The Whip of the God of Basketball

The NBA regular season is still in full swing. After each team has experienced the ups and downs, running-in, injuries, and adjustments in the first half of the season, the tactics, lineups, and playing styles have been basically finalized, and the goals for the season have gradually become clear.

Those who were far away from the playoffs began to focus on training new players and did not hesitate to perform badly to get a good pick next season. Those who can enter the playoffs will work hard and use the second half of the season to polish their lineups and strive to go further in the fierce playoff competition.

In comparison, the Boston Celtics seem a bit strange. They hold the top spot in the league, but they feel more and more carefree in the game.

Since completing an astonishing 23-game winning streak, the Celtics have never won more than 8 consecutive games in subsequent games. They will always win a wave of victories as a matter of course, and then unexpectedly win in a certain game. They would lose games outside the competition; then they would go on to win, another winning streak, only to end at some point without warning.

During the 23-game winning streak, there were constant predictions that the Celtics might become the second team to reach 70 wins after the Chicago Bulls in 1996. Indeed, it seemed that no team in the entire league was as good as the Celtics. Power. But as the number of Celtics defeats continued to increase, such voices became smaller and smaller. Until February 14th, in the fifth game of seven consecutive away games in the terrifying Western Conference, the Celtics lost 111:119 in Sacramento. The Kings, who are becoming more and more perfect, suffered their 13th defeat of the season, and the debate on whether the Celtics can complete 70 wins has come to an end.

But after losing this game, people did not see much disappointment in the eyes of the Celtics players. Their head coach Fox Leon even said at the post-game press conference, "This is a game that can Accepting failure teaches us a lot, things that have nothing to do with the outcome.”

This kind of Leon is different from people's impressions. In the past, he was so obsessed with winning that he believed that no matter what kind of game, as long as there was a result, he should go all out to win.

"Since someone has to win the game, why isn't I the one who wins?" This is a sentence that Leon used to say often.

In the past, through the media, he shaped the Boston Celtics into a dark army that fought against the world at all costs in order to win. But now they want to be a traditional team that "enjoys the game and learns from failure"? This all feels a little off guard, and in fact it is not without reason.

The cause of the incident starts with a training conflict within the Celtics team at the end of January.

The Boston Celtics' in-team training has always been known for its intense training, especially Fox-Leon's off-ball simulation training, which is a huge test for the players' physical strength, willpower, mental power, and ability to control details. They want their brains and bodies to keep up with Fox-Leon's terrifying computer-like brain, and they have to devote themselves 100% to this, so some friction is inevitable.

During a high-intensity confrontation, Daniels, a rookie on the Celtics, couldn't stand the constant trash talk from Kevin Garnett during training and angrily threw the basketball at Garnett. head.

As the highest-paid boss on the team, it was completely unacceptable to be hit on the head by a rookie. After being stunned for a moment, Garnett punched Daniels in anger. Fortunately, P.J. Brown and Paul Pierce stopped him and prevented a more serious conflict between the two. Then, amid Leon's scolding, the two of them stopped.

But of course this kind of thing will not end there. Danny Ainge quickly got the news. Since this training is not open to the public, the media has not gotten the news yet. But Anji knows that there is no shadow in the United States that journalists cannot catch, and those well-informed media will soon get the news.

At that time, Ainge happened to have a trade plan. He believed that the Celtics had Posey, Diaw and Pierce at the forward position. They no longer needed a small role like Daniels, so he wanted to package Daniels. Draft picks in exchange for Nets guard Marcus Banks. He believes that the Celtics still need to make some additions to the back line.

However, this transaction was immediately strongly opposed by Leon. He believed that when the team was in good condition, it would be dangerous to make any adjustments and changes to the lineup. And to deal with the newcomers because of a conflict between players will not only embarrass the Celtics, but also discredit Kevin Garnett.

Because of this incident, the relationship between Leon and Angie became tense again, and a series of subsequent events proved that Angie's worries were not unreasonable.

News of Kevin Garnett punching a rookie in training quickly emerged, along with a series of reports about Garnett "bullying" rookies on the team. Small things like asking a rookie to carry a bag are no longer worth mentioning. Also, when going to Minnesota to play, Garnett asked a rookie to go outside and buy himself a pair of headphones to listen to music on a snowy day - although Garnett There are already several pairs of headphones in Te's travel bag.

This kind of news has once again made the Celtics, who have been so blackened in the past, even worse. Even the Celtics boss has been under a lot of pressure, which even caused Kevin Garnett's All-Star vote to waver. ——He has been rising steadily before, ranking first among all stars.

Maybe Danny Ainge's method of trading away Daniels is not a good method, but at least it can make Garnett less upset. After all, they can't send Garnett away, so they have to send Garnett away and ignore each other. People who are pleasing to the eye - this is what all teams with superstars usually do.

However, Fox-Leon did not want this. Two days after the negative news, Leon held an all-hands meeting within the team. During the meeting, Leon asked everyone to speak freely on a note and express their views on the team. and expectations for oneself. He then read these anonymous notes in front of everyone, using this relatively secret method to help the players have a spiritual communication.

After that, Leon began to change his strategy of arranging his troops in the game. He no longer studied the video endlessly and formulated a targeted battle plan before playing against each opponent. He began to truly focus on me instead of his opponents. His goal began to change. It was no longer "to do what our opponents do, but to do what we do."

He gave each player a goal to play and began to increase the players' playing time. For example, he began to really adjust Laga Bell to the starting position, let Michael Reid play as the sixth man, increased Alston's playing time at the point guard position, and tried to let Daniels act as the outside defensive gate. characters and so on.

All these changes are of course full of difficulties. For example, asking Reed to play as the sixth man made him very unhappy. Although he played a good role as a substitute in some games, he still hopes that he can appear in the starting position. Michael didn't have much interest in his new role until John Havlicek went to the North Shore Garden Arena to watch a Celtics game and said in a post-game interview that Reid could carry on his legacy. Complained.

In this way, the Celtics have experienced a month of minor ups and downs. They no longer have the invincibility and dominance they had during the 23-game winning streak, but have become more diverse and fancy, with various routines and tactics emerging in endlessly. Many professional football commentators Everyone thinks that Fox-Leon is playing with fire. I think the Celtics at this time were a little carried away, lost the foundation of their victory, and became obsessed with self-expression.

But Leon remained unmoved until the All-Star Game was approaching. He gave the players a long vacation and asked everyone to enjoy this rare vacation. Because he knows that the so-called "wildness" during this period is to allow the players to truly integrate together. The way for players to integrate is not only victory, but also the fun of playing together. This is the charm of basketball that is more fundamental than winning.

Leon has slowly begun to learn to not only care about each player's performance on the court, but also to care about each of them. When he truly does this, the Celtics' biggest enemy - themselves, will cease to exist.