The Whip of the God of Basketball

In addition to being the head coach of the USC Trojans basketball team, Henry Bibby is better known as the father of Kings point guard Mike Bibby. It’s just that the relationship between Mike Bibby and his father is not good, because the old Henry separated from his wife as early as 1985. Mike Bibby lived with his mother with other brothers, and Henry rarely visited them. Almost like a stranger.

When Mike Bibby showed outstanding basketball talent in high school, Henry Sr. wanted his son to study and play at the University of Southern California where he coached, but Mike Bibby refused without hesitation. Instead, he went to the University of Arizona—— A rival in the same division as USC in the Pacific League. The bad relationship between father and son can be seen.

Henry didn't care about this. Now basketball is the only thing in his life, and his family and children have already given up. He also became obsessed with basketball. In 1985, he was still working as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona. As a result, he violated the rules and lured high school students to make a promise to join the University of Arizona. After being found out, he was severely punished and kicked out by the NCAA. . This incident was also one of the triggers for the breakdown of Henry's relationship with his wife, and his life path has since changed. After abandoning his wife and children, he began to mix in the CBA, and achieved good results by relying on his good coaching skills. Finally, 10 years later, in 1995, he returned to the NCAA, was hired by the University of Southern California as an assistant coach, and then became the head coach. .

In the past two years, Henry Bibby has led the University of Southern California to advance steadily. In the 2000-2001 season, Bibby reached the pinnacle of his coaching career. Strong, and finally lost to Duke University with Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer and Jay Williams.

Leon is also quite impressed with this team. It was really a dark horse in last year's NCAA National Championships, attracting the attention of the whole country. Whether it goes further is unknown. It's just that a dark polo team like this can attract the attention of fans, but it can't attract scouts. Scouts don't look at your alma mater's record when picking players. It's just that Leon, as a member of the development league scouting team, has paid more attention to these players who are likely not to be able to play in the NBA in the future. This makes his name not only limited to the northeastern states, but also on the west coast. famous. So when Bill Sharman asked Leon to go to Southern California as an intern assistant coach for a period of time yesterday, Bibby agreed without thinking.

Bibby happened to need a strong scouting expert to help him with one thing. Unexpectedly, when he fell asleep, he sent a pillow. As soon as he met Leon, Bibby bluntly put forward his conditions.

"I hope you can do me a favor and get a player for our team."

Leon's personality has always been straightforward, and he was not surprised by Bibby's request, but he still turned his head and looked at Sharman. Leon also knew that the private transactions, solicitations, promises, and even money exchanges in the NCAA were more secretive and rampant than in the NBA. . After all, those players are still kids who have just graduated from high school, and their understanding of life is often a mess. They often make shocking choices for some strange reasons or a little profit, which also forces some universities to invite those When a genius boy, he was omnipotent.

Sharman knew that Leon was asking for his opinion, so he pushed his glasses and said to Bibby: "Henry, I don't object to you using some small means to recruit players, but I still hope you can recall some painful lessons in the past, Try to do things within the rules. Leon coming here to learn is also a kind of exchange, and both parties will gain. Of course, if the gain is big enough to bring a good player to your team, I have no objection. But I still want to Emphasize, comply, and then promise me that Leon can learn something, I believe in you. I didn't expect the red head to call and spit at me, I am almost eighty years old."

What Sharman said was actually a tacit consent, allowing Leon to provide Bibi with some help and advice. Hearing Sharman's permission, Leon also nodded and expressed his willingness to help Bibi, but before that, he still had to ask that Who is the player: "Can I ask which player is it? If it's Emeka Okafor or Carmelo Anthony, I can't help. I guess the opportunity to call them must be an appointment." .”

Bibby shook his head, and while leading Leon and Sharman into the arena, he said, "No, it's a little guy from Chicago. I'm optimistic about him, but he seems to be hesitant. Let's not talk about it , There is always time to solve it, first take you to visit the arena, and then get to know my players."

Leon has been to Los Angeles several times, and has also passed by the Memorial Stadium, but he really didn't go inside to take a good look. As the home of the Los Angeles Clippers, the Memorial Stadium has NBA-level volume and facilities. When there is no game here, the USC basketball team will choose to train here because it has better arena decoration and physical therapy facilities. Students enjoy the treatment of professional players.

The Trojan players on the court are training, half of them are practicing basic skills, and half of them are doing technical and tactical training. Since the preparation period has not yet arrived, the training is mainly to maintain the state. The students seem to be very relaxed. When Bibby blows the whistle to gather, everyone is a little procrastinated, and some are still laughing after standing in a row. Bibby didn't respond to this, he didn't stop the students, but briefly introduced Leon and Leon's purpose of coming here. Leon believed that few people listened to Bibby when he spoke, and their interest seemed to be more on Bill Sharman who was sitting in the sidelines of the audience.

"Are you the new janitor?" a guy named Damons-Farmer called out to Leon, prompting laughter from the team. This is a 6-foot-5 guard with a large, flat mouth and a headband that looks a bit squishy. This kid seems a little ignorant.

Amidst the laughter, Leon neither expressed embarrassment nor asked Henry Bibby for help with his eyes. Perhaps Bibby had no malice and did not want to give Leon a bad impression, but in the basketball team, a newcomer arrives, whether it is a player or It is impossible for the coach to blend in casually and win respect. Leon stared at the outspoken Farmer and said: "Damons Farmer, graduated from Northwest High School in Flint, Michigan, guard, good at breakthrough, is a very good scorer. But the shooting is a bit bad, and the free throw percentage is touching. In addition to scoring assists and mediocre basketball, poor defense, lack of talent in teamwork. May grow into a qualified scorer in college, but it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the NBA because of other shortcomings. Going to the development league may be a problem A good choice, where you can show your scoring ability. Or you should make up for other deficiencies so that you can survive in a stronger league."

Leon's voice was deep but penetrating, not as sharp as the blacks'. When he finished speaking word by word, there was no sound in the team, and everyone stared at him with wide eyes and ears. Children know that they have encountered experts and hard stubble. Leon paused and continued: "Hi everyone, I'm Fox Leon. I used to be a scout and was responsible for collecting player information for the upcoming development league. I also work for the Boston Celtics. Nice to meet you."

At this time, Bibby said loudly: "Starting from today, in the next few weeks, Leon will become an assistant coach of the team. I hope everyone will perform well, and maybe they will be valued by this scout and become the NBA's top coach." One member, your dreams will come true by then! Well, go on to training, we will increase the training intensity a little bit starting tomorrow, you can still play today..."

The players disbanded and went back to training. The talkative Damons-Farmar just now had an unlucky face. He has become the object of jokes by his teammates. By the ear, as he has just entered the team for a year and was promoted to sophomore, he can only smash his teeth and swallow it in his stomach in the face of such a situation. In fact, Leon didn't belittle Farmar. He said those words just to get the students' attention back. Players like Farmar are also one of the targets of the development league. As long as you see his face, Leon Just remembered the content of his scout report, and blurted it out.

"Not all my students are like this, big or small, come here!" Bibby apologized to Leon, while waving to a big man who just came out of the player tunnel.

It was only then that Leon noticed that the big red-haired man who walked over was Brian Scalabrine, the center who participated in the NBA draft this year and was selected by the Nets in the second round. He is a senior graduate of the University of Southern California. It seems that he returned to his alma mater to participate in training in the summer. During the offseason, many NBA players will return to his alma mater for training, not to mention Scalabrine who just graduated.

As soon as Scalabrine saw Leon, he came up and squeezed his hand tightly and said: "Hello, Mr. Leon! I was just doing physiotherapy in the locker room. Nice to meet you, Coach Bibby told you yesterday. I want you to come, I heard that you are in charge of scouting for the Development League, please remember to reserve a place for me."