Chapter 57: Beginning In Las Vegas
In July, the NBA entered the busy season for management operations.
This summer was destined to be anything but calm.
First came the aftermath of draft night. After failing again at this year’s Lottery Draft and missing out on selecting Xu Ling at the Draft, these setbacks made Danny Ainge realize that the Celtics dreaming of turning things around through the draft was probably impossible; they had to take proactive action.
So, he handed over Mike Conley’s contract rights and traded with the SuperSonics for Ray Allen.
This trade kicked off the prelude to the hot summer.
Similarly, the Knicks, unable to land Xu Ling, had to settle for the next best thing by boosting the team’s immediate combat power. Isiah Thomas targeted the Trail Blazers who wanted to offload Zach Randolph, and the two sides hit it off immediately.
Bill Simmons quipped: “After racking my brain, the reason New York got Zach Randolph so smoothly is just that Portland figured it was better not to let Z-Bo lead Oden forward than to let them meet at all—this might be the best thing Portland could do for Oden.”
Regardless, Thomas got his way. Randolph was headed to New York to form the league’s biggest-chested frontcourt duo with Eddie Curry.
Then came a series of incomprehensible team-breaking moves.
“We believe” the Warriors decided to trade away their starting shooting guard Jason Richardson.
Not long ago, they had just pulled off an 8th-seed upset over the Mavericks in the playoffs, and now they were proactively dismantling their starting lineup. Beyond saving money, it was hard to find any other reasonable explanation.
Speaking of saving money, the Warriors could only be considered the Suns’ little brother.
If one had to find logic in the Warriors’ team-breaking, it was possible. After all, they’d been terrible for decades—could they really conclude the team had a high ceiling based solely on a few months of chemistry?
The Suns were completely different. Ever since Nash joined, they’d been rivals to the Spurs. Though they lost repeatedly, their competitiveness was undeniable—yet such a team was stuck with a stingy-as-a-ghost owner.
To create so-called healthy financial spending, they sent veteran Kurt Thomas along with two future first-round picks to Seattle, saving 8 million US Dollars in salary plus 8 million US Dollars in luxury tax. It wasn’t a big deal on its own—dumping bad contracts is something strong teams do—but for the Suns, you could hardly expect them to use the resulting cap space for anything meaningful.
Just look back: in the summer of 2005, Nash had just finished his first season with the Suns. The “seven seconds or less” Suns were at their peak, but promising young star Joe Johnson was finishing his rookie contract. Suns owner Sarver led the lowballing until Johnson snapped, publicly saying he didn’t want to play for the Suns and urging them not to match outside offers. And they didn’t—they shipped him to Atlanta for Boris Diop and two future first-round picks.
In 2006, for financial reasons, they traded the 21st first-round draft pick（ Rajon Rondo） along with Brian Grant’s contract to Boston（ cutting 1.9 million US Dollars from the 2007 payroll）, in exchange for Cleveland’s 2007 first-round pick. To understand how infuriating this move was, you have to go further back to 2004, when, for yet another financial reason, the Suns didn’t want to use their No. 7 pick on anyone（（ Luol Deng）） and traded it away.
So, if you tally it up seriously, the Suns went from “2004 Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala” down to “2006 Rondo,” then down further to “selling the 2007 No. 27 pick for cash.” Wait, what was that about selling the 2007 No. 27 pick for cash? The Suns first used the pick to select Spanish genius Rudy Fernandez, then inexplicably traded Fernandez’s contract rights to the Trail Blazers for cash.
They didn’t play the “financial issues” card for that one, because it would have been an insult to fans’ intelligence—Rudy Fernandez wouldn’t debut in the NBA until 2008 at the earliest.
Yes, that’s the Suns. You could foresee this as the floor for a trash owner, but it absolutely wouldn’t be his last time disgusting the fans.
Finally, Kobe’s trade request, which gripped NBA fans, was quite the spectacle. First, Kobe publicly stated that if the Lakers didn’t bring back Jerry West to steer the ship, he’d request a trade. Days later, he took it back, then days after that, through his mouthpiece, he officially said: “I want to be traded.”
Phil Jackson talked to him, and Kobe’s mood was complicated; he started hesitating. But with the Lakers doing nothing in free agency, Kobe’s desire to be traded grew firmer, and he reaffirmed his stance.
As Kobe’s trade request talk multiplied, the likelihood of him actually being traded plummeted.
So, what about Xu Ling’s Grizzlies? What did they do during this time?
Just four things: first, they reached a veteran minimum contract with Eddie Jones and signed Darko Milicic to a 3-year, 21 million US Dollar mid-level contract. Then they officially announced Marc Iavaroni（Marc Iavaroni） as the team’s new head coach. Finally, Jerry West asked Xu Ling his thoughts on Texas Tech Red Raiders captain Julius Jackson.
Xu Ling reacted indifferently to the other three matters but gave high praise to his captain—that was natural. He knew Jackson wanted a shot in the NBA, but an older immediate combat power not highly regarded by the NBA would need connections or years grinding in the G League to get an opportunity. Compared to earning tens or hundreds of thousands of US Dollars overseas annually, the economic loss and uncertain future here were enough to paralyze anyone with indecision.
Regardless of what role Xu Ling’s opinion played, soon after, the Grizzlies announced a short-term contract with Julius Jackson; he would represent the Grizzlies in the summer league.
Xu Ling had Roderick Craig send a welcome text to everyone, then headed to prepare for the Las Vegas summer league.
This year’s Vegas summer league featured a special team: the Chinese Men’s National Basketball Team. To prepare for next year’s Capital Olympic Games, the team had been gearing up fiercely these past few years, skipping even boring events like the Asian Championships by sending the second team while the first team scoured the world for strong opponents to spar with.
The Grizzlies’ first opponent was the Chinese team.
Xu Ling led the charge, shooting 17 times for 28 points and 6 rebounds, easily beating the Chinese Men’s National Basketball Team.
“I’ve always heard you say China’s goal is to secure eighth and fight for sixth, but if Eli could join this team, China could contend for a medal.”
After the game, Chinese Men’s National Basketball Team head coach Jonas vented to domestic reporters.
But the reporters couldn’t answer that question.
Because the main obstacle to Xu Ling playing for the Men’s Basketball Team was the association’s eligibility ruling, but FIBA determines player affiliation by regional basketball associations. An association doesn’t equal nationality; a country can have multiple basketball associations. Xu Ling was born on the Mainland but moved to Hong Kong with his family as a child, then rose to prominence in the Special Administrative Region’s campus basketball. This created a complex issue: did he belong to the Mainland basketball association or the Hong Kong basketball association?
Xu Ling himself was willing to represent the Mainland, but FIBA held the deciding power. So, the association still had a lot of work to do.
To maintain ambiguity on his eligibility, Xu Ling decisively rejected Hong Kong’s call-up for the Asian Championships before the summer league started.
And frankly, there was indeed an insurmountable gap between Xu Ling’s strength and Hong Kong’s overall level.
To be honest, Hong Kong’s strength probably couldn’t even compete with CUBA’s top schools. What would playing for such a team achieve? Just to experience the “happiness” of being double-teamed relentlessly every second?
Thus, Xu Ling not only firmly refused but stated outright that he would only represent the Mainland in international competitions. If FIBA didn’t approve, his basketball career would always prioritize personal development. He knew better than anyone that if the team’s overall strength lagged far behind the world, one person alone couldn’t change much.
Afterward, Xu Ling led the Grizzlies on a tear, advancing to the Las Vegas summer league finals against the New York Knicks, who had multiple NBA rotation players.
In the finals, the Knicks unleashed a “double team on every touch” defense against Xu Ling. But they underestimated his passing vision and the Grizzlies’ outside firepower. With teammates wide open, they showed no mercy, raining threes.
The Knicks’ over-smart defensive strategy ended up backfiring.
When they were forced to extend their defense and ease the pressure on Xu Ling, he switched modes to unstoppable isolation play. Driving and shooting, changing rhythms, he scored 25 points single-handedly, leading the team to the Las Vegas summer league championship trophy and unanimously earning Las Vegas summer league MVP.
The Grizzlies’ new head coach Marc Iavaroni was also at the event.
Iavaroni was extremely satisfied with Xu Ling’s performance: “Eli is the kind of guy you can tell at a glance knows how to play and how to lead a team forward.”
Then, he pointed out areas for improvement.
“The only thing Eli needs to work on is his habit of playing in a slow tempo.”
At the time, no one knew what “slow tempo” Marc Iavaroni meant—everyone in Las Vegas was immersed in Xu Ling’s performance.
Fans had just one complaint: after tonight, the next time they’d see Xu Ling play might not be until October’s NBA preseason.
That night, a die-hard Texas Tech fan commented on Xu Ling’s Twitter: “Eli, please! Play for Hong Kong in the Asian Championships! Summers without your games are unbearable!”
Xu Ling replied: “Thanks for your support! But this summer, my task is to get stronger in the training hall and be 100% ready for Memphis. The Asian Championships stage is great, but my next battlefield is the NBA. See you in October—I promise to make your wait worthwhile.”
