The Whip of the God of Basketball

The first week after the end of the Celtics 01 season is also the most busy week for Leon. According to the itinerary, he will first go to Austin, Texas. After staying there for two days, he will go to Washington to see As soon as I saw Auerbach, I was about to prepare to become the assistant coach of the Celtics. Although the old man called him to inform him that he became the assistant coach of the Celtics, the official appointment has not yet come down. Before that, Auerbach must still have a lot of preparations to do. Assistant coaches and scouts are different. This is a basketball The key step for management workers to reach the top is like a player being selected in the draft. It took Frank Vogel seven years to get to this point, and Leon has only been in the game for a year, and his previous basketball experience is blank.

So Leon knew how much effort Auerbach would have to put in to settle everything, which is why he called late at night. When everything was almost settled, he couldn't keep the news until the next day. Tell Leon.

Early the next morning, Leon called the airline to book a flight to Austin at noon. Because Boston to Austin isn't a major American Airlines route, Leon can only book a flight with JetBlue Airways, a low-cost airline whose main route is the Central American and Caribbean regions. A year of scouting career, among other things, is definitely enough to sit on the plane. For Leon, his familiarity with each airline is basically the same as his knowledge of Celtic players. So when he arrived at Austin Airport on the afternoon of May 3, he immediately called and booked a flight from Austin to Washington on May 5.

After booking his itinerary, Leon had time to enjoy the trip to Texas a little bit. Before Wojnarowski arrived, he could still wander around Austin. After all, this was his first time in Texas. Come Texas. After putting his luggage in the hotel, Leon decided to go out for a stroll.

Different from the Wild West in people’s impression, Austin, the capital of Texas, is a clean and green small city. There are no red rocks, no prairie cattle and horses here, and the air is not as cold and heavy as Boston, nor is it flooded with sunshine like Los Angeles. , only gives people a simple and fresh feeling. Besides, the weather in Austin today is very good. When the sun was about to set at four o'clock in the afternoon, the colorful clouds reflected the whole city. Leon came to sit in a grass park, admiring the coming sunset while thinking about the way ahead.

It was the right choice for Auerbach to let Leon become a scout. This year's flying career has allowed Leon to touch every aspect of the basketball circle, from the bright and beautiful floor of the arena to the dirty locker room. , from the superstars who appear on the headlines all the year round, to the unknown juniors who go to the lower leagues to eat basketball, from New York to Los Angeles, from Boston to Philadelphia, from Chicago to Minneapolis, the huge American basketball world From the inside to the outside, from light to darkness, everything is presented in front of Leon.

Especially after becoming a member of the development league scouting team, he got in touch with the bottom part of the basketball world more deeply and understood the cruelty of this world. A person whose life is struggling. For example, Leon knew a guy named Jeff Shepard. He was the MOP of the 1998 NCAA finals. Went to Italy to play, and then returned to North America to play for a club in Toronto. As Boston's scout Leon once went to his game to consider whether he can be recruited into the team as a bench supplement, Sheppard also very much hopes to return to the NBA, but his strength is not enough for him to gain a foothold. In the end, Leon regretted telling him that he couldn't go to Boston to play.

This is someone who has been successful before. Even if Shepard can't make further progress on the basketball court in the future, after all, he has been brilliant, and he has his own pride worth remembering. Leon also knows more unknown people , Their dream is nothing more than being able to find a job in some lower leagues. When he scouted the small arenas as a D-League scout, he could see desire in the eyes of those young people, the desire for success, fame and money.

In addition to these young people, there are also some out-of-date professional players, such as George Muresan, the former top player, who retired in the 2000 season and went to France to play. Leon once played against Chris- Wallace met the Romanian giant when he went to France to look for good rookies. He said that if he had the opportunity, he still wanted to return to the United States to play games. But considering his physical condition, no American team is willing to accept him anymore.

Leon flipped through his phone, there were about 500 numbers in it, some belonged to those young people, some belonged to their managers, some belonged to former NBA players, he thought maybe there would be more numbers tomorrow Up two numbers. Since Wojnarowski asked him to come, he must have discovered some good players, but Leon knows that the so-called good here is defined by the level of the development league, and the real talented players have long been exhausted We all know.

Leon sat in the park for more than an hour when he got a call from Wojnarowski, who had traveled from Houston to Austin, and asked Leon to meet at a Mexican restaurant.

When Leon arrived at the restaurant, Wojnarowski was not the only one sitting in the box. Another member of the scouting team was Presti, a video researcher from the Spurs.

In this small scout group of the Development League, if you talk about who is the smartest, Leon is the first, then Presti is the second. Like Leon, he has amazing talents in observation and calculation ability, and at the same time has an unusual intuition for basketball. Fortunately, his immediate boss, Popovich, is a serious and professional guy who takes basketball work seriously and also has extraordinary vision, which gave Presti good guidance and training. His ability to become a member of the scout team is also fully recommended by Popovich.

Unlike Wojnarowski, Leon and Presti are not good friends, perhaps because they are too smart, and the two played for different teams. In the 1997 battle for Duncan The two teams are even more sworn enemies. Up to now, Auerbach still often talks about how lucky that guy Popovich is.

The three exchanged pleasantries and quickly got to the point. Wojnarowski said to Leon: "This time our target is Chris Anderson, an insider. I don't know if you have heard of it. Last year he was Played in China, and now back in the U.S. to play for the University of Texas in Austin. Presti watched his game and thinks this guy has potential, but the Spurs don’t need such a player. He contacted me and thought the development league would be great. Fits him. I'm thinking maybe the Celtics need a big man like that, and Presti said he's similar to Rodman."

"Like Rodman? Is that why the Spurs don't need him? Let me take a look at his profile." Leon said as he picked up the resume of Chris Anderson and looked at it. Leon was very interested in the fact that he had played in China, after all, that was the hometown of his soul, and he thought that maybe he could find some memories of himself in Anderson.

Rodman also played for the Spurs back then, but he refused to accept Popovich's discipline and eventually left, but achieved the Bulls' second three-peat. Leon said this as a sarcasm. He even doubted whether Presti wanted to mess up the Celtics locker room by introducing a player like him, because from the perspective of Anderson's resume, this guy is not a law-abiding guy. Player, his experience is more complicated, and he may have a history of drug abuse. This is a taboo for the Celtics. After all, both of their future stars died of drug abuse.

"We don't need him just because we have Duncan. I just want to sell favors. First of all, I think his talent is really good, and then Rodman is not good in Boston this season? Maybe only you can manage such a player, I It’s not an exaggeration, the history and heritage of the Celtics can refresh a person.” After showing off a little, Presti began to praise Leon and the Celtics, which made Leon alert.

"No matter what, I still have to watch his game with my own eyes." Leon had already begun to speculate on the purpose of Presti's trip.

…………………

On May 4th, the second day Leon came to Austin, he went to the University of Texas with Presti and Wojnarowski. - Anderson had a trial training, when they and the coaches of the University of Texas waited in the training hall for an hour before Anderson was late, the reason was just because he played with friends last night too late and didn't get up in the morning.

Leon looked at Anderson, a white boy, with long blond hair, pressed by a headband like a hippie in the 1970s. In Leon's memory, his father used to have such a hairstyle. He's about 6-foot-10, but looks a little thin. He has a rebellious face, which is youthful and immature, but also a bit wild, and his every move is full of ruffian, which really looks a bit like Rodman.

Anderson's performance in the morning trial training was not bad. Although his lateness reduced his points, he showed superhuman quality in all aspects, especially his defensive sensitivity. Leon could perceive his defensive talent. In particular, his blocking has shown a very good level in the touch height, continuous bounce and blocking tests.

Presti said to Leon after the trial training: "How about it, isn't he a great guy? Although he is still just rough, his offensive performance is not satisfactory, but he is full of vitality, and he has the most Celtics. Lack of inside line blocking ability is a good seed."

Leon is also very satisfied with Anderson's performance. He and Wojnarowski decided to include him in the draft list of the Development League in the new season. At that time, he will be selected by a development league team. Ang reconsidered letting the Celtics get this young man. That's a matter for the future, but Leon is now more concerned about what purpose Presti has.

In the evening, the three of Leon decided to have dinner with Chris Anderson. Before the meal, Leon asked Presti: "Now I owe you a favor, but you are going to sue me. What do you want? Celtic I'm not the one who has the final say, I'm just a scout."

At this time, Presti can fully expose the fox tail, he smiled and replied: "I'll just say it, the draft is still more than a month away, and the draft lottery will be in two weeks, you Knowing we're not going to get top 20 picks anyway, but we don't need high picks. And Boston will have three first round picks, as long as you can pass up Tony Parker, we'll pay some price it is also fine."

Hearing this, Leon also laughed. It seems that he and Chris Wallace had a windfall during their trip to France. In the past, Tim Duncan Auerbach wanted to exchange half of the team. Now it's his turn. The spurs were bleeding.