The Rest, Only Noise

Chapter 9: Only 1 day choice

Louie has always wanted to appear mature, and reason tells him that he is 30 years old, but he is now entering the body of an 18-year-old.

Are maturity and prudence a natural expression? Not really.

Just because youth is gone forever, most people are asked to do things that fit their age, even if they don't like it, they have to do it, and no one wants to attract strange eyes.

The men's basketball leader in the post-Yao Huan era, Yi Jianlian, had a famous black stalk "Yi Di is always 18 years old" when he was young.

Now Louis really thinks that as long as his mentality is young enough, why should he be bound by his mental age and give up his nature?

Well, he decided, forever 18.

This was the mental journey he went through in the few seconds before the inn's bestiality.

He thus became a secondary scout reporting to K.C. Jones.

The pay for being a secondary scout is a little bit better than Lou thought.

There is a salary of $1,400 a month, and all travel, tickets, and lodging expenses used to observe players during the season can be reimbursed.

But it is also conditional.

For example, the plane can only be in economy class, and the accommodation and three meals are all simple.

Compared with the future scouts in various business classes and five-star hotels, it is very different, but for the current Louis, it is good enough.

His scouting report is said to be endorsed by many inside the Celtics, excluding Reed Auerbach.

Not that his scouting report is bad, but that Auerbach doesn't like to judge by video.

The problem is that Louie's main judgment about John Long came from that VHS tape.

But Auerbach has his own credo about watching players, which is a famous saying: "I don't look at the stats, I trust my eyes, you can show me a guy with 16 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, But he may also throw the ball at random, move slowly, and have many wrong positions, unscrupulous wave shots, disrupt the rhythm of his teammates, coupled with poor defense and inaction at critical moments, when When you can quantify that, I'll be interested in looking at the data."

In fact, Auerbach's fears can be seen clearly in the video.

But it is difficult for him to use video to judge players. He would rather believe the words of an old friend of the NCAA and watch the game in person.

I have to say that he has discerning eyes and pearls. The Celtics can have the glory of the past few decades, and Auerbach accounts for 99% of the credit.

The reason why Louie was recognized, and the reason why Auerbach agreed to include him in the Greens family despite Auerbach's disbelief, was because the draft they were going to use to select John Long was a very low one. .

So, try it.

If you choose a parallel import, there is no loss. If Lang has a firm foothold in the Celtics, it will be a transcript that belongs to Louis.

Louie moved out of the hotel and made his home in a white community not far from the Greek Academy, the Celtics training ground.

He didn't like that community.

It was filled with the "greatest generation" who didn't flee Boston's desegregation policies.

Although they were not malicious, they often referred to Louis as "Oriental".

It's an ingrained habit, and no matter how Louis corrects them, they won't change their name.

Louis can only adapt to this group of "greatest generation", many of whom participated in World War II when they were young, worked in what Li Xuanbing identified as decent jobs, and had great influence in the community.

When he first arrived, it was best to keep a low profile.

In the days that followed, he traveled between Boston and Ohio, taking a leave of absence.

Wu Sansheng was shocked when he heard that Louis had to drop out of school in order to become a professional scout. Although he persuaded him for a day, it was a done deal.

They can only eat a loose meal.

"I hope you can become a top scout when I graduate!" Wu Sansheng wished.

Louis did not have many friends at DSU, and Wu Sansheng was the only one who could befriend him.

"You underestimate me too much, maybe I've already become the general manager at that time." Louis said whimsically.

Returning to Boston from Ohio is May 26th.

The 1978 draft was 14 days away.

This year's draft is a top priority for the Celtics, who are hungry for a rebirth after receiving an unprecedented insult last season, with Auerbach repeatedly storming the team's locker room after a loss to instill in players "be ashamed." ” and the words “don’t give up.”

This left Tom Heinsohn under too much pressure and was fired by Auerbach during the season.

A team that is chaotic and has no direction is not something a coach can save.

Celtics legend, and Heinsohn's assistant, Tom Sanders, who took over the Celtics while also burying his NBA coaching prospects, was a mess.

The "very white and pretty" Celtics' romance with the public and the media in the early '70s also appears to be over.

At home, boos from fans poured out like a waterfall, and in The Boston Globe, Bob Ryan, known for his sharp criticism, lashed out at the team. He said Wicks was "ineffective", Cowens "had no idea what he was doing on defense" and Havlicek was "like a mercenary" and that "the team was dull and lifeless," Ryan wrote. "The Celtics have stood for something for the past 20 years. Now the only thing they can stand for is the national anthem."

Then, as a rare black star on the team with severe albinism, Joe-Joe White was repeatedly scapegoated, and finally broke down, missed training again and again and asked to be traded.

In this chaotic and desperate atmosphere, the Celtics waited for Havlicek's decision to retire, thus ending the season.

They need a successful draft.

The problem is, since Dave Cowens was drafted in 1970, Auerbach has had very little in the draft -- and it's not unreasonable to say he screwed up every single draft pick from 1971-1977. ⑴

In the spring of the 1977-78 season, Indiana State's Larry Bird was the center of basketball.

Although he is only a junior, he is one of the five candidates in the current draft who can be selected in advance by the team in the draft.

According to the results of the Oscar Robinson case, the NBA will open up free agency, provide medical and retirement protection, and allow underclassmen to participate in the draft. But in the first dozen years, it was still the norm for elite players to go to three to four years of college and enter the league with mature bodies, skills and minds.

If they don't sign up for the draft, American college students can theoretically be selected by NBA teams after four years of college. And some players, such as those who participated in compulsory military service before 1973, were often eligible for NBA selection before graduating from college. There are others, like Bird this year, who was a member of Indiana University as a freshman, playing for coach Bob Knight.

Life on the Indiana University campus was extremely difficult for Bird, who came from the countryside. He then took a job, repaired cars, and then transferred to Indiana State University. According to the rules, he needed to sit on the custodial board for a year at the new college before he could play a game, but the custodial year was still considered a valid year, so he was in his junior year, 1978. In 2008, he was eligible to be selected by an NBA team.

Despite his "once in a century" reputation among scouts, general managers of NBA teams still don't know how good he is.

Including Auerbach, it would be **** to say they knew Bird would be as good as the future.

The first-round pick in 1978 belonged to Bird's hometown team, the Indiana Pacers.

The story should have played out like Cleveland welcomed the Chosen Son in 2003.

However, Bird listened to his mother's words and insisted on going back to school to play the fourth season and finish his studies - is there any familiar plot?

The Pacers head coach and general manager Jobbird met before the NBA's ban on contact with college students. The Pacers want Bird to join the team immediately after being drafted, and they can only give Bird a salary of $500,000 a year. This is not a low price, but for a rookie of Bird's level, it can only be regarded as a "just right" contract.

The Pacers are on the verge of bankruptcy, they paid a huge franchise fee to join the NBA, their home attendance was dismal due to their poor record, and like several other ABA teams incorporated into the NBA, they did not broadcast their first four years in the league. Contract Split - It's four years of tightening the belt, and they're eager for immediate change.

Bird wanted a superstar salary, however, and he was determined to go back to school for a fourth season. UU reading www.uukanshu.com

The Pacers could only bid farewell to the bird and send the No. 1 pick to the Blazers.

Then the same scenario starts again.

The Blazers were willing to give Bird the contract he wanted, but he had to join the team right away.

Bird's determination to finish school was unshakable.

It stands to reason that the choice of Bird for a savior-hungry team is a decision without much thought, but in a world without an eye-opening world, who would risk the cost of using the top pick to choose the air? Although Bird is already eligible to be selected, according to regulations, after he officially graduated in 1979, if he is not satisfied with the team that selected him last year, he can re-enter the draft.

By then, the team that drafted him this year will lose everything.

Therefore, although no one knows how good Bird's future is, he is indeed the only natural choice in 1978, but under various objective conditions, there are not many teams that dare to take risks.

Louie heard about Bird and knew that the Celtics were determined to select Bird with the sixth overall pick.

This is all history. Even if he doesn't know the NBA of this era, he knows that Bird is a Celtics player, and even more that he often pretends to be on the court.

Bird's business is out of his hands, and he's sifting through a stack of scouting reports from K.C. Jones.

⑴ One of the 1972 No. 10 pick Paul Westphal who had a chance to blossom was traded before he became a talent, and of course, that trade brought the championship. To be fair, though, the Celtics didn't have a single top-ninth pick in the first round from 1971-1977, the top two picks, the 10th pick in '72 (Westphal), '77 The 12th overall pick (Maxwell's 1984 Finals MVP) all picked the right person.

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