The Whip of the God of Basketball

On January 3, 2003, after a two-day break, the Boston Celtics ushered in their first opponent of the New Year at home, the Portland Trail Blazers, the son of Oregon who came all the way from the northwest coast.

During these two days, Leon was not idle. First of all, on the afternoon of January 1st, he urgently held a press conference in the press room of North Shore Garden to tell the media about his gambling and going to prison. explained.

The most difficult thing about this matter is that the content of the report is true. Leon has indeed been to casinos many times, and he has also been in prison, so he cannot accuse the report of inaccuracy and defamation. He can only clarify the truth as much as possible. Let the public know the real situation. Before things ferment, take the lead in forming a defense mechanism in the minds of the public. People are always like this. It is easier to forgive after seeing the apology and then understanding the mistake than knowing the mistake and then seeing the apology.

At the press conference, Leon also showed off his acting skills, admitting with great sincerity that he had made some mistakes in the past, but now he has recognized these mistakes and wiped them away from him. From now on he is A good coach who is positive and decent and dedicated to the basketball cause. At the press conference, his statement was endorsed by Danny Angie. Angie listed the process of meeting Leon in Marsfield and watching him step by step to today, saying that "a person has already made mistakes for what he once committed. Mistakes have been punished, and the achievements he has made today cannot be erased."

It can be said that Angie is still very reliable at critical moments, withstood the pressure and supported Leon. Even if he has the idea of ​​taking Leon and replacing him with his favorite coach, he will never allow the team's coach to be slandered by others and leave the team. What's more, the Celtics are currently in good momentum. Angie has no reason not to support Leon .

On January 2, the Celtics team conducted an open media training. On the first training day of the new year, the entire training process of the Celtics was interviewed and filmed by reporters. Of course, Leon did not show his Eagles. Eye training system, today the main thing is physical training. Several Celtics players were interviewed after the training, including Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker, the newly traded PJ Brown, etc. They all talked about their views on the head coach Leon, showing that Leon is indeed a good coach who abides by the law. Although he occasionally scares people with his fists, he has never had any conflicts with the players.

After the training ended on the afternoon of the 2nd, Leon also drove to participate in the "Caring for Autistic Children" activity of the Boston Welfare Institute. He spent two hours getting along with those children with autism and reading to them. Try to communicate with them. Everything is sending a signal to people: this is a normal law-abiding, even caring, good person.

On the day of the game on January 3, the real bomb fell. The famous New York newspaper "The New Yorker" published a long feature report on the theme of "Crime in the NBA". The object is not Fox Leon, but starting from Washington boxing Tomjanovich in 1977, telling the story of the drug, violence, and pornographic crimes that accompanied the growth of the court in the 60-year history of the NBA. At the end of this report, it is mentioned that the current Portland Trail Blazers, now they have been called Jail-blazers, because this team is simply a concentration camp of problem players, Stoudemire Jr., Darius Meyer Adams, Randolph, Patterson, picking quarrels, drugs, sexual assault, these things have ruined the reputation of the Blazers.

Then at the end of the end, the report "inadvertently" mentioned the new Celtics coach Fox Leon, pointing out that he was being harassed by gambling and jail messages. It was a blockbuster, and it was released at the perfect time, just in time for the Portland Trail Blazers to visit Boston, just right. One can imagine how the venomous commentators would link the Jailblazers and Jailcoach during the break between the two teams' games, making this incident magnify across the United States.

Leon broke into a cold sweat when he saw this report on the 3rd. Fortunately, he contacted Woj on the phone on the 1st, and Woj reminded Leon to prepare for the preemptive strike, before the real killer is revealed, and the damage will be reduced. drop to lowest. At the same time, Woj also promised Leon that he will prepare a special report as soon as possible to describe Leon's experience as the head coach. At that time, he will interview Auerbach and restore a real Leon from the cardinal.

Even so, on the night of the game on January 3, some fans still held up the "JailblazersVSJailcoach" placard in the arena. Leon could only squeeze his fist and pretend he didn't see it. He must remain calm. He told himself that there is only one best way to survive these crises, and that is victory. Victory is the strongest law that never changes in the professional arena. If you master victory, you will master everything.

However, the Portland Trail Blazers are not an easy team to deal with. Although their team is in chaos, it must be admitted that this is a team full of talents, especially their striker has Rasheed Wallace, Bunch- Wells, Scottie Pippen and Dale Davis, in 2000, relied on the wheel battle to consume the Lakers to the final quarter of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. This year, Sabonis, the former insider center of the Blazers, also returned to the team. In short, the Blazers are quite strong in terms of book strength, and they seem to be quite restrained by the Celtics, because the Celtics are weak inside. Lost in speed.

Sure enough, the game entered the pace of the Blazers in the first quarter, and the head coach of the Blazers, Cheeks, put out Antonio Daniels, Bunche Wells, Scottie Pippen, Rasheed Wallace Plus a tall, fast lineup with no point guard and no center like Dale Davis. The real offensive controller of this lineup is Scottie Pippen, because Damon Stoudemire's style of play is not favored by Maurice Cheeks at all, and the relationship between the two is also very bad, so in the guard On the line, Cheeks simply put Antonio Daniels and let Pippen play point forward. Putting Sabonis on the bench as an organization center, it can be said that the organization does not need a guard at all.

Maurice Cheeks was once a legendary defender of the 76ers. He followed Dr. J and experienced the glorious 80s of the 76ers. Therefore, his coaching style is very classical. He doesn’t like three-pointers, and he pays attention to confrontation, positional offense, and inside attack. . Perhaps stimulated by the recent evaluation of "jailblazers", the Blazers played extremely fiercely in the first quarter. Wells, Wallace and Dale Davis hit the inside continuously, but Leon did not put PJ- Brown, but continue to let Blunt start.

As a result, the "weak" Blount was knocked into a daze by the aggressive front line of the Blazers. The Celtics fell behind the Blazers by 11 points at 37:26 in the first quarter, digging a big hole for themselves. During the break in the first quarter, PJ Brown said to Leon: "Let me go, coach, I'm here to play, not to sit on the bench."

But Leon shook his head and motioned Brown to sit on the bench for a while, carefully watch the operation of the Celtics team, and get familiar with it. This makes PJ-Brown very angry. He is no longer a rookie who has just entered the league. No matter which team he is traded to, he is a good player who can play immediately. As a result, in his Boston debut, But he was pressed on the bench by the coach and watched the team fall behind.

"Maybe PJ should be on, he will help a lot inside." Assistant coach Dave Cowens reminded Leon, Leon still shook his head, he said: "We need a little anger."

The power of anger, this feeling Leon is very aware of now, he is very angry, because the recent series of attacks against him came silently, hidden in the needle, a seemingly simple report, a few simple words, But it can kill people fatally. Leon has already made up his mind in his heart. He wants to let the Celtics continue to win, but also let the person who framed him lose his golden job in the end, if that person is Andy Miller.

However, right now he needs to refocus his attention on the game, because he didn't prepare well for the game because of the bad things in the past two days, which caused the Celtics to dig a big hole to fill at the beginning of the game. He didn't play PJ-Brown not only because of the so-called "power of anger", but also because he hasn't figured out how to play Brown's role.

At the end of the first half, the Celtics 49:61, 12 points behind the Trail Blazers, a bad first half of the new year, the Celtics need a new force.