The Whip of the God of Basketball

"What I need to explain is that the league opposes any violence. The NBA is now a civilized and orderly sports competition that reflects the beauty and charm of sports. I will never allow violence to spread wantonly on the court. Regarding yesterday During the game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics, Stephen Jackson punched Celtics head coach Fox Leon. The league decided to suspend him for three games. It is hoped that in future games, Let no more violent conflicts occur. I declare once again that the league opposes all violent conflicts. Conflicts on the basketball court should be resolved with basketball."

On the morning of March 10, 2003, the day after last night's game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics, David Stern held a press conference in New York to target Stephen Stern, who had made a move during last night's game. Jackson was suspended. This is already the second NBA player to be suspended due to violent incidents this season, and the last one was Fox Leon-but this time he became a "victim."

When Stephen Jackson came off the court in the middle of the third quarter, he had a verbal dispute with Leon. In the end, they got angry when they disagreed, and his teammates and coaches couldn't stop him. Unfortunately, Jackson's fist didn't even touch Leon's hair. Leon just leaned back lightly to avoid Jackson's attack. Then Jackson was dragged off the court by his teammates and the referee.

And Fox-Leon continued to direct the rest of the game as if nothing was wrong, without appearing to be frightened at all.

"The-little-son-of-bitch... (this little bastard)" David Stern couldn't help but said to Adam Silva next to him on the way back to the headquarters after leaving the press conference room. As Stern's assistant, Silva has been following Stern recently to handle various matters. As the playoffs are approaching, a lot of work has become busy.

Silva knew who Stern was talking about, of course Fox Leone, and he responded: "This guy seems to have changed a lot after being suspended for a month. I don't know what medicine is being sold in the gourd."

"There have been unexpectedly a lot of negative news related to the Celtics recently. It's Auerbach's old tricks again, fighting public opinion wars, pretending to be pitiful, and making himself appear to be the enemy of the world. And it seems that he is also learning to There were a lot of little tricks. At that time, you should have kept this guy in the G League as the director of player development and let him return to the Celtics..." Stern gritted his teeth. He had never seen any storms. The Celtics and the Celtics He has seen all of Leon's recent little moves.

Now the entire sports public opinion community is following the trend and criticizing the Celtics. The players have poor style and are too rough on the court. In addition to the conflict between Jackson and Leon last night, no matter who is right or wrong, the Celtics will inevitably be docked. A "bad boy" hat. Although they are still far from the real bad boys, Stern will not allow a second bad boy army to appear.

"Actually, he was quite normal in the first half of the season. The team's style was very brisk, the offense was beautiful, and the record was good. I thought there would be another Adelman. But after that suspension..." Silva said, and Si Tern got in the car together, and the two were going to Los Angeles, and now they were rushing to the airport.

"I know with my toes that it was Auerbach who forced me to do it. He wanted to overthrow the talent and create a cardinal... What is your impression of Leon?" Stern asked.

"Smart, very smart, very calm, but lacking some emotional intelligence. He used to feel like a typical technical coach, but now...and he really doesn't have any basketball background. In the past, he was just a street gangster, no. You know where it came from..." Obviously, Silva had investigated Leon's background.

"If next time a Celtics player is violent, he will be suspended directly, and the same is true for flagrant fouls. I don't want the league to have the atmosphere of the 1990s again, and this damn guy can play better than the players." Stern said He also looked helpless. It was really funny that a coach could play better than those strong players.

In the late 1980s, due to the influence of rules, tactics, and the Detroit Bad Boys, the league entered a period of hand-to-hand combat within ten years. In Stern's view, this had an important impact on the league's business and development. In terms of appearance, it's a huge blow. This became apparent after Michael Jordan retired, so now Stern plans to continually change the rules to ensure that offense has an advantage over defense.

He doesn't want the Boston Celtics' green shadow to hang over the NBA again.

……………………

On the other side in Boston, with Jackson being ejected in the third quarter, the Celtics took advantage of the momentum and went on a 7:2 spurt in the third quarter, widening the point difference to more than 10 points. Then in the fourth quarter, they withstood the Spurs' counterattack, and stabilized the situation with Paul Pierce's goal at the critical moment. They defeated the visiting Spurs with a slim three-point advantage at 93:90 and achieved one goal. A valuable victory.

At the post-game press conference, when Leon was asked what exactly he said when Jackson came off the field, Leon responded, "I just told him not to be impulsive, but for some people, the more you make him bad, the better he will be." How about it."

Jackson bluntly said in the post-game interview, "Fox Leon is a hooligan and a liar. If he comes to San Antonio, I wouldn't mind challenging him openly." Jackson was subsequently fined for his remarks. $20,000 and, of course, a three-game suspension.

After this game, the direction of public opinion about Fox-Leon was significantly different from that at the beginning of the season. At the beginning of the season, the media believed that the league had welcomed another young talent with calm observation and superb technical and tactical skills. The new representative of the model coach; half a season has passed, and the words most associated with Fox-Leon are "crime", "correction center", "Scarface", "fighting king" and "liar", and then paired with him Now with a beard and long hair, he looks like a villain.

This change was so fast and so large that no one expected it, including the man behind it, Reed Auerbach.

After defeating the Spurs, the Celtics slaughtered the visiting New Orleans Hornets at home with a 99-68, 31-point advantage. After Leon returned to the Celtics, he led the team to two consecutive victories. His doubts and criticisms were swept away.

But next, the Celtics will face the most difficult week of the season. They will play against the Nets twice, challenge the Pacers and Pistons, and travel to Los Angeles to face the defending champion Lakers - the Lakers will have O'Neal on the line. .

Leon could feel the pressure on his shoulders suddenly increasing. After being suspended for a month, Cowens led the team to beat all the simple opponents, and he played well. When he returned, everything was difficult for Leon to crack. Ang could only admit that he was unlucky for this.

On the night of the 12th, after the game against the Hornets, the Celtics team got on the bus to New Jersey. Tomorrow they will challenge the New Jersey Nets back-to-back away from home.

For this team that defeated the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals last season and ruined their hopes of the finals, the players on the team held their breath. In the previous match between the two sides this season, the Celtics were defeated. Nets, the whole team showed strong combat effectiveness.

It was already early in the morning after arriving in New Jersey. Leon asked the players to rest quickly, while he stayed up late alone in his room watching game videos and preparing a training plan before tomorrow's game.

Just after watching the video, Leon heard someone knocking on the door. When he opened the door, he found that it was Ed Reisert, the team's sports injury prevention specialist.

"Good evening, what can I do for you, Reisert?" Leon was surprised that Reisert would come to him with something so late. Moreover, Leon looked a little worried when he saw Reisert's expression, and he was holding a few pages of paper in his hand, and he didn't know what they were.

"I have something to report to you, Fox... Maybe I should have told you earlier, but... I think it's not too late to tell you now..." Reisert held the papers in his hands. Said to Leon.