February 8, 2018. The moment Chen Yilun stepped into the office, he felt like everyone was running around like wound-up mice, busy in every direction.
"What's everyone so busy with?"
Chen Yilun couldn't help asking as he looked at the heated scene.
"Isn't the trade deadline coming up?"
Divac appeared at Chen Yilun's side before he even noticed.
"In the past two years, we barely did anything at the deadline. This year, things suddenly picked up. Of course everyone's busy."
"There are only two deals in total. Is it really worth all this fuss?"
Chen Yilun asked casually as he walked into his office.
"That's different."
Divac quickened his pace, coming up behind Chen Yilun and thoughtfully helping him take off his coat.
"Before, we basically closed off our trade channels, so other teams wouldn't even try contacting us. This year, we opened things up. Once that happened, other teams started getting ideas. At any moment, someone could reach out for a last-minute deal. Everyone's nerves are stretched tight right now."
"I see."
Chen Yilun walked over to the liquor cabinet in his office and poured himself a glass of sherry.
"Want some?"
"No, no."
Divac waved his hands repeatedly.
"I'm not drinking hard liquor in the middle of the day."
"Alright."
Chen Yilun tilted his head back and finished the small glass in one go.
"Any new updates?"
"Nothing for now."
Divac reported in a steady tone.
"The trades with the Lakers and the 76ers are basically settled. No sudden changes on their end. We just need to submit the paperwork at noon."
As he was speaking, Divac's phone suddenly started buzzing.
"Hello? Ah? Okay, okay! He's right next to me. I'll let him know immediately."
After hanging up, Divac looked at Chen Yilun, who was watching him with curiosity. After thinking for a moment, he spoke.
"There's been a change in Washington. After John Wall was ruled out for the season, DeMarcus Cousins doesn't want to wait anymore. He's been pushing for a trade for a while, and just now he forced the issue with the Wizards' management. He said that if they don't trade him, he'll go ahead with Achilles surgery and sit out the rest of the season."
"Oh?"
Chen Yilun's eyes instantly lit up.
"Interesting."
He quietly set down his glass and began thinking.
It was likely that Cousins could no longer see any future with the Wizards and had started to lose patience. Wall's injury, combined with the front office's inaction, became the final straw.
But at this point, it wasn't entirely fair to blame the Wizards. Wall's injury was unexpected, and in order to trade for Cousins earlier, the Wizards had already mortgaged their draft picks all the way to 2021. Given their current situation, management didn't dare recklessly trade away their last remaining first-round pick.
And so the situation dragged into a stalemate.
"Any response from the Wizards?"
"I don't have anything yet. I'll check again in a bit."
Chen Yilun waved his hand decisively.
"Go. Dig deeper. Report back."
This season, Cousins' body wasn't in great shape either. The wear and tear from years of battling in the paint was gradually catching up to him.
That was why Cousins, eager to prove himself, desperately wanted to join a team with championship potential—rather than wasting time here with a big brother who was already down to one leg.
"Hey, man, what's eating at you?"
Leaning on his crutches, Wall looked at Cousins across from him with a serious expression.
"Just wait for me. I'll be back next year. Then we can keep pushing together."
"No, bro."
Cousins pouted, clearly unhappy.
"When you were healthy, we tried too. I came here to join you because I thought we could win a championship together. But it's been years. We haven't even made it out of the East. Forget Cleveland—against Toronto or Boston, we don't even have a guaranteed edge."
"Look at my old teammates back with the Kings. They already got their rings. Now they're going for a repeat. It hurts, man."
At the mention of the Kings, Wall fell silent.
There was no way to argue against hard trophies and real accomplishments.
"And there's more."
Before Wall could figure out how to respond, Cousins continued.
"You know my body. The team doesn't want to give me a max deal anymore. Even if I drag us into the playoffs this year, so what? I'll run my body into the ground and still lose out on a big contract. I'd just end up being a complete clown."
"So you…"
In the end, Wall still couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
The Wizards had no draft picks left. All they could do was keep moving forward. The best-case scenario this year was Cousins and Beal leading the team into the playoffs, at least getting into a series.
Then, in the offseason, Cousins' contract would expire. He could take a pay cut to re-sign and wait for Wall to return, while the team still had room to make improvements.
But as Cousins' NCAA senior and leader, Wall simply couldn't say those words out loud.
It would be like sacrificing Cousins for the team's slim chance at survival.
"I'll talk to the front office."
After hesitating for a long time, Wall finally chose to protect his brother.
"If there's somewhere you want to go, then we'll go. If not, we'll give up on this season and look to next year."
But that was nothing more than Wall's own wishful thinking.
...
The Wizards' front office was in the middle of an intense emergency meeting.
"I told you we never should've brought Cousins in! Now we're stuck with no way out! What are we supposed to do?!"
A Wizards shareholder slammed the table, openly berating the team's general manager, Grunfeld.
He was the one who had pushed through the Cousins trade in the first place.
The more glorious things had once been, the more miserable Grunfeld looked now.
Sitting there drenched in sweat, Grunfeld glanced nervously at his partner—the current head coach, Scott Brooks.
But Brooks stared straight ahead, acting as if he hadn't heard a thing.
"Arguing about this now is pointless!"
The man seated at the head of the table knocked on the desk.
"You're all acting like vendors yelling in a marketplace. What kind of behavior is this?"
This man was none other than the owner of the Washington Wizards, Theodore Leonsis.
At Leonsis' words, the previously noisy conference room fell silent.
"This isn't about who's responsible anymore. When the rain's coming and the daughter's getting married, there's nothing you can do. One wrong move with DeMarcus Cousins, and he'll become a liability—or worse, someone we can't even keep."