The Whip of the God of Basketball

Auerbach only stayed in Boston for one day, and he flew back to Washington after dinner. For his old arms and legs, running back and forth between the two places in one day was a bit too much, not to mention eating dinner at night. Enraged by Leon, he finally boarded the taxi angrily.

The next day, Michael Karl asked for a signing conference for Dennis Rodman in the name of the head of the player operations department. Although the team management said it was not necessary, their original arrangement was for Rodman, Redd and a group of new players attended a big signing ceremony together, rather than holding a separate one for Rodman.

However, several heads of the team's non-basketball management department, such as Cousy and White, said that for a veteran like Rodman, it is absolutely necessary to hold a signing ceremony for him alone to show his new team to fans all over Boston. jersey.

So after the second day's training, at 4:30 in the afternoon, in the press room of the North Shore Garden Plaza Arena, the Celtics held a signing meeting for Rodman alone. Fans all over Boston unveiled his new jersey and number 71 -- Rodman explained it was because he thought his season with the Mavericks would be his last, and now he's continuing his basketball career in Boston , so add a 1 after number 70, which is number 71.

Throughout the press conference, Rodman wore a pair of sunglasses and a green gentleman's hat on his head to show the characteristics of the Celtics. For this opportunity to show off in front of the media, Rodman will never let go. He also showed the media a new tattoo on his neck, a clover.

Leon stayed in the audience and watched Rodman laughing and laughing on the stage. At this time, he sincerely admired Auerbach in his heart. This seemingly rigid old man has a tolerant heart without discrimination. Rumors that he doesn't like Rodman or have conflicts with Rodman are just a villain's opinion. There are not many freaks who have stayed under Auerbach.

If Rodman and Auerbach will conflict, there will only be one reason, and that is his inability to contribute to the Celtics.

As for his private life, dress, weird remarks or rebellious personality, they will not become an eyesore in Auerbach's eyes. In comparison, Pitino lacks too much wisdom in this regard, which is why he often has good players to sign, but in the end he can't keep the players. This also meant that Pitino could only succeed in college, but struggled in the more complex NBA world.

Thinking of this, Leon understands that signing Rodman will not be an obstacle for Auerbach to return to Boston. On the contrary, it will accelerate Pitino's departure from the Celtics. Maybe Pitino himself understands this and made the decision The deal.

…………………

When the Celtics' training camp officially started, it meant that the new season was approaching, and Leon finally felt the pressure brought by the team's high-speed operation when the new NBA season came.

In the offseason, Leon was busy as a scout, but he was more of a person running around and doing the work alone. When the holidays ended and the preparations for the new season began, the Celtics team, which was originally a bit loose, cooperated closely. The players were in place, the trainers, video analysts, medical team, coaching staff and operation team were fully operational. As a member of the coaching staff, Leon couldn't go to the state library to read books in the morning. From the third day, he rented himself a third-hand Chevrolet and drove to Waltham. His main responsibilities in the training camp were Data statistics and analysis.

He will measure the performance of each player in the team during the training process. From the first whistle, he will start to record the performance of all players in his notebook with tables and precise pictures that others cannot understand. Every move.

You can learn more about them on the court at training camp than you can watch them on tape.

Like the number one star on the team, Antoine Walker from Kentucky, a power forward with a round head and a comedian face, with a height of 6 feet 9, Leon carefully watched his game tape, Knowing that this guy likes to shoot three-pointers, with flexible steps, both strength and speed, he is a very difficult guy to defend on the offensive end.

After two days of training and observation, Leon discovered more. For example, this guy is relatively lazy. According to Leon's statistics, Walker runs an average of 12 rounds less than other players in the back and forth training. At the same time, his defensive training time is relatively short. He is more keen on relatively easy shooting training, especially I love three-point training, and I like to play more than a dozen midfield three-pointers after training every day.

Leon also found through his running posture that his left and right ankle bones are not very good, and he should have been injured. This may be the reason why his steps are always so fine, and the long stride movement will put great pressure on the ankle. .

Then there's guard Kenny Anderson, whose dribbling is even more flamboyant than in the game, and he always looks the most relaxed during skill drills, with a rubber band stuck between the ball and his hand , whether he slaps the ball in his crotch, the back of his own buttocks or the back of other people's buttocks, he will never let go. But other than that, Anderson's physical indicators are not good. On Leon's notebook, Anderson's performance in physical training has been poor for several days in a row. He doesn't like to stay in the gym too much. He will be on time after group training every day drive away.

It seems that he didn't spend too much time on physical training this summer. Perhaps the divorce case with his wife took up too much of his time.

In Leon's "training time" statistics table, there are two people at the top of the list-Michael Reid and Dennis Rodman.

Of course, Leon's training time statistics are not purely calculating the time when players start training and leave the training camp. If that is the case, Rodman will definitely not be ranked first. He will calculate his own ranking table based on the players' devotion in training, subtracting the time spent playing, chatting and farting, and finally performing a weighted calculation.

Like Rodman, he is late every day, but once he starts training, his attention is 100% concentrated, his body is 100% devoted, and he doesn't like to laugh and laugh during training, whether it is boring physical training or brain-consuming tactical drills, Luo Deman will look serious.

In contrast, Reid has the characteristics of being the first to come and the last to leave, and 100% committed. After being selected by the Celtics to come to Boston, the doubts about Reed have never stopped. Similar to the original management's opinion, the Bostonians also believe that they need an insider. After all, they already have Anderson, Pierce and Walker, a three-point idiot. Do they still need a guard who shoots three-pointers? Then who will resist O'Neal, Duncan, Jr. and other powerful insiders?

Moreover, in the summer league in Minnesota, Reid's performance was not satisfactory. After the first game, he suffered from knee inflammation and injured, and missed all subsequent games, which made his public opinion situation in Boston worse.

In this regard, Reed remained silent. If you don't break out in silence, you will perish in silence. He is sweating more and more in training, and only Leon knows that he has the most shots, turning back and running and lateral training every day among all players.

In addition, compared with these big-name free agents, the main force of the team and high-ranking rookies, some guys at the end of the team's bench are always easily overlooked by fans, but in the team's training camp, Leon's observation of them is more Others are more detailed.

At present, the Celtics have a total of 18 players on their roster. Excluding Pierce, there are nine players who can really have a stable rotation, that is, nine players who can average more than 20 minutes of playing time. This is also the product of Pitino's large-scale rotation. .

Even with so many rotation players, there are still eight players whose playing time cannot be guaranteed, ranging from fifteen minutes to no points. Like newly signed Chris Karl and just acquired Milt Palesio in a mega-trade in August.

During the summer league, Leon observed them carefully, issued two detailed scouting reports, and sent them to Auerbach for review before handing them over to the Celtics management. Useful for embarrassment. But in the end Pitino still chose to sign and trade.

From the start of the draft, many of the picks Pitino made didn't look normal. Leon didn't think too much about it. He continued to observe them in the training camp. After all, Milt Palesio is still very young, a second-year rookie with very good potential.

It's just that Leon has never seen the bright spots worth investing in from these players, and the preseason is getting closer and closer.

In Minnesota's summer league in July, Leon became half an assistant coach's addiction. During the game, he could sit on the coach's bench, pretend to be watching the game with a notebook, and paint on it from time to time , Just like an assistant coach.

Now that the preseason is approaching, Auerbach has put pressure on the Celtics management through some unknown force, allowing O'Brien to direct the preseason, while Pitino used physical and team management reasons , Temporarily not appearing on the coaching bench in the preseason. In this way, Leon can finally become a temporary assistant coach, and the speed of his rise is staggering.

Of course, Leon has a long way to go from becoming a real assistant coach than from a temporary scout to an official scout. At least until now, Leon doesn't even know a single NBA tactic.

The reason is simple, because the cardinal does not allow Leon to learn any tactics.