The Whip of the God of Basketball

"How would you rate the Suns' performance today?"

"5 points."

"Is the full score 5 points?"

"No, perfect score is 100."

In the post-game interview, Leon’s jokes aroused laughter from the reporters. Such scenes were rare in the past. In Boston, Leon rarely joked with reporters. He would even embarrass some reporters— —Although most of this is caused by themselves.

Of course, Leon's rating was not all a joke. Today, the Suns did only have 5 points in his opinion, but the full score was 10 points.

"Your next opponent will be the Lakers. You have met in the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. What do you think of them?" A reporter mentioned the next game, the Lakers and the Suns. This game is destined to be affected. People pay attention.

Leon's answer was unexpected. He did not disparage the Lakers or joke, but said: "The Lakers will be a difficult opponent. I think they will be our important opponent in the Western Conference this season."

The contrast between Leon's before and after is a bit confusing.

After the press conference, Leon and the Suns players went back to the hotel to check out, and took an early morning charter flight directly out of Seattle and back to Phoenix. On Sunday, November 4th, they will usher in the first home game of the new season, against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Before the start of the game, the Suns had two days of rest. On the morning of the 2nd, Leon gave the players half a day off, and in the afternoon asked everyone to come to the training hall for tactical training. At noon, Leon invited the entire Suns coaching staff to have dinner at a restaurant. This is a comprehensive restaurant that is said to be able to cook dishes from all over the world. There were seven of them in the group, and each ordered what he or she liked to eat.

Leon ordered a piece of clam soup, a piece of Los Angeles Sierra oysters, and then ordered Spanish jambalaya, but this was not his main course. His main course was the hotel's specialty Chinese dumplings, and he ate a lot of them in one go. indivual. Of course, Leon's appetite is nothing extraordinary in the NBA. In the eyes of many players and coaches, this amount is just an appetizer.

It’s just that except for Leon, the other people eat relatively fixed cuisines. For example, D’Antoni likes Italian food, Phil Weber likes gourmet dishes like hamburgers and French fries, and Dan D’Antoni likes soup and lamb chops. , and fresh fish, a style of eating in the old Northeast region. D'Antoni looked at Leon's miscellaneous eating methods and couldn't help but ask: "Your preference for eating is as incomprehensible as your configuration of the team." D'Antoni was not polite at all in front of Leon. The main reason for saying this is that in yesterday's game against the SuperSonics, Leon's substitutions and the words he said to him were still a little confused in his mind and he couldn't quite understand them.

Leon had long known that D'Antoni would ask these questions. He ate another dumpling and said: "Sometimes I also hope to have a perfect meal, but there is no way. I also like to eat a little of this and a little of that." I want to eat a little, so I just eat whatever I want, but it’s pretty good and it won’t affect my appetite.”

"Really? Just because our lineup still has the ability to play, are we going to stew in a pot of chaos?"

"How could you say that Mike, I thought you could understand me."

"What did you say to me? What did you say during yesterday's game? Those are what I have to do, and I don't even know how to arrange training. I thought about it all night, and I don't know why I have to do this. ." Now D'Antoni has to assume the responsibility of assistant coach in the team and be responsible for the team's tactical training.

"I agree. To be honest, I don't understand how Steve, Amare and Boris should allocate their ball rights and tactics." Dan D'Antoni on the side spoke for his brother. He is the team's assistant coach and is responsible for the job his brother is currently responsible for.

Leon knew that it was time for his class, and there was still a dumpling left in his bowl that he had not eaten. He first put the plates and bowls of clam broth and mountain oysters in front of him, and said, "This is broth and mountain oysters, of course. , you know what mountain oysters are, they are used to appetize, making people want to eat a lot of things. This is the meaning of Steve in the team, with his appetizer, everyone can eat it It’s delicious and energizing.”

As soon as Leon finished speaking, everyone laughed, because Los Angeles Mountain oysters are not oysters or shells, but made of animal eggs, mainly cows or sheep. And the fresh and rich clam broth will also make people appetite.

Then, Leon brought up the bowl of Spanish jambalaya and said: "Jambalaya has everything in it. You can taste many flavors. This is Boris. I think everyone can understand that he can play many positions. A lot of holes, and certainly he didn't play well last season because Amare came back and he didn't seem to be very compatible with Amare. That's the main issue that we have to address, and it's something that's been bothering me these days. "

Finally, Leon took out the uneaten dumplings left in the bowl: "Dumplings are a favorite food of Chinese people. No matter what festival it is, many ordinary people will eat it at home. Do you know why? Because it is good. It is very convenient and simple to eat. It can be used as a staple food or as a side dish. Of course, Chinese people mostly use it as a staple food."

"Is this what Amare is?" Dan D'Antoni said.

Leon smiled and nodded. Although this metaphor was a bit strange, he still said: "If Steve is given a week off and Amare is asked to lead the team in the game, what do you think the result will be?"

"Too bad, this hasn't happened before, right Mike?"

D'Antoni nodded. Starting from the 2004-05 season, as long as Nash was injured, the team would be in trouble. Even if Nash was off the court for a while during the game, the team would play very hard: "We can do without Amare, but we can't do without Shi Tiff, last year proved it.”

Leon said: "But you have Steve and Amare. Since you have both, you must make good use of them. You have too little confidence in Amare. He can definitely hold up on the offensive end. A team, not just Steve's finishing machine. So, I ask everyone to work together to design a strategy around Amare and take advantage of his impact."

"But Amare's pass..."

"No need for him to pass the ball."

"Let Boris play point guard like yesterday."

"Yes, that's what he thinks." D'Antoni answered his brother's question. Sure enough, this is indeed Leon's final thought. He still wants to try to communicate with each other today to see if Leon can change. idea. It's not that D'Antoni is afraid of trouble and doesn't want to design tactics, but that he thinks this will really be effective? Can Boris really take on the responsibilities of point guard? Or is it just a show of pretense?

Leon knew D'Antoni's doubts, so he specially arranged this meal. Then he took out a folder from his backpack and handed it to D'Antoni and said: "Here is the training I rushed out in the morning. The manual can give you some reference. There is also a CD in it, which contains the tactical training videos I recorded in college. Of course, these are just references for you. You are experienced and must have your own ideas."

D'Antoni took the folder. In fact, he was not interested in the contents. As a senior NBA coach, he would not believe that there are any "tactical training secrets" in this world. No matter how good Leon is, he cannot In the morning, he wrote a tactical secret book. If he said it was a reference, it must be a reference. What's strange to him is that, hearing Leon's tone, it seems like he doesn't plan to participate in the afternoon training.

Leon wiped his mouth, went to the bar to pay the bill, and picked up his backpack: "Okay colleagues, I'm going to rely on you for the afternoon training. Come on, I'm leaving."

"Where are you going Fox! You are the head coach!"

"I'm going to New York! I won't participate in the afternoon training!"

After saying that, Leon walked out of the restaurant, got into his car and drove away, leaving the Suns coaching staff looking at each other. The head coach actually ran away? But D'Antoni was the first to react and said: "It doesn't matter, as long as he doesn't run during the game. Moreover, the way we are now is pretty good, just like last year." Indeed, in addition to having one more Leon, the Suns There are no changes to the coaching staff.

As for Leon, he drove straight to the airport. He had a flight to New York in the afternoon. Of course, he didn’t really start to become a business owner and let himself go, but Wall Street has now reached a point where he needs to go there to collect debts. It's time.

The subprime financial crisis in the United States has begun to bear rotten fruits this fall.