The Godfather of Basketball

The Cavaliers' championship parade was so successful that fans from almost the entire city came to the streets to cheer for the team.

Tang Tian also delivered a wonderful speech outside the Quicken Loans Arena.

"We have achieved consecutive championships, but two championships are far from the limit of this city."

Tang Tian's last words made all the fans present excited.

When others say these words, they may still attract more or less doubts, and even feel that they are bragging, but Tang Tian's words, entering the NBA five championships in five years, and the Cavaliers sitting on the Big Three, no one thinks There is nothing wrong with this statement.

Dynasty is just around the corner!

After the championship parade was over, Tang Tian called James to the office alone.

When he came back from the airport, he found that James was not in the right mood, and he was even a little absent-minded during the championship parade.

"LeBron, I see you're a little unhappy, didn't you play hard at the bar last night?" Tang Tian said with a smile.

"No, it's just that I didn't sleep last night and I'm a little tired." James squeezed out a smile.

"That's good, I thought you were unhappy that you didn't get the FMVP." Tang Tian continued.

James froze for a moment.

Seeing the change in James' expression, Tang Tian knew he was right.

"You know my character, if you have any request, just ask me directly, if you don't say anything, it is easy to be misunderstood." Tang Tian cut to the point.

James looked at Tang Tian's expression, hesitated for a long time, and finally said, "I need a bigger role."

Tang Tian smiled.

This is somewhat expected, what James wants is nothing more than honor, which will help increase his commercial value.

"You know what I said to everyone on the team. The playing time of this team is won by performance on the court. Those words mean that no one is treated equally, so I can't give you such a promise."

James' expression froze. Having experienced so many coaches, Tang Tian was the most disrespectful coach he had ever seen.

"Did you feel your growth this time in the finals?" Tang Tian changed the subject.

James nodded. After experiencing a series of things last season, he can indeed feel that he is gradually maturing.

He even felt that he had reached a peak that he had never reached before.

"Since you feel that you have become stronger, why worry about your role next season? Not confident? Do I have to make a promise to you?" Tang Tian said with a smile.

As a coach, prestige is a key point.

He told the players that the team's playing time needs to be won by performance. He did this to Jeremy Lin, Iverson, and even Paul and Yao Ming, so even James couldn't make a special case.

But also as he said, James has grown stronger and matured through last season's playoffs.

He has no reason not to give such a James a bigger role.

To put it more bluntly, Yao Ming is getting older and older. In order to avoid injuries, it is an inevitable trend to reduce playing time.

Not to mention James taking the initiative, he will take the initiative to increase his role at that time.

"I understand." James said, but his expression made it impossible to guess whether he really understood.

"You have to believe in me, and you also have to believe in yourself." Tang Tian finally said.

James said nothing more.

After this intermittent conversation ended, Tang Tian put James' matter aside for the time being.

The NBA draft is a few days away, and he has to focus on it.

Time flew by, and it was the eve of the draft. After completing the data reports and preparations for all the rookies, Tang Tian took Jones, Casey, Dante, and chief scout Victor, and boarded the plane to New York.

Unlike previous years, because Madison Square Garden needs to be renovated, this year's draft will not be held there, but at the Prudential Center Arena in Newark, New Jersey across the river.

The Cavaliers have a total of 3 draft picks this year, the 30th pick in the first round, the 56th pick in the second round (from last year's trade with the Lakers), and the 60th pick in the second round.

Before leaving, Tang Tian had asked Dante to try to trade some second-round picks, but unlike last year, other teams basically rejected the Cavaliers' proposal.

In other words, the current Cavaliers have already made them feel enough pressure, and they don't want this team to become stronger at all.

Given Tang Tian's vision in past drafts, they were not even willing to trade to the Cavaliers in the second round.

So that's all of their picks.

"How about our trade of draft picks up?" Tang Tian turned to look at Jones.

"No progress yet." Jones said with a wry smile.

"If it doesn't work, we can use our first-round pick next year as a bargaining chip, or let the other party propose a trade plan directly."

"Is Butler worth such a high price?" In the trial training that day, Butler did leave a deep impression on Jones, but he still felt that the price was too high if he needed to use two first rounds.

"It's worth it." Tang Tian gave an affirmative answer.

"Then I'll contact you when I get off the plane." Jones nodded.

Now that Tang Tian has spoken, he can just do it.

"By the way, the labor-management agreement expired this year, and the negotiation of the new agreement seems not to be smooth. There is a high probability that there will be a lockout. The last lockout was 13 years ago." Jones said, as an old man, he also experienced The original suspension.

Tang Tian didn't speak.

He knew about the NBA lockout in 2011, and now it seems that history has not skipped this period.

If there is a lockout, it will have a great impact on the team's signing and operation.

In fact, in the previous life, due to the impact of the lockout, there was actually no big movement in the free market that year.

The good news is that the Cavaliers lineup is currently relatively stable.

The same is the best thing.

Jones continued to contact the general managers of the teams as soon as he got off the plane, but the results were still not satisfactory.

Even those general managers are unwilling to offer an offer to the Cavaliers, because they are determined not to give the Cavaliers a chance to strengthen.

This was a situation Tang Tian had never encountered in the draft.

But that's how Public Enemies of the League will be treated.

On June 24, US time, the NBA Draft kicked off at the Prudential Center Arena in New Jersey.

Although the location has been changed, the layout and design of the arena are still not much different from previous years.

Tang Tian and his team also entered their draft room.

At this time in the previous life, James had been away from the Cavaliers for a year, and Gilbert's son won the No. 1 lottery.

But now the situation has changed, and the No. 1 pick naturally cannot belong to the Cavaliers, but to the Clippers.