The Whip of the God of Basketball

Leon rode a bicycle and followed the old man's golf cart to the entrance of the basketball stadium. This is a square old-fashioned basketball stadium. Shine into the arena. The old man got off the golf cart and took Leon into the arena. There was no one there, and the empty arena looked lifeless under the gradually yellowing sunlight.

But from the day after tomorrow, the annual children's basketball training camp in the Boston area will also be held here. The sponsor of this training camp is the white-haired old man that Leon met, the most legendary figure in the history of Boston basketball, known as Red Bishop's Arnold Jacob Auerbach - more commonly known as "Red" Reid Auerbach.

Of course, there is an impression of this famous person in Leon's memory bank. His legendary stories and experiences in the NBA are well-known in the Boston area. It is also thunderous.

But looking at this old man with gray hair and a little wilted whole body, Leon could feel that the breath of life and vitality in his body had declined drastically. It was wrinkled and bloodless, its eyes lacked brilliance, and its back was weak, like an old cat that had been sitting in the sun for a whole day.

However, at the moment when he stepped on the wooden floor of the gymnasium with him, Leon could feel a strange look on the old man again. Auerbach walked to the basket and looked around with his hands on his hips , Although there was no one around, Leon felt that he was reviewing his team, paying tribute to the fans, and demonstrating to the opponents.

It's just that this hallucination lasted for a short time.

"There needs to be a lot of stools here!" Auerbach said loudly to Leon after looking at it for a while, then took a puff on his cigarette, and then said: "Those stools are piled up on the wall facing north outside. Your main work today and tomorrow is Bring all those stools in, set them up, and prepare for the opening ceremony the day after tomorrow."

Leon nodded, he didn't talk much, if the job here was to place stools, then it should be easier, but Auerbach's subsequent words made Leon feel that this job is not that simple.

Auerbach took Leon to the north outer wall of the gymnasium. There was a small open space where piles of chairs were piled up. They were all folding chairs with metal frames and wooden stools. The weight of each chair was not too light. And Leon found that part of the chair surface of these chairs is white, and part of the chair surface is green.

"This is a folding chair pulled from Boston. I have loved this chair since 1981. For twenty years, I have put children and parents on it to listen to the opening speech every training camp. Then the team's bench These stools will be used for the seats and the audience seats added on the side of the court. See if you see them, move them in, and then arrange them neatly. Remember, you need to put a clover." Auerbach gave Leon a problem.

The clover is one of the symbols of the Boston Celtics. This simple and impressive logo has accompanied the Boston Celtics, the king of the NBA, for decades, no matter how other teams are. Three years He updated his team logo every five years with a small change. This little clover is always engraved on the Celtics uniform.

Auerbach did not deliberately embarrass Leon. Every year in the training camp, he would ask the staff to arrange the green and white chairs with a clover pattern. But that is not the work of one person, but more than ten people work together to draw lines on the floor and arrange the chairs according to the numbers and pictures of the chairs, so that you can see the green and white chairs when you stand on the stands Form a pattern of shamrocks on a white background.

But since Auerbach stepped down as the general manager of the Celtics in 1997, his basketball training camp has not had such a big battle. In addition, he is too old to do many things by himself. As a result, children's basketball training camps are shrinking day by day, and fewer and fewer outstanding basketball teenagers are willing to participate in training camps. They prefer to go to training camps run by professional teams in big cities or returning college stars, some of whom will become famous in the future. Boy geniuses.

This year, Auerbach couldn't even borrow someone from the Celtics to help prepare for the training camp. There were not many children who signed up for the training camp, and there was nothing prepared in the gym two days before the start, so he I had to borrow a community service quota from the community management center, hoping that people who participated in community service could come to help.

Therefore, Leon, who had just come out of prison and needed to complete community service tasks, was arranged here, and he was the only one.

Leon looked at the stacked chairs, they looked like hills, and it was simply impossible to move them all in and arrange them into patterns.

Auerbach looked at Leon's silence, raised his eyebrows and said, "How is it? I know it's a bit difficult. I thought the community center would send a few more people over. I don't know that you are the only one. It seems that tomorrow I will I need to find some volunteers to help. You try to move as much as possible today, you can leave by 5:30, and come back tomorrow..."

Auerbach was about to turn around and leave, but he heard Leon say: "There are 231 chairs in total, 151 green ones, and 80 white ones. If you want to arrange them in a clover pattern, you need a 15X15 square. 7, 2-8, 14-7, 14-8, 7-2, 8-2, 14-7, 14-0 are the four boundary lines of the clover, requiring 150 green chairs and 75 white chairs, which can be formed The shape of a clover, although it won’t look too good, and the chairs are a little less, but the effect should be good when viewed from a high place..."

Auerbach swept Leon from top to bottom. He thought that this tall guy with only strength and appearance and a mess of straw inside was frightened by the work he arranged and this big push. He didn't expect He actually had a mental picture of how to arrange the chairs.

What surprised Auerbach even more was that he didn't know why Leon knew that there were 231 chairs here, so he asked, "Did you count the chairs here one by one?"

Leon replied: "No, I counted by twenty. Although there are many chairs, they are arranged neatly. I divide them into pieces, 20 pieces for each piece, and add some odds. Just count it."

Auerbach heard Leon's words, and looked at these messy chairs - they were all pulled by the team from the warehouse of the Boston Celtics' old training facility, and he really didn't know where these things were neatly organized .

"How long will it take to finish this work?" Auerbach seemed to come out of surprise quickly and asked seriously.

"One hour and forty minutes, if I can have a free dinner here." Leon replied quickly.

Free dinner, which is also very important to Leon now, because the community service center does not care about meals, and he needs to live on less than 200 dollars in his pocket for the time being. It is also very good to be able to eat a meal.

"OK, it's a deal. If you finish today's work, I can also provide tomorrow's breakfast, and I will give you more important work tomorrow." Auerbach agreed crisply, and what he said sounded like Leon It should be an honor for this, in fact, the so-called more important job is to clean all the glass windows outside the training hall-these large French windows are a full three meters high.

That's Auerbach's style, eighty years old, but forever pragmatist in dealing with problems, no matter who the community center sends, a criminal, a dork, or a hidden genius, O. Erbach has only one focus - to solve the immediate problem, if the other party wants to negotiate conditions, then agree to him, but at the same time put forward more conditions.

After negotiating terms, Auerbach drove around in his golf cart again, leaving Leon alone with more than 200 folding chairs.

Two months of prison life did not make Leon weak in the slightest. He lived a very healthy life, had a very regular diet and work and rest, and had a lot of free time for exercising every day. Addicted to alcohol and sex all the year round.

The life of a puritan in the prison restored his body and made him stronger and stronger. He found two thick hemp ropes from the arena and a large iron basket cart used to hold basketballs, and piled more than 20 chairs on the iron basket at a time. Box car, then tied with thick hemp rope, and then pushed into the gymnasium.

It took more than an hour to do this repetitive work alone, and then in the gymnasium, Leon relied on his imagination and the court line as a reference line to place 225 chairs one by one. In the stands, you can see a slightly rough white clover pattern.

When he finished the studio, exactly one hour and forty minutes had passed, when Auerbach came back from a stroll in his golf cart, only to see the neatly arranged and patterned chairs, And Fox Leon, who was sweating profusely and panting.

Auerbach didn't expect that this guy said he could do it, and he could really finish this job in one hour and forty minutes. You must know that it took twelve volunteers two hours to complete this job a few years ago. time.

"If you go to the construction site to move bricks and build walls, believe me, you can build an Empire State Building by yourself. So, why do you go to prison for crime?" Auerbach asked in an elder tone, with a little lesson.

Leon shook his head and said: "If I don't go to jail, I can't stand here today, can I, Mr. Auerbach. Also, for dinner, I want to eat turkey."