On February 1, 2011, the NBA officially announced the 2011 NBA Rookie Challenge.

In this era, the Rookie Challenge has not yet been restructured, so it is still divided by the difference between the first-year team and the second-year team. And this year, the first-year team and the second-year team each have a special rookie.

On the sophomore team, the selected players basically didn't have any criticism. Harden, Curry, Jennings and other top rookies at the time were all selected. But the most unexpected thing is that Wesley. Matthews, who was undrafted, was among them.

Last season, basketball fans all over the world didn't know about Wesley. Who the hell is Matthews. But now, as an undrafted player, he has been selected to the All-Star team. Undoubtedly, this makes Matthews topical.

On the first-year team, the most eye-catching, in addition to the two generations of champions Griffin and Wall, is Link, the undrafted pick.

"Two months ago, I don't think anyone knew this kid at all. No one will care at all, it turns out that the development league has a yellow-skinned undrafted draft. But now, he's part of All-Star Weekend, and he'll be playing alongside top rookies like Wall and Griffin! ”

"He and Wesley. Matthews is as inspirational, they are not from a high background, but they have climbed up step by step with their own efforts. I'm looking forward to seeing the two successful draft losers face off at All-Star Weekend. ”

"I know there will be a lot of people who will jump out and say he's not qualified. But looking at his stats and performances, you have to admit that this undrafted pick is definitely one of the strongest newcomers of the year! ”

As soon as the league announced the roster, Link and Wesley. Matthews has attracted a lot of attention. Cases of second-round shows entering the All-Star Rookie Game are not uncommon. But both teams have been drafted for the first time in NBA history.

Especially Link's side, he actually squeezed out this year's star show Evan. Specially selected. I have to say that the span of this counterattack is really big enough.

Link's All-Star selection and Randolph's winning the Western Conference Player of the Month award in January made the Grizzlies extremely glamorous for a while. This team, which has always been rarely paid attention to, has become a "dark horse" in people's mouths.

As soon as they went to the gym this morning, the Grizzlies congratulated Link and Randolph. Link, in particular, is likely to be the only Grizzlies player at this year's All-Star Game if nothing else.

In the afternoon training interval, the number of people who came to the training hall of the Federal Express Stadium for interviews also hit a record high. In the past, as a team with no stars and no record, reporters didn't bother to cover the Grizzlies' workouts.

But now it's different, the Grizzlies have Randolph as the best player and Link as the lowest-ranked All-Star rookie. As long as it's topical, journalists will circle around you like mosquitoes.

Seeing Link surrounded by reporters, the Grizzlies must be the most unhappy right now with O.J. Mayo. Today is the end of Mayo's 10-game suspension. And yet? Only a handful of journalists came to interview him.

Most people seem to have forgotten about him. This player, who was once known as the upper limit of Jordan and the lower limit of Kobe, is now not as concerned as a draft loser.

Mayo was naturally very angry, but a little powerless. After all, during the time he was away, the Grizzlies not only had a good record, but Link also seized the opportunity to play an impressive performance.

Finally hurt Xavier. Henry, Mayo doesn't want to be taken by Link again. At first, Mayo thought Link was no threat to him in the number two position, but now, it's clear that he's been challenged.

Mayo clenched his fists, thinking that during the confrontational training this afternoon, he must teach the undrafted pick a good lesson.

So, the Memphis Grizzlies are not all so united.

※※※

During his ban, O.J. Mayo was almost forgotten. In addition to Link's complete overshadowing of Mayo, he often leaves the training gym early to play a role.

Relying on the "advantage" of his ban, Mayo often does not practice with the team in the afternoon. After the morning practice of the individual events, Mayo always leaves early.

As for what Mayo left for, who knows? As a '08 Tanhua show, he has the financial ability to do whatever he wants.

Lionel. Hollins didn't bother to bother with him, so that Mayodore could rest for a while and avoid injury. Second, the Grizzlies are actually ready to trade Mayo, but no one dares to take over!

Mayo's positioning is actually very awkward now, his height of 1.93 meters is a bit short to play the second position, and he has no skills to play the first position. Some people may ask, Wade is only 1.93 meters. But Wade's reach, athleticism and cheeks are all things that Mayo doesn't have.

Mayo's explosiveness and athleticism are mediocre, and his reach is nothing. The archery is good, but it's not good enough to be at the top level. Moreover, I also like to invest in waves.

This kind of player is not something that all teams are willing to trade for chips. The top teams don't look down on him because there is usually no shortage of talent in that team. The team in the middle layer did not dare to ask for him, for fear that he would break the team's system. The bad team also didn't dare to ask for him, because Mayo might delay people to put it badly.

As a result, the Grizzlies have been unable to shoot Mayo. And Mayo thought that he had a lot of status in the Grizzlies. As everyone knows, he is about to be given up by the management.

Before today's training begins, Mayo is fully prepared. He knows very well that if he can take out Link in the matchup, it is not impossible to return to the starting lineup.

However, not long after the training match began, Mayo was deflated.

This time, he was on the outside with the ball and ready to take on Link alone. As a star who has been in the spotlight since high school, Mayo is confident in his one-on-one singles ability.

However, after experiencing the baptism of the NBA, especially the "education" of those perverted scorers, Link really felt that Mayo's offense was almost meaningless.

His first step was not fast, and even Link's "old man" body was difficult to surpass. Seeing that he couldn't break through Link, Mayo made a jump shot.

The pull-up jump shot is his most used offensive style this year. Because most of the time, he can't get past the defenders completely. And this has also become the reason why his hit rate has plummeted this year.

Seeing Mayo jump and shoot, Link reacted quickly and jumped up. His height of 2.03 meters and his arm span of 2.18 meters made Mayo's heart cool by half.

"Smack!"

There was a loud bang in the arena, and Mayo's shot was fanned straight into the other half by Link......

The sweat on Mayo's head was dripping down in large gulps, not because he was tired, but because he was surprised!

It's not the first time that Mayo has played a good role in Link's position in training, but he must admit that the speed of progress of this No. 0 is really terrifying!

Now, his control of the timing of the cap has reached such an accurate point!

Look at yourself, let alone improve, you can hardly even maintain the form you had in your rookie season.

"Haha, nice job. Tomorrow in Minneapolis, hopefully you'll be able to make a cap like that. Randolph then came up and patted Link on the shoulder, complimenting him repeatedly.

Ironically, Link, who has only been in the team for less than three months, is already getting along with everyone. Mayo looked at himself again, having just met Tony ten days ago. Aaron got into a fight......

A deep sense of powerlessness instantly spread through Mayo's body, and he found himself getting farther and farther away from the starting position. And the worst thing is that he can't regain everything he lost through strength. Because the strength of the undrafted draft is really stronger than himself......

This time the cap put Mayo into a state of "thinking about life". After that, he did very poorly. If the offense can't score, forget it, and the defensive end is even more blasted into scum by Link.

At first, Hollins had hoped that this sense of crisis would bring Mayo back to life, but for now, he thought too much.

At eight o'clock in the evening the next day, at the Timberwolves' home target center. The Grizzlies still fielded a lineup with Link as the starting No. 2, and the media was not surprised that the All-Star rookie was able to start despite Mayo's return.

This means that Link will not have to wait for the main player to be injured or suspended before he can start in the future. He's not going to return to the bench because he's already sitting in the Grizzlies' starting spot.

A series of facts have proven that your rank has little to do with whether or not you can succeed in your career.