The Whip of the God of Basketball

As soon as he woke up on the morning of the 15th, Leon received a text message from Khomeinis. To finish her dissertation, Khomeinis flew to Australia yesterday to conduct fieldwork among Maori tribes. The text message was sent by Khomeinis in the early morning, and he should have arrived in Australia.

In addition to reporting Leon's safety, the text message also asked Leon to turn on the TV to watch a sports interview program on the ESPN channel after getting up in the morning. Reruns in the morning. The subjects of the exclusive interviews are often popular basketball players or some famous veterans who are about to retire or have already retired. Although these exclusive interviews are often relatively short, they can always cause some controversy, and they are also an important window-type column of ESPN.

After reading the text message, Leon lay on the bed and turned on the TV and turned to the ESPN channel. Sure enough, at 7 o'clock in the morning, during the cold period of the sports program, a program from last night was being replayed, a replay of a classic NBA game. The rebroadcast game selected by ESPN TV this time is the first round of the 1985 Western Conference playoffs between the Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trail Blazers, and the fourth game where the Trail Blazers eliminated the Mavericks. Hit the game-winning shot at the last minute to kill the Mavericks.

When the video was played to the intermission, espn inserted last night's interview column, the interview object is the current owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban.

When Leon sees Mark Cuban, he knows that this guy will make some strange remarks in all likelihood, and it is likely to be related to the Celtics. Because the headquarters of ESPN TV is in Bristol, which is located in Rhode Island west of Massachusetts. It was originally part of Massachusetts and then was divided to Rhode Island. It should be said that it is very close to Boston, and the team that will play in Boston these two days is the Dallas Mavericks. As a well-known fan owner in the league, Mark Cuban will definitely come to Boston with the team, so that ESPN will be the closest to the team. It is only natural for Cuban to conduct an exclusive interview.

Cuban, Leon, has also been famous for a long time. When he first entered the league, he often saw that the owner of this team was not like a boss. He mingled with the players every day, often bombarded the league before and after the game, and quarreled with Stern. , and then wait to be fined by the league. In the process of the Celtics getting Dennis Rodman through a trade in 2000, Cuban even sneered at the Celtics, thinking that the Celtics were "making a mistake that he had made before", but he didn't Thinking that Rodman had a good life in Boston and retired smoothly.

This time Cuban brought his Cowboys to Boston again. Naturally, he made a lot of nonsense in the media. There is no other reason, because the current Mavericks and Celtics are the two most popular teams in the league. The East and West remain undefeated respectively, ranking first in the East and West. This time, the two tigers are bound to lose. There must be a team whose undefeated record will be broken.

Leon put down the remote control and watched the interview program with great interest to see what amazing words Cuban would have.

Sure enough, when the host asked the question "What kind of coach do you think the new Celtics coach Fox Leon is, do you recognize his coaching level?" Cuban smiled and showed his classic disdainful expression.

"He is a coach with a very unique style. He doesn't like to call a timeout, doesn't like to yell at the players. Many people say he is like Phil Jackson. I think he is similar to Jackson in one way, that is, he doesn't learn. rely solely on superstars to play.” Cuban not only belittled Leon in his answer, but also hacked Phil Jackson by the way. Pass.

Then Leon turned off the TV. It wasn't that he couldn't stand Cuban's remarks, but that it was time for him to go to the training hall to organize the team's training. big challenge. The Dallas Mavericks have experienced many years of organization building. The troika composed of Nowitzki, Nash and Finley reached the first peak of their state this year. More points. Compared with the Celtics, they both play an offensive style, but their attack points are more balanced, the internal and external distribution is reasonable, the players are not inferior to the Celtics, and their experience is even better, and their coach is the former Kyle. A famous general and the famous Qiansheng coach Don Nelson.

In Cuban's interview, there was actually a section that Leon missed and didn't see, that is, Cuban pointed out that some of the routines Leon is using now are just picking up people's teeth, and the object of his plagiarism is Don Nelson. As early as the Warriors period in the 1990s, Nelson designed the outside troika, the attack combination of Hardaway and Mullinga Richmond, which also made Cuban accuse Leon of setting Arenas, Reed and Pierce's outside trio provided a historical basis for copying Nelson.

Of course, Leon would not care about Cuban's accusations. Although he has heard about Don Nelson's tactics, the current Celtics' style of play is based on the current trend of the league's tactical rules, the team's staffing and his own opponents. The understanding of basketball is set, and many people may not know it. In Leon's heart, this style of play is far from formed. With the changes and growth of team members, this system will continue to evolve and grow.

But no matter what, tonight will be the first real tough battle the Celtics have encountered since the start of the season. It will be a major test for Leon and the young Celtics players.

…………………

"Good evening, everyone. I'm Brad Nessler. Welcome to the 2002-2003 NBA regular season live broadcast on ESPN TV. Joining me in enjoying tonight's game is our old friend Tom Thor. Burt and Bill Walton, hello, Tom, Bill." The game between the Celtics and the Mavericks was qualified for national broadcast, and it is undoubtedly the most watched game in the American basketball world today. After the signing of the new broadcast contract, ABC, Taiwan and ESPN divided up the NBA live broadcast rights in the new era. The original NBA live broadcast overlord NBC began to gradually withdraw from the stage of history. However, the new broadcast contract has not yet brought high profits to the league. On the contrary, the salary cap has fallen this year.

However, in the days to come, the benefits brought by the live broadcast contract will undoubtedly become greater and greater, because the healthy competition of the three new TV stations and the continuous innovation and progress in program production will bring more viewers and Higher commercial value. Among other things, in terms of commentators, various TV stations have begun to use the strategy of retired stars, which has achieved very good results. Because the audience is not only happy to see these superstars who used to be all-powerful on the court come to the commentary booth to tell inside stories and anecdotes on the court, but also these players who have really fought on the court are undoubtedly better than commentators who simply love basketball. Possess professionalism and expertise.

*** Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Bill Walton who just joined ESPN TV are good examples. Walton, who just joined ESPN from NBC this year, will start his fourth game this season. In the game commentary, the once-legendary center began to be welcomed by the audience in just three games. His words are humorous, although sometimes they are too exaggerated, but when he needs professionalism, he can give unique insights. The originally silent ABC TV commentary injected a breath of fresh air.

What made the audience even more interested was that from the very first game, he and his old partner, Tom Tolbert of ESPN, started a full range of fights without dead ends, from the results of the game to the cheerleaders. , they all had to pinch and taunt each other, which became a feature of the two commentators. And tonight, there is no doubt that the two will start pinching each other again.

The game has not yet started. Bill Walton first stated clearly that he supports the Boston Celtics. The reason is also very clear, because he once played for the Celtics and had a very wonderful championship experience. It's been a perfect season.

And Tolbert naturally wants to support the Dallas Mavericks without exception, and his reasons are very good, because in Tolbert's career, the Golden State Warriors played for the longest time, and the Warriors' head coach at that time It was Don Nelson.

"Your reasons for supporting the Mavericks are really far-fetched. You said you were a player coached by Don Nelson, but Nelson is still a Celtic! Could he lose this game against the Celtics? ?” Walton pointed out Tolbert’s “logic” error and said that tonight, as a game at the North Shore Garden, he should support the Celtics.

Of course, Tolbert ignored Walton's fallacy. He did not hesitate to praise Don Nelson with his praise. He said: "Nelson is the most creative person I have ever met. He is good at discovering players. A potential coach, he will not give you a fixed role to complete a fixed task, he will let you play to your heart's content, see what suits you, and do what you want. For example, although I am only 6 feet 7, the main position is a forward , but Nelson often let me play center. During my three years in the Warriors, I often faced those super centers in the league, such as Ewing, Olajuwon, and Robinson. This is unbelievable for other coaches. But Nelson It will."

"That's why you guys never make the playoffs. A 6-foot-7 center with three rebounds per game, tell me how did he win in the 90s?" Walton frowned in confusion. Tolbert's career is quite mediocre compared to Wharton's. In the best three seasons of the Warriors, he was only a substitute who averaged 8 points and 3 rebounds per game.

"That was ten years ago, the NBA is different now! You look at the Dallas Mavericks, look at their starting lineup, who is the center? Dirk Nowitzki? No, Najera! Although they are on the bench There is Bradley, the top player, but Nelson wants to use Najera as the center!" Tolbert generally refuted Wharton, while introducing the starting lineups of both sides.

Nelson's starting employment can be described as unrestrained. In the first five games after the start of the season, the Mavericks adopted five different starting lineups. Except for the three chariots of Nash, Finley and Nowitzki, they were unstoppable at shooting guard and center. In terms of positions, Bradley, Najera, Griffin, LaFrentz, Eschmeier and others take turns to play. No one can figure out what is going on in the mind of this legendary coach with the title of mad scientist. What. In this game, he even dispatched a starting lineup without a center, allowing the 6-foot-7 Mexican Najera to come to the center position, and seemed to want to use a small lineup to deal with the Celtics' fast offensive system.

"But it looks like this new coach for the Celtics isn't going to be easy either. Let's look at the Celtics' starters... point guard Arenas, shooting guard Michael Redd, small forward Paul -- Pierce and power forward are Antoine Walker...and their starting center is Wang Zhizhi, the Mavericks' abandoned player from China!" When Bill Walton saw the Celtics' starting lineup, he also expressed his interest. I do not understand.