The Whip of the God of Basketball

The work of persuading Siegfried was finally successfully completed. Leon got Siegfried's promise that he would report to the team before the Celtics training camp started. The handover of my original work, and I still need to spend a little time to re-learn things related to basketball.

Siegfried is just a small part of Leon's summer plan. He is determined to build a strong, united and practical coaching team for the Celtics. In the past two decades, with the increasing complexity of basketball, the head coach can no longer take care of everything like he did in the 1960s, and many details need to be resolved by the team and assistants. An excellent auxiliary team can even be said to be decisive to the success or failure of a coach.

Leon realized this when he was an assistant coach. He provided Carol with great help, and now he also needs a strong support team. Generally speaking, the assistant coaches of NBA teams will be stable at about two to three, usually two, one offense and one defense, but Leon decided to expand the size of his assistant coach team and increase the reserved places to five.

There are five assistant coaches, one is in charge of offense, one is in charge of defense, one is the basic technical coach of the players, one is in charge of the players' physical fitness, and the last one is dedicated to teaching players to shoot.

Siegfried is the shooting coach invited by Leon. This top shooter in the 1960s has rich experience in shooting training. Erbach trusted the stubborn, competitive old man to do the best he could with teaching shooting.

For Auerbach's recommendation, Leon had some hesitation. After all, Siegfried's NBA era was a bit far away from today, and he did not work as a basketball coach after he retired.

But Siegfried's work background in the correctional institution attracted Leon, especially his work experience in psychological counseling. Leon's intuition told himself that a team like the Celtics full of blood and youth A team with eccentric bad boys needs such an assistant coach with special discipline experience.

Siegfried still has about two months to be ready to become a shooting coach, and Leon is moving toward his next goal. The day after convincing Siegfried, Leon and Morey left Mansfield, stopped in Cleveland, and bought plane tickets to Denver, Colorado. This time their purpose is to recruit an excellent physical coach for the Celtics.

"Steve Hess, the physical coach of the Denver Nuggets, seems to be nothing special. He has worked in the Nuggets for about three or four years. Why should he be hired as a physical coach?" Daryl Morey There are always a lot of problems in front of Leon. Of course, this time is different from last time. At least he knows who Leon’s target is. What he holds in his hand is this personal resume called Steve Hess .

The two of them arrived in Denver after eight o'clock in the mountain time. It was completely dark in Denver. This city sitting on the Colorado plateau has a particularly clear sky at night, and the bright moon hangs next to the huge building in the center of the CBD. Leon likes the city of Denver very much. The magnificent snow-capped mountains, the magnificent urban construction, and the enthusiastic and simple citizens make Leon feel that this is a city that is completely different from the Atlantic region. But tonight, he came here to take one of them.

Without choosing to find accommodation first, Leon took Morey directly into a taxi and went straight to a health club called "Floza", which is where Steve Hess works. When the two arrived here, the club had just finished a day of business and was about to close. The service staff at the front desk saw Leon and Morey walking in, and kindly reminded them that the business hours were over.

"We are here to find Mr. Steve Hess, and we have some important matters to discuss with him." Leon said to the lady.

"Mr. Hess is doing exercises inside. He will practice alone for more than an hour at the end of business every day. He doesn't like being disturbed by others. I think you have something important to do, so come back tomorrow..." The front desk pointed to the private training room inside. Leon and Morey said.

"Tomorrow? This club may be closed tomorrow...I'll wait for him here." Leon couldn't help but sit on a sofa. After drinking two cups of coffee, he muttered, "We are open all year round..."

Perhaps Hess heard what Leon said, and after a while, he came out of the training room.

Hess was not too tall, a little shorter than Leon, but he was very strong, with thick arms and a broad body like a Colorado bison. With a mohawk hairstyle and a tight yellow vest, he looked very aggressive. Standing in front of Leon and Morey, Morey was a little intimidated by this guy.

"You are Fox Leon! I know you, the assistant coach of the Celtics, and now the head coach. I don't know what brought you here. Do you want to come here for fitness in summer?" Hess recognized After Leon, he is also a member of the Denver Nuggets anyway, and he is familiar with the coaches of each team.

"Hello, Hess. Thank you for the coffee from your club. My purpose of coming here is very simple. I invite you to Boston to be the physical coach of the Celtics." Leon was as direct as ever, without the slightest sloppiness, and said I have come here. Morey's eyes were a little worried, and he was still not used to Leon's super simple and rude negotiating style. Now he was afraid that Hess would explode and kick the two of them out of the club.

In fact, Morey doesn't have to worry at all. Even if it comes to a fight, Hess, who is a fitness and physical fitness coach, can't be Leon's opponent. What's more, Hess is not a fool, although he shook his head and said "NO" , but it can be seen that he still wants to listen to the conditions given by Leon. After all, he came all the way from Boston, and Hess didn't believe that Leon would leave without quoting his price.

Leon took out a Bank of America cash check from the briefcase beside him, then took out a black carbon pen, a small seal box, spread out the check, wrote a number on it, and then He took out the seal in the seal box, stamped a seal on it carefully, and handed it to Hess.

Hess frowned, it seemed that he didn't like Leon's style very much, he didn't accept the check at all, and there was a disdainful expression on his face.

Leon didn't show any expression. He took the check back and put it on the table, took out another cash check, wrote the same number on it, and stamped it. This time he folded the two checks and handed them to Hess.

Hess was still unmoved, but there was no disdain on his face, and he seemed to be looking forward to it, because Leon had already drawn out the third check. Morey, who was on the side, was a little stunned. He didn't know where Leon got so many Bank of America checks, and he also brought his own personal seal. Each check is signed by team owner Cross Parker.

When Leon took out the sixth check, Hess finally spread his hands, tilted his head and said, "Okay, okay, I still want to talk about the conditions in words, not checks one by one, although the money It's important, but so is sincerity."

Leon did not take back the sixth check that he took out, but continued to fill it out, and handed it to Hess along with the previous five checks, saying: "This is your salary for the new season in advance, for your family Buy a house where you can settle down, you can keep your home in Denver, but you need to go to Boston for work. Every month the team will give you a vacation to come back here, if we have back-to-back road games you won’t Need to follow and can choose to go back to Denver. In fact, none of this is important to us, what is important is that you can come to the Celtics to work and bring the best impact to our young people."

Hess accepted the six checks that Leon handed over, but she still had some doubts. The doubts were why she chose him and why she had to pay such a high price. After all, in the NBA, he is not a great trainer, and his reputation is not obvious.

Leon smiled and said: "Chris Anderson had a short period of time in Denver. Later, when he talked about team training, he told me that the physical training he received in Denver was ten times stronger than in Boston. Later I noticed you, Mr. Steve Hess, you know that I still have many friends in the league. You were born in South Africa, loved fitness since you were a child, wandered in many countries in Africa and the United States, and finally you are in Denver met your love and got a good job. I think it's great, it's great, and I don't want to disturb your good life, but you are indeed someone we need, and you can also be in There is better development in the basketball world, more fame. I heard that when your lover married you, you only had three hundred dollars. Well, it's time to pay him back. It's not good to let this day come sooner ?"

Hearing these words, Hess understood that it seemed that Leon had been eyeing him a long time ago, but he was not angry. It is not a bad thing to be noticed, because he has gained recognition and what he needs .

Finally, Hess nodded, pulled a chair and sat next to Leon, and asked, "I think I should understand, in the new season, those things will be the focus of my work."

Leon packed all his things and put them in his briefcase, and said to Hess, "Run, so that they don't know how tired they are from running."