Chapter 23: sand

The NBA is the highest hall of basketball in the world. This basketball organization established in 1949 has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, with influence from several eastern states to the entire United States, from the United States to the world, and has become a worldwide Sports organization.
　　 As the most important source of fresh blood for the league every year, the annual draft in June is the most watched event after the finals. At the same time, the draft also means the start of a new season.
　　 And the rookie training camp before the draft is the Golden Globe before the Oscars, and the warm-up before the feast.
　　 The annual rookie training camp is generally held about a month before the start of the draft, mainly in Chicago or Orlando.
In the training camp, the rookie players will conduct physical tests, open training and 5v5 simulated confrontation. At that time, the managers, scouts and even the boss of each team will come to the scene to watch the performance of these newcomers. They are in the training camp. The data and performance in the match will greatly affect their ranking in the draft.
For those super rookies, they hope to get a higher pick with outstanding performances, which means greater reputation and more commercial benefits; for relatively ordinary rookies, they have to perform well in the training camp Strive to be selected in the first round, so that a four-year guaranteed contract will be offered by a certain team; and those marginal figures must do their best in the training camp to show their every advantage in order to enter the NBA, although That way, no one is willing to pick them.
It can be said that the NBA's rookie training camp is the first training for players before entering the professional circle. From here on, the team-oriented, youthful and friendly campus basketball will end. The commercial basketball empire opens its doors to them with interests, honor, slander and pressure. Will follow.
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　　 The 2000 NBA Draft will be held in Minnesota at the end of June. It is now in early June. There is less than a month before the draft. This year's draft training camp will be held in the eastern city of Chicago.
At about two o'clock in the afternoon, after eating a work meal, Leon, holding a flight ticket to Chicago, took a notebook sent to him by the Celtics, a signature pen and a sports backpack and left the headquarters building. Carl told him that every scout should be equipped with a laptop, but the price of a laptop was still quite expensive in 2000. For a temporary worker with a three-month contract, the Celtics did not prepare this for him. equipment.
　　 Leon didn't care about this, he didn't want to run around carrying an old laptop that was thick and heavy like a cement board. A well-made calfskin cover notebook was completely enough for him.
At the same time, taking into account Leon’s economic situation, Carl gave Leon a credit card with a limit of 20,000 US dollars for travel expenses; he gave him a small phone book with the other Celtics who have arrived in Chicago. The phone number of a staff member, Karl told Leon that someone would call him when he arrived in Chicago.
　　 There are no exceptions. After leaving the headquarters, Leon turned the phone book on both sides and threw it in the trash can. For him, this kind of thing was a waste of space.
　　 After getting in the taxi to the airport, Leon sent a text message to Khomeinis, informing her of her current situation, and said that she would not go to her home to say goodbye to her and hope to contact her again when she returned to Boston.
　　 Khomeinis should be on the way back to Boston from Marshfield.
Leon also wanted to make a call to Auerbach, but his fingers on the keyboard hesitated for a while and still did not press the number, because Leon did not know what to say to Auerbach, thank him for the work introduced, or Ask some details about the work of scouts.
　　 In Carl’s office, Carl spent nearly two hours to give Leon a detailed introduction to the main content of scouting work and the tasks he needed to complete in these three months.
Leon reviewed Carl's two-hour introduction in his mind, and quickly summarized the scout work into three items: first, evaluate a group of talents; second, select the most suitable genius for the team from a group of talents; 3. Discover the less common genius among a group of common geniuses.
　　 Now, Leon already knows that in the NBA every year the team will get more than one draft pick. A group of rookie basketball players select the rookies they want in the order they are in.
　　 Every player who is eligible to participate in the draft is a basketball genius in a broad sense, an elite figure in all college basketball circles in the United States, so the job of scouts is not to discover geniuses at all, because everyone knows that these guys are all geniuses.
　　 Therefore, the core of scout work is to describe and evaluate this group of talents with more clear standards, and to make expectations for their future development, and to provide reference opinions for the team's selection in the draft.
　　 The most difficult projects in this work are the second and third items.
　　 There are always a few players who belong to the genius among the geniuses every year. The main job of the team is to hope that they have better luck and can get higher picks to select them.
Therefore, in the selection of this level, the most important thing is luck, followed by how the team’s management operates in a limited space and with limited chips to win possible picks and pass in the draft process. Various operations include smoke bombs, robberies, post-election transactions, etc. to pick out the most wanted talented newcomers.
　　The role of scouts here is not outstanding.
　　 And when these players were selected, the challenge for scouts came.
　　 Among the remaining group of newcomers who look similar, but may be different in the future, the team needs to choose a player who is most suitable for the team and has the most potential. This kind of lottery is generally ranked in the middle and back end of the first round. It is a choice that truly reflects the overall strength of the team's scout system. From the team general manager to a temporary scout like Leon, everyone's intelligence and analysis Are very important.
In the second round, which is the third job, a group of ordinary geniuses were found to be less ordinary geniuses. This draft pick generally does not have the core players of the team, but it is easy to produce some excellent role players. , Is a good opportunity for the team to supplement the bench and deepen the depth of the lineup.
The draft of this rank most tests the strength of scouts. Those second-round picks are often not very popular. Each player must have more significant flaws and also have their own advantages. How to clarify the relationship between these flaws and advantages, and focus on the future Development depends on the skills of those scouts.
　　 Leon was thinking about these problems in the taxi, but he didn't notice when the phone rang, so he missed Khomeinis' call.
He picked up the notebook and wrote many new terms he learned today with a pen, such as "Pre-Draft-Camp", "Lottery", "Green-Room" Green House and so on.
It's not that Leon can't remember these things. Even if he writes them down in a notebook, it is meaningless to carry out his work. He just doesn't want to let his notebook space. After all, Karl has said so many things, and there is nothing particularly worthwhile for him. Excerpted, he has a general idea of ​​the job in his mind.
But what to do, he still has more things to learn. Leon only hates that he doesn’t have a "scouting job textbook" now, so that he can learn this course on the way to Chicago. Eight or nine will never leave ten.
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On the other hand, in Chicago, this year’s rookie training camp is scheduled for June 5th, as early as a week before the official opening of the camp. The managers, head coaches, scouts of each team, as well as some agency agents People and hired scouts gathered in this city to prepare for the upcoming chaos.
This time the Celtics’ scout team continues to be led by Rick Pitino. Because the previous chief scout Leon Popper has been promoted to the team’s player director, Popper stayed in Boston to collect the information. And finishing work, the first-line survey work was handed over to Pitino and team general manager Chris Wallace, Celtics assistant coach Jim O’Brien, and video analyst Frank Vogg You.
Because Pitino's assistant coach Weston Bennett in Kentucky, followed Pitino to the Celtics as a senior scout for three years and was hired by Kentucky State University as the head coach in May this year. So now the Celtics team has no full-time scouts.
　　According to Pitino's vision, he hopes to transfer the video analyst Frank Vogel to the team's chief scout, and the video analyst job will be handed over to Jameer Young alone. But just yesterday he received a call from Michael Carr, the team has hired a new scout, and will join the team in the early morning of the third, when they will form a complete team to complete the summer task.
Pitino knew that this scout was introduced by Reid Auerbach, and Karl directly reported it to the bosses of the team owner. For Paul Gaston and others who have already moved on to sell the team, Auerbach’s willingness to recommend candidates is really great, which means that the red head will begin to re-intervene in the daily affairs of the Celtics, which is conducive to the bosses changing hands of the Celtics, because Auerbach is the old Celtics. sign.
What's more, what Auerbach recommends is just an ordinary scouting position. A profession like scouting is both important and not important in the NBA. The important thing is that no team can do without them. The important thing is the team. Anyone can become a scout.
This is not a profession that requires professional and technical titles, but a job that relies heavily on experience, qualifications and contacts. Vision and information are the most important. At least in the current NBA, some teams don’t even set up a full-time ball. Exploring, but by people in other positions concurrently.
　　 The Celtics team stayed at the Chicago Athletics Association Hotel. After receiving Carl’s message, Pitino gathered all the team members in his room for a short meeting.
　　 This year has been a difficult year for Pitino. Not only did his record fail to improve, but the team he built is also in danger of falling apart.
　　 Assistant coach Jim O'Brien and senior scout Weston Bennett, who has just resigned, are old partners who have worked with him during his tenure at the University of Kentucky~EbookFREE.me~ and have now left.
Andy Anfield, the assistant coach he recruited from the Bucks the year before, also chose to leave this year; Frank Vogel and Jameer Young, whom he and O'Brien hand-picked, could have become senior scouts to have more With great authority, Auerbach directly pushed up a new scout, which made Pitino very unhappy.
　　 After being humiliated in Marshfield on June 1, Pitino left the training camp and returned to Boston. He never thought about the possibility of showing up with Auerbach and was prepared to resign as soon as he was fired.
Unexpectedly, after the visit on June 1st, the voice about Pitino's dismissal in Boston suddenly became much smaller. It seems that although Auerbach embarrassed Pitino on the surface, he secretly gave Pitino support. So he can safely lead the team to Chicago to prepare for the draft.
In the room, O'Brien, Vogel, and Wallace are all three of the most important figures. These people have been the partners of Pitino’s colleagues for many years. They have close cooperation and cooperation. Pitino is not too nonsense. Tell everyone the news from Boston.
　　 "Do you know who he is?" Wallace asked, he was the second person besides Pitino.
　　 "No, I don't know. Carl didn't disclose the personal information of this person, except that he will be there tonight." Pitino shook his head and replied.
　　 "What is this? Is it mixed with sand?" Vogel said straightforwardly.
　　 "Maybe, I want to see what kind of sand this is." Jim O'Brien added finally, he said the voice of everyone in the room, everyone is curious about who this new scout is.