Chapter 371: The Draft, The Dream Team Arrives!
On June 27, 2008, the NBA Draft tipped off as usual inside the theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Chen Yan's arrival had already rewritten the league's storyline, and the ripple effects reached the draft board too. Teams shifted. Records changed. Lottery odds spun differently.
No franchise felt that butterfly effect more than Boston.
In Chen Yan's original timeline, the Celtics had already formed their Big 3 and were on their way to a title. In this one, everything changed the moment they landed a rising rookie star, Kevin Durant. Instead of pushing all their chips in immediately, Boston chose to tank this season.
And when the lottery results came out a few weeks earlier, even Danny Ainge struggled to believe it.
Boston had the No. 1 pick.
Soon, Commissioner David Stern walked onto the stage. The crowd greeted him with the usual chorus of boos, the kind that felt less like hatred and more like tradition. With a smile that never changed, Stern opened the draft.
With the 1st overall pick, the Boston Celtics selected Derrick Rose out of Memphis.
Some teams had moved up. Some had fallen. But Rose's status did not change at all. He was still the consensus top prospect, the prize at the top of the board.
The Thunder's young duo never reunited in this timeline, and maybe that was not a bad thing for Durant. Some partnerships looked perfect on paper. Others created shadows neither guy could escape.
When Chicago fans saw Rose pull on the Celtics cap, they nearly exploded. In their minds, Rose was supposed to be the face of the Bulls' revival.
But after the initial rage came the cold math.
Even if Boston passed, Miami sitting at No. 2 would almost certainly have taken him.
Chicago had the 3rd pick. They could not do anything except accept reality.
At No. 2, the Miami Heat selected Michael Beasley.
Chen Yan already knew what Beasley would become, a player with elite gifts and a disastrous relationship with professionalism. But Miami did not have a time traveler in their front office. They only saw the talent.
And on talent alone, Beasley absolutely looked like a No. 2 pick.
With Rose gone, the Bulls settled for Russell Westbrook at No. 3.
Westbrook's explosion was right there with Rose. His finishing touch was rougher, but the core identity was similar, an athletic guard who played above the rim and attacked like every possession was personal.
Watching Rose wear the Celtics cap, then seeing Westbrook walk up with a wide, innocent smile to shake Stern's hand, Chen Yan fell into thought.
Two destinies had been altered.
Now he wanted to see where they would lead.
At No. 4, the Minnesota Timberwolves took OJ Mayo, a 196 cm shooting guard listed at 95 kg.
Mayo reminded Chen Yan of Beasley in one key way. The talent was real, but the discipline was not. No matter how much the environment changed, players like that often found a way to sabotage their own ceiling.
Then came the New York Knicks at No. 5.
Compared to the original timeline, their pick came earlier. For most franchises, that would have been a gift.
For the Knicks, it felt like a warning.
New York's front office once again demonstrated why fans never stopped complaining. They selected Joe Alexander.
Chen Yan had almost no memory of the guy. He could not even recall whether Alexander ever became a real NBA player.
Knicks fans felt the stress immediately. Better options were still on the board. The choice made no sense to them, and it was another reminder that the jokes about New York's decision making did not come from nowhere.
At No. 6, the Memphis Grizzlies selected Kevin Love, a stretch big with high basketball IQ and elite rebounding instincts.
Soon after, Memphis and Minnesota made a trade that mirrored what happened in Chen Yan's original timeline. Love and Mayo swapped teams.
At No. 7, the Los Angeles Clippers selected Eric Gordon.
The Clippers needed perimeter firepower, and among the remaining prospects, Gordon was the best fit.
At No. 8, the Charlotte Bobcats were on the clock, and it was Michael Jordan's turn to make another choice that would be debated for years.
Charlotte selected DJ Augustin, the point guard from Texas.
Seeing his former college teammate go in the top 10, Chen Yan smiled and sent him a congratulatory text.
Augustin did not respond right away. He was busy hugging his parents and his agent like he was afraid they might vanish if he let go. His skill and experience were respected, but his size always scared teams. His real height was under 180 cm, so being picked 8th exceeded the expectations of almost everyone around him.
At No. 9, the SuperSonics selected Brook Lopez, a traditional center at 213 cm and 125 kg.
Seattle's front office had a reputation for having a good eye, but with only the 9th pick, their options were limited. Several players they preferred were already gone.
From there, the rest of the first round followed a more predictable rhythm. By this stage, teams were drafting based on workouts, fit, and internal boards, so surprise snatches became rarer.
Boston, holding 2 first rounders and 2 second rounders, did not stop after Rose. They also selected Serge Ibaka, Walter Sharpe, and Semih Erden.
Phoenix, picking 15th, selected DeAndre Jordan.
That one mattered personally to Chen Yan.
Before the draft, he had pushed the front office repeatedly to target Jordan, a big man with rare athletic tools who could raise the team's floor on both ends. Chen Yan could not control the organization, so until the commissioner announced it, he did not know if Phoenix would listen.
But they did.
DeAndre Jordan had elite help defense and rim protection potential. His one on one defense was not special, but it was solid. Add in his finishing, rebounding, and willingness to play without demanding touches, and he was almost the ideal blue collar center for Phoenix.
Nash and Chen Yan could feed him all day.
At No. 15, it felt like Phoenix had found treasure.
And the draft was only one piece of the summer.
After winning the title, Phoenix's appeal to players, especially aging veterans, skyrocketed. Rings made people brave. Rings made people flexible. Guys who had spent their whole careers chasing the dream suddenly wanted to take a pay cut just to stand in the right locker room.
How the Suns would round out the roster was no longer Chen Yan's problem.
His focus had shifted to one place.
Beijing.
…
July arrived, and the Chinese men's national team schedule tightened like a noose.
The warm up games were stacked:
July 4, 19:30: China vs Australia Stars
July 6, 19:30: China vs Australia Stars
July 17, 19:30: China vs Serbia
July 19, 19:30: China vs Angola
July 20, 19:30: China vs Russia
July 29, 19:30: China vs Angola
July 30, 19:30: China vs Australia
In every game, China played the full main lineup.
Even Yao Ming, still dealing with injury, barely got a chance to rest. That was not a coaching decision.
That was the basketball association.
Yao was the team's biggest guarantee. Before and during the 2008 Olympics, every warm up result pulled at the public's nerves. A single loss could trigger a wave of pressure so loud it felt like it could crush the gym.
To avoid the backlash, the people upstairs made the simplest choice.
Put Yao out there, no matter who the opponent was.
In other words, they moved their pressure onto the players.
Yao could feel his body being overdrawn, but he still gritted his teeth and kept going. He was the core and the spiritual anchor of the team. If he fell, everything shook.
…
August arrived in a blink.
On August 5, the star studded USA men's basketball team landed at Capital Airport.
The 2008 squad was called Dream Team 8 in some circles, but in American media it had another name, the Redeem Team.
Because Team USA had something to prove.
In the 2002 World Championship, the so called Dream Team finished 6 and 3 and stumbled to 6th place.
People thought that would be the most humiliating moment in USA basketball history.
Then 2004 happened.
Team USA lost to Argentina in the semifinals at the Olympics, and for the first time, the Americans left the Games without gold.
In 2006, they still did not fully rebound, falling again in the semifinals after a loss to Greece.
So for Beijing, they finally stopped experimenting.
They brought the best.
And they came with only 1 goal.
Win the gold.
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