The Whip of the God of Basketball

Minneapolis at night is really a boring place. Fortunately, it is still summer, and the long winter has not yet begun to block this place.

Like most medium-sized cities in the United States, Minneapolis is clean and tidy, but it is relatively boring and boring, far less prosperous and colorful than the old eastern cities like New York and Chicago.

Although Leon pulled Garnett out together, he was not familiar with this place. In the end, Garnett took Leon to a nearby coffee shop.

After arriving at the cafe, Leon found out that Garnett had reserved the place. There were only five people in the entire cafe, wearing hip-hop-style trendy clothing, sitting carelessly around a round table.

It seems that they are all Garnett's friends, and the three letters "OBF" flashed in Leon's mind. As a scout, he is familiar with the shortcomings of every superstar in the league, because these may become leverage to move them in the future.

What Garnett is known for is that he is very loyal to his friends. After he became an NBA superstar and got a billion-dollar contract from a poor background, he did not dislike his friends at all. On the contrary, they established an "Offical-Block-Family" together. The brand not only designs and releases some clothes and shoes, but also serves as the title name for Garnett to participate in various activities.

These five boys are members of this mother-in-law, Garnett's good friends since he was a child, plus a small follower. Leon knew that when Garnett first met his agent five years ago, he took these five little minions with him to look tough and try to control everything.

Now, Garnett is going to take the lead for his teammates, but he can no longer bring his little friends to the door. He believes that he can handle that guy independently.

But obviously, he didn't get it done. Garnett hoped that he could deter Leon, make him bow his head, be afraid, and apologize; but obviously Leon is a tough bone, and his height of 7 feet has no deterrent effect at all. With a cold look, his confident tone made Garnett believe that if he dared to punch, the consequences would be the same as Siri's, his jaw would be knocked off.

Originally, Garnett wanted to go to the cafe to celebrate with his friends after teaching Leon a lesson, and then tell them how the other party was scared to the point of shit, but now the two of them entered the cafe side by side, and it seemed to be a good relationship. friend.

Garnett looked a little embarrassed, but Leon sat down at the round table unceremoniously, ordered a cup of ordinary black coffee, took a sip and said: "We had a fight, and neither of us can knock the other down, but I am sorry for the accidental injury." Malik Siri apologizes, I should visit him if I have time."

The awkward atmosphere was broken at once, Garnett grinned his big mouth, revealing his snow-white teeth, in stark contrast to his dark face.

Everyone became active, and of course the focus was on Leon.

Leon is different from many basketball workers. Although he has a calm and wise mind, he also has a wild and unruly appearance. His slightly scarred face quickly became the focus of everyone's attention.

For Leon, there is a story behind every scar. These young people in their early twenties but possessing untold wealth are essentially a group of children, including Garnett, who are aggressive but cherish their feathers. A heart that is sincere and enthusiastic but loves bluffing.

Like a pirate returning from a voyage, Leon tells the little furry boy in his hometown about the storms and waves on the sea. He brings the experience and knowledge of this body in the South Side of Boston one by one, including James Bulger's evil deeds and Feladimir Frank The pursuit of himself, and his various experiences of serving a sentence in MCI.

Garnett and his partners either grew their mouths or widened their eyes when they heard it. They would also talk about the gangster stories they heard and experienced in Chicago, and then debate whether the gangsters in Chicago were more ruthless or Boston The Mafia is darker.

But in the end, Garnett said something to Leon, he said: "Your experience makes me find it interesting, but I will never let myself experience such a thing."

He stared at Fox Leon with big eyes, but there was no sarcasm in his words. Leon smiled and said: "In this world, people who like basketball are not too bad."

In the early hours of the morning, Leon bid farewell to Garnett and his friends. Anyway, this can be regarded as an unexpected harvest for Leon. He began to become friends with Kevin Garnett, and it seemed that his friends were also very happy. like him.

In this league, becoming friends with stars is also one of the conditions for success.

…………………

At noon the next day, Leon flew directly back to Boston, while Chris Wallace stayed in Minnesota to deal with Michael Reed's trade.

It has been nearly a month since he returned to Boston. Leon did not expect to leave here for Chicago in early June. After so many days, when the plane landed at Boston International Airport, he felt a sense of going home.

"I don't know what's going on with Khomeinis..." Back here, the first thing Leon thought of was Khomeinis. During this period, the two had more and more text messages and phone calls. Every time he arrived in a city, Leon would send text messages to Khomeinis, and then take a blurry photo of Khomeinis with his broken mobile phone.

But he doesn't have time to find Khomeinis now, he needs to report back to the Celtics headquarters immediately, and then he was notified that there are more important work arrangements for him.

When Leon returned to the Celtics headquarters on Causeway Street again, the feeling was completely different from the last time he came here.

"Hello, Mr. Leon." As soon as he entered the gate, a waiter at the front desk took him upstairs, and people greeted Leon from time to time along the way, although Leon didn't know any of them.

On the second floor, Leon met Ms. Polis, who was very enthusiastic about Leon and wanted to take Leon to Pitino's office.

"In fact, everyone has been talking about you this week. You know, they all say that you are a talented scout, very, very amazing..." Ms. Polis praised Leon all the way, as if it was less than a month What an amazing thing Leon has done in time.

But in fact, he just did a little work before the draft, and the result is still unclear, so such praise made him confused, and at the same time he became a little wary.

After arriving at Pitino's office, Leon found that not only Pitino was present, but also the team's player director, another Leon, Leon Popper.

"Welcome home Leon, thank you for your hard work. Let me introduce you to this is Leon Popper, the team's player director, responsible for player management. He used to be a senior scout of the team. The next work requires you to work together " Pitino took the initiative to introduce to Leon, but he didn't know that Leon actually met Popper on the first day, when he went to Ms. Polis's office to print materials.

Contrary to his indifference when they first met, Popper was quite polite this time, and he took the initiative to hold Leon's hand in both hands and greeted him. His originally fierce face seemed to soften a lot.

Popper is an experienced basketball worker with 20 years of basketball experience. Before entering the Boston Celtics, he taught a youth basketball team in Boston and was hired after Pitino came to power in 1997. Come to serve as a senior scout, responsible for scouting players from NBA, CBA and Europe for the Celtics.

So logically speaking, he was single-handedly promoted by Pitino. He has become the team's player director last season, and he has a lot of advice on whether players will stay or sign.

In this draft, he stayed in Boston and did not go to the front line to inspect the players, but was responsible for the data processing and trading work in the rear. It can be said that the trade on the draft night was due to Popper. He had done it long before the training camp Started making contact with the Mavericks, paving the way for an eventual deal.

After handing over his work report to Pitino, Leon left Pitino's office with Popper, and his work arrangements will be under Popper's orders.

Popper's attitude was very enthusiastic, and he kept asking Leon if he had any problems at work, and talked about some of his experience as a scout, and Leon nodded and listened, but he was thinking that he would be arranged What job.

Logically speaking, when he returned to the headquarters, he should go to Michael Karl first and listen to Karl's opinion, but Karl went to North Carolina today and will not be back until tomorrow, so Leon can only listen to Popper.

The internal management of NBA teams does not follow a strict subordinate system. In fact, the positions set up by each team, the scope of power of each position, and the actual role played are different.

So Leon has no clear superior leadership, but at the same time many people can command Leon.

"I think, during this period of time, should I get in touch with the players of the team? I think it is necessary to get to know the players of our own team." In Popper's office, Leon said this, because Auerbach hoped that he Being able to have more contact with Celtic players is not only part of the job, but also an opportunity to enhance feelings and understand the team.

"Oh, yes, yes, Mr. Pitino and I are discussing this matter. This is the destination of your next job, to bring back our newly traded players... Yes, I said It's Dennis Rodman." Popper responded, and took out a ticket from the drawer, and the flight at 9:25 pm flew directly to Sydney, Australia.