David Stern waved to reporters easily and walked onto the stage calmly. The blue magic logo of the Orlando Magic was displayed on the big screen behind him.
Stern took the draft card handed over by the staff, "The first pick in the 2004 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic selected - Dwight Howard, from Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, the third high school student in the league.
The top pick."
Howard stood up immediately after hearing this, his huge body holding up the huge suit. He and his relatives and friends hugged each other, celebrated, muttered words, and smiled so hard that it almost reached his ears. He was a standard big kid.
Like this. He took the Orlando Magic team cap from the staff and walked to the front desk.
Stern, waiting for him in front of the stage, said, "Congratulations, good job, young man." "Thank you."
The two shook hands cordially, then turned sideways, ready to be baptized by the audience.
Of course, the reporters in the audience lived up to expectations and kept taking pictures of the two people on the stage. Unsurprisingly, this shot will appear on the front pages of major sports newspapers tomorrow.
Paul Edison in the audience stood up, smiled and applauded, enjoying this short and happy time.
It has been three months since Wang Ziqiang came to this world. He can no longer remember how he came to this world. He only remembers that he came from the world in 2014. He was a 27-year-old ordinary basketball reporter and a basketball enthusiast.
The night before, I went to watch the CBA. The team I supported beat an old enemy. Then I went to have some drinks with my friends to celebrate. As a result, I got drunk. When I woke up, I felt like my head was going to explode.
It hurt like hell. At that time, he didn’t care and thought it was the sequelae of his hangover. It would be better if he took it easy and had more rest. But things were not that simple. Suddenly Wang Ziqiang felt that there were a lot of things in his mind. Paul...
Edison, assistant to the president, coach, NBA, Orlando Magic, as well as various basketball tactics and team player data. So Wang Ziqiang got up to wash his face and wake up, but found that this was not his room, nor was it his room.
In the house of a best friend, "Did you have an affair yesterday when you were drunk?" The sultry Wang Ziqiang immediately checked his body. He was neatly dressed, including a shirt and trousers, and there was no sign of being cheated. "It seems that I
I’m thinking too much. Wait a minute, that’s not what I wore yesterday.” He looked again and found that his hands had become bigger and whiter, and his arms had become longer. “What’s going on?” He groped to find the bathroom and found the mirror.
There was a white face in there. "Fuck, what the fuck is going on?" I thought in my head, but what I blurted out was "fuck, what'shappened?" What happened in this small house in the next few hours can be said to be full of excitement.
It greatly increased the value of psychological research and had a great impact on social ethics. But the final result was that Wang Ziqiang accepted the reality and he changed from a pure descendant of the Yan and Huang Dynasties to an American with white skin, blond hair and blue eyes.
Fortunately, Wang Ziqiang discovered that the current time is March 2004, but he still has memories of the next 10 years.
When Wang Ziqiang completely integrated the original Edison's memory, he couldn't help but sigh: "I didn't expect that I have traveled through time. Fortunately, this guy is also a basketball player, and his original memory can also be used. It seems that God has allowed me to achieve something."
Career. But why doesn’t this kid even have a girlfriend?”
The next day, Monday, March 9, 2004, the weather was very good throughout Florida, and the sky was clear in Orlando. Although it was still February, it was warm and pleasant.
Paul Edison (Wang Ziqiang's name gradually faded in the book later) left his home, drove a small Ford, and headed to the Amway Center (er), the home of the Orlando Magic.
In fact, the Orlando Magic and Amway, which is not well-known in China, have a deep connection. Richard DeVos, the current owner of the Magic, is one of the founders of Amway, and he is the top speaker in the United States.
In 1991, Richard DeVos bought the Orlando Magic for $85 million and has been running the team until now. Although Richard DeVos is over 80, he often comes to the scene to help out in important Magic games...
"Hello, Paul, do you look in good spirits today?"
After entering the Amway Center, Paul suddenly heard someone calling him. When he looked back, he saw an old man with white hair, gold-rimmed glasses, gentle manner but bright spirit walking towards him.
Paul searched the memory of the body's owner and found out that this was old Pat Williams, the Magic's deputy team director and the legendary draft lottery winner.
When talking about the draft lottery, we have to mention the historical changes in the draft lottery. Three of the teams relied on their "evil strategies" to greatly promote the NBA draft reform.
In the very beginning, in the early days of the league, it was difficult for teams to attract fans to watch games, so teams could draft from where the team was located, the so-called "local draft." Before starting the draft, teams could give up their first-round picks.
rights, and select a player with a high approval rating from the team's location to enhance the team's prestige. As a result, the Boston Celtics used regional draft picks in 1965 to select Tom from Holy Cross-
Heinsohn. Tom Heinsohn averaged 18.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game during his nine-year career, and helped the Celtics win eight championships.
Obviously this was extremely unfair to other teams, so the league began to use the method of throwing coins to determine the ownership of the No. 1 draft pick in 1966. Only the two teams with the worst records in the Eastern and Western Conferences have the right to compete for the No. 1 pick. This
This system was used until 1985 before being replaced by the current lottery system. The remaining teams determine the draft order based on wins and losses. The worse the team's record, the higher the draft pick. This result has led to some players
The team suffered viciously in the draft year and when its record was poor and could not enter the playoffs. The most famous team that failed was the Houston Rockets.
Although the Rockets have been very strong in recent years. Although their results are not good and they are always ranked ninth or tenth in the Western Conference, they have struggled hard and determined not to perform poorly. As a result, they neither entered the playoffs nor received a good draft pick.
position. Many people are not worthy of the Rockets, but in fact the Rockets were not really tough before. They shocked the league with their poor performance, which led to changes in the draft rules. Let's go back to the 1983-84 season more than 20 years ago.
, look at the Rockets’ feats.
In 1983, the Rockets suffered a heavy blow after sending away Moses Malone at a very low price. They ended the entire season with the worst record in team history of 14 wins and 68 losses. Of course, they were able to rank last in the entire Western Conference.
First, according to the league's draft rules at the time, the Rockets and the Pacers, who were last in the Eastern Conference, flipped a coin to determine the No. 1 pick. Fortunately, the Houston people guessed correctly and got the talented Ralph Sampson.
Sampson lived up to expectations, averaging 21 points and 11.1 rebounds per game in his rookie season, becoming Houston's new leader. The Rockets' performance also improved greatly from the previous season. After playing 46 games,
That’s 20 valuable wins.
But with a record of 20 wins and 26 losses, it is impossible to reach the playoffs, and it is also difficult to recruit strong reinforcements-in addition, Olajuwon, a talented student from the University of Houston, hangs over Houston like a bright pearl in the night, and the Rockets
It was natural to make a decision: throw it away.
It should be said that this is a risky move, because only by finishing last in the Western Conference can the Rockets compete with the Eastern Conference for the No. 1 pick. However, they competed with the Clippers, who played 46 games and only had 15 wins and 31 losses (
(Translator's Note: Still in San Diego at the time), their 6-win record advantage is too great.
In order to achieve the ultimate goal of ruining the situation and finishing last in the Western Conference, the Houstonians began to make some crazy moves. Elvin Hayes, one of the top 50 NBA stars, was even completely relegated to the sidelines in the second half of the season.
——Although Hayes is nearly 39 years old at this time, the best inside jumper in NBA history started 43 games the previous season and averaged 12.9 points per game. The next year, he only scored 5 points per game.
Now it seems that this is undoubtedly a naked conspiracy of the Rockets...
Supported by such crazy behavior, the Rockets' record began to decline sharply. After a 6-game losing streak, the Rockets' record began to approach the Clippers. Of course, the Rockets seemed to be more grateful to fate. After 81 games in the season, the Rockets and Clippers
Together they achieved a record of 29 wins and 52 losses. Their fate will be decided on April 14, 1984. 146 to 128, the Clippers defeated the Jazz by a big score, 96 to 108, and the Rockets also lost to the Kansas City Kings cleanly——
The Houston Rockets ranked last in the Western Conference for the second consecutive year with a record of 29 wins and 53 losses. Although there are three teams in the Eastern Conference with worse records than the Rockets, the Rockets still firmly entered the top two picks in the 1984 NBA draft according to the league's draft rules.
In the end, they won the No. 1 pick by guessing coins. And the Houstonians who got Olajuwon began a journey of maintaining a winning rate of more than 50% for 14 consecutive seasons. But fate played a trick. In fact, the quality of the 1984 draft was extremely high.
It is said that only the later 96 and 03 batches can be compared with it, including a large number of legendary superstars who landed in the NBA in that draft. Among them, Michael Jordan, Akeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, John
Four Stockton players entered the top 50 ranks after retiring, and Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, Michael Cage, Sam Perkins and others were also selected as All-Stars.
Although Olajuwon later led the team to win the Larry O'Brien Cup when he was playing baseball in the "Gods", the Rockets fell into a bad reputation.
Maybe you can say that it was God's will that the Rockets finally won the No. 1 pick, but there is no doubt that they deliberately planned all of this with a ferocious mess in the 1983-84 season. Although the success depends on God, the plan depends on people. But this move has already
This made people angry, so the NBA, with the unanimous opposition of other teams in the league, revised the draft rules the following year. Based on the above reasons, in 1985, the NBA league carried out a historic reform of the draft system. Previously, the throwing system was
The rule of coins determining the No. 1 pick was replaced by lottery. A small table tennis ball will determine the first-round draft picks of teams that did not participate in the playoffs. In the second round, all teams are still ranked in reverse order according to their regular season records.
.
In 1985, the NBA began to conduct draft lottery. As of 2004, it was only 19 years old. Moreover, the Magic only established the team in 1989 and had entered the playoffs 8 times, so they were unable to participate in the lottery for the No. 1 pick. In other words, in only 7
In the process of participating in the No. 1 pick lottery for the first time, Pat Williams showed his prowess and won the No. 1 pick three times for the Magic. In 1992, he won the No. 1 pick with a probability of 1/6, and then selected O'Neal as expected.
, a more legendary scene occurred in 1993. Because the Magic team had 41 wins and 41 losses under the leadership of O'Neal the previous season. Although they did not enter the playoffs, they had the best results among the lottery teams. Only one of the 66 lottery goals belonged to the Magic.
The Magic, but Pat Williams was blessed with good luck and was possessed by Jesus. He once again won the No. 1 pick and selected Webber. However, this time the Magic chose to trade for "Penny" Hardaway to form a classic inside and outside partnership.
This lottery result directly led to another reform of the NBA's lottery ratio. After all, although the lottery is not in line with the fighting spirit of sports and is despicable, it is a "painful trick". But this kind of bullshit luck of the Magic is pure
It’s so envy-inducing. It is said that after the lottery results came out, before going to bed that night, David Stern made up his mind to reform again and greatly improve the chances of teams with poor performance being selected into the top three.
But fate played a trick. Although the Magic became a top team in the next few years, O'Neal and other players were not mature enough and were brutally beaten by Olajuwon and others. When the Magic regrouped and planned to set sail again, "God"
But he once again came to the NBA, and everyone knows what happened next, so don't talk about it. After several years of ups and downs, the Magic once again posted a record of 21 wins and 61 losses in the 2003-04 season, once again becoming the bottom of the league. But this may be
The reincarnation of fate, the same record as the 1991-92 season, made the Magic's management decide to send old Pat Williams to participate in the lottery again, trying to use his old man's luck to turn around. The old lottery king really lived up to expectations, relaxed and smooth
won the No. 1 pick and selected Howard. Of course, it's still only February 2004, and the lottery took place on May 27, and it hasn't happened yet.
Paul Edison still had great respect for this old man who had made countless contributions to magic. In other words, the original Paul Edison respected him very much, and he passed this respect on to the current time-traveling version of Edison with white skin and yellow heart.
"Good morning, Mr. Williams." Edison greeted respectfully.
"I originally wanted to find you yesterday, but we lost to the Kings on Sunday. I heard that you stayed up all night drunk and rested at home yesterday. I see that you are in good spirits today. Come to my office. I am very interested in what you said that day.
