The Whip of the God of Basketball

Pierce looked at Leon's face and felt a little surprised. His hair had grown longer again and was slightly scattered on his head. His dark curly hair looked like Hollywood star Orlando Bloom. The face that was always clean-shaven now has a beard that extends to the sides of the neck and chin. Although it is not thick, it makes people feel that Leon is at least five years older. But even with a beard, the small scars on Leon's face could not be covered up and remained stubbornly on his face.

"What's wrong with you? Didn't you go on vacation? Why do you look like you are doing hard labor?" Pierce stared at Leon's face for a while and couldn't help but said.

"It's just a change of style... I'm glad to see you again Paul. I wonder how your groin is doing. Can you play tomorrow?" Leon didn't explain too much about his hairstyle and beard, but was concerned about Pierce's injury. .

Groin strain is a common injury for players and generally does not cause major problems. If Pierce cannot play tomorrow, then the Celtics will definitely be in trouble against the Spurs.

"No problem. Didn't you see that I came to train today? It's just that other things have not gone very well recently. There are always some negative news staring at me. I met the police when I went out this morning and warned me not to drink and drive, but I I swear to God, that bottle of champagne I got at the bar last night was opened after I got home!" Pierce complained to Leon about his recent troubles. He was annoyed by the pervasive gossip reports from the Boston media.

At the beginning of the season, he restrained himself and focused more time and energy on basketball. Coupled with the team's excellent record, a lot of negative news was insulated from Pierce. So some recent reports and bad luck made him wonder what was going on. Of course, he didn't know that the culprit who made these news was standing in front of him and listening to him.

"You know, readers always like to read negative news about public figures. On the contrary, they always pass by the positive and touching things. Only when they see celebrities in front of the spotlight make embarrassing mistakes will they be as excited as if they saw them. Hungry wolves and dogs enthusiastically join in the fight for meat. This is something that will never change, but there is a law beyond it that is further than forever, and that is victory." Leon stared at Pierce and said, his The look in his eyes made Pierce feel something different, that was passion as blazing as fire under the calm gaze.

Pierce swallowed. At this time, he felt that the negative news was no longer a problem. He had to devote himself to training and prepare for tomorrow night's game. That's right, as long as you win, nothing is a problem.

………………

The Waltham training facility was fully occupied at 9:30 a.m. This was the Celtics' first practice back with Fox Leone a month after losing their head coach.

Dave Cowens arrived later than Leon. He seemed not ready to hand over the coaching job. Logically speaking, the assistant coaches would arrive earlier than the head coach.

"Everyone gather!" Cowens shouted to the players and trainers who were training on the court. In this month, Cowens would give pre-training instructions before every training. The players all He put down the basketball in his hands, wiped his sweat and gathered together.

Dave Cowens looked at Leon. He stood there and seemed to have no intention of speaking, so Cowens said: "Today is the first day of Fox Leon's return. Let us welcome him... This In a month, I am very happy to be able to lead everyone on the normal track and fulfill our mission. Now we are all here, Paul Pierce is back, and there is still a third of the season and playoffs waiting. It’s time for us to move forward with all our strength!”

There was a slight sense of loss in Cowens' tone. Indeed, the Celtics' secret condition for inviting Cowens to be their assistant coach in the summer was that they could replace Leon when it proved ineffective. However, this is not something that Angie can decide alone, but a commitment made by Auerbach himself, otherwise Cowens would not put aside his past grievances and return to Boston.

During his time as an assistant coach for Leon, Cowens, who once served as the team's general manager, could feel the young man's outstanding coaching talent, his genius intelligence level, calm approach and exuberant energy. Cowens was impressed.

In the month of Leon's absence, although Cowens led the team to achieve a good record, Cowens knew in his heart that these victories were based on Leon's training, and he almost did not need to do anything for him. When the players deploy offensive tactics, they only need to focus on defense, because those offensive routines have been deeply rooted in the players' nerve cells under Leon's training.

Cowens does not know how to simulate training without the ball. Players complain that there is no way to improve tacit understanding. Cowens cannot calculate the data at a glance. Other assistant coaches feel that the workload has increased. Cowens cannot accurately describe the players' technical movements. And tactical movement, training and watching videos have become less efficient.

Cowens' only advantage is that he has rich experience in basketball games, has deep qualifications, and better understands the psychology of the players. He can yell, get angry, roar at the referee, and boost the team's momentum, but with these things, who knows How quickly Leon will learn.

Therefore, others may be a little excited that Leon is back. Only Cowens will feel a little disappointed, because he knows that during this month of Leon's absence, he will not be able to erase what Leon has given to this team. If he leaves a mark and puts his own label on it, then from now on, he can only become an assistant coach, and can only guide the players in basic skills and teach them how to fight under the basket.

After saying these words, Cowens turned to look at Leon. He stood in front of the players without saying a word, with his hands on his hips. After growing a beard, he looked unusually majestic. Although he was as old as P.J. -Brown almost.

"Good morning, ladies, nice to see you again. I have been standing here since eight o'clock and watched your training for nearly an hour and a half. You made a total of 987 shots and scored 675, although it was just before the official training. Warm-up, but both the number of shots and the number of hits have reached an intolerably low level. I want to tell you that when you come to the training hall, please go all out, starting from the first second. "At the beginning of the official training Before, when the players came to the arena and saw Leon, their reaction was to come up and say hello to him, and then started to warm up with laughter. They did not expect that Leon would give everyone a blow as soon as he came back.

"I think everyone should know that there has been a lot of criticism of the Celtics recently. Some people say that our players like to cause trouble everywhere, Chris Anderson, Gilbert Arenas, Antoine Walker, Paul Pierce , there is more or less some negative news. Those all-pervasive reporters are eager to expose all the things you picked your nose in class when you were a child for those bored readers to enjoy. Of course, there is also the stadium, this one In the past month, our offense has deteriorated a bit, but our defense has strengthened, we dared to confront, and had conflicts with some teams, so some people said that we were dirty. Here, as a player who was suspended for 15 games by the league, he defeated the NBA with his fists The unprecedented head coach of the players, I want to tell you, go to hell with these messy things, we just want to win!" When Leon finished saying this, the training hall fell into extreme silence.

The Celtic players, especially the young ones, all had solemn expressions on their faces, as if this was not a training hall but a parade ground. There has indeed been a lot of bad news plaguing Celtics players recently. Arenas was driving drunk, Chris Anderson was smoking marijuana, and Antoine Walker was visiting prostitutes. Some of them were true or false. In short, the Celtics were quite embarrassed.

Cowens tried to talk to each player to resolve those negative emotions, but it had no effect. Leon was so good at this, he directly turned the negative emotions into energy, which was exactly the effect he wanted.

However, Leon himself is not sure what direction this approach will take the current Celtics in. How can the basketball team model he once longed for and ideally still be applicable to the Celtics? Can't be achieved.