Chapter 363: The Age of Great Contention (5)
“Dejounte Murray?”
Coach Stevens frowned slightly.
“That seems unlikely, doesn’t it? A late first-round pick who suffered a ligament injury last year. Is someone like that really worth Chen Yilun making such a big move?”
“I honestly can’t think of any other explanation.”
Danny Ainge spread his hands casually.
“If it were just about developing that new guy, Alexander, Chen Yilun wouldn’t need to be so aggressive. He could’ve kept Richardson and brought Alexander along slowly.”
As he spoke, Ainge glanced at Stevens.
“Once you rule out all the wrong answers, whatever’s left—no matter how unlikely—has to be the truth. It can’t be that Chen Yilun let Richardson go just to clear the way for Rose, right?”
Stevens still felt uneasy after hearing the analysis, but he had to admit it sounded reasonable.
“Who knows what Chen Yilun is really planning.”
Ainge turned his attention back to the computer screen.
“Just focus on your own job. Don’t worry about what other people are doing.”
Truth be told, Ainge himself was buried in problems.
After last season ended, the team’s star, Kyrie Irving, had been extremely dissatisfied with the current situation.
And honestly, it wasn’t hard to understand. Irving had come to Boston to prove he could win a championship.
Even though he’d beaten LeBron James, in competitive sports, everything is meaningless without a title.
Irving’s ambition to immediately establish his own dynasty clashed head-on with a Celtics team that was still unfinished and steadily progressing. The conflict between the two was impossible to reconcile.
Because of this, Ainge had been running around nonstop for the past two days, finally managing to calm Irving down.
“Kyrie really is a walking headache.”
After Stevens left, Ainge stared at the computer in front of him and muttered to himself, clearly drained.
In Ainge’s ideal team-building philosophy, a roster could tolerate a troublemaker—but that troublemaker could never be the team’s leader.
Yet the current Celtics were the exact opposite of his preferences.
The team’s leader, Irving, was emotionally volatile, while the second and third options, Hayward and Al Horford, were far more stable.
Even if this roster didn’t align with his vision, it was the one he had chosen. Next season, he could only continue to rely on Irving to lead the team.
“Who knows what else might happen.”
With the offseason seeing such extreme player movement, even a seasoned veteran like Ainge found it hard to read the situation. Most top free agents had already landed somewhere, but who could say whether some bizarre twist might still emerge?
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“They really said that?”
Chen Yilun walked briskly through the New York airport terminal.
“It’s true. I confirmed it several times.”
Prince followed closely behind him.
“When I first heard it, I thought it was ridiculous too. I almost believed it was a scam call. I only dared to tell you after checking again and again.”
“This is way too absurd.”
Chen Yilun muttered under his breath and quickened his pace.
At a private rehabilitation center in New York, Chen Yilun finally saw that familiar yet unfamiliar figure.
“DeMarcus, how’s your recovery coming along?”
He smiled as soon as he stepped into the room.
“Couldn’t be better!”
Wearing a hospital gown, DeMarcus Cousins lay on the bed. The moment he saw Chen Yilun, the smile on his face was impossible to suppress.
Although Cousins still looked like the same carefree big kid, the past few years away hadn’t been easy on him. A lingering worry sat deep in his eyes.
“I heard about what happened to you.”
Chen Yilun dragged a chair over and sat by the bed, habitually picking up an apple from the nightstand and starting to peel it.
“Boss, what are you doing?”
Watching Chen Yilun peel the apple, Cousins suddenly felt, for no reason at all, that Chen Yilun was giving off a strangely maternal vibe.
“Huh? Oh, this?”
Chen Yilun glanced at the half-peeled apple in his hand, then shrugged.
“Just a habit. Figured you could use something easy to eat.”
After the season ended, Cousins had undergone surgery on his left Achilles tendon.
Because of Chen Yilun’s butterfly effect, Cousins hadn’t suffered a catastrophic Achilles tear last season. Still, years of high-intensity play had already caused irreversible damage to the big man’s tendon.
“What Washington did was pretty dirty.”
Without stopping his hands, Chen Yilun continued speaking.
“I looked into it myself and even talked to Ernie afterward. Not giving you a max extension was the Wizards owner’s decision. Ernie was just the scapegoat.”
“I know.”
Mentioning it only reignited Cousins’ resentment.
He had played through everything, even risking long-term damage to his career, to carry the Wizards into the playoffs—all because of the promise that the team would reward him with a big contract in the offseason.
In the end, the team didn’t give him a single offer. They just fired Grunfeld and called it a day.
The incident caused a major uproar around the league, with even the Players Association stepping in to harshly condemn the Wizards for breaking their word.
But one thing was certain: no matter how the league ultimately handled it, Cousins’ massive payday was gone.
“So here’s the thing.”
Chen Yilun finished peeling the apple, grabbed a small plate, and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
“What you should be doing now is listening to as many offers as possible. See which teams are willing to give you a chance after you come back, then choose the biggest contract among them. Don’t come to me out of frustration.”
By the time he finished speaking, the apple was neatly cut. He handed the plate to Cousins.
“Eat it while it’s fresh. Once the moisture’s gone, it won’t taste as good.”
Cousins accepted the apple gratefully, picked up a piece, and chewed slowly.
“Hey, you know what?”
After just one bite, he said in surprise,
“This is actually my first time eating a peeled apple. It really does taste different from what I’m used to!”
“You big brute.”
Chen Yilun laughed as he scolded him, then stood up and went to the bathroom to wash his hands.
“I didn’t come here for anything else. That offer you gave me before was terrifying—I didn’t even dare accept it. In business, the worst thing you can do is act on impulse. I’m only willing to talk this much with you. If it were another team, who knows how badly they’d take advantage of you.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
Cousins tilted his head back and dumped the rest of the apple into his mouth, speaking as he chewed.
“I’m serious. I really want to go back to Sacramento!”
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