Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

According to Barkley's standards, Wizards should have chosen Shane Battier with the top pick.

But give Jordan a hundred more chances, and he still wouldn't pick Battier with the top pick, not to mention that he's a Duke guy.

TNT analyst John Thompson conducted a brief interview with Jordan on the spot.

Strangely, Thompson did not ask why the Wizards chose Brown, but instead questioned whether it was true that Jordan's ribs were broken last week by Artest.

If it's true, it shows Jordan is determined to make a comeback, because only if he's truly decided to return would he rehabilitate so earnestly.

Jordan did not give a direct answer.

"I'm not the main character today, you should ask some questions about Kwame," he said.

You have to admire Big Dog's good job keeping a secret, managing to cover up the story of Artest breaking his ribs with no trace despite the relentless paparazzi and media. Had it not been for Doug Collins revealing the incident to the public, the outside world would still be none the wiser.

This secretive work was much stronger than the shameful incident when Big Dog got humiliated because a student dunked over him and then leaked the video of the event.

At 7:45 PM, Los Angeles Clippers chose the local boy Tyson Chandler with the second overall pick.

Chandler was the earliest to make a name for himself among the players of the class of 2001.

He had been famous nationwide even before entering high school and had always grown up in the spotlight.

However, no matter how early he became famous, the top pick was not his.

Moreover, being chosen by the Clippers, Chandler's fate seemed to plummet, and even the carefully selected brown and white suit he wore now seemed to carry a sense of defeat.

ABC's experts began to predict who would be selected with the next three draft rights, and it didn't seem difficult at all.

Eddie Curry, Shane Battier, Eddie Griffin.

That was their prediction.

Yu Fei didn't care about these predictions, and he even wished time would flow faster, wondering why the actual draft couldn't skip to the protagonist's part like in the NBA2K game? The wait was torture.

Then, reality smashed the faces of ABC's experts.

The third pick originally belonged to Atlanta Hawks, but they had traded it to Memphis Grizzlies before the draft started, in exchange for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jamaal Tinsley

Grizzlies took an unconventional approach and used the third pick to select Pau Gasol, a big man from Spain.

Boos! More boos! And yet more boos!

Even if it wasn't their own team's choice, New Yorkers disliked Grizzlies' use of the third pick to select Pau Gasol.

Didn't the lesson my great New York learned in 1999, when they used the 15th pick in the first round to select that French center, teach them deeply enough? What did that low-IQ Frenchman contribute other than being dunked on by Vince Carter in the 2000 Olympics, creating the second most famous face-to-face FIBA moment in history?

New Yorkers hate European players.

The controversy over Grizzlies' selection of Pau Gasol with the third pick was beyond imagination.

Before this, Pau Gasol's draft projection had always been around the tenth spot, and the team that was longing for him was the Celtics.

However, Pau Gasol changed the minds of the Grizzlies' management with a perfect workout.

They didn't even consider trading down the draft rights to ensure maximum benefits; they were determined to use the third pick on Pau Gasol to make sure he was selected by them.

Moreover, at this time, Pau Gasol still had a contract with Barcelona, and according to the rules, the NBA could not pay the full buyout fee for him. So if Pau Gasol wanted to play in the NBA the following season, aside from a small portion the Grizzlies could help with, he would have to come up with two million US dollars to buy out the contract himself.

From this perspective, there was a high probability that Pau Gasol, like Peja Stojakovic or Andrei Kirilenko before him, might play several more seasons in Europe, and by the time he landed in the NBA, his prime playing years may have been wasted.

The risk was so great, but the Grizzlies went all in.

The reason for this had to do with the Grizzlies' own delicate situation. Last season, due to poor attendance, the Grizzlies told the Vancouver fans several times that if the situation didn't improve, the team would consider relocating. The people of Vancouver didn't take the lousy team seriously at all; they said, "Move wherever you like, buddy; we'd rather feed money to dogs than support a crappy team."

In history, there have been many teams that have wanted to change venues due to poor management, but the Grizzlies, who couldn't stand to stay even a second longer and changed venues during the season, were genuinely the creme de la creme in terms of venue changes.

Memphis had no fan base to speak of, and the team was defined by one word: terrible. At this point, they could afford to gamble, continuing to tank if they lost the bet, and if they won, their future would be bright.

Going all in, truly a kind of wisdom.

The moment Grizzlies' choice was announced, Jordan's face changed.

What kind of bizarre selection is this?

With a bunch of good prospects available, why pick a European loser?

The butterfly effect caused by the Grizzlies' selection was immeasurable. The Chicago Bulls, originally indecisive about the fourth pick, were ecstatic to land Eddie Curry, the top high school player who dominated all the mainstream rankings for the class of 2001.