Louis had always wanted to be more mature, and reason told him that he was 30 years old, but he was now in an 18-year-old body.

Are maturity and stability a natural manifestation? Not exactly.

Just because youth is gone, most people are asked to do things that suit their age, and even if they don't like it, they have to do it. No one wants to attract strange eyes.

Yi Jianlian, a men's basketball leader in the post-Yao era, had a famous black joke when he was young, "Every Emperor will always be 18 years old."

Now Louis really thinks that as long as his mentality is young enough, why should he be constrained by his psychological age and give up his nature?

Well, he decided to be 18 forever.

This is the mental journey he experienced in the few seconds before the hotel became so beastly.

He became a secondary scout responsible for K.C Jones.

Being a secondary scout was treated slightly better than Louis had imagined.

There is a salary of $1,400 per month, and everything used to observe the player's journey, tickets, and accommodation expenses during the season can be reimbursed.

But there are conditions.

For example, if you take a plane, you can only have economy class, and accommodation and three meals are simple.

Although it is very different from the future scouts' business class and five-star hotel staying in a very different place, it is good enough for Louis today.

It is said that his scout report has been recognized by many within the Celtics, but not including Reed Auerbach.

It's not that his scout report is not good, but that Auerbach doesn't like to make judgments through video.

The problem is that Louis's main judgment of John Long all comes from the VHS video tape.

But Auerbach has his own creed for observing players, which is a famous saying: "I don't look at the data, I believe in my eyes. You can show me a guy who scored 16 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists, but he may throw the ball at will, slowly move, and have mistakes, unscrupulous shots, disrupt the rhythm of his teammates, and have poor defense and inaction at critical moments. When you can quantify these, I will be interested in looking at the data."

In fact, all the things Auerbach is worried about can be seen clearly in the video.

But it is difficult for him to use videos to judge players. He would rather believe the one-sided words of an old friend in the NCAA and then go to watch the game in person.

I have to say that he has a keen eye to see that Auerbach will account for 99% of the creditors of the Celtics in the past few decades.

The reason why Louis was recognized and that although Auerbach was not convinced, he still agreed to K.C to include him in the Celtics family was because they were ready to choose John Long's pick, which was a very low pick.

Therefore, you can try it.

If you choose a parallel product, there will be no loss. If Long gains a foothold in the Celtics, it will be a report card belonging to Louis.

Louis moved out of the hotel and made his home in a white community not far from the Celtic training grounds of the Greek Academy.

He didn't like that community.

It was filled with the "greatest generation" that did not escape because of Boston's desegregation policy.

Although they have no malice, they often call Louis Louis by "Orientals".

This is a deeply rooted habit, and no matter how Louis corrects them, they will not change their name.

Louis could only adapt to this group of "greatest generations". Many of them participated in World War II when they were young, engaged in decent work recognized by Li Xuanbing, and had a great influence in the community.

He was the first to arrive, so it would be better to be low-key.

In the following days, he traveled between Boston and Ohio and went through the school leave.

Wu Sansheng was shocked when he heard that Louis was going to leave school in order to be a professional scout. Although he persuaded him for a day, the situation was already done.

They can only have one parting meal.

"I hope you can become a top scout when I graduate!" Wu Sansheng wished.

Louis has not many friends at DSU, and Wu Sansheng is the only one who can communicate with each other.

"You underestimate me too much. Maybe I've become the general manager by then." Louis said whimsically.

It was May 26th to return to Boston from Ohio.

There are 14 days left before the 1978 draft.

This year's draft is the top priority for the Celtics, who yearn for rebirth because they suffered unprecedented insults last season, and Auerbach repeatedly rushed into the team's locker room after losing and instilled in the words "be ashamed" and "don't give up" in players.

This put Tom Heinthorne too much pressure and was fired by Auerbach during the season.

A team that is chaotic and has no direction can be saved by a coach.

Tom Sanders, a Celtics legend and Heinthorne's assistant coach, took over the Celtics and buried his NBA coaching prospects, which he did a mess.

The "very white and beautiful" Celtics' romance with the public and media in the early 1970s seemed to have ended.

At home, fans booed like a waterfall, and Bob Ryan, famous for his sharp comments, lashed out at the team. He said Wicks was "no effect", Coins "didn't know what he was doing when he defended", Haflicecke "like a mercenary", "the team was boring and lifeless," Ryan wrote. "For the past 20 years, the Celtics have represented something. Now the only thing they can represent is the national anthem."

Then, as a rare black star in this team with severe albinism, Joe Joe White was repeatedly criticized as a scapegoat, and finally broke down, absent from training and demanded to be traded.

The Celtics are waiting for Haflicke's retirement decision in this chaos and despair, thus setting the final conclusion of this season.

They need a successful draft.

The problem is that since Dave Coins was selected in 1970, Auerbach has gained very little in the draft - it is not impossible to say that he screwed up every draft pick from 1971-1977.

In the spring of the 1977-78 season, Indiana State University's Larry Bird became the focus of basketball.

Although he is only a junior, he is one of the five people in the draft that can be selected by the team in advance in the draft.

According to the results of the Oscar Robinson case, the NBA will open free agents, provide medical and retirement protection, and allow lower-grade college students to participate in the draft. But in the first decade, elite players went to college for three to four years, and entering the league with mature physical, skill and mental state is still the norm.

If you do not actively sign up for the draft, local American college students can theoretically be selected by NBA teams after four years of college. Some players, such as those who participated in compulsory military service before 1973, often qualified for the NBA before graduating from college. Some people, like Bird this year, were a member of Indiana University when he was a freshman, playing for famous coach Bob Knight.

Campus life at Indiana University was extremely difficult for Bird from the countryside, and he couldn't stand it, so he only stayed at school for three and a half weeks before dropping out. He then worked, repaired cars, and transferred to Indiana State University. According to regulations, he needed to sit in a new university for one year before he could play games, but the year of sitting in a ball supervision was still considered a valid year, so he qualified for being selected by the NBA team in his junior year, 1978.

Although he enjoys a "one-in-a-century" reputation among scouts, the general managers of NBA teams still don't know how good he is.

If they had known that Bird would be as good as the future, it would have been nonsense.

The first pick in the first round in 1978 belonged to Bird's hometown team Indiana Pacers.

This story should have been done like Cleveland welcomed the Chosen Son in 2003.

However, after listening to his mother's words, Bird insisted on returning to school to play his fourth season to complete his studies - is there any familiar plot?

The Pacers' head coach and general manager Jobbard met. There was no NBA prohibition on contact with college students at the time. The Pacers hoped that Bird would join the team immediately after being selected, and they could only give Bird a salary of $500,000 a year. This was not a low price, but it could only be considered a "just-just-right" contract for a rookie of Bird's level.

The Pacers are on the verge of bankruptcy and pay a huge franchise fee to join the NBA. Due to poor record and poor home attendance, they have no broadcast contracts in the first four years of joining the league. This is four years when they need to tighten their belts, and they are eager for immediate changes.

However, Bird wanted a superstar maximum salary, and he was determined to return to school to play his fourth season.

The Pacers could only cry and bid farewell to the birds and send the No. 1 pick to the Trail Blazers.

Then the same plot started again.

The Trail Blazers are willing to give Bird the contract he wants, but must join the team immediately.

Bird's determination to complete his studies is unshakable.

Logically speaking, a team that longs for a savior is a decision that doesn't need to think too much about choosing Bird, but in a world without a clear eye, who would risk the price of choosing air with the No. 1 pick? Although Bird is already qualified to be selected, according to regulations, if he is not satisfied with the team he selected last year, he can re-enter the draft.

By then, the team that selected him this year will lose all their money.

Therefore, although no one knows how good Bird's future is, he is indeed the only choice in 1978, but under various objective conditions, there are not many teams that dare to take risks.

Louis heard about Bird and knew that the Celtics had decided to choose Bird with the sixth pick.

This is all history. Even if he doesn't know the NBA of this era, he knows that Bird is a Celtic player, and he also knows that he often pretends to be on the court.

He doesn't care about Bird's affairs, and he is now carefully screening a stack of scout reports from K.C Jones to him.

⑴ One of the 10th picks in 1972 who had the chance to bear fruit was traded before he became a talent. Of course, that deal brought the championship. However, to be fair, from 1971 to 1977, the Celtics' first round picks did not have a top nine pick, the highest two picks, the 10th pick in 1972 (Westfal), and the 12th pick in 1977 (Maxwell 1984FMVP) both chose the right person.
Chapter completed!