The Pistons today were as inconspicuous in the United States as the city they called home, Detroit.
It had once been a thriving automotive hub.
But times had changed, and the Motor City had become a place half abandoned.
People often overlooked it, or even forgot it existed.
It had become a nobody among American cities.
The Pistons, the city's team, finished near the bottom of the standings year after year.
They were always hovering around the bottom few spots.
Some said the Pistons were tanking to improve their chances of getting the next year's Top Pick.
The sad thing was, they'd been tanking for more than ten years. Aside from one year when they actually landed the Top Pick, they'd failed to get it every other time.
And the rookies they did draft were almost all busts.
Over the past ten years, they'd picked second three times and third four times.
Not one of those players had panned out.
The one time they picked first, they'd drafted a player made of glass. He'd played only eleven games in his first season.
After returning the following season, he played only seven more.
His stats weren't much to look at, either.
That was why people in the NBA said the Pistons tanked and stank every year, spending every summer chasing the Top Pick.
After tanking last season, the Pistons drafted three rookies this year.
One was the 2033 second overall pick, Connie Connie.
Another was Deng Dute, taken fifth in the First Round.
The last was Joe Mashat, taken seventeenth in the First Round.
What surprised Yaren was that all three rookies came from the same country: South Sudan.
They were also built almost identically, all long-armed freaks like Durant.
Each stood over 2.08 meters tall and was a leaping, running