The Whip of the God of Basketball

On the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, the annual Louis Vuitton America's Cup series of sailing races is taking place on the river. Dozens of catamarans with high sails follow the wind on the wide river. Gliding quickly across the water. On both sides of the river track, there are many small cruise ships anchored to enjoy this grand fast sailing race.

Fox-Leon was on one of the yachts, watching the sailing race with his good friend Woj. The weather today is very good. Huge white clouds float in the blue sky, filtering the originally dazzling sunlight into soft light, which shines on the sparkling river surface and the white hull of the boat. The wind was neither too strong nor too light, causing the yacht to sway from side to side with the waves.

Along with Leon, there are some famous basketball reporters in New York, such as Mark Bellman and Frank Isola. They are both Woj's opponents and his friends, so naturally they are familiar with Leon. In Leon, they are NBDL They helped a lot when doing scouting work. Of course, in the past six months or so, they have been slandering Leon and the Celtics in their columns and special topics. Leon doesn’t mind this at all. With their help, the Celtics seem to have regained their Transformed back into the evil green empire more than twenty years ago, the only thing they lack is victory.

"I bet that the green sailboat will win in the end." Facing the dazzling sunshine, Leon pointed at the two sailboats rushing in front - one, one white, the white one at the front, ahead of the green one. position.

"Is the reason because green is the color of the Celtics? Can I choose the blue one?" Isola said to Leon, a reporter for the New York Daily News who has always been known as a poisonous snake. There is no mercy for Leon and Celtic in the article. The blue sailboat was now in last place.

"I'm not sure whether Green can take first place, but Blue... I guess he has decided on the last place." Leon was not polite. He knew that Isola was a die-hard fan of the New York Knicks, even in college. He wouldn't even give him face in Apple City.

Isola smiled awkwardly. In any case, the New York Knicks' decline over the past two years has been steady and steady, from miraculously reaching the Finals as eighth in the 1999 season to losing the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000. , eliminated in the first round in 2001, and bid farewell to the playoffs directly in 2002. This year, they missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year. The previous Finals coach Jeff Van Gundy also fired and drafted Patrick Ewing from 1985. At the beginning, the Knicks' more than ten years of being a strong team have come to an end, and they will begin their road to reconstruction again.

Of course, New Yorkers at this time did not realize how long and tortuous this road to reconstruction would be.

Just as the New Yorkers bid farewell to the playoffs, on the other side of the Hudson River, the New Jerseyans have reached the Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years and are making strides toward their second NBA Finals.

Logically speaking, the Boston Celtics defeated the 76ers and Pistons 4:1 in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They have already shown strong combat effectiveness, especially in the semifinals after losing one game first. The victory over the Pistons exceeded many people's expectations. You must know that when the Pistons won the first game, public opinion was unanimously optimistic that the Pistons, number one in the Eastern Conference, could take revenge on the Celtics. Unexpectedly, after losing the second game and the third game, the Pistons seemed to have lost their souls. In the fourth and fifth games, they barely made any decent resistance and were run over by the Celtics and eliminated in despair. Out.

As a result, the Celtics replicated their playoff path last season and once again encountered the Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, the Nets' performance in the first two rounds was obviously even more outstanding. They first defeated the Bucks 4:1, and then shaved their heads off the Hornets 4:0 in the semifinals. Their strong defense showed an overwhelming performance in the Eastern Conference. The power of sex. Last season they were the best defensive team in the regular season. This season they continue to rank first in defensive efficiency and are doing even better than last year.

After being swept by the Sharks 0:4 last year, the Nets sent away a few of their white and soft insiders, such as McCloch and Van Horn, and got Mutombo, although the African mountains are trapped by injuries. Despite his age, his performance is far inferior to that of 2001, but he is at least a qualified substitute. Now their starting lineup has become Kidd, Kittles, Martin, Collins and Jefferson, a strong lineup that is fast, tough, and well-structured.

Because of this, the Celtics were underdogs for the third time before the series began. Those experts and reporters who swore that the Celtics would lose in the first two rounds shamelessly said this time that the Celtics would definitely fall in the Eastern Conference finals because their opponents in the Eastern Conference were too strong.

Leon himself was aware of this. Before the first game on May 18, he and his team arrived in New York two days in advance. They rented a complete indoor gym for training in order to reduce the start of the game. After the fatigue of the previous journey, in order to achieve a good performance in the away game. Leon knows that the first game will be a testing period for both sides. If he can steal the next game, it will have a great impact on the trend of the entire series.

This year's Nets are indeed stronger than last year's. Last year, the Boston Celtics even led the Nets 2:1 and once saw the dawn of advancing to the finals. Unfortunately, Antoine Walker performed abnormally and was defeated by Kenyon. Martin's defense became an iron king, and head coach Carroll had nothing to do in the face of the Nets' change in strategy. In the end, he could only watch the team lose hope of entering the finals.

And now Leon can be sure that if last year's Celtics met this year's Nets, they would definitely be eliminated 0:4. It's just that this year's Celtics are no longer the same Celtics as last year. Anyone who ignores the strength of the Celtics will be punished.

Their offense had been unleashed in the semifinals, and Arenas finally found the feeling of attacking. The one-on-one and four-on-one style of play left Carlisle at a loss, but Leon was not sure yet. Facing the league's best perimeter defense team, Can the Celtics still be able to play that kind of offense, and can they still show the anger they faced against the Nets in the regular season.

However, Leon didn't seem nervous at all. After arriving in New York, after training, he not only accompanied Khomeinis to watch the opera on Broadway, but also went to major luxury brand stores to buy jewelry and accessories. Today is the last day before the game. After training in the morning, Leon gave the players a break, and then went to the Hudson River with Woj to watch the sailing competition.

The people on board were all New York media people. It seemed that Leon didn't care that his relaxed appearance was known to the outside world, or he hoped that the outside world would see him relaxed or even relaxed, so as to make his opponents relax their vigilance. In any case, unlike the 76ers and Pistons, the Nets are the only opponent in the East worthy of Leon's attention. Although there are stronger teams in the West, in the end they can only send one team to participate in the finals.

The sailboat race was gradually coming to an end. Standing on the bow of the boat, Leon could see that the white sailboat was still one position ahead of the green boat. Others had already picked up their telescopes and looked towards the key line.

The northwest wind that was originally blowing on the river suddenly changed direction and turned into a northeast wind. The sailboat that was originally sailing with the wind suddenly turned into a headwind. Now they had to adjust the direction of the sail from going straight with the wind to sailing in a zigzag against the wind. Turn headwinds into forward momentum.

At this time, the green ship, which had been lagging behind and unable to catch up, adjusted its sails faster than the white ship. They quickly completed the adjustment and quickly changed their route. The ship began to move forward in a zigzag route, and was still some distance from the end. He surpassed the White Ship within a few hundred meters!

"Oh!! Look, the green boat has passed! It has passed!! Come on!" Leon was the only one among everyone who didn't need a telescope. His eyesight was really amazingly good.

In the end, the green boat surpassed the white boat and reached the finish line first, becoming the champion of the New York leg of the America's Cup. Seeing that the boat he had bet on won the race, the excited Leon raised champagne for himself.

"Hey, Fox, how did you know from the beginning that the green boat would surpass the white boat? Don't tell you that you expected the wind direction to change. Did you graduate with a meteorology major?" Woj asked jokingly. He was actually also very curious. Lai Ang this guy rarely loses when it comes to betting.

Leon took a sip of champagne and replied: "Because he is green."