The Whip of the God of Basketball

This training method in the Suns' rookie training camp lasted for three days. Everyone came to the gym at the University of Arizona early every morning and practiced by themselves, with Leon watching from the side. But no one dared to be lazy, even veteran Brent Barry practiced very hard, and Fox Leon's hawk eyes were like a pair of surveillance cameras, making everyone feel like they were being watched. Then in the afternoon, Leon would take the entire team, including the staff, to Lake Havasu to play motorboating, to nearby Las Vegas to play slot machines, or to visit the Hoover Dam to take photos.

During the three days, everyone didn't achieve anything in training, but they had a lot of fun playing, and all the expenses were paid by Leon himself - Leon later went directly to the casino in Las Vegas for reimbursement. This made the newcomers who were a little nervous completely relax. Everyone thought that Fox-Leon was a cold-blooded iron fist coach. Unexpectedly, he was also a fun-loving and playful guy, especially his amazing gambling skills. Everyone When gambling with my son, no one can outplay him.

On the fourth day, Leon did not come to the gym very early that day. He arrived at the gym at nine o'clock as per the normal time. This time, the first three days were different. In the first three days, he dressed casually, wearing jeans and a shirt to the arena. Today, he put on sportswear, with a whistle hanging around his neck, and a tactical board and folder in his hand. , everyone knows that the good days should be coming to an end, and training must start today.

Sure enough, as soon as he arrived at the arena, Leon summoned everyone. With the experience of eating, drinking and having fun together in the first three days, the players and staff got to know each other a lot, and they all talked and laughed and seemed very relaxed. However, seeing Leon standing in front of him with a serious face, everyone remained silent and waited for the head coach to give orders.

"Hello everyone, I'm Fox Leon. I'm sorry that it took me four days to introduce myself to you, but I think you must have known me before, but you didn't know me very well. So I spent three days, Getting along with everyone in the most relaxed way is a special way of introducing yourself. I don’t know what your impressions and thoughts of me were before this, but now I think you all must have your own opinions."

Leon made a belated self-introduction, which made everyone feel relaxed again. These three days of relaxation have indeed changed many people's inherent impression of Leon.

Leon continued: "Some of you are young and some are about to retire. Unfortunately, I have not coached you before, but I have had more or less contact with you. After all, in the past few years, I have killed many teams. There must be your team among them. I know your technical characteristics and past performance on the court very well, so there is a reason why I let you join the Suns, because I think you can help this team and bring us La changes, including me of course.”

No one present expected that Leon would say such a thing. As role players in the NBA, they still know how much they weigh. Except for people like Jaskovicius who want to prove themselves, other players are still thinking about how to get along well in the team. Rookies want to play hard and survive in the NBA, while veterans want to avoid injuries and play more years to get more money. Those in the Mesozoic era have to work hard for their next contract.

They just didn't expect that Fox Leon, the championship coach, would think that they could bring changes to the Phoenix Suns - for the Suns, their only goal of change is to win the championship.

"Okay friends, starting from today, in order to adapt to the upcoming new season, we have to conduct real training. I have played for three days. I hope you can adapt to my training in the next few days. I wish you all , happy training camp!”

After saying the above, Leon finally blew the whistle in his hand and truly began to guide the training of the rookie training camp. But so far, no one understands why Fox-Leon spends so much effort on this group of benches.

……………………

In mid-October 2007, for the NBA, the holidays were finally coming to an end, and the training camps of each team started one after another to prepare for the upcoming new season and preseason. On the day the training began, the Phoenix Suns held a press conference in the press conference room of the American Airlines Center to announce that Fox-Leon had officially signed a contract with the Suns for three years. Suns owner Savo, general manager Kerr, as well as former coach and current assistant coach D'Antoni all attended the press conference.

Of course, the reporters at the scene would not miss this opportunity to "interrogate" Leon, but it seemed that Leon was in a good mood today, or maybe he had just arrived in Phoenix and didn't want to make the relationship with the local media in Phoenix too tense. In Boston, he had long since broken with the sports media there because all his media relations resources were in New York.

Compared with the difficult reporters in Boston and New York, the media people in Arizona seemed much simpler. The questions they asked were not too sharp, but they only expressed more of the Phoenix people's concerns about the future of the Suns next season.

"Will the Suns go defensive next season?"

This is the most common problem Leon encountered before and after the press conference, because the iron wall he built in Boston is really frightening. The Mavericks, who are also among the top three in the Western Conference, also had a defensive problem in 2006 because of the defense brought by young general Johnson. And there is a qualitative breakthrough in strength. What Suns fans are most concerned about now is whether Fox-Leon will also develop the team along the path of balanced offense and defense.

But Leon's answer was very straightforward: "No, I will not let the Suns take the defensive route. In the past three seasons, the Suns have proven that they can sweep the league with offense, but their performance in the playoffs is regrettable. There is no need for me to overturn the efforts of the previous Suns team just for a shortcoming in the playoffs. This is unfair to the previous Suns players and coach D'Antoni. So, what I have to do is to make the Suns perform better and make the offense more powerful. ."

Leon's answer greatly exceeded the expectations of the reporters at the scene. It was just like when Pat Riley went to the Knicks. Everyone thought he would bring the Knicks the same offense as the Lakers. Unexpectedly, he let the Knicks It became an army of iron-blooded muscles.

Afterwards, Leon did not explain too much about his thoughts, but left the press conference room and went directly to the Annexus training field at the American Airlines Center. Today will be the first full team training of the Phoenix Suns new season, training at 10 o'clock Officially begin.

The first meeting between the coach and the players in training is very important. It will determine a coach's first impression in the minds of the players and directly affect the coach's authority in the team. Although Leon is a well-known championship coach, for a team like the Suns with a mature and successful lineup, it is not easy to win the respect of the entire team. After all, famous coaches like Larry Sanders were despised by the entire Pistons when they went to Detroit.

However, Leon is not Larry Sanders. He is not wearing sportswear today, but is wearing a straight brown light striped suit. His leather shoes are polished and his curly hair, which was originally messy, was taken care of very well yesterday. After many years in the NBA, the scars on his face have faded a lot, but if you look carefully you can still see it, especially the faint bruise under his right eye. That was when he was beaten in the boxing ring in front of a Boston bar. of.

It makes him look both elegant and rough, wise and savage. In comparison, D'Antoni followed him, wearing a white sports T-shirt and gray sweatpants, looking like a high school physical education teacher.

Leon walked into the Annexus training ground, where the Suns players had already gathered, including Nash, Stoudemire, Marion, Bell, Diaw, and the new team members who had participated in the rookie training camp. When they saw Leon walking into the arena, they all stopped and gathered towards the sidelines. Leon was not tall and was considered short among NBA players, but he stood on the sidelines and looked at everyone without saying a word. For a while, no one dared to speak.

D'Antoni still remembers that every time he arrived at the training facility at the start of the new season, everyone would joke with him and say hello, and then laugh and laugh all morning, and it would be almost until tomorrow before real practice could begin. And when Leon stopped here, he had never had any contact with the Suns' main players before. Everyone's understanding of him only came from past games and the media.

But when he actually became the head coach of the Suns and stood in front of everyone, the Suns players knew where the title "Attila" came from.

"Good morning everyone, I am honored to be your new coach. I am not a person who likes nonsense. I will give you five minutes to prepare for the match. The main players will be in one group, and the players who are new to the team will be in another group. I I want to see if you can bring me any surprises this summer."