The Whip of the God of Basketball

Carroll got the news that he became the head coach of the Eastern Conference of the All-Star Game after the game with the Kings. They lost 91:111 at home to the Kings by 20 points. After the interview, everyone was bored in the locker room, and the atmosphere inside was a bit depressing. At this time, Steve Babbitt, a reporter from the Boston Herald, knocked on the door and walked into the locker room. He is an old reporter who has a very close relationship with the Celtics. He will also go with the team for away games. For him, the Celtics locker room is as easy to enter and exit as his own kitchen, so he can often break some inside information about the Celtics.

Because the previous interviews have ended, it is obvious that he came in now not to interview players but to convey some news. He walked up to Carroll and said to him: "You have become the head coach of the All-Star East team."

At that time, Carroll was sorting out the game data and preparing to write a summary evaluation. He did not expect Babbitt to come up to him and tell him that he had become the head coach of the All-Star Game. Carroll was stunned for about three seconds, with a bewildered expression on his face, because he really couldn't figure it out, how could he be an All-Star for a person who had just changed from an assistant coach to an assistant coach for less than half a year? What about being the coach of the East team in the game?

Babbitt didn't make a fool of himself, and continued: "Just now Byron Scott announced that he would give up being the head coach of the All-Star Game because of family and physical reasons. Now, Stern has assigned you to be the head coach of the All-Star Game East team." coach."

Babbitt's words made the atmosphere in the locker room a little more active. Everyone began to congratulate Carol for becoming the coach of the All-Star Game. Although this is not a great honor, it is also an affirmation of a coach in his coaching career. . Although the reason why Byron Scott gave up the All-Star head coach is not clear at present, maybe it is not just simple family and physical reasons, but since he has announced the result, everything cannot be changed, because now It's February 6th, and the All-Star weekend is only a few days away.

Carroll frowned, still looking incredible. The Celtics' record so far has gone from the tail end of the season at the beginning of the season, all the way to the third place in the Eastern Conference. The Nets are naturally rising strongly and are invincible in the Eastern District. The Bucks and Philadelphia are still strong in the first half, but the Celtics and Pistons have come from behind, especially the Celtics. The strong performance of the team and the team's tactical reforms have created a green whirlwind on the east coast since January, and all the teams in the east have been swept away for a while.

It's just that once facing the top teams in the West, the Celtics are still powerless to resist, so that on the night when Carroll became the All-Star East coach, what accompanied them was a tragic loss. The garden tore them into pieces, and the excessive strength gap inside made the Celtics' fast offense mess up.

"I still feel... a little weird, why did Scott give up this opportunity? There is no loss for anyone to go to the All-Star Game... And, I think there are more people who can take this position." Obviously Carroll was completely unprepared to become the head coach of the Eastern Conference All-Star, and he couldn't understand why Scott gave up such an entertaining task.

"It is said that it has something to do with the Nets wanting to get Mourning. The New Jersey people are very ambitious this season. They are not willing to be the number one in the East. They want to get an inside player who can compete with the West through a trade. However, it seems that Stern blocked this possibility. I don’t know the purpose of the deal that was realized. It seems that because of this, Scott decided not to participate in the All-Star, which is also the meaning of the Nets owner, just like O’Neal back then.” Babbitt’s news is still quite well informed , Years of working as a reporter have given him a taste of many clues. He said that it was the same as O'Neal, referring to the 1997 All-Stars. The league investigated the details of the Lakers' signing of O'Neal. Jerry West was angry and made O'Neal refuse to participate in the 1997 50-star ceremony.

As brother cities, New Jersey and New York have been completely unable to compete with New York for many years. However, in the 21st century, the Knicks are still on a long way to go, while New Jersey is ready to rejuvenate through a clever deal. It's just that when confronting the strong teams in the West, their inside line is still a bit powerless, so they try to introduce a strong center to further improve the team's lineup, so that the team can enter the ranks of competing with the strong teams in the West.

However, it seems that Stern doesn't want to let New Jersey go so fast that New Yorkers can't see their shadow, so as the league president, he has a million ways to make a deal before it even starts. On the way to miscarriage.

Of course, all of this is just speculation from the media. After all, the deal between the Nets and the Heat is limited to rumors. It seems that the Nets do not have enough high-quality chips in exchange for fifth center Alonzo Mourning. As for Pat Riley, the old fox Why did he have the idea of ​​sending Mourning away? Only God knows that he knows it.

And the result of these speculations added up is that John Carroll, who was not favored by everyone at the beginning of the season and temporarily replaced O'Brien as the head coach of the Celtics, became the head coach of the All-Star Game again. , so Carroll this season can also be called the No. 1 high-quality spare tire in Tianzi.

"It needs to be explained that there are assistant coaches in the All-Star game, and the assistant coaches of the All-Star are generally the assistant coaches of the head coach under the home team. Therefore, Fox, and Mr. Hart, congratulations, you have also become All-Star coaches. The assistant coach of the All-Star Game." Babbitt left Carol, who was still frowning, and turned to Leon and Hart.

Contrary to Carol, the expressions of the two were surprisingly calm. Old Hart just spread his hands, and then said: "It's already the All-Star Game, so don't let me, an old bone, rest."

Leon nodded with no expression on his face. It seemed that he didn't have much interest in the All-Star Game. As a scout for the Celtics last season, he was eligible to watch the All-Star Game live, but he gave up that opportunity and chose to go fishing with Khomeinis on Lake Michigan. This time, he originally planned to go to Rhodes Island for vacation with Khomeinis, but now it seemed that his plan was going to fail, and Khomeinis would complain about it.

So he was not happy at all. The Celtics had the fewest assistant coaches in the league. Leon worked twice as much as the average assistant coach. Leon had suggested to Danny Aingiti that he should Fortunately, in the summer, he will hire one or two capable assistant coaches to share his pressure. Even if his brain turns faster than others, he still only has one head and two hands, twenty-four hours a day.

Babbitt was a little embarrassed when he saw Leon's expression of being overwhelmed. In the Celtics team, it was the assistant coach who was difficult to deal with. During the interview, his mouth was tighter than anyone else's, but his brain was faster than anyone else's. But this guy has a lot of sources of news that he doesn't know where he got it from. Babbitt was convinced that Leon had his own basketball news network, and that the center of the network should be in New York, which made the old Boston reporter quite unhappy. New York and Boston have been rivals in the East since the 1960s, because the war of words that broke out between the two basketball cities is not inferior to that on the court. Now the future successor of the team in name is not close to the media in his own city, but close to the media in his own city. The New Yorkers naturally made the media people in Boston quite critical.

But Auerbach never cared about it. He didn't know what the archbishop was planning. He didn't seem to want Leon to take over his media resources in Boston.

…………………

After receiving this important news, the Celtics' first half of the season is over. Leon was packing up and leaving the locker room to go home, thinking about the team's progress over the past half of the season. harvest. They went all the way to the third place in the East from the end of the Eastern Conference at the beginning of the season. The second fast break tactic he designed proved to be very suitable for the team. They began to explode in January. The training of the players has become more and more vigorous, and it is no longer the sluggishness at the beginning of the season. More and more people arrive early and return late every day. The young people have started to compete with each other, and the veterans are also full of vitality.

Of course, Leon will not attribute all this to himself, Carol's tolerance and humility, Dick Hart's sternness and strictness, Danny Ainge's hands-on work, Chris Wallace's full support, and Auerbach's dedication behind the scenes, coupled with Leon's tireless work day and night, allowed the Celtics to finally get out of the quagmire, and their future began to look bright and clear.

On the drive back, the night in Boston was illuminated by the lights of streets, buildings, rivers and vehicles. Leon couldn't remember the last time he was home before the sun went down. He would work whether there was a game or not. until dark. The advantage of going home late is that there will be fewer cars on the road, so you don't have to suffer from traffic jams. Boston is not a city with wide roads.

Because of this, Leon can relax in the driver's seat and drive his four-handed Chevrolet, and his nerves and face that have been tense are slowly relaxed. At this time, a smile appeared on his face, as if the joy of becoming an all-star assistant coach had just reached his brain. That's right, Leon is actually very happy in his heart, not because he likes the All-Stars, but because he finally has the opportunity to face those superstars face to face.

What could be more gratifying than an assistant coach who evolved from a poaching scout?