Chapter 653: Last Minute Recruitment
As soon as Chen Yan's new jersey was released, it sold out immediately.
For the New York Knicks, this was expected.
If a player of Chen Yan's caliber did not sell out his jersey, that would be strange.
However, the Knicks really could not print more.
Time was tight, and the workload was heavy. They had started printing jerseys as soon as they received news of Chen Yan's new number, but they still could not meet demand.
The Knicks had no choice but to cancel online orders, because offline sales alone were already overwhelming their supply.
Chen Yan was temporarily staying at Taylor Swift's place in New York, leaving the arrangements for his new home to his agent.
Taylor Swift's residence was in Manhattan, New York's financial and commercial center.
To many people, Manhattan was paradise. Broadway, Wall Street, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art were all there.
But Chen Yan found it too noisy.
It was not suitable for him.
He liked a quiet environment.
His job kept him under the spotlight every day, so after returning home, he wanted peace.
New York was not like China.
Housing prices here were unbelievably exaggerated.
In China, $4 million could buy a large villa.
In Manhattan, $4 million could only buy a slightly larger apartment.
After Chen Yan settled down, he participated in Knicks team training the next day.
When Barea saw Chen Yan, he rushed straight into his arms. At 175 cm, he looked especially small in front of Chen Yan.
Barea had transferred from Phoenix to the Knicks last season, and he had never expected to reunite with Chen Yan so quickly.
It felt like a dream.
Curry also greeted Chen Yan excitedly.
Chen Yan was his idol.
Previously, the 2 had appeared on the court as opponents.
Now, they would fight side by side.
The other Knicks players also showed great respect for Chen Yan.
Without playing a single game, Chen Yan was already the boss here.
On February 23, the Knicks narrowly lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 110 to 102.
Chen Yan did not play in this game.
Dressed in a suit and sitting courtside, he attracted the attention of a large number of fans.
Knicks fans kept cheering and screaming for Chen Yan. They did not seem to care what the score was.
Just before the trade deadline, another blockbuster deal happened in the NBA.
Carmelo Anthony completed a last minute transfer.
However, he did not go to New York, the place he had always longed for.
Instead, he went to neighboring New Jersey.
The Nets sent out this year's 3rd overall pick, Favors, along with Murphy, Anthony Morrow, 2 future first round picks, and 1 second round pick.
At first, the Denver Nuggets rejected this offer because the Los Angeles Clippers had made a more generous proposal. They were prepared to send out Griffin and Kaman.
However, the final trade still depended on Anthony's preference, because he had a No Trade Clause.
Forcing the deal was impossible.
In the end, Denver still consulted Anthony, and Anthony preferred to go to the Nets.
In fact, Carmelo Anthony had initially resisted the Nets.
He had explicitly stated that if he were traded there, he would not re sign.
That statement was not surprising, because the Knicks were the team he truly wanted to join.
This also meant that if Denver forced him to the Nets, the move would be meaningless.
But everything changed because of Chen Yan's transfer.
Chen Yan went to Anthony's 1st choice, New York, and that directly emptied the Knicks asset pool.
They no longer had the pieces to acquire another superstar.
Furthermore, Anthony himself did not want to go to the Knicks and become Chen Yan's second option.
Therefore, he could only settle for the next best choice, New Jersey, the closest place to New York.
After acquiring Anthony, the Nets did not stop.
They sent out Humphries, Outlaw, $300 in cash, and 2 first round picks in 2013 and 2014 to acquire Utah Jazz All Star point guard Deron Williams.
Within 1 day, the Nets acquired 2 All Star players, and their strength changed dramatically.
Their Russian owner could finally hold his head high.
Ever since Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov took over the team, the Nets had consistently spent heavily while competing for superstars, but the result had been repeated failure.
The reason was simple.
The Nets lacked appeal.
This team had no deep history, no strong market, and with the Knicks right next door, playing here always felt like being a level lower.
With Anthony and Deron joining, the Nets finally shed their image as a laughingstock in the player market.
After taking over the Nets, Prokhorov had made a grand declaration, stating that the Nets would win a championship within 5 years.
Clearly, the immensely wealthy Prokhorov believed that in the NBA, money could buy victory.
As long as he waved his checkbook, superstars would come knocking, and the Nets transforming from a perennial loser into a powerhouse would only be a matter of time.
The NBA was a commercial league, and the power of money was indeed strong.
But the sword of the salary cap and luxury tax hung overhead.
Even with immense wealth, one still had to follow the rules.
Prokhorov's strategy of spending big to acquire superstars had suffered repeated defeats from the very beginning.
During the offseason, the Nets had done everything they could to acquire the big 3 from the 2003 draft class.
Prokhorov personally participated in negotiations and made grand promises, but he still failed to sway LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, or Chris Bosh.
In the end, none of the 3 paid him any attention.
The failure to acquire major names in the offseason made the Nets a laughingstock around the league.
Repeated failures in pursuing superstars left the Nets somewhat desperate.
So when the Utah Jazz expressed interest in selling Deron, and the Denver Nuggets became willing to sell Anthony, the Nets immediately joined the bidding war.
They finally got the stars they had dreamed of, preventing Prokhorov from completely losing face.
The Nets had once acquired Jason Kidd in 2001, resulting in sudden wealth.
Clearly, they now intended to replicate that miracle.
The competitiveness of the Eastern Conference suddenly increased.
Aside from the Nets, the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Orlando Magic were all strong rivals for the Knicks.
It seemed the old pattern of the Western Conference being stronger than the Eastern Conference was about to change.
Chen Yan felt that the pressure here was not much less than when he was in the West.
However, Chen Yan liked this kind of pressure.
Winning a championship in such an environment had greater value, and fewer fans would question him.
As the trade deadline approached, the Knicks were also actively making moves.
In the past, the Knicks had no appeal to players.
But after Chen Yan joined, many players expressed their desire to transfer to New York.
Chen Yan stated that the team needed to add an athletic big man and a 3 and D wing.
They did not necessarily have to be All Star caliber players, but they had to be practical.
The Knicks were doing everything possible to meet Chen Yan's demands.
Chen Yan's rookie contract would expire this summer. If he was not satisfied, he could leave at any time during the offseason.
If that happened, the Knicks would suffer a massive loss.
1 day before the trade deadline, the Knicks announced 2 consecutive trades.
They traded 216 cm center Mozgov and a future second round draft pick to the Houston Rockets for veteran small forward Battier, whose contract was about to expire, and fringe point guard Ishmael Smith.
For the Rockets, this trade focused more on the future.
For the Knicks, they needed immediate contributors like Battier.
Upon learning of the trade, Battier immediately expressed his gratitude to the Rockets while also conveying his excitement about joining the Knicks. He was eager to play alongside Chen Yan.
Although Battier had been traded, he was not in a bad mood.
He had gone from playing beside 1 asian player to playing beside another asian player, and this one had even greater traffic and more fans.
Many of Battier's endorsements were with Asian companies, and he needed that kind of exposure.
Another trade took place with the Denver Nuggets.
The Knicks sent out near All Star point guard Raymond Felton and high flyer Anthony Randolph in exchange for Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington, and Anthony Carter.
Martin could jump.
Al Harrington could shoot.
Anthony Carter was an experienced point guard.
All of them were ideal teammates for Chen Yan.
The Nuggets had already begun rebuilding, and those veterans were among the players they wanted to clear out.
Both core players, Anthony and Billups, had already been traded away.
So this deal was somewhat opportunistic for the Knicks.
The new additions improved New York's strength to a certain extent, but their roster was still too thin compared with true contenders.
Aside from Chen Yan and Curry, the team lacked a 3rd ball handler, and there were not many usable players on the bench.
But there was nothing else they could do.
Midseason reinforcement was already difficult, and last minute reinforcement was even harder.
Any significant roster improvement would have to wait until the offseason.
At the moment, Chen Yan was not thinking that far ahead.
He had only 1 thought.
Lead this team into the playoffs in the second half of the season.
The Knicks were currently ranked 11th in the Eastern Conference.
They were not in a playoff spot, but the situation was not too bad either.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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