The Whip of the God of Basketball

It can be said that Leon's name is known to everyone in the entire NBA. Even an old man who sweeps the floor of the arena knows this iron fist coach from Puerto Rico. However, Mavericks player Jose Barea turned a blind eye to his compatriots. Of course he knew Leon. As a legendary coach with Puerto Rican descent, Leon was a heroic existence in Puerto Rico.

If you see Leon on the roadside, on the court or somewhere else, Barea will definitely go up to him to ask for an autograph and take a photo with him. But at the Mavericks summer league training facility, Barea suppressed his excitement when he saw Leon and gave Leon a soft nail. Because their coach Carlisle really said that if he encounters Fox Leon in the training camp, he will be blocked from entering.

A total of 22 NBA teams signed up for the summer league in Las Vegas. Later, the Boston Celtics and Seattle SuperSonics chose to withdraw and participated in summer leagues in other regions, so there are 21 teams including the Chinese national team. team. The competition is divided into four large groups, with five to six teams in each group performing a single round-robin, and then the top team in each group enters the semi-finals to compete for the final championship.

The Phoenix Suns are not in a group with the Dallas Mavericks, and the Suns have lost three of the four games and will definitely miss the final four, so the Mavericks and the Mavericks have no chance of meeting. Leon knew that Carlisle had become the assistant coach of the Mavericks. He came to watch the game between Boston and Dallas today. In addition to meeting his old club, his other purpose was to meet Carlisle.

Unexpectedly, this guy Carlisle actually gave special instructions to the players, saying that they would not let Leon in if he saw him. What was even more unexpected was that this guy Jose Barea actually listened to Carlisle's words and really didn't let Leon in. stadium.

Of course, Leon finally went in, because except for Barea, other Mavericks staff really didn't dare to stop him. And Leon had a very good reason for going in. He just wanted to meet old friends.

When Leon walked into the gym, Carlisle was directing the players to train on the sidelines, and then he saw the figure of the person he least wanted to see appeared in front of the entrance door. Of course, it's not because Leon and Carlisle have a bad relationship. On the contrary, they are still very good friends in private after they both left the Celtics. But now it's not in private, it's training time for the Mavericks. Carlisle knows that Leon's ability to poach corners is unique in the NBA. He has been poached himself and has a deep understanding of this.

Now that he is here, he is interested in the vegetable from the Mavericks summer training camp and wants to pull it out of the ground and plant it in the Arizona desert. Carlisle had seen things like this a lot when he was with Leon. After all, this guy started his career as a scout and was one of the very few head coaches in the NBA who would participate in low-level events like the Summer League.

So when he saw Leon coming, Carlisle first stopped the training on the field, asked everyone to do physical exercises, and then rushed towards Leon.

"Hello Rick, long time no see." Leon said to Carlisle.

Carlisle nodded and said, "Long time no see, how about we meet again next time?"

Leon was stunned. He didn't expect Carlisle to say "Goodbye" so quickly. He smiled and said, "When I was at the door just now, your players didn't let me in, and they said it was your order. I don't believe it. I didn’t expect it to be true. Is this how you treat your friends?”

Facing Leon's questioning, Carlisle said expressionlessly: "We are friends, but that was in private, not now. I am working and you are working too. And we work for different teams now, and I don't I know what purpose you come here with, so of course the Suns head coach will not be welcome in the Mavericks training camp."

The Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns have led the league in the past few seasons. They are the strongest team in the West, dominating the Western half with the San Antonio Spurs, and then taking turns to challenge the dominance of the Boston Celtics in the East—— Of course none of them were successful.

In 2007, Fox Leone left, Kevin Garnett was injured, and the Celtics were in trouble, which gave the Western Conference team a huge boost. The Dallas Mavericks won 67 games in the regular season and were thinking about playing in Boston. After the dynasty ends, bring a championship to the West. As a result, they were defeated in the first round, and their head coach Johnson was questioned.

Under this circumstance, Cuban recruited Rick Carlisle as the team's assistant coach. He was actually preparing for Johnson's departure. Once the new season starts and the Mavericks cannot recover from last season's failure, Carlisle will Will serve as the team's backup to become the new head coach.

Of course, not many people know about this matter, but Leon is one of them, because this guy is so well-informed. Carlisle had worked with Leon for three years and knew how terrifying he was, so he responded to Leon's sudden visit as if he were a formidable enemy.

Regarding Carlisle's reaction, Leon had no choice but to accept it, but he had no intention of leaving here. Instead, he shamelessly said that he wanted to see the training in the Mavericks, and maybe he could give Carlisle some advice.

"You know I'm very good at training and have some unique methods. Maybe I can bring you some help."

"No, no, no, your method is too unique. No one in the world can use it except you. Unless you are the coach of the Mavericks, one or two such special training methods will only make the players confused. We have almost finished practicing today. We will do some physical training later and practice shooting." Carlisle expressed his understanding of Leon's kindness, but I will never be fooled by you.

Leon knew that as an old friend, he would definitely not be able to deceive Carlisle, so he no longer forced himself to watch the Mavericks' training. Instead, he found a stool on the sidelines and sat down, chatting with Carlisle about his family's shortcomings, his daughter, and Carlisle's family. The two of them were both fathers, so they had a common language when it came to talking about their children, and they chatted for more than an hour before they knew it.

For more than an hour, the Mavericks players were in a state of relaxation, running laps by themselves, practicing shooting, or going to the gym to practice strength.

While Leon chatted with Carlisle about parenting, he secretly observed the performance of the Mavericks players on the court, especially the performance of Jose Barea. The players participating in the NBA training camp are all marginal players or rookies in the NBA. Their jobs in the NBA are not secure, so they train very hard in the training camp. However, it is still difficult to tell the level of a team just from simple training, and detailed trial training is required.

But what Leon wants to observe is not their skill level, but something else.

Leon noticed that after each shooting training, Barea would go to the sidelines to perform two sets of push-ups. In NBA training, push-ups rarely appear in daily practice, because such movements are not very helpful in training the strength zone required for basketball. Basketball does not require chest muscles. At the same time, NBA players are generally taller, have longer arms, and use their hands more frequently. And high, excessive push-up training can easily cause injuries to the palms and wrists.

So Leon couldn't help but ask: "Why is that guy doing push-ups? This is not a good training method."

Carlisle thought for a while and said: "I just mentioned it casually and said that the stability of his shooting is not very good. You can try doing push-ups before shooting to exercise the ability to maintain the stability of the shot when the arm is tired. In fact, he There are other ways, but...he is an obedient guy."

Leon nodded in agreement. This guy was indeed very obedient. He stopped him when Carlisle asked him to stop him, and he was not afraid of the iron fist from his hometown in Puerto Rico teaching him how to behave.

After chatting with Luo Li for about ten minutes, Leon saw that it was getting late and was about to go back. Anyway, as long as he was here, Carlisle would not start the whole team training.

Before leaving, Carlisle asked: "Have you found any players you want? I will try my best to get the boss to sign them."

Leon smiled and said: "You should find a way to be the head coach of the Mavericks first. When our teams meet in the new season, I will try my best to help you and beat Johnson a little harder."

Carlisle didn't want Leon's kindness, but after three years as a championship assistant coach, Carlisle really wanted to be a head coach to realize his basketball ideals.

However, four days later, at the end of summer training camp in Las Vegas, the Mavericks and Suns made a deal. The Suns used Marcus Banks, a future first-round draft pick and some cash to buy a child from childhood. Cattle trade acquired Jose Barea.

Carlisle knows that this guy Fox-Leon is still a poacher after all, and he must stop him from the training hall next time.

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