The Whip of the God of Basketball

"The team's style of play has caused a lot of controversy, and many people are talking about it. I read Boston newspapers every day. How do you feel? Is the position of the head coach comfortable?" At Auerbach's home in Washington, one side The red head who lit the cigarette looked at Fox Leon and said.

After the game between the Celtics and the Washington Wizards, the team did not leave immediately, because their next stop was New York, and the morning plane could arrive at noon, so the team had to stay in Washington for one night. Leon went to Auerbach's home to visit the old man after the game.

Since resigning from all positions in the Celtics team, Auerbach has completely settled in Washington and never returned to Boston. Even the Celtics' opening game this season, he did not go to the home court of North Shore Garden to watch the game. This made Leon feel slightly disappointed.

"If they had watched the Celtics game seriously, they wouldn't have such doubts." Leon responded, standing opposite Auerbach, he was seriously grinding the coffee for Auerbach These are the high-quality coffee beans that Khomeinis' father brought from Jamaica. Apart from cigars, Auerbach also loves coffee.

Leon's tone was obviously dissatisfied. The first game beat the Bulls, so that Leon won some praise, but there are still quite a few comments that the Celtics' victory came from the good feel and state of the players, as well as Pierce. super performance. The fact that the team lost nearly 10 rebounds in the game also made many ball critics believe that this style of play cannot survive in a league where powerful forwards are rampant.

In the second half of the second half, the victory that was almost overturned in the second half made Leon get the evaluation of "winning because of good dribbling, good player condition, and almost losing". Perhaps it was a stumbling victory in the eyes of many people. It's not as good as the glorious defeat. Of course, they don't know that Leon made a strategy like this before the game. Moreover, Leon's too few timeouts during the game are also considered to be "inexperienced, too nervous, and do not know how to control the rhythm".

Most of these criticisms come from the Boston media, such as the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, CSNNE TV station, basketball-insider magazine, and the increasingly developed Internet media. However, the local fans in Boston are unexpectedly tolerant and fond of Leon, especially the young fans, who are full of expectations for this young and brilliant new Celtics.

Auerbach saw some of Leon's dissatisfaction. He knew that the problems the head coach had to face were not comparable to those in the period of scouts and assistant coaches.

"It's something that has to be endured until you win enough. Boston is one of the cities with the most sports media in the country, and I've worked there half my life and I can't deal with all of them. I introduce you to different I have few friends, but there are almost no friends in the media circle. I want to tell you that the best way to control the media is to keep winning. Apart from winning, all superficially good relationships will not help your work. , of course, the only effect will be to make you have a 'good guy' image in the readers' mind." Auerbach said while puffing, he hadn't smoked a cigar for a while, but he was still happy when he saw Leon Want to smoke one, it seems that this can stimulate his thinking.

"Defense lawyers are always available." Leon lowered his head and said, brewing coffee, a strong aroma began to overflow in the room. He quoted the famous quote from Frederick II, which obviously had a deep heart in Auerbach's heart. A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he picked up the cup and took a sip of the coffee made by Leon.

"But I still have a problem. Danny Ainge has always hoped to trade a strong inside player. The chip is Joe Johnson or Redd, but I don't want them to be exchanged so soon. I chose them and It doesn't mean they will stay with the Celtics forever, but unless there is a real suitable candidate, I will not approve the choice of trading for the sake of trading." Leon seized the opportunity to sue Angie in front of Auerbach One shape. Since the summer, Ainge has been looking for opportunities to trade for powerful inside players. His original goal was Ronnie Rogers, a powerful forward from the Phoenix Suns.

"Professional managers and head coaches are different jobs. I have been fortunate to have stayed in both positions. As a head coach, what you want to do is to make the team stronger, better than everyone else, everyone else. The weaker the better. As a professional manager, it’s different. You have to learn to think from the perspective of the other party, and give them what they want in order to get what you want. A general manager who does nothing will not be a good general manager .” Facing Leon’s question, Auerbach said unhurriedly.

"But you are a general manager who never loses money." Leon directly punctured Auerbach with one sentence, and Auerbach suddenly became embarrassed. He glanced at Leon and continued: "The times are different... ...It's different...You know, Ainge is from Phoenix, he has a great relationship there. I think it must be that the Phoenix people want Joe Johnson, and they also have players that the Celtics need, and he needs to deal with it. This kind of relationship. NBA transactions are not only an exchange of interests and players, but also an exchange of favors. Look, didn’t Chris Wallace also give us a draft pick for next year?” Auerbach himself When the manager used to take advantage of others, now he understands the principle of exchanging favors.

"I paid the price! I introduced Chip Engelland to the Grizzlies, he would have been my first choice for shooting coach, instead of bothering old Mr. Siegfried, he is almost seventy years old It’s gone.” Leon’s 2003 draft pick from the Grizzlies was not without cost. When he was selecting coaching staff in the summer, the number one candidate for the shooting coach was a little-known shooting consultant, Chip Engelland. , who was unknown as a player, and later opened a shooting camp. Steve Kerr was one of the guests of this training camp, so he introduced Leon and hoped that he could dig Engelland from the Nuggets. It happened that Hess also came from the Nuggets. Denver tackles two options.

However, Chris Wallace once hoped that Leon could find a good assistant coach for the Grizzlies. In order to repay Wallace for giving the Celtics the 03 draft pick, Auerbach also provided an assistant coach candidate. Leon introduced Engelland to Wallace, and Jerry West hired Engelland with a high salary.

"Okay, okay, I'll mention it to Ainge and ask him to be patient. It's not a good thing to have a disagreement between the management and the head coach. Danny is a good manager and you will be a good coach, but you are both a bit stubborn. Look in the right direction, look far away, and let go of unnecessary things." Auerbach finally persuaded that since his full retirement, Auerbach's personality has softened a lot, and his temper has not been so violent. Yes, it seems to take everything very seriously.

The two chatted for a while, and in the middle of the night, Auerbach couldn't bear it anymore and was about to go to bed. Leon decided to leave and go back to the hotel. He also needed to get up early tomorrow, so he got up and said goodbye to Auerbach. Before leaving, he said: "Arnold, Wednesday's game, I hope you come to Boston to watch. I know you won't watch TV."

After the trip to Washington, there are two more away games, and the Celtics will return to their home court. Next Wednesday, their opponent at the North Shore Garden will be the three-game overlord, the Celtics' feud, the Los Angeles Lakers. Leon hopes that Auerbach will be able to watch this important game live.

"Yes, I will." Auerbach nodded and sent Leon out of the house.

Leon, who left in the car, didn't know that the reason why Auerbach didn't appear in the North Shore Garden in the first game of the season was not that Auerbach didn't care about the Celtics and Leon. On the contrary, he cared too much. I care too much. Auerbach, who has experienced many battles and has seen all kinds of scenes, was afraid that Leon would fail in the first regular season game of his career, so that he locked himself in his home in Washington, not only did not go to the scene, but even the radio, The TV is not on. It wasn't until the next day that he saw the news of the Celtics' victory in the newspaper, and the stone in his heart was just put down.

"Keep going, my child..." Auerbach thought to himself as he watched Leon's disappearing figure.

…………………

On November 1, the Celtics team arrived in New York. This time they didn't have to go to the Nassau Stadium, but went straight to Madison Square Garden, the sports mecca of the Big Apple. After two victories, the Celtics began to attract some topics and attention. Compared with New York's two-game losing streak at the beginning of the season, a victory is urgently needed to stop the bleeding. But on the night of the 2nd, the Celtics did not give the New Yorkers this chance. The Celtics, who got a day off in this game, once again offered the super fast offense in the first game. Arenas, but every Celtics player.

At 119:101, the Celtics flooded the Knicks with a tide of offense. The Knicks, who were trying to play against the Celtics, did not have the smooth offensive coordination of the Celtics at all. Compared with winning the game, the bigger news brought about by this game is that during the warm-up before the game, Leon led the team to conduct a fifteen-minute "off-the-ball simulation training" in Madison Garden, making the The vast New York media was an eye-opener.

"There is no ball on the court, but there is a ball in my heart." This is the evaluation given by Fred Kerber, a senior reporter in New York after watching the fifteen minutes of training. From this moment on, he knew that the Celtics This coach has the potential to disrupt the NBA.

Two days later, in Chicago, when the Celtics slaughtered the Bulls in an away game with a humiliating score of 105:70, many people in the league began to realize that a new force of an old force is coming again in the Northeast of the United States, the Atlantic The coast began to rise.