The Whip of the God of Basketball

The National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., is one of the best medical institutions in Washington, D.C., with the nation's top treatment team and level of care. The inpatient department here has only 137 beds in total, and many of the beds have already been reserved. Most of the people who can be treated here are dignitaries from Washington, D.C. If ordinary people want to get a bed, they will either be cured or be cured long ago. already dead.

On the third floor of the inpatient building, ward 1301 is a special ward of the rehabilitation hospital. Ordinary people cannot live here at all. At this time, Fox-Leon was sitting on the sofa in this ward reading Mark Twain's "Running for Governor." He had been sitting here reading all afternoon, while New York, hundreds of miles away, was reading. An exciting draft is taking place.

Except for a phone call to Danny Ainge, he never left the room again, as if those things had nothing to do with him. When he was about to finish reading the book, there was a knock on the door. Leon put down the book and opened the door gently. A nurse was standing at the door with instruments and equipment, and asked: "Examination time after meals? May I come inside?"

Leon nodded and let the nurse in. The nurse walked into the room, walked to the bed, and together with Leon slowly helped up the old man lying on the bed - it was Arnold Auerbach. At this time, he looked like He was extremely weak, his originally pale face turned pale, his sparse and messy hair stood up on his head one by one, and those age spots became more obvious.

The nurse took Auerbach's blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and observed basic vital signs. After confirming that he was fine, she and Leon helped him back to bed. Auerbach was in a deep sleep. Yesterday, when Leon came to visit Auerbach at his home in Washington, he found that no one answered the door no matter how hard he knocked. Leon called Auerbach before coming, and Auerbach said he would wait for Leon at home, so it was impossible for him to go out.

Leon, who felt something was wrong, climbed over the wall from the backyard and smashed open the back door of Auerbach's house with his fist. Only when he got inside did he find Auerbach collapsed in his office. He had suffered a heart attack. Leon immediately called 911, then performed compression CPR on Auerbach in the study and gave him medicine.

It was cardiopulmonary resuscitation that bought Auerbach a few precious minutes. After the ambulance arrived at Auerbach's home and sent him to the hospital for rescue, the doctor told Leon that if he had been a few minutes later, he would have been saved. Auerbach would also become paralyzed due to lack of blood flow to the brain.

Now, he just needs to get some rest and quit smoking cigars once and for all.

After the nurse finished the examination and packed up her things, she said to Leon: "Everything is normal. I want to ask you, Mr. Leon, is it really okay not to inform Mr. Auerbach's family about his condition?"

Leon tucked Auerbach into bed and replied: "I also wanted to inform his daughter, but when he woke up he told me not to tell anyone, including his daughter... I don't know what he was thinking, maybe he I don’t want my children to worry.”

The nurse nodded and didn't ask any more questions. Instead, she took out a small note pad from her pocket and handed it to Leon and said, "My son is a basketball fan. Although his favorite star is Kobe Bryant, but If an NBA coach could give him an autograph, he would be very happy."

Leon smiled and signed the note pad. Although he is not a great coach, people can often recognize him when walking on the street in the United States.

The nurse had just left the ward when Auerbach's voice came from the bed, "I won't let you tell your daughter, it's all because of you, you little son of a bitch."

Leon seemed to have known for a long time that Auerbach was awake, so he did not appear surprised at all. Instead, he returned to the sofa and picked up the book, preparing to finish "Running for Governor."

"Help me up, you brat!" Auerbach opened the quilt and tried to get up from the bed. Leon hurriedly stepped forward to support Auerbach, and said that the doctor warned him not to get out of bed casually and to rest well.

"I never listen to the advice of those doctors. If listening to them can help me live for another year, then I don't need this year. The reason why I pretended to sleep just now is because I don't want to listen to the nurse's verbose words. He gave me a lot of health information and reminded me not to smoke!" Auerbach has always had a stubborn temper and has always turned a deaf ear to the doctor's instructions.

"Fox, give me a cigar." Since the heart attack, Auerbach has not touched a cigar for more than 24 hours, which is more uncomfortable than having a heart attack.

"No, you can't smoke anymore, and I didn't bring a cigar." Leon shook his head and refused. He rarely refused Auerbach, but this time he knew that he could no longer let the old man be willful.

Just when Auerbach was about to get angry, Leon said again: "I also want you to watch the Celtics win the 17th championship." Auerbach stopped talking and sat back on the bed angrily. , asking for a piece of chewing gum from Leon to chew in his mouth to curb his craving for cigarettes.

"We should be halfway through the draft. How is the situation?" Auerbach looked at the clock in the room and asked. It is already past eight o'clock. According to the progress of the conference, the first round of the draft has arrived. Middle and rear sections.

"If everything goes well, the transaction should have been completed. We will choose Milicic, and then he will be sent to the Timberwolves, and we will get Kevin Garnett." Leon wrote lightly, a big deal that shocked the league, in It seemed to Leon that it was a trivial matter that was taken for granted.

Auerbach had experienced countless ups and downs in his life, and he was not surprised by Leon's description. He lay back on the bed and continued: "You have been working on this for more than a year, right? Play a long game to catch the big fish. She's beautiful, but I'm afraid I have to leave Danny out this time, and he might be unhappy."

"Danny is the general manager. He has too many things to weigh, and Boston is a complicated place. Unlike me, I am just a coach. I only want the players I want most." Leon understands Danny Ainge. , and this time Leon’s trade mainly used his connections in New York, and Anji couldn’t be of much help.

"I heard that Garnett's salary has reached 28 million, which is more than half of the salary cap. How should this be done to teach an old man like me a lesson?" Auerbach has always been concerned about the various rules set by Stern. Don't be cold, the various terms of the CBA are becoming more and more complicated. The old man has been with basketball for his whole life, but in the end he was confused by these terms and no longer wanted to get involved in specific transaction matters.

Leon closed the book, stood up and walked to a small whiteboard in the room, where doctors' orders and medication schedules are posted. Leon used it as a blackboard to teach Auerbach a lesson on CBA trading rules.

"Let's first take a look at the salary situation of the Celtics. Last season, we had 15 players on the team, with a total salary of US$50.83 million. Last year's salary cap was US$40.27 million, and the luxury tax line was US$51 million. It's very Fortunately, we don't have to pay the luxury tax. At the beginning of this season, the salary cap will rise to about 43 million, but no matter what, our salary exceeds the salary cap. So if we want to make a trade, we can't get more than the player's salary. 125% of the player’s total salary + $1 million.”

Leon was talking about the NBA's most basic trade balancing rules. Auerbach was also sickly bored and took this as a pastime, and he really wanted to understand what the NBA's current trading rules were.

"So, Kevin Garnett's salary next season is US$28 million, and the total salary we pay to the players must be at least US$21.6 million. The new players and draft picks obtained in the draft are not included in the salary balance, so we need to pay Antoine Walker - $13.5 million next season, Eric Williams - $5.54 million, Abdullah Warrick - $6.1875 million, adding up to a total of more than $25 million , there is absolutely no problem in salary matching." Leon seemed to have a salary table in his mind, and he could report everyone's salary casually.

Auerbach had seen Leon's mathematical skills at Marshfield, and was not surprised at all. He also asked: "Then our salary must have greatly exceeded the standard again. How many people are left on the team now?"

"We gained 1 by exchanging 3, and lost 2. Steve also decided to retire this year. Blount, Alexander, and Behrman all have expired contracts and will not renew their contracts, so we now have a total of The total salary of 9 players is US$55 million, which is already above this year’s luxury tax line.”

"Are you going to play with nine people?" Auerbach asked.

"We still have the veteran's basic salary and rookie contract to use. Of course, that is an issue that Danny needs to consider, and it has nothing to do with me." Leon completed the big deal he dreamed of. As for other aftermath matters, he didn't want to deal with it anymore. Go ahead and take care of it. Everything is left to the general manager.