Bishop of the Devil

After just a few days of leisure, Richard had to get busy again.

The NBA Finals are over. What makes Richard a little regretful is that the Pistons finally lost to the Spurs in the tiebreaker and failed to build a championship dynasty.

At the end of the game, Yao Ming looked frustrated...

They were so close to becoming a dynasty player, even in the last five minutes, they still maintained the lead.

As a result, in just five minutes, Ginobili was like a scalpel, ruthlessly cutting into the few advantages he had.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the Spurs defeated their opponents on the road with a score of 97:94 and won the championship trophy.

The Pistons did not lose unjustly. In the last five minutes of the game, Ginobili scored a crazy 11 points!

In Richard's view, Duncan is undoubtedly the strongest among the Spurs' troika, followed by the Demon Sword...

Parker's outbursts are traceable, while the demon sword is very strange and can always deliver a fatal blow to the opponent at critical moments.

Duncan won the first championship trophy of his career, and also won the FMVP honor.

…

On June 17, the draft begins.

This time Richard didn't take Miles with him, but Cowens.

It's strange to say that Cowens couldn't survive again and came to defect to Richard again this time...

This guy whose playing career was perfect enough to be ranked among the top 50 superstars in history, has a coaching career that is simply a mess.

Among the top fifty superstars in history, there are a total of fifteen center players, and Dave Cowens is one of them.

From the number of centers, we can see that traditional basketball still centers on the center.

There are a total of fifty places, with centers accounting for almost one-third, and the remaining four positions only have a total of thirty-five places.

…

What is weird is that many of these top 50 superstars chose to enter the coaching industry after retiring.

But except for Wilkens, whose coaching career was relatively successful, everyone else was quite miserable...

For example, Cowens right now.

For example, Bird, McHale, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, etc., the coaching careers of these people are all short-lived...

Wilkens is an anomaly. He has a long coaching life of thirty-two years. However, in these thirty-two years, he has only won one championship.

…

Richard sometimes wants to persuade Cowens to stop eating as a coach. He really has no talent.

Might as well find a team to do the logistics work...

But it was so hurtful to say this.

…

What makes Richard a little dissatisfied is that this year's draft was held in New York again.

In Richard's opinion, this must be Stern's attempt to save himself from traveling to other cities.

The night before the draft, Richard met with Al Jefferson and presented the guy with a gold medal.

Then he met with Bucks coach Stotts and finalized the deal face to face.

Stotts simply told Richard that they wanted Bogut, but Richard did not directly give Stotts a choice.

It is essential to be on guard. Now that the deal is finalized, if the Bucks get Richard's candidate and do something wrong, such as letting the Hawks, who hold the second pick, take Paul, then Richard will lose.

Of course, even if it is a loss, it is certainly not a big loss. After all, there is a high-quality point guard in this draft.

It's just that Fatty De is dishonest. He looks kind and honest, but he's full of tricks.

The key is that Richard doesn't really like players who contradict their coaches...

Thinking about Sloan's status in the Jazz, it was a totem-like existence. Even so, it still made Fatty De look disgraced.

Richard didn't dare to guarantee that after he chose Fatty De, he would be completely obedient.

…

Of course, if Richard doesn't choose Fatty De, it's purely a matter of Fatty's character and style, and has nothing to do with his strength.

Whether it's chubby or dirty, they actually fit the Pirates' current lineup.

…

In the theater at Madison Garden, all the teams were already here, waiting for Stern to announce the start of the draft.

"Lee, you are so lucky, what? You must choose Bogut this year, right?" Nets head coach Lawrence Frank was sitting not far from Richard.

At this moment, he asked Richard with a smile.

Richard naturally has a great affection for Frank as a coach.

You must know that Frank gave up his All-Star leadership qualification to Richard before.

This favor is quite important to Richard, and he has been looking for opportunities to repay Frank.

Tonight is a good opportunity.

Although the Nets lost their first-round pick, they still had a second-round pick. Richard thought for a while and returned the favor.

This year's draft doesn't have many stars, but there are quite a few good players.

Especially in the second round, many high-quality players emerged. In terms of quantity, they are no worse than those in the first round.

For example, Ilyasova, Brandon Bass, CJ Miles, Reed, Monta Ellis, Blatche, Ryan Gomez, Amir Johnson, Gortat...

There is also Vaughn Weaver, who is more familiar to Rockets fans, that is, the idiot nicknamed Wei Bat King, but his strength is definitely not comparable to the above players.

So many players are all high-quality players who emerged in the second round of this draft. Looking at the entire NBA history, I am afraid that there will never be a draft where such high-quality characters emerged in the second round.

…

Richard began to think about the Nets' lineup in his mind, preparing to take advantage of this opportunity to return Frank a favor.

In the season that just ended, Carter joined the Nets. It may be because of his joining that the team's integration was not good, and the Nets collapsed.

And this coming season, the Nets lineup that has finished running in will definitely be able to achieve a good record.

Carter, Jefferson and Kidd, this is a true trident lineup.

In the end, Richard helped Frank pick Amir Johnson, a good pick-and-roll power forward. Although he is not a star-level player, the Nets signed him with a second-round pick, which will definitely make a lot of money. .

It is worth mentioning that Amir Johnson actually has a quite interesting label.

He was the last high school player drafted in the entire history of the NBA.

This reminds Richard of a domestic movie, The Last Eunuch in China...

…

Richard took out a pen and paper, scrawled Amir Johnson's name, then stood up, walked to Frank, and handed the note to Frank.

Bringing Cowens to a meeting is just not as good as Miles. Richard usually leaves this kind of errand work to Miles...

Richard's face is not thick enough to let a top 50 star in history do errands for him.

Frank took the note and opened it with some confusion. This sight directly made him, a young coach, feel his heart beat wildly.

There was only one name on the note, and Frank didn't even dare to look at it too carefully for fear of being seen by other teams nearby.

Even by thinking about it with his big toe, Frank could guess the value of the name.

Richard is doing himself a favor!

Thinking about the "investments" he had made before, Frank felt that he was so wise.

Giving up a small opportunity to lead the All-Star team, and actually being able to exchange for a high-quality rookie from Richard, this deal is simply a bargain.

If there is another opportunity like this in the future, Frank is sure that he will never let it go.

…

Richard stood up and handed the note, causing the scene to be silent for a moment.

Looking at Frank's excited expression, many people, including the old coach, had already guessed the content on the note.

But even if they guessed it, they could only stare and secretly envy Frank's good luck.

Only Green Kai head coach Doc Rivers, after seeing this scene, immediately stood up and ran to Richard's side.

Richard had made a promise to Pierce before to help Green Kai select people.

Although Pierce did not come to the draft today, Rivers felt that Richard was not the kind of person who would not keep his word.

At this moment, before the draft started, I quickly went to Richard for help.

Richard looked at Rivers with a smile on his face, picked up a pen and paper again, wrote three names and handed them over.

Ilyasova, Reed and Monta-Ellis.

Rivers took the note, looked at it carefully, and became sluggish.

"Three?" Rivers asked in disbelief, holding up three fingers.

Richard nodded, this was his gift to Pierce.

Rivers is about to collapse, because they only have two draft picks, one in the first round and one in the second round.

If they had known that Richard would give out three names, even if they were selling everything, they would definitely have to come up with another draft pick.

The only thing that makes Rivers happy is that none of these three are well-known, and their picks will definitely not be high. The draft picks they have on hand are enough to guarantee the selection of two of them.

Which two should you choose? Rivers is currently in trouble with happiness.

The whole venue fell into silence again.

Good guy, look at Rivers holding out three fingers, is it possible that Richard gave Lu Kai a list of three people? !

Many teams in the Eastern Conference are tightening their legs. This thing is so painful...

The East is about to start going against the grain.

PS: Five updates will continue tomorrow, please give me a guaranteed monthly ticket for March...