The Whip of the God of Basketball

For dinner, at an ordinary restaurant in Marshfield, Auerbach watched Fox-Leon finish a whole turkey and wondered how long the guy hadn't had a good meal in prison.

After eating and chatting, when Auerbach learned from Leon that he was the amateur boxer who was imprisoned for injuring NBA players by picking quarrels in the bar, he couldn't help slapping the table and laughing, not like an 80 old man.

"The unlucky Timberwolves, it turned out that you injured him. I heard that his jaw was knocked off and he couldn't even eat, hahaha."

Leon felt a little guilty when he heard it. He learned from Auerbach that the player who was injured by him was named Malik Siri, a shooting guard for the Timberwolves. After the game that night, he went to the nightclub for two drinks. Cup, after all, the Timberwolves' hometown is Minnesota, a small city with freezing weather, so of course they have to relax in the big city of Boston.

Unexpectedly, while drinking, Leon deliberately found fault and suddenly got into trouble, and started a fight with the security guard of the nightclub. Of course Siri didn't want to get involved, so he wanted to go around and walk away. Unexpectedly, he was too tall and a black man. Leon saw him Thinking it was a thug from a nightclub, he went up indiscriminately and punched him in the jaw, dislocating Siri's jaw and fainting on the spot.

It was April, the regular season of the NBA season was coming to an end, and the playoffs were about to start. The Timberwolves ranked sixth in the West. This young team was preparing for their fourth trip to the playoffs. Once they wanted to make some breakthroughs.

And Malik Siri is an important member of the team's back line, but he suffered an accident in Boston. After being beaten, Siri underwent bone grafting in the hospital and missed the final few games of the regular season.

In the playoffs, he had to wear a mask to participate in the first-round match between the Timberwolves and the Trail Blazers. Facing the Portlanders, who had more experience and an extremely powerful striker, the Timberwolves lost in four games, and their Opponents played all the way to the conference finals and almost reached the finals.

The matter was not over yet, Auerbach continued: "This guy is really unlucky. He got into a car accident in Minnesota in May and almost lost his life."

Leon could only shake his head with a wry smile, but he didn't know that in the original historical trajectory, Malik Siri would die in this car accident, and Leon's punch obviously changed history, making Siri survived.

Speaking of Malik Siri, the two naturally talked about basketball. Auerbach is not a person who likes to chat. The years have made this old hero who was once a powerful player in professional basketball become taciturn, especially when he was with him two months ago. With the death of his wife Dorothy for most of his life, the other half of Auerbach's soul was taken away.

He often stays alone in his old office without any equipment in the information age, flipping through the photo albums that record the glory of the past, or staring at the trophies in the object cabinet for an afternoon.

In Marshfield, too, he roamed around on his golf cart all day, where the Celtics' annual rookie camp used to run alongside his kids' basketball camp, and he used to run both ways, While instructing the little ghosts to practice and play, at the same time, they went to the rookie training camp to bully the rookies of the Celtics.

And the guy sitting across from him who could eat a whole turkey in one breath made Auerbach start talking, because Auerbach hadn't met such an interesting guy for a long time.

In Auerbach's eyes, Leon doesn't talk much, often expressionless, but not sluggish, with extremely quick thinking, outstanding observation skills, and can answer any questions raised by the old man, and he cherishes words like gold, never No nonsense.

It's just that when we talked about basketball, Leon seemed to be silent for a while. Auerbach talked about his past experience in the NBA, but Leon didn't say anything, as if he wasn't interested at all.

"Are you not interested in basketball? Then your life is really empty and boring. As a Bostonian, how can you not love basketball and the Celtics? Did you grow up in New England?" Auerbach was a little angry about this, he Originally wanted to show off to this kid, knowing that not everyone in Boston is qualified to sit across from Auerbach and listen to him bragging about the past.

"My mum was hit and killed by a car during the 1986 championship night rave and the ambulance was delayed by people marching."

Leon's answer made Auerbach also silent. Although Leon's consciousness and body are not the same person, they share the same memory. The sad memory of his mother's death in a car accident enveloped his consciousness, so Leon also knows Why, as a Bostonian, he has no interest in basketball, he hates that night when almost all Bostonians are having a carnival, when the city sleeps all night for the championship, he accepts the fact that his mother died in the cold hospital, Sitting on the cold floor and crying all night.

There was an awkward silence for a short while before Auerbach took a sip of his gin and said apologetically, "I'm sorry to hear that, so, since then, we haven't had a championship... ... wonder if that will make you feel better."

Indeed, in 1986, Auerbach accompanied his Celtics to reach their peak. Since then, their good luck for three decades has come to an end. Bach took a heavy blow, and then the team continued to suffer from injuries, and the superstars were late. In 1993, another star, Reggie Lewis, died suddenly, and the Celtics fell into complete darkness, a darkness that could not be seen at a glance.

Seeing an old man like Auerbach turn from the excitement just now to feeling sad, Leon wanted to use some words to get rid of the inexplicable atmosphere of the conversation, so he said: "We should neither indulge in the glory of the past We must not get lost in the sadness of the past, time flies, the road ahead is long, and there are still many things waiting for us to do."

Hearing what Leon said, Auerbach immediately responded: "That's right, tomorrow you have to clean the large glass windows on both sides of the gymnasium. This is what is waiting for you to do."

"Remember, come over for breakfast at eight o'clock in the morning!"

…………………

After sleeping in the community management center at night, Leon slept very soundly, because he was still quite tired this afternoon, and dreaming at night, he dreamed about the memory of this body again.

That was before he was 13 years old. Every weekend night, after getting off work from the restaurant, his mother would take him to Boston Garden Plaza to watch the Celtics game.

Leon dreamed that he was in the last row with his mom in a noisy arena, it was loud and hot, the air conditioner in the arena seemed to be broken, everyone was sweating, everyone was shouting, he was tall Too small to see the situation on the field clearly, a fat man sitting next to him put him on his shoulders and let him have a look.

He could see the Celtics in white, and the team in purple, a tough game, suffocating in the heat, and finally at the end of the game, the whole crowd poured into the center, Lay Ang was carried and rushed down together, the joy and joy seemed to overturn the arena.

Waking up in the middle of the night, Leon found that he was covered in sweat, and the cubicle he lived in was not ventilated, which was really stuffy on a summer night.

"No wonder it was so hot in the dream... But, why are you so happy and excited? I really don't understand..."

…………………

Early the next morning, Leon got up and rode his bike to the arena again, not only to solve his own breakfast problem, but also to work for Auerbach. Unknowingly, Auerbach has secured a high-quality workforce.

But today, Leon doesn't have to fight alone anymore. Auerbach's training team and a group of volunteers have arrived and are starting to prepare for the official opening of the camp tomorrow.

As an old man who was born in 1917 and is now 83 years old, it is of course impossible for Auerbach to directly provide training guidance to the children in the training camp. He invited his old friend and Celtics champion defender Danny- Angie came to be the actual organizer of the training camp.

In addition, he also called the Celtics' former Finals mvp, Cedric Maxwell. He is now working as a radio anchor in Weston, and he is also free during the offseason to help the coach take care of his children.

There is another one who is not so famous, Greg Kate, also a former player of the Celtics, a white insider, his career is mediocre, but he is a tough defensive player, this time he was invited by Auerbach Work as an assistant coach at training camp.

Three old Celtic players from the 1980s formed the main body of the coaching bench in this training camp, together with some other staff and volunteers, which made the arena that was empty yesterday much more lively.

Leon's breakfast was two egg and ham sandwiches and a bottle of fresh milk that Auerbach brought him. After eating, Leon started to work, took a bucket and a long pole tied with a rag and began to wipe the glass.

No one pays much attention to this handsome cleaner. Everyone is busy setting up the arena. Every year when the training camp opens, local celebrities from Boston will come to give speeches, and many residents of Marshfield will also come. Join this event.

Although there are fewer people signing up this year than in previous years, there will still be more than 100 people attending the opening ceremony. Leon also heard from people around him that the speaker today will be the current owner of the Boston Celtics. Coach, Rick Pitino.