The rest is just noise

Louis looked at the twelve teams with lottery picks, thinking about the chips in his hand, and thinking about how to trade.

After one season, the Lakers' untradeable list increased from two (Wilson, Ellis) to four.

In addition to these two, we have to add Garnett and Liu Yuqing.

The tragedy maker has a special status, the Lakers will not trade him, and other teams are not interested.

Apart from these five people, all other players on the Lakers team are chips.

Looking at it this way, Louis has a lot of cards in his hand.

There are three main high-quality assets: Finlay, Lettner, and Ostertag.

There are many talents in the 1996 class, and Louis’ goal is not just Kobe.

The most important thing now is to collect draft picks, and the second is to keep confidentiality.

After West was scolded by him, Louis' authority reached a peak in the Forum office building.

All staff members treated his orders like eunuchs who received imperial edicts.

Louis took great pains to set up such a situation for West, not just to establish his authority, but to seize the initiative of "Kobe".

This initiative has nothing to do with the draft.

The history that Louis knows has proven that Kobe is a player who is difficult to control. Once he goes too far, he will become poison in the locker room and transform into a destroyer of chemical reactions.

If Louis really can't conquer him, then he can only trade.

And at that time, West could only accept it, because Louis also said that he didn't like Kobe, and you had to choose him.

Of course, the probability of this happening is very small.

Louis mainly wants to hold a handle on West, just like arranging Bird to be a development coach for Garnett.

If Garnett has a problem, Louis can also blame Bird.

Likewise, if Kobe gets angry with Louis in the future, who will suffer? West, of course.

However, these are just assumptions.

Before selecting Kobe, many things were uncertain.

Before the draft, the work of the Lakers management team is divided into three parts.

Trials, trades, contract renewals.

Trial training of new people - Although Louis knows who to choose, he has to do superficial work, which can also have some effect of confusing others.

In terms of trade, the Lakers own the draft pick from Portland this year, but due to the opponent's excellent regular season record, the pick is very low.

1996 is known as the golden draft year, but the truly worthy players were concentrated in the first and middle rounds.

If they want to select several powerful players including Kobe, the Lakers need to initiate a trade. Due to the need for multi-line operations, Louis simply handed over the job of acquiring Kobe's draft rights to West.

Interestingly, West didn't know that the draft pick he was fighting for was going to be used to select Kobe Bryant.

Louis' request is that, except for those who cannot be traded, everyone else can be traded as long as they are needed. If necessary, draft picks can also be added to facilitate the completion of the transaction.

West frowned and said: "The value of this year's draft picks is extraordinary. If we want to get a lottery pick, we may have to send Michael Finley."

"Michael is a good player, but he doesn't meet my needs." Louis said indifferently, "Let him go to a team that can better prove his value."

Finally the contract was renewed.

In fact, the only player the Lakers need to renew is David Robinson.

Robinson was injured last season and was unable to play for Louis. Some people believe that if he can play, the Lakers have a chance to defeat the Trail Blazers.

But this is just an unconvincing optimistic view.

In Louis' opinion, even with Robinson, the Lakers have no chance.

Because Robinson is a famous dream maid, she will be beaten ugly every time she meets her.

Moreover, Louis doesn't like Robinson, so even though he knew that the other party's contract was in the last year, he still refused to renew his contract in advance and insisted on letting the other party test his worth in the free market.

The above are basically the focus of the Lakers management's recent work.

Speaking of trials, the Lakers, with the 27th pick in the first round, actually sent trial invitations to top picks Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby.

The two people's responses also have their own mysteries.

Camby politely declined the Lakers' invitation.

Iverson's team declined due to physical discomfort.

In fact, among the top ten favorites, only Ray Allen and Kerry Kittles (Kerry? Kittles? SG) came to Los Angeles for trial training.

However, Allen only participated in individual training, and Kittles only participated in physical testing.

This is not difficult to understand. The Lakers draft picks are low, and it is difficult to select them without trading. They could have refused. Now that they are here, it is to give the Lakers face, but in order not to increase their own risk of injury, they must control the trial training.

strength.

"Coach, choose me, you won't regret it."

That's what Kittles said to Louis.

Louis smiled and said nothing.

West secretly observed that if he were asked to choose one of the two, he would definitely choose Ray Allen.

Judging from the college game, Kittles is a comprehensive second position, but Allen has the potential to become a core cornerstone like Jordan.

However, he was not interested in selecting these two people.

Kobe was what he cared about most.

Tomorrow, 10 new stars, including Kobe Bryant, will arrive in Los Angeles to try out for the Lakers. That is the highlight.

West prayed in his heart. He hoped that Kobe could perform well enough to satisfy Louis.

next day

Although Louis went out at six in the morning, he was still stuck in traffic for an hour and a half.

I heard people say that this is already very lucky.

In Los Angeles, traffic rush hour is from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

In other words, as long as you choose to go out at this time, you will encounter traffic jams.

Louis feels more and more that it is necessary to buy a private jet. If he continues like this, he will become a road rage patient.

At this time, several new stars have arrived at the forum and are ready to start trial training.

There are Roy Rogers PF from the University of Alabama, Walter McCarty PF from the University of Kentucky, John Wallace from Syracuse University and...the top high school student in the class of 1996

Kobe Bryant.

"How do we try out?"

Louis heard someone say that Kobe was the first person to come to the forum.

This proves how much he wants to play for the Lakers, even if his pick is low.

Therefore, he would take the initiative to ask about the trial training process.

"Don't worry, you guys should warm up first. Someone will come and tell you the whole process of the trial training later." Zhao Yuanzheng is currently the only assistant coach who still maintains high-intensity work around the clock.

On the one hand, he had to arrange trial training, on the other hand, he had to invite trial training, and on the other hand, he had to take notes for the players who came for trial training. At the same time, he also had to build up relationships with Bass Jr. and other colleagues in the office. Louis felt that he would die suddenly sooner or later if he continued like this.

.

But doing this is also to fight for his own future, and Louis will not advise him to take a rest.

He looked at Kobe, who was becoming anxious, with special interest.

In Louis' previous life, people like Kobe Bryant were legendary gods. It was not difficult to meet him, but it was difficult to get up close and personal with him.

Now, Louis has come into contact with too many great people, so even the young version of the Black Mamba that left a deep impression on China's post-80s generation will not make him excited.

At this time, Kobe actually shaved off all his hair.

He should still have hair.

So, Louis asked; "You are not 18 years old yet, why have you lost all your hair?"

Kobe replied: "Philadelphia wants me to play for Los Angeles, and my family wants me to play for Duke, but I know that I don't belong in the university. I have to sharpen my ambition and use this method to prove my ambition to them."

Okay, good enough for the second grade.

Think about it on the other hand, what an arrogant person this is. He is just the number one high school student in the United States, but he actually feels that the college basketball pool is too small to accommodate him?

"Sir, when does the trial start?" Kobe looked like he couldn't wait.

Louis looked at him playfully: "If you really can't bear the loneliness, you can spike a few balls to warm up the game."

"May I?"

"Of course, can you do a crotch dunk?" Louis laughed, "That's the kind of action where you put the ball under your crotch in the air and complete the dunk with a change of hands."

"Simple!"

This proud young man held the ball in front of Louis and completed a wonderful dunk in front of other freshmen on the court.

Not only is he pretentious, but he also likes to be in the limelight.

Louis' head started to get big.

What does this look like?

This is like a more rebellious and arrogant Benjamin Wilson, and Louis has no help for him.

When Kobe completed his third dunk, Wilson, who was supposed to be on vacation, walked into the arena wearing training clothes: "Not bad, one more!"

Benj's voice attracted everyone's attention.

When Kobe saw the "Conqueror", he first widened his eyes and checked carefully, then tried to catch the ball with one hand, but found that his hand was too small to make random movements, so he slightly adjusted the angle, and then pointed the ball at Wilson

: "Benjamin, I want to challenge you to a duel!"

"Kid, what are you crazy about?"

Kobe Bryant's father, Joe Bryant, was shocked by his son's bold move.

Then, Wilson walked up to Kobe, a born winner who had won seven championships, and said calmly: "Okay."