the rest, only noise

Chapter 1516 Death of Old Nick

Just as Louie was preparing for the 2003 draft with all his heart, bad news came from New York.

Louie's longtime friend and former colleague, New York Knicks legend Dave Debusschere, died of a heart attack on a street in lower Manhattan at NYU Hospital.

Louis was taken aback when he heard the news.

He doesn't believe it.

De Buschel is too strong, how can such a person die of a heart attack?

However, a great man like Chamberlain eventually died of complications caused by toothache. In the face of death, everyone is the same.

De Buschel is one of Louis's most respected old Nicks. Without his full cooperation, Louis would not have been able to quickly gain a foothold in New York.

When he carefully recalled the time when he worked with De Buschel, he suddenly discovered that the latter's heart disease had manifested as early as when he was working with him.

Louie clearly remembers that in the 1985 draft, Debusschere clutched his chest (or heart) several times to express his discomfort. It was also that summer that he left the Knicks management.

Afterwards, although De Buschell never participated in front-line work again, as a Knicks star, he always rushed to the scene to cheer for the team whenever there was a big battle.

He has witnessed almost all the major moments of the Knicks dynasty.

Mourners fill St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church on May 2003, 5.

Detroit Pistons general manager Earl Monroe was the rare old Knick and the Baltimore Bullet Bullet both friend and foe.

Today, Monroe was in attendance as a Baltimore Bullets legend, representing Gus Johnson PF/C, who was unable to attend and died of brain cancer 16 years ago.

Celtic legend John Havlicek was among the speakers and pallbearers as he told how Debusschere bruised his shoulder in 1973, causing him to miss that year The story of a championship.

This incident did not affect Havlicek's relationship with De Buschel, who, in his words, broke him because De Buschel seemed to be the longest-lived of them old guys.

Another Celtics player who came to mourn was Dave Cowens, along with Dave Bean of the Pistons, Billy Cunningham of the 76ers, Oscar Robertson of the Royals and most of the star players active in the 1970s.

Willis Reed, sad and happy, tearfully stated that De Buschel might be a hopeless snorer, but once he was awake, there was no more loyal friend, no one more trustworthy.

During De Buschel's lifetime, he told his wife many times that if he died, don't make a big fuss, just find a tombstone for him secretly, and hold a simple funeral.

Bill Bradley, who made the funeral so grand, said: "It's not a question of whether Dave wants it or not. I think he deserves the respect and love."

Rarely did Louie experience such a sad funeral in America.

Everyone was mourning De Buschel's passing, and there was no one to lighten the mood with a funny story.

When Louie stepped forward to give his speech, he told the story of the summer of 1984.

That summer, although Louis joined the Knicks as a champion coach, many people were not optimistic about his development in New York.

At that time, the New York media who looked down on him the most were now worshiping him like a god.

Louis, who was a fledgling at the beginning of the year, offended many people, and the one who offended him the most was New York.Because of his controversial use of Bernard King in the All-Star Game and his speech after the game, the New York media was full of hostility towards him.

One of the first things Louie settled on with the team before heading to New York was that they needed to suck.

If you want to be bad, you can't spend a lot of money in the offseason to rebuild.It is obviously unacceptable to the media to show up badly as soon as it comes. In order to minimize the impact of negative public opinion, Louis' signing time was postponed for several months, and he did not sign with the team until the end of the offseason.

During this period, the Knicks management did not do anything, so the media cannot ask Louis to make any achievements with that lineup.

De Buschel took all the blame to keep Louie through his first year.

Louie's first season with the Knicks will be a lot tougher without DeBusschere, and Boston's crusade against Isiah Thomas will be on him this year.

"From this point of view, Dave is the foundation of the Knicks dynasty. Without him, there would be nothing later."

After the funeral, Louie had a meal with old friends such as Cowens and Monroe in New York.

Afterwards, everyone went back to their respective homes.

Louie's focus returned to work.

He is now studying the roster and the needs of each team to see if he can finalize a few deals before the draft starts.

The first player Louie was going to send off was Hedo Turkoglu.

Although the Turkish agent has the ability to serve as the second leader in the future as the wing core of the division champion, his upper limit is still not enough.

Moreover, Louis has already locked Flawless.

Once flawless, Turkoglu's functionality overlapped with his.

Therefore, Turkoglu must be sent away.

And now may be Turkoglu's most valuable time.

He just played a season averaging 13 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game, and he is still in the rookie bonus period.

According to the new regulations reached by both parties in 2000, the rookie contract is unified for 5 years.

Turkoglu entered the league in 2000, and he has 2 years left on his rookie contract, which can be said to be quite cheap.

With his immediate combat power, rookie contract bonus and potential, he can be exchanged for a lottery pick.

However, Louis glanced at this year's lottery favorites.

The lottery picks outside the top seven don't have non-black players worth picking.

But Milicic, Lu Wuxia and Hinrich are among the top seven favorites.

Louis is still very interested in Hinrich.

In terms of flawless potential, there is a high probability that he will not become an excellent defender in the future. He needs someone like Hinrich who can do dirty work by his side, just like Michael Cooper next to the magician.

However, Hinrich has the prospect of the top seven picks, and he is destined not to fall out of the top ten picks. It is still very difficult to rely on Turkoglu to switch to the top ten picks.

While thinking about it, Louis assigned the task to Dumars and Chris Wallace, and asked them to help him figure it out, to see if any of the teams with the top ten picks had the idea of ​​​​a draft pick.

Louie first contacted the Utah Jazz, wanting to know if their No. [-] pick could be traded.

Jerry Sloan said that it is possible to change, but you have to trade with the third pick.

Of course Louis couldn't agree.

Sloan raised the price and said: "We are willing to add Rasheed Wallace to the transaction."

Roaring Tianzun + No. [-] lottery for No. [-] lottery.

That's the value of this year's top five picks.

The No. [-] pick is priceless, and the higher the ranking of the other four picks, the higher their value.

Louie had no interest in that.

Not to mention that he wants Rasheed Wallace to be useful. He coveted the No. [-] pick of the Jazz in order to use him to draft Kirk Hinrich.Why choose Hinrich?Because his eldest son needed someone to escort him, and Sloan actually wanted to pick the third pick?Without the No. [-] pick, why should he choose the eldest son?
However, Louis is very interested in the Jazz's white sharpshooter Wally Szczerbiak.

This good-looking white shooter is very suitable to play next to the ball-handling core.

However, Szczerbiak has just averaged 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game in the Jazz in the past four years. Sloan relies heavily on him, unless Louis takes the third pick or any of Yao Yueban and Gasol , otherwise there is no game.

Louis is not in a hurry. He remembers that Szczerbiak is a relatively glass shooter. In this era when the NBA does not know how to arrange regular rotations for those glass players, those players who are prone to injuries often have short careers.

Louie can wait until Szczerbiak is injured, and the value will drop accordingly, and Sloan may change his mind by then.

Moreover, it would be really troublesome to trade Szczerbiak now.

Szczerbiak is in his prime, he is not injured or sick, the Celtics are going to compete with Sprewell and Ginobili for the starting lineup, and there is a high probability that they will not be able to grab it. What if they get emotional by then? manage?
Therefore, Louis temporarily put down the idea of ​​getting Szczerbiak.

(End of this chapter)