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Chapter 477 - 211. You’re doing this out of revenge! (Happy Dragon Boat Festival)_3

Chapter 477: 211. You’re doing this out of revenge! (Happy Dragon Boat Festival)_3

Zhang Yang: "The Pistons just don’t get enough attention, and their game viewership is low. Even though they secured 64 wins last year with their solid offense and defense, in many people’s minds, they’re still stuck in their 2004 and 2005 image. To most, they’re no different from the Spurs."

Felton: "That makes sense... but it’s also not right! What about us? Even if the fans don’t want to see the Spurs or the Pistons win the championship, don’t we still count? Aren’t we better than the Jazz Team?"

Zhang San looked at Little Fat with dead fish eyes.

Felton: "...Sorry, I forgot we have you."

Zhang Yang reacted strongly: "What do you mean you forgot we have me? We’re a team! How can you count us separately?"

Felton: "No, no, no, sometimes you have to count separately, like in this case."

Zhang Yang felt really upset; he felt rejected at this moment...

Despite the vast fan support for them in the second round against the Knight, it was precisely because their opponent was the Knight that they enjoyed such high support rates. The James fans, with their rationale of "one true fan is worth ten haters," have no idea how much hatred they’ve garnered for James.

In the first round, the Toronto Raptors also had a high level of support, but once the Raptors were eliminated, few fans cared about them that night.

For their Bobcats, it was "national support" while playing the Knight, but after beating the Knight, they reverted to their ’Bad Boys Legion’ villain role.

Of course, they had many supporters, but in the grand scheme of North American basketball, their fan base wasn’t considered large, especially compared to Kobe’s, James’, or AI’s fans...

After the Knight was knocked out, the James fan base collectively shifted to support the Pistons, making the Bobcats’ popularity just a bit higher than the Spurs’.

Every year, as the playoffs progress, fans put on a series of transformations.

The two days passed quickly, and May 25th, the day of the first Eastern Conference Finals game, arrived.

Today the Bobcats had minimal preparations for the game and kept the training light; everything that needed to be practiced was done. It was now about conserving energy and building up strength for tonight’s game.

At noon, Zhang Yang didn’t join the Big Brother Group for a nutritional meal. Instead, he headed to his father’s farm to meet Yao Ming for lunch.

Joining Yao Ming was Ye Li, Tellem, and... Yi Jianlian!

Thanks to successfully engineering Zhang Yang’s selection in the lottery zone, securing him the highest annual sneaker endorsement fees since AJ’s inception, Tellem won over Yi Jianlian, beating out agents like Bill Duffy, Schwartz, and Dan Fegan to sign him.

Yao Ming facilitated an introduction between Yi Jianlian and Zhang Yang, and they got acquainted.

Unlike Yao Ming, who is reserved yet ambitious, Yi Jianlian was genuinely introverted; after saying hello, he remained silent...

Zhang Yang didn’t try to force conversation. He thought that if there were many more meetings in the future, they would naturally get to know each other better. Once familiar, there’d be more to talk about.

If there weren’t many opportunities to meet, whether they were familiar or not didn’t really matter.

One reason Yao Ming and Ye Li came to Charlotte was to witness a Chinese player advance to the conference finals for the first time in person... Battelle may have a championship ring, but he never played in a playoff game.

Another reason was to personally hand Zhang Yang a wedding invitation.

Zhang Yang accepted the beautifully crafted invitation, took a look, and said, "Congratulations, Big Yao and Sister Li, I’ll definitely be there to give you my blessings."

During the meal, Yao Ming expressed his relief that he could finally rest this summer.

He had the opportunity to rest because the Olympic Games were being hosted by his home country next year, so the Chinese men’s basketball team didn’t need to compete for a spot this summer. For once, the basketball association acted decently and sent the second team to the Asian Championship.

After lunch, Yao Ming received the fishing gear Zhang Yang gave as a gift. He was speechless at first, but seeing Ye Li’s interest in fishing, the soon-to-be-married couple went off to fish together, all lovey-dovey.

Yi Jianlian didn’t join them, nor did he chat much with Zhang Yang. Instead, he spent his time alone on the side practicing his English listening skills.

Tellem pulled Zhang Yang aside and complained about the impact of Yi Jianlian’s draft stock.

Yi Jianlian, who just finished the CBA 06-07 season with an average of 24.8 points per game, even though he did not win the regular season MVP over Tang Zhengdong, or the All-Star MVP over Wang Shipeng, and was hammered by Wang Zhizhi in the finals... But, officially being only 19 years old, he had drawn a lot of attention from NBA teams under the premise of Yao Ming’s performance as the first Center in the NBA, even being considered a hot pick for the 3rd slot.

But just a few days ago, a junior high school registration form was exposed, plunging Yi Jianlian into an age-faking scandal.

Tellem showed Zhang Yang the newspaper that published Yi Jianlian’s registration form...

Zhang Yang took a look and said, "Alian... his handwriting is really ugly. He should practice. It would be embarrassing to sign autographs for fans with such writing."

Tellem, "...Jack, is that the point? Isn’t the age issue the point?"

Zhang Yang, "Lowering his age by 3 years, he was able to participate in the Universiade and the World Youth Championship. You can’t blame him for that, Arne. You’ve dealt with the CBA many times, you know what those people are like."

After thinking for a moment, Tellem said, "That’s true, it’s just a pity. If we had known about his age earlier, we should have tried to contact him last year. After he got the CBA finals MVP last year, many teams were looking at him. If he had entered the draft last year, he could have still made the top 3, even if his age had been exposed. This year, it’s much harder to compete for the 3rd spot."

Zhang Yang, "No worries, compared to draft position, a suitable team for him is more important... Arne, do you think the salary difference that comes with draft positions is important for the three of us?"

The money-obsessed Tellem had sudden clarity upon hearing this.

Right! Why is he fixating on this? Zhang Yang’s endorsement fees this season were 7 times his salary, and even higher for Yao Ming!

Even if Yi Jianlian doesn’t reach those two, his endorsement fees will surely be higher than his salary.

Tellem, "You’re right, the Hawks aren’t a good fit for Yi. Which team do you think suits him? Give me your thoughts."

Zhang Yang did not refuse and pondered it for a moment.

It won’t be easy for Yi Jianlian to drop out of the top ten draft picks, even if he can’t make it into the top three.

He watched the draft lottery live broadcast for this year, which happened just over ten days ago; he still remembers the order: the Trail Blazers unexpectedly landed the first pick, the SuperSonics the second, and the Hawks team the third.

The Grizzlies, who finished last, only got the 4th pick, and the Boston Celtics, last in the East, endured a bad season only to get the 5th pick.

The Bucks had the 6th pick, and the Timberwolves the 7th.

The Knicks landed the 8th pick, but they had given the Bulls the right to swap draft picks during the trade for Eddie Curry.

The Kings had the 9th pick.

The Pacers had the 10th pick, but last summer, when they traded Al Harrington back, they sent their first-round pick to the Hawks... Later, in an effort to get rid of Rick Carlisle, the Bird gave Harrington away to the Warriors, helping them complete the "We Believe" miracle...

Zhang Yang, "The Trail Blazers and SuperSonics won’t be possible; the Hawks already have too many forwards, they might still pick a forward, but it wouldn’t be suitable; there seems to be bad feng shui in Milwaukee, anyone who goes there gets injured; Boston, I’m sure you wouldn’t want him to go there; the Timberwolves’ situation is unclear at the moment, if they trade Garnett for a young talented big man, that would also take away Alian’s chance; the Grizzlies are in a similar situation to the Timberwolves..."

Tellem nodded repeatedly as he listened to Zhang Yang’s analysis, which was mostly in line with his own.

The two of them talked it over and agreed on only one place...

...

...

Wishing you a safe Dragon Boat Festival!

Today, Xiao Feng went out to play with my sister, grandma, and aunts and uncles. I came back and quickly wrote a Chapter with only 5500 words, keeping it short and powerful today~ I’m shamelessly asking for votes on this festive day!