The Whip of the God of Basketball

The Celtics practice day conflict was eventually resolved when Dennis Rodman's old Bulls teammate Steve Kerr pulled him over before he stormed out of the arena and was captured by the media. return. If there is anyone in the Celtics who can persuade Rodman besides Leon, it is only this year's team's new aid Cole.

But even if he did not leave the training hall, Rodman did not participate in the team's collective offensive training in the afternoon. Anyway, Rodman is dispensable in O'Brien's offensive system. Rodman vented all his sulking in the weight room.

O'Brien changed his offensive system from Pitino's excessive pursuit of three-pointers in the past, and decided to take an offensive route that is balanced inside and outside, with Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce as the absolute core of the offense, one inside, one outside, one left and one left. Right, the requirements for other players in the offense are not to occupy the ball, strong running ability without the ball, grasp open opportunities and strive for offensive rebounds.

Tactical training is boring, especially for young players. Their every move will be filmed by a video camera, edited after the training, and then they have to constantly watch the video to correct mistakes in tactical moves. As a typical academic coach, O'Brien has a wealth of tactical reserves after years of experience in college. On the sidelines, he can easily point out the mistakes of the players when they move without even reading the tactical manual.

"You should hit the ball at this point! Why don't you hit the ball, Gilbert? Don't just focus on the basket, look at your teammates and see their opportunities to run out." O'Brien was very angry today , Arenas was reprimanded for not playing the ball in time in a tactical coordination.

The NBA's tactical training is more oriented towards actual combat, with fewer routines but more changes. And because the attack time is reduced from NCAA's 30 seconds to 24 seconds, the reaction time left for players is reduced, requiring players to make judgments in a short time.

This makes new players like Arenas very uncomfortable. Although he did a lot of personal training during the offseason, tactical awareness cannot be acquired by himself or by watching videos.

In contrast, veteran players like Steve Kerr are completely familiar with this kind of tactical training, and can complete the prescribed routines with their eyes closed. Seeing Arenas being reprimanded, he also went to Arenas to comfort and guide him. Arenas' position at the University of Arizona has always been between the point guard and the shooting guard, and now he is obviously not used to being placed at the point guard position in the Celtics.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the first day of training ended in a mess of poor discipline and noise. Some players went directly to the physiotherapy room to take a shower and change clothes, ready to go home and enjoy the time after work, while some players stayed and continued. Extra practice. This is the difference between NBA training and college training. Everyone is relatively free. Whether they are willing to use non-working hours to hone their skills is purely a matter of personal opinion. Pierce, Michael Reid and Arenas all chose to stay, and Dennis Rodman ran away in a hurry after practicing in the gym for an hour.

Leon is going to stay and watch today's training video. Even if he is not satisfied with O'Brien's training plan, he still has to complete his job. But Steve Cole invited Leon to go to Boston's Telfair Restaurant for afternoon tea. Leon thought for a while and seemed to have no reason to refuse, so he agreed to Cole's invitation.

After being traded to the Celtics by the Spurs, Cole has been in Boston for a while. Recently, he has been living in a high-end hotel not far from the Massachusetts State Government, which is not far from Leon’s apartment. The Celtics will pay for hotel accommodation for about two months, and then it will be up to Cole to solve the housing problem by himself.

After calling to make an appointment at the restaurant, Cole drove Leon to the city in the Chevrolet he rented in Boston. Cole seemed very enthusiastic along the way, chatting with Leon constantly. He spoke with a standard American English accent, Because he is a Lebanese, what he learns is standard English.

"You and O'Brien don't seem to be getting along well today. It looks like he didn't adopt your training plan?" Cole quickly changed the topic to today's team conflict.

Leon didn't know how Cole knew the specific situation, but he still replied: "Yes, but he is the head coach, and everything is still up to him."

Cole smiled and said: "In the Celtics, everything will only listen to Mr. Arnold Auerbach."

In the draft, although Leon dominated the strategy of robbing the Spurs, it was Danny Ainge who finally decided who to pick from the Spurs. The reason why Angie chose Cole was that apart from the fact that the Spurs had the intention of sending Cole away at the time, the Celtics needed a veteran like Cole to dominate the lineup, and Auerbach's appointment also played a decisive role.

Unbeknownst to Leon, when he was training in Los Angeles, Auerbach met with Steve Kerr twice in Boston, once for Steve Kerr's signing ceremony and once for a private meeting. Cole is near the end of his career. As a successful role player on the court, he is equally good off the court. No matter which team he is in, he has a close relationship with the team management. It is foreseeable that he will retire in the future. You're bound to get a good position with basketball.

As a banner figure in the NBA, Auerbach made a promise to Cole that he will give him enough help after he retires. Whether he wants to become a commentator, manager or coach, Auerbach will provide his own contacts and resources. The price Cole needs to come back is to support Leon in the team.

However, Cole's support method is very unique. He did not oppose O'Brien in training. On the contrary, he came to be a peacemaker to help O'Brien resolve the crisis. It saved O'Brien's embarrassment, and also protected Leon from the harm that public opinion might cause him after the contradiction became public. Although Leon has begun to have his own small-scale influence in the New York media circle, in Boston, the media circle is not polite to Leon.

Cole invited Leon to have afternoon tea to identify himself. Leon is such a smart person. When Cole said "I will only listen to Mr. Auerbach", Leon probably knew the situation. After leaving New York for Los Angeles at the end of the draft, Leon never had direct contact with Auerbach. The old man seemed to have forgotten about him. Unexpectedly, he still cared about him meticulously and sent people to protect him everywhere.

"I have seen your training plan, including a set of analysis of the entire team's operation and tactical concepts. It is a fax given to me by Mr. Auerbach. To be honest, this is the best I have seen in my career. One of the training plans. But Mr. Auerbach guessed that O’Brien might not use your plan, and he told me to deal with possible conflicts.” In the Telfair restaurant, Cole sipped coffee and said Leon said.

"Then what should I do next? Wait? Or do something." Leon asked.

"Do your job well. By the middle of the season, I think there will be a change." Cole said, sighed, and then continued in a different tone: "You know, I have heard a lot about Mr. Auerbach in the past." Now I know how capable he is. I want to ask you Leon, do you know how difficult it is for a person to become the head coach of the NBA?"

Leon listened and shook his head. For him, the position of head coach seemed to be within reach. Although his mentality was still very stable, he knew that a lot of effort would be needed to get there, but he did not know how difficult it was. Really no concept. Some things, without experience and experience, cannot be pieced together by logic alone.

Kerr said: "Do you know Jeff Van Gundy? The coach of the Knicks now, the workaholic with dark circles. He once gave up his Yale University student status to study in a small college for the basketball team. He has been studying in a small college since 1985. Started to work as a basketball coach. He is an excellent assistant coach and has assisted four head coaches. When he was in office, his team made the playoffs every year. He is hardworking and studious. I contacted him However, this guy is a basketball fanatic. He will stay up late every day to watch tapes or playbooks. It is such a person who has been an assistant coach for ten years. It was not until 1995 that he finally became the head coach of the New York Knicks. , he led the eighth-ranked Knicks to the Finals in 1999, and he's an amazing coach."

Cole's words meant something, no doubt he felt that it seemed too early for Leon to take up the post of head coach, and at the same time he was a little envious and jealous of Leon, because there was Auerbach who was going through all difficulties and tried every means to get Leon He was successfully sent to the position of coach. Cole didn't understand what kind of ability, or magical power, this person had that made the cardinal pay so much attention to him and pay so much for him.

Cole still remembered the way Auerbach smoked in the study, squinting his eyes slightly, raised his head slightly, and slowly exhaled the smoke rings in his mouth, then leaned back gently on the seat, using a kind of relaxation Cole was deeply impressed by looking at each other with a majestic posture, with a smile on his face, as if he seemed to see through everything.

Faced with Cole's question, Leon picked up the black tea in front of him, squinted slightly, raised his head slightly, took a sip of tea, then leaned back on the seat relaxedly, looked at Cole with similar eyes, his face with a smile.

"I think, maybe, I am more suitable for this job." Leon said.