Volume 1: A rookie who breaks into the basketball world Chapter 4: The psychological burden of being thin
Another upset!
Not many people at the scene understood the name that David Stern read out. When Liu Xiu heard David Stern read out his name in a strange tone, he was stunned for a moment, and stood up when the spotlight came on.
At first, few of the hundreds of New York fans at the scene knew whose name David Stern was reading, but when the spotlight hit Liu Xiu, they knew it and quickly burst into loud cheers.
At present, it has been more than two months since Liu Xiu helped Syracuse University win the NCAA basketball championship. He has a certain fan base in New York. This result surprised them so much: Syracuse University has two lottery picks!
In terms of the degree of upset, the Grizzlies' choice of Liu Xiu is not as big as the Pistons' choice of 17-year-old Darko Milicic over Anthony.
But this is the last lottery pick!
All the members of the Green Room who had not been selected were staring at this ranking eagerly. They were originally hostile to each other and had their most feared competitors , but Liu Xiu was not on the list of competitors that everyone feared.
Wow, it turns out the guy they ignored was the one chosen!
Why is it him?
The lottery rookies who had already been selected were also surprised, including the No. 1 pick James, and they all turned to stare at Liu Xiu.
James was also guessing with his relatives and friends who would be the 13th pick, and he didn't expect it to be this guy.
Looking at Liu Xiu's ordinary appearance, if he were in the United States, he would be only ten centimeters taller than the average height, and his body shape is also the same as that of an ordinary person. Compared with everyone present, he is simply a fat man...
Liu Xiu is not completely unknown among the rookies in this draft. The fact that he and Anthony and his group were in jail together became a hot topic in the middle of the season.
In terms of strength, Liu Xiu has it. After all, he is the core of the back line of the championship team. However, there are cores of the back line of the NCAA basketball championship every year. How many of them can enter the NBA? Compared with other unselected members of the green room, Liu Xiu has no advantage.
Just the face...
Damn, the Grizzlies select players based on their looks?
James was a little upset. It didn't matter to him who was selected at the 13th pick, but after analyzing it, the conclusion he came to made him very upset.
Not to mention others, even Anthony, who was extremely looking forward to Liu Xiu being selected, did not expect Liu Xiu to be selected at this position. He initially thought that Liu Xiu would definitely be selected high, but after entering the tryout stage, he reluctantly accepted that it was good enough for Liu Xiu to be selected.
Anthony was indeed a man who had always dreamed of doing great things and becoming bigger and stronger since he was a child. After being shocked, he stood up and hugged Liu Xiu's shoulders: "Gogogo, brother, you've been chosen! Thirteenth pick!"
Liu Xiu was frightened. It wasn't that this was a bad thing; it was a very good thing, but this unexpected blessing made him dizzy.
After hearing Anthony's words, Liu Xiucai finally reacted, stepped forward to take the baseball cap handed to him by the Grizzlies management, and walked onto the stage.
The Grizzlies management wasn't as enthusiastic as the management of the previous teams, but no one noticed them.
David Stern watched Liu Xiu put on a hat and walked onto the stage. Without doing anything extra, he just shook hands, took a photo, and then left the stage.
In fact, David Stern wanted to dance to a disco song at this moment! Fortunately, he was a professional and held back.
Another Chinese player in the lottery! And he's an outside shooter!
Is he optimistic about Liu Xiu's future? No, in his opinion, how Liu Xiu will develop in the future is a matter of the future. Is the future important? It is very important, but the future is accumulated bit by bit from now. What he needs now is an NBA inside and outside star who can promote China in China this summer!
This is why David Stern is excited about being able to create more attention for the new season in China.
Moreover, Yao Ming's performance was sluggish in the early stage of his rookie season, and he only performed well in the middle and late stages, which is also an advantage. Even if Liu Xiu did not perform well, this kind of attention can be prolonged as much as possible. If Liu Xiu performs well, it will naturally be better. If he does not perform well, he should also make the most of it.
As for whether the Grizzlies will waste a lottery pick... David Stern doesn't care anyway.
…
Watching Liu Xiu return to his seat and take a deep breath to calm himself down, Anthony was not very talkative, but as a big and powerful boss he would say some words to congratulate his younger brother.
Liu Xiu was selected in the lottery. For Anthony, it doesn’t matter at all that he was selected only at the third pick!
Anthony recalled the past when he met Liu Xiu.
Last August, Anthony came to Syracuse from Towson Catholic High School in Baltimore and quickly gained two younger followers with his outstanding character.
But just as he became the leader of a trio and was thinking about how to expand and become stronger, his two younger brothers were beaten and came to him for help.
He knew that these two younger brothers were capable of fighting, robbing, and bullying the weak... They were capable of anything. These two younger brothers of the same grade were only able to enter Syracuse University because American universities had to give a certain number of admission quotas to blacks, and they would definitely not get a diploma.
When Anthony heard that the other party was a Chinese, he knew what was happening.
The two younger brothers I just accepted tried to do bad things but were killed instead.
But no matter who is right or wrong, An had just made his debut at Syracuse University and his younger brother was beaten. He had to get back at the situation, otherwise how could he become bigger and stronger in the future?
Then, Anthony and Liu Xiu had their first duel. Anthony did not have the advantage, and he could see that the opponent was at ease. Anthony's rich experience, even with two useless brothers, might not be able to win!
Anthony didn't try his best to become bigger and stronger, but he tried his best for trivial matters...what's the point?
After one match, Anthony felt that this was not a good idea. Although he did not suffer any loss, he did not get back on track.
Fortunately, although he has an arrogant personality, he is smart and quickly thought of a solution - if the person who beat up his younger brother is his brother, then beating up his younger brother is a lesson for him!
After rounding it off, it's okay.
Liu Xiu was very considerate and accepted the invitation from Anthony's gang.
Anthony didn't expect that Liu Xiu already had a certain notoriety in the gangster circle of Syracuse University, and ordinary people didn't dare to provoke him, but Liu Xiu himself was not a gangster.
After Liu Xiu joined his small gang, the speed at which he grew bigger and stronger was significantly accelerated.
Anthony was Syracuse University's definite star player. When Liu Xiu returned to the team for the new season, he said he wanted to try out the basketball team. Anthony went directly to the basketball club and recruited Liu Xiu.
Anthony, a rookie, also stuffed a guy who didn't look like he was playing high-level amateur basketball like the NCAA into the team, but Jim Boeheim, the head coach of the Syracuse University Orangemen, did not refuse.
Syracuse University has already investigated what kind of person Anthony is, and some things just require coaxing.
There are only a dozen regular players on the school team, but there are hundreds of people in the basketball club. One more player doesn't matter, but it would be troublesome if a genius like Anthony was dissatisfied.
College coaches have a lot of power, but the stability of their position depends on the team's performance.
Moreover, Jim Boeheim gave Liu Xiu some preferential treatment. Seeing that Liu Xiu was at the level of an amateur, Jim Boeheim gave Liu Xiu more opportunities to practice with him. In fact, it was to let Anthony see this friend more often in the team.
But one day Jim Boeheim chased Liu Xiu for nine blocks... His daughter was a sophomore at Syracuse University and was the club manager of the basketball club. She fell in love with Liu Xiu.
Although there was no follow-up, Liu Xiu was the one who was favored and did not obey, but Jim Boyheim was still furious for a while.
In basketball, at the beginning, Liu Xiu was just a sparring partner. His level was very poor in Anthony's opinion, only at the level of an amateur. His advantage was that as a guard he had a very solid physique and his speed was not bad.
But soon, after two months of training, Anthony was surprised.
After getting to know Liu Xiu, Anthony knew that this guy was extremely lazy. In the past two months, Liu Xiu had seldom trained privately except for the training arranged by the coaching staff. His "effort" in basketball was just to be a sparring partner in the team's training games and occasionally go to the school's open-air court to play basketball with Anthony who wanted to show off...
And just two months later, Liu Xiu actually impressed Jim Boyheim with his good performance in the pre-season tryouts and was selected for the reserve list!
Once a guard on the team's official roster is injured or unable to play for other reasons, Liu Xiu has the opportunity to play as a substitute.
Later, Liu Xiu improved at a speed that surprised even a genius like Anthony, becoming a substitute, a main substitute, and a starter... In the final of the NCAA basketball championship, Syracuse University won it so happily. With the help of Liu Xiu's 11 points and 10 assists in a single game, Anthony scored 35 points, breaking the single-game scoring record for freshmen in the finals, and led Syracuse University to a 92-71 massacre of the University of Kansas to win the championship.
The score difference was 21 points. The last time the score difference in the NCAA final was larger than this game was in 1990 when the University of Nevada defeated Duke University by 30 points.
Liu Xiu was not a member of the school team in his freshman and sophomore years. He only started to receive professional basketball training in his junior year and made rapid progress in his junior season... Anthony got used to it and recognized Liu Xiu's talent.
Anthony, who only felt the pressure during March Madness and treated the regional competition as a game, knew very well that in college competitions, as long as they were not at the top 64 in the United States, no matter how strong the regional strength was, it was ultimately just an amateur-level competition.
After one season, Anthony has concluded that Liu Xiu's rapid progress during the season has nothing to do with Liu Xiu's efforts during the season.
This guy only plays games and does team training during the season. He is lazy and almost never trains!
Anthony had never seen a basketball player as lazy as Liu Xiu, from junior high school to college.
Just look at his body shape. Liu Xiu is 188cm tall and weighs 205lbs. If you calculate it in kilograms, the height measurement value and weight measurement value are almost the same! He even gained a few kilograms after playing for a season.
Anthony, who has the mentality of an elder brother, naturally has to consider his brothers.
Anthony is sure that if he is not on the Orange, even if Hakeem Warrick, the core inside teammate, chooses to stay in school because of lack of confidence, with Liu Xiu, it will be difficult to make it to March Madness.
And with Liu Xiu’s improvement in the knockout stage in March, Anthony clearly felt that the competition in the competition area stage was faster!
Anthony was invincible in his freshman season. After winning the championship, he had no attachment to college. He had decided to participate in the draft early. He used his wise brain to analyze the situation and decided to take Liu Xiu to the NBA with him.
Anthony had long understood that although Liu Xiu's family was not poor, it was not easy for his parents to support him to study in the United States. He had relatives working in the United States, but at most they were just a middle-class family.
As the eldest brother, although Liu Xiu is older than his brother An and Liu Xiu never accepts being a younger brother, Anthony is also considering Liu Xiu. Since Liu Xiu has a talent for playing basketball, he must dig it out... There are many opportunities to become rich in this world, but for the two of them, playing in the NBA is the best opportunity to become rich!
The key point is that they had just won the championship, and all the news Anthony heard and saw about their team was praising. In his opinion, this year is the best year for Liu Xiu University's data + team record, and there is a possibility that he will be selected with a high pick.
In Anthony's opinion, Liu Xiu's lazy personality and the fact that he won't be able to play in more intense games in his senior season might lead to little progress. In addition, the Orange team's record next season is definitely not guaranteed... After thinking about it for a few days, Anthony asked Liu Xiu to sign an agent and register for the draft together.
However, when it came to the actual tryout stage, Anthony was dumbfounded.
Liu Xiuman performed very well in March Madness after he turned 21, but at the age of 21, players who can enter the NBA will basically not .
Plus he's said to be lazy and has a school gang background...
So people are contradictory. Liu Xiu had a draft pick, but he didn't formally receive systematic basketball training until he was 20 years old.
As a result, Liu Xiu got a very strange draft expectation - from mid-first round to being eliminated.
It is not ruled out that some teams will give it a try.
It is even possible that some teams would like to take a chance on Liu Xiu but are worried that they may be picked too late and be selected with a higher pick.
But the probability of the second situation, based on what Anthony knows, is no higher than the probability of him becoming the No. 1 pick if the Cavaliers draw the No. 1 pick.
Therefore, after Anthony dropped to the third pick and was going to the Nuggets, he was prepared. As long as no team wanted Liu Xiu, or Liu Xiu was abandoned by other teams in the future, he would force the Nuggets to sign Liu Xiu even if he had to be a ball hog.
Who knew Liu Xiu would be selected at the 13th pick! A little higher than the expected mid-first round!
Now, the burden in Anthony's heart has been completely lifted!
