The Whip of the God of Basketball

Danny-Ainge's appointment in Boston was quiet. After Pitino dismissed get out of class last year, the Celtics experienced a coaching change and Auerbach's return. At that time, the media was occupied by green for a while, but everyone The main focus of attention is still on the bishop's return to the Celtics, but he has mentioned Angie, a former Celtics veteran, as the Celtics president.

After all, Auerbach was too radiant, which also gave Ainge a good cover, and he was able to carry out his work in the Celtics quietly. Especially in terms of non-basketball affairs, he rearranged personnel and invested energy in team promotion. In addition, adjustments have been made in terms of personnel for medical care and transportation arrangements, investment in this area has been increased, and a group of young and vigorous experts with reputation in this field have been recruited to join the team.

At the same time, he also did some significant political work, such as sending a 1981 Celtics championship ring to Wayne Clay Claw, a player who played for the Celtics briefly in the 1981 season, as a way of Commemorating the 20th anniversary of their 1981 championship, Claycrowe was grateful and the media praised it.

These actions that are not easy to attract attention have gradually reversed the adverse effects of the Celtics in recent years due to their unfavorable record, the owner’s tossing around, and Pitino’s poor management. The media’s satire on the Celtics is less , The rumors from the beginning of the season dissipated with the steady improvement of the team's record. Players and team workers have a quiet and stable working environment, which is often easily overlooked for the construction of a team.

Some people always think that trading a few big stars can win the game immediately, but they don't know that the stable, efficient and undivided performance of the players requires strong logistical support, and this is exactly what Angie has been doing this season.

But Angie will not always do these jobs. He knows that the strong core strength of a team is still in the players, and his best field is still in discovering players and trading. He has been a star in all American sports since high school, not just in basketball. He was even more famous in baseball in his early years, and was selected by major league teams early to play for him. Finally, under Auerbach's persuasion, he gave up baseball and came to the Celtics to start his basketball career.

In his career, he has experienced the Celtics, Trail Blazers, Suns and Kings. In addition to the Kings, he has entered the finals with the other three teams and played a very key role in the team. He is quick-witted, smart, and very popular. He was Bird and McHale's mouthpiece during the Celtics period. These characteristics laid the foundation for him to become the coach of the Suns.

However, the coaching experience in the Suns did not make Angie happy, especially after the Suns traded for the Mavericks' top guard Jason Kidd, Angie, who was also a point guard, had a bad relationship with the grumpy top star. In the 2000 season, Kidd publicly expressed his unwillingness to play for Angie, and Angie soon announced that he "resigned as the coach of the Suns due to family reasons."

After returning to Boston, Auerbach repeatedly persuaded Angie to come to the Celtics to work as president, just like he persuaded Angie to give up baseball and pursue basketball. At the beginning, Angie always disagreed. Although Angie has a lot of affection for the Celtics, such a mess cannot be solved by relying on emotion.

The turning point came at the Marshfield training camp. Angie met Leon. Like Auerbach, he saw the magic of Leon, but

He did not expect that Auerbach would let Leon start scouting work so quickly and in fact identify him as his successor.

Danny Ainge has never been prepared to be Auerbach's successor, especially when Auerbach was alive, he didn't want to carry such a burden on his head, just like people are keen to designate Jordan's successor after Jordan retired In that way, people are often easily burdened by false fame.

Leon's appearance just provided Angie with a cover. Finally, in September, he found Auerbach to have an in-depth conversation and agreed to serve as the president of the Celtics. The last straw after class.

In this way, Pitino's original position was divided among Angie, O'Brien, and Wallace. The dictatorship era that began in 1997 ended for the Celtics and entered a wonderful period of triangular democracy. No one has the highest power in team operations, including Auerbach. After he became the vice president of the team, he focused his energy on training Leon and did not participate in specific affairs.

After cleaning up the corners and corners of the work through a season, Angie finally put his work focus on the operation of draft picks and player transactions when the 2001 draft is approaching. Before Boston's coaching staff flew to Chicago, the front office trio had held numerous meetings about draft strategy and related trades, and it was clear that everyone in Boston knew this could be a fate-changing draft year.

Three rookies are undoubtedly too much for the Celtics, and a trade is almost imperative.

After the coaching staff arrived in Chicago, Fox-Leon's scouting reports and draft reports continued to fly to the Celtics headquarters like snowflakes. While processing these reports, Angie called the general managers of each team one by one. This is a routine job as a team president, and you have to keep in touch with other teams.

The NBA is not entirely a transaction. The role of human relations is beyond the imagination of many people. Some teams with good relationships will often have transactions for mutual benefit, while some teams will never communicate with each other, and even tear each other down.

Although Ainge resigned from the Suns, he played there for three years and served as a coach for three years. The general manager and president of the Suns, Brian Colangelo, served as the general manager in 1995. Angie also became the Suns that season. As the head coach, the two have worked together for many years and have a good relationship, so Angie's first call was to Corang Road.

The main goal of the Suns in this draft is to get a good backcourt, but their draft rights have been sold to the Boston Celtics. They are also willing to get the draft rights back through trades, or the Celtics choose them The player you like will be traded again.

But feelings belong to feelings, and business belongs to business. The Suns do not have the chips that the Celtics want. The initial contact between the two parties is also stranded, and we need to continue to wait. Then Angie turned his attention to the teams in the Atlantic region. Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey all have deep friendship with the Celtics. Although they have fought and fought each other in history, they cooperated well during the offseason. partner.

However, the 76ers are the defending champions of the Eastern Conference. The focus of the offseason is to maintain a stable lineup and not be too strong. Generally, they will not make a deal that hurts the muscles and bones. The season was full of hope, and after Ainge found Philadelphia manager Billy King a few times, he couldn't find any way to trade except chatting.

As for the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets, the twin brothers have a certain interest in the Celtics' draft picks, but they both said that they will decide what kind of exchange they want to make after the draft is settled. Before that, they wouldn't make any promises, and it seemed that they hadn't seen any rabbits or scattered eagles.

But Angie, who has been in the NBA for many years, knows that he must be patient in any situation. In the past two years, the Celtics have suffered too many losses from changing orders and rushing to doctors. Angie spent about two weeks I have roughly figured out the direction of each team's draft, and expressed affirmation to Leon's strategy of picking Arenas at the 21st pick. Judging from the current market situation, there is almost no risk in getting Arenas at this position. The only risk is that this proud young man might be angered.

After staying in Boston for a week, when the rookie training camp in Chicago was over, Angie bought a plane ticket to Tennessee, and three days before the draft, he was going to the hometown of Elvis Presley and reunited with Fox-Leon, Talk about a deal with the Grizzlies together.

The Celtics have been looking for an accomplice who would allow the Celtics to go further for the greater good without wasting draft picks after making a big deal out of knocking off the San Antonio Spurs. Unanimous approval from Leon, Angie and Auerbach. Only Chris Wallace was a bit unbearable, but he was also sent to Memphis. As the initiator of the transaction, the Celtics need to show a little sincerity.