The Whip of the God of Basketball

Early the next morning, Pitino woke up from his sleep, feeling a little heavy in his head, and he had been dreaming all night.

He dreamed that he was humiliated by a cleaner in the office of the Auerbach training camp a few days ago. He recounted his tactics verbatim from beginning to end, as if they were nursery rhymes in elementary school textbooks.

In the past few days, he has been dreaming of the same scene.

As the most powerful coach in the current NBA team, Pitino has lived under tremendous pressure all the time for three years, especially last year, which is his third season with the Celtics. reached the apex.

After continuing to fail this season, Pitino is a little bit off. This is the end of the matter, especially after bowing to Auerbach. The initiative of the entire Celtics is no longer in his hands. He can only take a step forward. One step, while doing the current work well, prepare for possible changes in the future.

For Pitino, there is only one last straw, and it is also the golden straw for all NBA coaches-leading the team to continuous victories in the new season.

No matter how gorgeously packaged, the core of professional sports success is this simple and crude - win, win, win.

After waking up, Pitino washed his face with cold water, and after cleaning up, he went out to the restaurant on the second floor to have breakfast. Tomorrow is the day when the rookie training camp starts, but this does not mean that the teams have nothing to do before the training camp officially starts. On the contrary, now is really the time to make a big fuss.

Today Pitino asked several NBA reporters to do a simple training camp interview. This is what NBA coaches often do before the draft, revealing their thoughts to the outside world through the media. And these thoughts are often not their real thoughts, but smoke bombs released to confuse other teams and achieve their true goals.

As early as 1997, Pitino did a similar thing. Through the smoke bomb strategy, he successfully got his lover Ron Moser at the sixth pick. The proud work of the Celtics.

Now, regardless of whether there is a suitable candidate in mind, let it go and disturb the hearts of the people in the draft venue so as to fish in troubled waters, it should be done.

When Pitino came to the restaurant, there were not many people there. Chris Wallace had already arrived one step ahead of him. He was sitting on a four-seater in a corner, drinking milk and eating a sandwich with another person opposite.

"Hey, Rick, come here, I want to introduce someone to you." Wallace also saw Pitino and greeted him.

Pitino took a milk, egg, and banana salad and walked towards Wallace's seat, but the closer he got to their seats, the slower his pace, because he looked at the face of the man sitting opposite Wallace. The back, the more he looked at it, the more familiar it became.

"Come here, Rick, look, this is our new scout, Fox Leon. I met him in the restaurant this morning, and he saw me and asked me if I was Chris Wallace, and I asked him How did he know me, he told me that he was the new scout for the Celtics. I couldn't believe it, I thought he was playing me, until he showed the work card that the team gave him, I didn't know This guy didn't lie... Hey, why don't you sit down, Rick, sit down and eat." Chris Wallace chirped, but he found that Pitino's face was not very good.

Sitting opposite Wallace was Leon who got up early in the morning and came down to eat. He was used to getting up at six every morning.

"Hi, Mr. Pitino, nice to see you again." Leon stood up and greeted Pitino.

Pitino didn't just stand there, he smiled and greeted Leon in the same way, and sat down with something at the same time, but his face sank again, and he bowed his head and started to eat breakfast.

"You knew each other before?" From the conversation between the two, Wallace heard that the two should have met, which was far beyond his expectation.

"Yes, we met at the Auerbach training camp. I was volunteering in the training camp at the time, and Mr. Pitino came to give a speech, and then we had some exchanges on basketball, which was very rewarding for me." Leon interjected, giving the listener the feeling that Leon was a member of the basketball circle early on, and he seemed very humble.

Leon didn't mean anything else when he said these words, but the truth, but it sounded harsh to Pitino's ears, as if he was mocking him.

Pitino swallowed the sandwich in his mouth and said: "No, on the contrary, I gained more. I didn't expect such outstanding basketball talents in Boston. It really surprised me."

This remark was a bit of a retort, but Chris Wallace didn't know the festival between the two, and he didn't hear the sting in Pitino's words, thinking that the two were holding each other's feet.

Moreover, Pitino, who has always been proud of his personality, even took the initiative to praise the new scout, saying that he is an astonishingly outstanding basketball talent in Boston. This made Wallace have to take a look at Leon Gao, thinking that Auerbach airborne this scout It's not without reason.

"Which school or team did you work in before? There are not many scouts as young as you in the NBA team." Wallace asked curiously, and now this Leon is full of mysteries.

Leon smacked his lips, looked up and thought for a while and replied: "I used to do boxing-related work in Boston, and then I met Mr. Auerbach. He thought it was a good idea for me to be a scout, so he recommended me. Here comes the Celtics."

Leon was still a little embarrassed to say that he was a fake boxer, so he said that he was doing work related to boxing,

Anyway, Pitino didn't know his real details, so he was just fooling around for the time being.

The three had breakfast for a while, and soon Vogel and Jim O'Brien also came down from their respective rooms and went to the dining room to have breakfast.

Now Leon finally met with the main four of the Celtics scouting team.

Frank Vogel, a man who looks very energetic, is about the same age as Leon, but his hairline is a bit behind, giving the impression that he is an energetic workaholic. Looking at his eyes, Leon can guess that this guy must have stayed up late last night to read materials or watch videos, because although the eye bags under his eyes have been treated with eye cream, there are still slight traces.

Jim O'Brien looked older by comparison, with a more receding hairline, a broad forehead, and small, piercing eyes. O'Brien seems to have a more friendly personality. When introducing each other, he was obviously more enthusiastic than Vogel.

They also asked the same question as Wallace, and Leon gave the same perfunctory answer, only Pitino said nothing, sneered secretly in his heart, thinking that no matter how smart Leon is, he is also a layman to basketball . Memory is not enough to become a scout. Experience is more important than written knowledge. Therefore, many scouts are professionals who have been engaged in basketball coaching or video analysis for many years. They have a deep understanding and rich knowledge of basketball itself. experience.

Pitino felt that Leon was just a shit stick sent by Auerbach, a nail inserted in the coaching staff. While Pitino relies on Auerbach's current support for him, he doesn't like having a guy like that on his team, especially since he's humiliated himself.

"Fox, the training camp will start tomorrow. Let me tell you about your views on this year's rookies. You know, the quality of this year's rookies is very average. We have discussed together for a long time, and now we need some fresh opinions." Drinking After finishing the milk in the glass, Pitino challenged Leon and directly asked him his opinion on this rookie.

This is a big problem for Leon. You must know that three days ago Leon was cleaning the glass in the Auerbach training camp. Three days later, he will sit in an NBA professional team and express his views on this year's rookies. It's like the underachiever who was punished to stand in the high school classroom the day before yesterday, and today he is going to give a small academic speech in the university classroom.

Vogel, O'Brien and Wallace all stared at Leon, waiting for what the new scout had to say.

Leon unhurriedly finished the hot dog in his mouth, took a sip of orange juice, and then said: "As Mr. Pitino said, the quality of this rookie class is not too high. This is the consensus of everyone, but Among them, there are still newcomers worthy of attention. For example, Kenyon Martin from Cincinnati, a 6-foot-9 forward, excellent physical fitness, aggressive style of play, good sense of smell and enthusiasm on the defensive end, although restricted by his size It is difficult to become a defensive pillar player, but one-on-one defense will cause trouble for most insiders; the offensive end does not show great potential, the shooting is stiff, the footwork feels average, and the scoring method in college is not counted. Rich, but very good at using the body."

"There is also Darius Miles, a high school student player, who is also a forward with outstanding physical fitness, but compared with Martin, he lacks a lot of strength, but he plays the position of small forward. He has an excellent third position Apart from the lack of sufficient stability in shooting. But his biggest problem still comes from his attitude on the defensive end. Without him honed in college, defense will be a huge problem.”

"Chris Mihm, an excellent center from the University of Texas, has all the advantages of a white center. He has comprehensive skills, can shoot, has mid-range, low-post offense, and his defensive skills have been honed by the university. , has the potential to become an outstanding center. It's just that the NBA has not had an outstanding white center in nearly 20 years. He lacks some spirituality required by the center position. If he works hard, it is worth looking forward to. "

"Mike Miller, a white forward, almost every white forward has to be compared with Larry Bird, but there is only one Larry Bird in the NBA. Miller also has comprehensive skills. In the NBA, a white If a player does not have comprehensive skills, he should not even try to score. What is remarkable about him is not only his comprehensiveness, but also the fact that he is better than those around him in every aspect, such as scoring, rebounding, and assists. His size and skills make him Possesses the potential to become a versatile player; of course, in a higher level of league, all-around is likely to become nothing-everything, which is something to worry about..."

Leon, who was sitting at the dining table, was eloquent, almost telling the basic evaluations of the most interesting rookies in this draft.

Although the content he described is not unique and does not differ much from other mainstream evaluations, but to describe the characteristics of these players one by one without making a lot of effort, at least read the player information carefully , is absolutely indescribable.

These rookies are not like the superstars in the NBA, who can learn a thing or two from other people's mouth. Except for scouts, no one will be around them every day.

As they talked, Wallace and O'Brien also began to interject topics and exchange their opinions with each other, especially as Wallace was in charge of scouting for overseas rookies, and he had a great say in some overseas rookies.

After a while, Vogel also began to express his views, his views were more technical, obviously in line with his professional characteristics of video analysts.

Only Pitino remained silent. He originally wanted to embarrass Leon, but he did not expect Leon to win the approval of others. They all felt that Leon was a scout.

And Pitino was embarrassed to jump out and pointed out that Leon was just a cleaning volunteer without any basketball foundation. What he said must have been forced to memorize the materials handed to him by relying on memory.

Leon ordered another cup of coffee, and sat silently in his seat to listen to other people talking about the draft. Now for him, listening is more important than talking.

At the same time, he looked at the silent Pitino, and couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, thinking: "It seems that there is nothing wrong with the information Auerbach gave, especially for Pitino."

Last night, in the personal information about the Celtics coaching staff in the drawer, Auerbach personally wrote down his evaluation of Pitino: arrogance, arrogance, and excessive self-esteem made him successful. , It will also make him suffer, make good use of this, or satisfy him when needed, or stimulate him, this will let you take the initiative. "