. If you pick a smelly tomato and a rotten bird's egg, it will be a loss-making business...

The key is that with a guaranteed contract, the team has no way to fire this player.

As for the second-round signing, it is more flexible. The team can give the contract at will. Because there is no standard contract, the team can add some additional conditions at will. If the situation is not right, it can be waived at any time.

For example, the later Chinese player Zhou Qi...

…

Richard immediately contacted Adelman of the Kings.

They have the 29th overall pick in the first round this season.

"Old man, life has been good recently..." Richard called Adelman and joked.

Adelman is living a good life now...

The record of ranking first in the regular season record is all due to Adelman.

You must know that the king a few years ago was a super fat character.

"Hey, I'm about to be eliminated by the Spurs. What's so great about it!" Adelman said with a melancholy tone.

They are currently playing in the Western Conference semifinals with the Spurs, and have been pushed to the edge of the cliff by the Spurs.

With a big score of 3:1, the king is about to be eliminated...

In this case, Adelman was naturally not in a good mood.

Richard didn't know how to console him. There was no consolation at all. It was about the team's strength.

"On the other hand, you got the No. 1 pick. God, your luck is so amazing!" Adelman couldn't help but be surprised when he learned that Richard had gotten the No. 1 pick.

Richard laughed and stopped talking about the No. 1 pick.

If you get a bargain, don't behave well, otherwise you won't make others unhappy.

If this had happened when he first entered the league, young Richard might have had a serious discussion with Adelman about the No. 1 pick.

But now he has matured too much and is naturally much more stable.

"Old man, I'm asking for something from you again this time. I want to ask if you have any plans to sell your first-round pick." Richard asked with a smile.

"Oh? You're not thinking about getting the No. 1 pick in exchange, are you? That's a good thing..." Adelman joked.

Richard was a little speechless. It was really hard to talk about transactions with these old guys...

"Old man, stop joking, I'm talking about serious business. I want to trade our 37th pick for your 29th pick."

"It's not impossible, but..." Adelman pondered for a moment.

"I heard that you helped Nelson find Li Nailong two years ago? He is the main substitute in the Mavericks team now..."

Richard was startled. Good guy, did Nelson tell Adelman about this? !

Judging from Adelman's posture, he probably wanted to see if he could get some benefits from Richard.

Adelman certainly doesn't pay much attention to a draft pick with the 29th overall pick in the first round.

If you can get a main substitute player from Richard, then you can give this first-round pick to Richard for free...

"Old man, I know what you mean!"

"Don't worry, I won't let my friends suffer. Otherwise, I have a good defensive small forward candidate here." Richard said to Adelman with a smile.

"Deal!" Adelman shouted directly without hesitation.

Richard's behavior is definitely a timely help. The Kings' lineup is actually quite complete at the moment. Otherwise, it would be impossible to have the league's best record.

But the bench is not deep enough and lacks defensive heroes.

If you can get a defensive engineer-type forward and defensive line player, this will definitely be a great thing.

In this era, there are a lot of forward and back line players with strong offensive firepower, so defensive engineer type forward and back line players are starting to be valuable.

From Adelman's point of view, he has made a lot of money this time!