Chapter 326: Chapter 273: I Heard Rodman Wants to Come Back to Play

Chen Yu had just seen Oakley off when Brian was already on the phone, eagerly asking about the situation.

"We can definitely still sign him."

Chen Yu gave his answer after a moment’s consideration.

At $6.55 million a year, Oakley was out of a job, but at $1 million, he still offered a bit of value.

The key thing was, if it weren’t for a situation like joining the Phoenix Suns with a shot at the championship, Oakley wouldn’t have lowered his asking price.

So if Brian just wanted him to fill in for about ten minutes with the second unit and didn’t expect him to score much, then it would be fine.

As for his physical condition, he was the same age as Ewing and had kept himself in decent shape. After all, he hadn’t suffered any major injuries throughout his career.

"That’s good to hear." On the other end of the line, Brian breathed a sigh of relief, his voice filled with joy.

Chen Yu couldn’t help but roast him. "Brian, aren’t you worried the media will call us the ’old, weak, sick, and disabled’ team again?"

Sabonis and Brellock were both retired players, yet you dragged them back.

Now you’re adding a 39-year-old Oakley. You’re really determined to cement our reputation as the ’old, weak, sick, and disabled’ team, aren’t you?

"What ’old, weak, sick, and disabled’ team!" Brian, on the other end, retorted defensively, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "That’s just media nonsense! No matter how old, weak, sick, and disabled we were, we still won the championship. That proves there’s nothing wrong with this team-building strategy."

If it worked once, why can’t we replicate it?

Besides, if you don’t win a championship, they call you old, weak, sick, and disabled. If you do win, they call it visionary.

After his rebuttal, however, Brian’s tone softened as he tried to justify himself. "Chen, my hands are tied. You do the math. O’Neal’s salary next season is $23.57 million, Hardaway’s is $12.38 million. If we manage to trade for McDyess, his salary is $12.6 million. That’s already $48 million right there! Tell me, what else can I do?"

Chen Yu was left speechless.

"Alright, you’re the math wiz, I’ll drop it. And another thing, are you sure you can pull off this McDyess trade? You’ve put me in a position where I don’t even know how to face Jason anymore."

J Kidd was still at my sports lab, working his tail off on his jump shot.

I see him every day. It’ll be so awkward if J Kidd finds out I knew in advance that the Phoenix Suns were planning to trade him.

"The chances are high," Brian said after some thought.

McDyess and the Nuggets’ management have really had a falling out.

They’re at a stalemate now, neither side is willing to back down. Anyway, Brian has already heard some rumors that the Nuggets’ management wants to put McDyess on the trading block to see what they can get for him.

Brian continued, "Chen, don’t overthink it. Jason is a professional player; he’ll understand. Maybe you won’t be working for the same team, but that doesn’t stop you from being friends in your personal lives."

Chen Yu thought to himself, ’You think I don’t get that? I’m saying all this because I’m trying to get you to change your mind.’

’J Kidd is working so hard on his shooting to improve his game, and what do you do? You just go and trade him.’

J Kidd’s importance to the Phoenix Suns was about far more than just how many shots he could make. His playmaking and his defense were what the Suns needed most.

Chen Yu understood that Brian wanted Hardaway to move back to the point guard position and reactivate his playmaking abilities.

’But he’d have to worry about running the offense, scoring, and playing defense on top of it all. You’re really trying to work Hardaway to death, aren’t you?’

With J Kidd around, Hardaway only needed to focus on scoring.

Now, trading J Kidd for McDyess, making an All-Star caliber player do the dirty work for O’Neal, felt like a waste to Chen Yu.

But Brian’s mind was made up. What could Chen Yu say?

"Oh, right." Brian remembered something else and asked, "Chen, do you think Rodman can still play? I saw in the news a couple of days ago, he said in an interview that Ewing deserves a championship, and that his own body is still in decent shape, and he’s been wanting to return to the league or something."

In ’99, Rodman briefly joined the Lakers and immediately helped them to an 8-game winning streak. O’Neal even excitedly told the media, ’The perfect team I’ve envisioned has been born.’

Now that O’Neal was with the Phoenix Suns, they could definitely consider Rodman. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Rodman was born in ’61, so he’s only 41 now.

"Stop, stop!" Chen Yu quickly put a stop to Brian’s wild ideas.

’Is he trying to work me to death by finding a whole bunch of old veterans?’

’Doesn’t he know how much effort it takes for me to maintain their physical condition?’

’And Rodman? Are you trying to detonate the locker room?’

"Okay, that’s enough. I’ve got things to do. I’m hanging up." Chen Yu didn’t give Brian another chance to speak and hung up the phone directly.

The most important matter now facing Chen Yu was O’Neal’s surgery.

After careful consideration, on the 9th, Chen Yu decided to perform the surgery on O’Neal.

"Chen, are you sure you don’t want to publish a wave of papers on this?" inside the operating room, Jamie King asked again.

William, the second assistant, nodded in agreement beside him.

Such a complex operation, reconstructing the function of the foot... If it were him, he would definitely have to publish a whole slew of papers on it.

Even O’Neal turned his head to look at Chen Yu.

It was a foot surgery, so local anesthesia was generally sufficient, and O’Neal wanted to watch it himself.

Chen Yu actually wanted to just knock him out completely. It would save him the trouble of O’Neal talking too much and distracting him.

"No need. At my current level, I don’t think I need to publish any papers," Chen Yu refused.

Building his reputation was one thing, but the main reason was that some of the surgeries relied on the effects of his "system," and Chen Yu had no way of explaining to the outside world why the recovery results were so good.

If he published the paper and some doctors treated it as gospel, then performed the procedure on their patients only to get subpar results, wouldn’t he be leading people astray?

Jamie and William glanced at each other and smiled wryly. ’You don’t need papers to boost your reputation, but we do!’

"Want to listen to some music?" Chen Yu asked O’Neal suddenly as he prepared to make the first incision.

O’Neal, who had said he wanted to watch the procedure, couldn’t help but feel nervous now that he was actually in the operating room. Hearing Chen Yu’s suggestion, he nodded eagerly.

After asking a nurse to put on some music, Chen Yu took a deep breath and said, "Alright, let’s begin."

Repairing the hammertoe, removing the bone spurs, and reconstructing the foot’s function... the entire operation took a full 13 hours before Chen Yu was finished.

When the surgery was over, O’Neal looked down at his feet, which were full of Kirschner wires, and felt like crying but had no tears. Then he asked, "Chen, I’m hungry. Can I eat now?"

The surgery was done, it was too late for regrets. After being in surgery for so long, O’Neal had only one feeling: hunger.

Chen Yu rubbed his sore arms and shook his head. "No. You need to fast for 48 hours post-op."

The moment he heard he had to fast, and for 48 hours at that, O’Neal immediately grew anxious. "Chen, I had foot surgery! I wasn’t even under general anesthesia. How does that affect my eating?"

"Of course it does." Chen Yu nodded with a serious expression. "In my experience, improper post-operative diet can cause a spike in blood sugar, which affects the recovery of the surgical site. And it’s not just fasting for 48 hours. For the foreseeable future, to ensure you recover as quickly as possible, I’ll also be controlling your diet."

After saying that, he gave O’Neal no chance to argue and turned to leave the operating room.

In the instant the door closed, Chen Yu faintly heard O’Neal complaining that he’d been tricked.

"Chen, since when did you discover that an improper post-op diet affects the recovery of the surgical site?" Jamie asked curiously as he caught up.

He’d never heard of such a thing.

’This idiot.’

Chen Yu gave him a speechless look. "I’m making him lose weight. By the way, tell the nurses to watch him closely. He is absolutely not allowed to hide any snacks or eat any food that isn’t on the meal plan I’ve set for him."

If you want to lose weight, controlling your mouth is definitely the right first step.

Jamie instantly understood, smiled, and asked no more questions.

Rodman was a no-go, but Brian clearly hadn’t given up on his plan to find a rebounding fiend. So he set his sights on someone else.

Brellock’s former teammate, who had witnessed the rise of the Hawks: Kevin Willis.

He had the height and was once praised as one of the most physically gifted players in the league. His arms weren’t long, but he was skilled at fighting for rebounds.

He was also extremely self-disciplined. Other than one season-ending injury early in his career, he had been virtually injury-free later on, with an extremely high attendance rate.

After leaving the Rockets, he bounced around for a few years before finding his way back to the Rockets last season. Coming off the bench, he could still put up 6.1 points and 5.8 rebounds, arguably maintaining his form even better than Oakley.

Of course, he was also exceptionally old—exactly 40 this year.

He became a free agent again this year, and since the Rockets had drafted Nene Hilario, there was no longer a spot for him on the team.

In fact, even if the Rockets had wanted to keep him, he had no intention of staying.

At his age, his goal was crystal clear: join a team that could win a championship.

There were only a handful of such teams in the entire league, and the Phoenix Suns were the best choice.

Conveniently, the Phoenix Suns were also willing to take on veterans.

And while Brian was using the allure of a championship to frantically harvest veterans, he was also eyeing rookies.

Undrafted rookies!

He was stubbornly unwilling to make a trade, instead wanting to go bargain hunting among the undrafted players.

In mid-July, the Salt Lake City Summer League, which the Phoenix Suns were participating in, was about to start. He sent Charalidis and Tony Delk to lead the team, and also recruited several undrafted rookies.

Jiri Welsh, Pred, Devin Brown, Sam Frank, and so on.

This group of people included undrafted rookies, international players, and some from the Development Alliance, which had just been established last season.

When Chen Yu saw these names in the newspaper, they were complete strangers to him; he had truly never even heard of them.

He knew the team was under a lot of salary pressure, but trying to find a hidden gem among this bunch seemed worse than just signing a few more veterans.

「July 16th.」

Starting today, teams could officially complete their signings with players.

There was bound to be some big news breaking.

In the morning, Chen Yu drove to the sports lab.

Originally, after the World Cup ended, Chen Yu had agreed with Ronaldo to give him a one-month vacation. He was supposed to come to the United States in August for body maintenance and skill-enhancement training.

Surprisingly, after only half a month, Ronaldo took the initiative to come to the United States.

The loss at the World Cup was a significant blow to him, making him even more desperate to become stronger.

He was arriving in the afternoon, so Chen Yu had to prepare in advance.

At the same time, other clients he had arrangements with would also be arriving one after another toward the end of the month.

Right now, it might only be J Kidd, but in a few days, the whole lab would be bustling with activity.

Nelson had already arrived early, but the two of them waited until nine o’clock, and J Kidd still hadn’t shown up.

They thought he might be stuck in traffic and waited a little longer, but by nine-thirty, he was still nowhere to be seen.

Chen Yu called him, but the call didn’t go through.

Just as he was about to call again, Nelson’s phone vibrated. He then looked at Chen Yu with a shocked expression. "Oh my god, Jason’s been traded!"

Nelson hadn’t known about Brian’s trade plans since the team went on break.

Chen Yu’s heart sank. He hadn’t expected the trade to actually go through.