The Whip of the God of Basketball

"Mutombo blocked Walker's layup, Rodman got the rebound, gave Arenas, 3-pointer, missed. 76ers got the ball, Iverson's fast break! Wow! One-stop layup! The ball went in again, and he scored 25 points."

"You're a Bostonian, you're a Celtics fan, please don't be so happy when the 76ers score."

"Huh, I know I'm a Celtics fan, but I'm happy for Iverson's goal, and it has nothing to do with the 76ers."

Leon lay on the bed and listened to Khomeinis' fallacies with his eyes closed. She knew that it was meaningless to reason with women. She might as well lie on the bed obediently to relieve the headache caused by the cold, fever and memory of dreams. It can also be heard from Khomeinis' results on the game scene that the Celtics played very hard in Philadelphia tonight. The 76ers' defense like a meat grinder made the Celtics, who have no offensive system, fall into a quagmire. . Mutombo dominated the interior, giving the Celtics almost no chance to grab offensive rebounds, and effectively interfered with every player who entered the interior offense. In this case, the Celtics can only focus on the outside, but tonight the Celtics' offensive feel is the worst of the season, especially Antoine Walker, without Leon on the court After the next reminder, he began to shoot unrestrainedly from beyond the three-point line, but none of them hit.

This extremely bad touch even affected the shooting confidence of the whole team. He hit the iron again and again on the outside, couldn't grab the offensive rebound, couldn't return to the defense, was hit back, and the opponent scored easily. The team began to collapse in the third quarter, the offense was paralyzed and the defense was weak, and it completely lost the good momentum of fierce firepower and active defense some time ago. Leon lay on the bed and didn't watch the game screen. Just listening to Khomeinis' amateur commentary, he could imagine the miserable appearance of the entire Celtics team being beaten to shame.

Leon can't understand the structure of this team very well. They have weird guys with special abilities inside, Walker who is obsessed with three-pointers on offense, and Rodman who is a rebounding monster on defense, but they lack a standard of offense, defense and height. inside player. Fortunately, the teams in the East are generally not very strong inside. Kenyon Martin is still too young, and Olajuwon is too old. They are not like the beasts in the West. So when the Celtics are still walking in the East for most of their games, their disadvantages inside are not yet obvious.

Moreover, the Celtics have the most potential perimeter group in the East. Under Carroll's gradual adjustments, the Celtics' offense has changed from the bright and smooth in the O'Brien period to fierce and violent. At present, it seems that the team's offensive style has not changed significantly. Leon, who is quite sensitive to tactics, can feel that some of the team's offensive details and principles are changing. For example, the players' shots are more decisive, and they have greater tactical autonomy in a small area. This gives the Celtics some seemingly unreasonable offensive options, but it also makes the team's offensive firepower more fierce. The offensive explosive power has become extremely strong.

The shortcoming is that it has strong explosive power. Once it becomes sluggish, it will directly fall to the bottom. Tonight's game against the 76ers is a clear proof. A 35-year-old Mutombo inside made the Celtics at a loss, especially Arenas, who felt the defensive power of the NBA's best defensive player and best defensive team for the first time. On the defensive end, he can't be found by the Son of Philadelphia. In this game, Arenas had 2 points, 1 assist and 3 turnovers. He encountered the most painful wall in the new season.

Other players have also fallen into a slump. Without a good and suitable offensive system, it is easy for the poor state and low morale to be contagious on the court, and then fall into the fragmentation of fighting alone and fighting alone, and finally be completely defeated by the opponent.

"The 76ers have changed, and Iverson is off." Khomeinis didn't care how many thoughts flashed in Leon's mind, but continued to pay attention to Iverson's movements. Leon has to admit that in this era, Iverson has unparalleled charm among fans. Even if he himself, after experiencing the brilliance of the Phillies in the 2001 season, even if he can perceive the various weaknesses and flaws in this little man, he must pay high respect and infinite respect for the dazzling brilliance he bloomed in that season. emotion. To a certain extent, the tragic atmosphere of heroism infected Leon, giving him a deeper love for basketball and a more ambitious pursuit.

"Okay, turn off the TV, Khomeinis, the game has ended early, I want to take a good rest." Leon patted Khomeinis and said. Khomeinis turned off the TV, kissed Leon lightly on the head, then closed the door and left the room. Khomeinis is like this. In her relationship with Leon, she didn't have the slightest sloppiness, just like that beautiful and lovely pleated skirt with sharp folds. Leon watched her leave the room and turned over, but he was thinking of The past is coming.

With this cold and fever, Leon released some memories, including catching birds in the woods with his friends when he was a child, and playing with ice on the frozen lime pond in winter. But the most profound, or those fragments in high school. Every day at noon when we eat at school, the big TV in the cafeteria starts to broadcast NBA games, and the boys sit around the TV to watch the NBA live broadcast. He and his classmates watched the game while eating, and stood by the TV to continue watching after eating. They loved watching the basketball hero from China wearing a fiery red jersey and showing superb skills. They hoped from the bottom of their hearts that this giant could create his own own basketball dynasty. Of course, in addition to him and two other Chinese pioneers in the NBA, Leon still remembers that in the game when Anderson was traded to the Celtics, the 6-foot-11 Mongolian man in the Nuggets was originally It exists in my own memory.

When these memories and emotions soaked into his mind, Leon realized that he was not indifferent to basketball in the past. On the contrary, when he was a teenager, he had the same passionate basketball dream as many children of the same age. It's just that with the growth of age and the tempering of life, those unrealistic fantasies are diluted with the passage of time. Those beloved stars, obsessed performances, as well as the sweat and smiles swayed on the court, were also thrown out of their bags during the difficult journey of life. Just like the body I have now, I was fascinated by the mountains and tsunami in Boston Garden Square, cheered for the greatness of the Green Legion, but was finally flattened to the ground by the fist of fate, and I fell into such a state of desperation.

"A person always loses a lot of things in his life, and there is nothing more difficult to detect and more heart-wrenching than the loss of dreams." Leon got up from the bed, took out a pen and wrote it on the Khomeinis bookshelf. This sentence was written on the title page of the "Heart of Atlantis". Before it was taken down, it was still lying quietly on the leftmost position in the third row.

…………………

On the second day, Leon's fever subsided, and he sweated all over in the middle of the night, taking away all the excess heat from his body. In the morning, Leon left a table of hearty breakfast for Khomeinis, then left her house and went to the training hall.

The Celtics rushed back to Boston overnight after yesterday's disastrous loss. When the players disbanded in the evening, Carroll notified the team that they would come to practice extra early the next morning. Leon also received a text message from Carroll, but it was not for him to participate in training, but to ask about his physical condition and inform him of today's training plan. It doesn't matter if he can't come. Of course, a workaholic like Leon would not sleep in Khomeinis' house. He knew that a big defeat would be a good thing for the Celtics.

The hardware defects exposed by the team, as well as some details, will undoubtedly be revealed. Leon can't wait to go to the video room to watch the video of the last game and edit it carefully. There must be a lot of problems waiting for him.

When he arrived at the training hall, Leon found that Danny-Anji was also there. Angie was a little surprised to see Leon coming. After asking about his condition, the two chatted for a while. For Anderson's deal some time ago, Angie's operation was relatively perfect. The team sent Brown and McCarty's contract and got another big garbage contract, which was criticized by many media. However, Anderson has made rapid progress since he arrived. Although he still lacks the ability to stand alone and has many problems off the court, he learned from his master Rodman and his rebounding ability has risen sharply. He will ask Leon for videotapes every day to grasp the rebounding point secret. In some games with weaker opponents, he has shown the potential of a new generation of inside monsters, and his blocking ability is much better than Rodman.

The most important thing is that the Celtics also sent a future first-round pick in the transaction. Originally, the Nuggets wanted the draft pick that the Celtics traded from the Grizzlies, but Ainge sternly refused. He would rather send His own team's draft pick is not willing to send the Grizzlies' pick. Of course, this signing is a complicated one, involving an old deal between the Grizzlies and the Pistons. Leon also has a detailed understanding of this deal, because it is related to the Celtics. The final year and rank of .

"I think the Grizzlies must cash out the deal with the Pistons next year, otherwise we will get much less benefits." Leon said bluntly to Angie.

Angie nodded, but he doesn't have the ability to let the Grizzlies cash out the deal, that's the job of the Grizzlies management team. And as to what role this lottery position will play, Angie himself is not sure.

"There will always be a way, and that will be a sign that changes everything, but we still have more than a year to go." Leon said to Angie, and then got into the video room. You know, what Leon recalls in his mind is not only a dream, but also reality and the well-known summer of 2003.