on June 26, after the NBA awards ceremony ended, the 2018-2019 season is officially over.
This season, Antetokounmpo and Leonard are considered the two biggest winners.
The former won the MVP, the most important award in the regular season, and the latter won the FMVP, the most important award in the playoffs.
And some fans noticed that the two have one thing in common, that is, they were both rookies selected with the 15th overall pick in the first round.
In 2011, Kaka was selected by the Pacers with the 15th overall pick in the first round and then traded to the Spurs.
Under Popovich, he grew into a generation of superstars.
In 2013, Antetokounmpo was selected by the Bucks with the 15th pick in the first round, and has been trained since then, and has also grown into a generation of superstars.
The 15th pick is not a lot of attention in the draft.
Because the 15th pick is not in the lottery area, it is generally not possible to select a talented new star.
But now with the success of Antetokounmpo and Xiaoka, the 15th pick is expected to become a new “magic pick” after the 13th pick.
The 13th pick originated from the famous Lakers Kobe Bryant.
In the golden generation in 1996, Kobe was selected by the Hornets with the 13th pick in the first round and then traded to the Lakers, and became one of the most successful superstars in the 21st century.
The 13th pick is not too conspicuous among the many talents in 1996, but Kobe’s story makes people remember this number.
And what really made the 13th pick popular are the recent three new stars.
LaVine with the 13th overall pick in 2014, Booker with the 13th overall pick in 2015, and Mitchell with the 13th overall pick in 2017 are all excellent shooting guards of the new generation.
Among them, the first two are still hardcore Komi.
If it is said that the forward is selected with the 15th overall pick, the shooting guard should be selected with the 13th overall pick.
In addition to the 13th pick, the most popular in recent years may be the 27th pick.
The rookie with this pick is almost about to fall out of the first round, but the success rate in recent years has been extremely high.
Just talking about yesterday’s awards ceremony, the best defensive player and the most improved player are both 27th overall picks.
Among them, Gobert, the best defensive player, was selected 27th in the first round in 2013 by the Nuggets; Siakam, the most improved player, was selected 27th in the first round in 2016 by the Raptors.
In addition, Kuzma, the biggest surprise of the Lakers in the draft in recent years, also came from the 27th pick.
In the deal involving Big Eyebrow, his status in the hearts of the Lakers surpassed that of Ball and Ingram, and became the team’s not for sale.
The King’s Bogdan Bogdanovic averaged 14.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1 steal per game. He was the No. 27 pick in 2014.
Since Duncan, Ginobili and Parker retired one after another, the Spurs have been more low-key in the NBA.
But in this year’s draft, they made a hot search because they selected the rookie with the 29th overall pick. The key word is “Spurs 29th overall pick”.
In this second-to-last pick in the first round, the Spurs have found many treasures in recent years, such as Derek White in 2017 and Dejounte Murray in 2016, both of whom have grown into qualified starting guards.
Compared with other draft laws, the Spurs’ 29th pick law does not strictly point to the 29th pick.
The point is that the Spurs are very good at finding treasures at low picks. For example, Parker, the 28th pick, and Ginobili, the second-round pick, have grown into superstars.
There are positive aspects of the law of order, and naturally there are also negative aspects.
In the NBA, the biggest curse about the draft is probably the second place curse.
It stands to reason that rookies at this position should all become star players, but the fact is that the second place is not only rich in parallel imports, but some even die young.
The representative of the second place in the parallel list is Sam Bowie in 1984.
He overwhelmed Jordan to become the No. 2 player. He has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, averaging only 10.5 points per game.
Darko Milicic, the second pick in 2003, overwhelmed Anthony Wade and others in the draft, but averaged only 6 points per game in his career.
The more miserable representative of the No. 2 curse is No. 2 Len Bias in 1986.
He died of cocaine poisoning just two days after the draft.
And Jay Williams, who was in the same class as Yao Ming, had just finished his rookie season, but was seriously injured in a car accident and hastily retired.
In the history of the NBA, there are also a few people who broke the curse of the second place, such as the second place in 2007, Durant.
Although the Achilles tendon is seriously injured now, he has become one of the most successful stars in the league today.