He opened the door to find Sura there.
"You’re not asleep yet, are you?" Sura asked, a smile spreading across his face.
Milicic froze for a moment before nodding quickly and stepping aside to let Sura in.
But Sura didn’t move, instead jutting his chin toward the other end of the hallway.
Milicic poked his head out to look and froze.
The Pioneer had booked half a floor of the hotel, and at that moment, several players were standing in the hallway, staring toward its furthest end.
Lynam, D’Antoni, and a few others were standing outside one of the room doors.
"What’s going on?" Milicic asked instinctively.
Sura shrugged and leaned against the doorframe. "What else could it be? Someone got traded."
The Pioneer already announced they’re rebuilding, so of course, the players who earned the team its "Jail Blazers" reputation are on the chopping block.
"Dale Davis?" Milicic exclaimed in surprise.
If he remembered correctly, that room was Dale Davis’s.
Sura nodded. "That’s right. Not just him, but Stoudemire, too. Did you know? We just made a massive trade. Nine players are involved!"
He couldn’t help but sigh.
A trade involving this many players was guaranteed to be tomorrow’s top headline.
"Dako, we’re teammates. We were teammates back on the Pistons, and we never had any problems. When Mr. Brown treated you that way, we all thought he was in the wrong. But you have to understand, there wasn’t anything we could do. Do you know what I mean?"
Sura explained, his face a mask of sincerity.
With Dale Davis gone, management’s goal was clear: they were going all-in on establishing Milicic.
That’s why he was here, trying to cozy up to him.
As a role player trying to survive and make a living in the NBA, he knew that if you weren’t destined to be the team’s star, you’d better try to be the star’s friend.
Sometimes, a good word from the star player could be the difference in getting a contract.
Milicic nodded blankly, still reeling from the shock.
The two cornerstones of the team—one on the inside, one on the perimeter—were both gone. Nine players involved... they had basically traded away half the team.
Farooq helped translate. Once Milicic understood, he quickly replied in his clumsy English, "I understand."
Sura nodded, then gestured with his chin again. "See?" he whispered. "Everyone needs friends."
Milicic paused. Following Sura’s gaze, he noticed Randolph and Darius Miles for the first time.
The two were standing together, talking.
They were good friends. In 2000, Randolph had been named a McDonald’s All-American and had almost declared for the 2000 draft alongside Darius Miles.
Now that they were on the same team, they naturally started hanging out together.
Randolph had been the target of bullying from a group of veterans and didn’t really have any friends on the team.
Sura patted Milicic’s arm again and left with a smile.
Milicic watched from his doorway for another moment before closing the door.
He understood Sura’s point, but he found it a little ridiculous.
They had just finally gotten rid of the old guard and their cliques, and now the new guys were already starting to form their own.
As a young player who had come up in Europe, Milicic couldn’t wrap his head around it.
’We’re teammates. Can’t we just work together, give it our all, and win games?’
Farooq, however, was thrilled. He said that with Dale Davis gone, Milicic was sure to become a starter.
Milicic didn’t say a word. His mood heavy, he pulled the covers over his head and tried to sleep.
Dale Davis was a good guy. In the short time Milicic had been with the Pioneer, Davis had occasionally spoken to him during practice, offering tips on his rebounding and box-out techniques.
’I can’t believe he was traded just like that.’
The next day, the four players parted ways with the team, each boarding a different flight.
Meanwhile, the players the Pioneer acquired in the trade would fly directly to Houston to join them.
With this trade complete, only two names remained on the Pioneer’s list of players to be moved.
Ruben Patterson and Bonzi Wells.
Chen Yu’s team had now been with the Pioneer for almost two weeks.
All the necessary tech equipment had been installed.
The preliminary observation and preparation phase was nearly complete, meaning the official work could begin shortly.
Under the circumstances, Chen Yu decided to head back to Phoenix for the time being.
For one, there was a huge backlog of work at his clinic and for FIFA.
For another, there was trouble with the Suns.
It wasn’t a player injury, but an off-court issue.
On the 9th of the month, Chen Yu returned to Phoenix.
Brian, as usual, came to the airport to pick him up.
"Come over for dinner tonight," Brian said once they were in the car. "My dad wants to talk to you."
Chen Yu didn’t refuse.
This was something he needed to discuss thoroughly with Old Kolangelo.
As the car entered the highway, Brian rolled down his window, letting the wind rush in. "Paul Allen must really trust you," he said. "To commit to a rebuild like that, and so completely, too. All of yesterday’s news was about them."
He paused, then added gloomily, "Too bad it only lasted a day before our news story completely overshadowed it."
Chen Yu sighed. Bad news travels fast, indeed.
And it was a real scandal, too.
Just yesterday, a female intern in the Suns’ media department named Terry Hunt had gone to the Arizona Republic with a story, claiming she had been harassed at work.
The man who allegedly harassed her was the Suns’ backup power forward, Carl Malone!
The news sent shockwaves through the community, and the local media went into a frenzy.
That same evening, an interview with her and her boyfriend aired on the nightly news.
On television, she claimed the harassment had been going on for nearly a month. It started with verbal harassment and unwanted text messages, then escalated to Ma Long frequently cornering her. This continued until a few days ago, when Ma Long cornered her as she was leaving work.
She said Ma Long tried to force her into a storage room, claiming he would give her a lot of money if she just "satisfied" him.
Fortunately, a coworker happened to walk by, at which point Ma Long finally left.
Most importantly, after she reported the incident to her direct supervisor, she was simply fired.
She had decided to go public with the story and was preparing to sue both Ma Long and the Suns.
"That intern is also part of the problem," Brian scoffed.
In the interview, she mentioned that she had already hired a lawyer and was demanding five million US dollars in compensation, claiming she had a large amount of evidence of Ma Long’s harassment.
That’s why Brian felt there was more to the story.
"Don’t say that," Chen Yu shot back, glaring at Brian. "The main problem here is Ma Long. That bastard... we never should have signed him this Summer."
Of course, Chen Yu didn’t know the intern personally, but he had seen the news reports online.
Without a doubt, she was beautiful and had a stunning figure.
But no matter how beautiful she was, that was no excuse for him to harass her.
So the root of the problem was simply that Ma Long couldn’t control himself.
And Brian had been the most enthusiastic person about signing Ma Long in the first place, even calling it a "buy one, get one free" deal because it also meant they could get Stockton.
Chen Yu had warned him back then that Ma Long was bad news and that signing him would likely cause locker room problems.
And now, look what happened. Something really did go wrong.

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