Rodman didn't come to the training hall until eleven o'clock in the morning, when the team's morning training had ended. Last night he played stud at the famous Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut until the early morning, and he drove from the casino early in the morning. Back in Boston, I slept soundly in my apartment, ate something to fill my belly, and then drove to the training center.

Originally, Rodman didn't want to come to practice. The past season can be said to be the last season he still has passion for basketball. He has a new experience in Boston, where the passion for basketball and the glorious history have infected him. he. However, as a nearly 40-year-old veteran, there is nothing to continue this enthusiasm except for the championship, and the Celtics seem to be far away from the championship.

It's just that Rodman won first and then lost in the stud match at the Mohegan Sun Casino last night. The tens of thousands of dollars he won earlier were all lost within an hour, and tens of thousands of dollars were added in the end. Tens of thousands of dollars a night is not a big amount for Rodman. His years of professional basketball career and income from advertising movies have made Rodman rich, but if he loses tens of thousands of dollars every day throughout the summer, Rodman may It's a bit overwhelming. Besides gambling, Rodman also spent a considerable amount of money on motorcycles, nightclubs and women. If he does not want to become a star player who will retire and go bankrupt, he must continue to play in Boston. This summer, the Celtics offered Rodman a basic salary of 2 million veterans a year. This basic salary is already the highest limit in the special case of the veteran contract. Sending Kenny Anderson away was enough space to give Rodman such a contract without triggering the luxury tax.

In order to be able to continue squandering money, Rodman had to drive to Waltham with a splitting headache and drowsiness. Fortunately, there were not many cars on the road. Even so, Rodman almost drove into a ditch on the side of the road. inside. When he arrived at the training hall, there were still many reporters in the reception room outside the training hall. Many reporters saw that Rodman came at this time, and all of them flocked to interview this flower bug and asked him why he came at this time. Come to training.

Rodman has always been a carefree and unrestrained person. Facing reporters' questions, he answered bluntly: "I went to the casino last night and lost some money, so I had to come to work in the morning because I have to work to make money." Rodman squeezed away the crowd and went directly into the arena, and ran into the locker room to change clothes.

And this time was the interview time of the team's first open training day. O'Brien was being interviewed by reporters on the sidelines of the training court. Rodman's remarks undoubtedly made O'Brien very embarrassed, because he was asked just now. When it came to why Rodman did not participate in training, he also covered Rodman and said that Rodman was due to injury, and it is very normal for a veteran to miss training due to injury.

But Rodman's sudden arrival slapped O'Brien in the mouth. He didn't seem to be injured at all, but he walked a little wobbly. When Rodman went into the locker room on his own, O'Brien could only purse his lips in embarrassment and said, "Maybe the team doctor's information is not accurate, and his injury is not that serious. serious."

Unlike O'Brien, Leon, who was practicing anti-jamming shots against Michael Reid on the field, rushed back to the locker room and saw Rodman changing clothes slowly, with red bloodshot eyes still in his eyes. There was a smell of alcohol on his body, as well as the unique smell of poker and plastic chips in casinos. Leon asked: "You went to the casino again? You lost a lot of money again."

Rodman knew that nothing could be hidden from Leon's eyes, he spread his hands and replied, "So I'm coming to work."

Last year, Leon and Rodman established a good relationship. They have different personalities, but they like each other. Leon thinks Rodman is really cute. Those who are strict and calm are very fond of people, such as Chuck Daly. Not to mention that Leon taught Rodman a lot of gambling skills. During the period just after the end of the season, Rodman could often win money, but at the turn of summer and autumn, his luck plummeted. Not only did they get in, but they also lost a lot.

Leon looked at Rodman with an indifferent face, and his heart was a little angry. This guy played steadily for a year, and now he seems a little ready to move and want to play tricks. Fortunately, he is not proud of being in the casino, otherwise With no shortage of money or addiction, he will definitely cause troubles like he did when he was in the Mavericks.

"I will go to the casino with you in a while, and I will use a fake identity to help you win some money back. But recently, you have to play hard and participate in training seriously." Leon had no choice but to agree to Rodman to accompany him. The casino looked for a place to persuade Rodman to train well. In the past, Phil Jackson used a similar method in the Bulls, and specially sent an assistant to accompany Rodman to the casino and nightclub to play wildly, and when he had enough, he came back to play well. Now Leon is his assistant, promising to take Rodman to the casino to win money.

Rodman was excited when he heard this. In fact, he didn't care about Leon helping him win money, but going to the casino with Leon to gamble was a kind of excitement and enjoyment for him. In Hong Kong Casino, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, Leon swept all the gambling methods by himself, and finally forced the casino manager to come out and send money to Leon to invite him to play, and recorded his identity information, which led to future large-scale gambling. Casino Leon basically can't get in, most of them play slot machines.

Since then, Rodman has had no luck to witness Leon's demeanor in the casino. Rodman has admired two people most in his life so far, one is Michael Jordan in terms of basketball, and the other is Fox Leon in terms of gambling. Jordan has announced that he will come back for the second time, and Leon also wants to save face for him in the casino. This makes Rodman feel better because of the bad mood of losing. He puts on his training clothes and comes forward. Leon expressed his pleasure with a hug.

When Rodman finished warming up and came to the training ground to prepare for training, the lunch time at noon was over, and the young players on the field also stopped additional training. Walker and Pierce got rid of the pestering reporters and returned to the field to start the afternoon. practice. If it was a match day, group training would be over after lunch, but the amount of training would undoubtedly increase during the training camp, especially the training effect in the morning did not satisfy O'Brien.

The Celtics have been conducting defense drills throughout the morning. All young players, including Arenas and Johnson, are required to start from the defensive end. O'Brien inherited Pitino's concept of pressing defense all over the court, and at the same time, with the help of Hart, he built a new defensive system, a simple and effective defensive system that is more suitable for the rhythm of the NBA. The key to their success last season was their defense.

However, this kind of training did not satisfy the players. Michael Reid hoped to strengthen his off-ball ability, Walker wanted to practice three-pointers, and the newcomer Arenas was eager to prove himself in training, but until now He hasn't even touched the ball a few times so far. Joe Johnson is very obedient, but O'Brien must admit that this guy has no talent on the defensive end, and his lateral movement is flawed.

O'Brien asked everyone to practice defense on the morning of the first day of training, not only to further consolidate the team's central idea of ​​"defense first", but also to use collective defensive training to clean up team discipline. The lazy performance of the early players made O'Brien very angry. And Rodman only arrived in the afternoon, and the fact that he was still in front of reporters made him lose face even more. In the training session before training in the afternoon, O'Brien's face was livid, and he reprimanded the players for their lazy style. At the same time, he bluntly said that if some players do not want to participate in training, then they should not come to training.

In the past days as an assistant coach of the team, O'Brien has always been known for his gentle treatment of players, good communication with players, and handling relationships. In situations where Pitino showed his iron face, he often appeared as the red face, serving as the glue between the coach and the players. So when he became the head coach of the Celtics last year, he received the support of the vast majority of Celtics players, especially the team's head star Antoine Walker.

But this kind of "player's coach" has a big drawback, that is, it is difficult to establish the majesty of the coach. Antoine Walker threw 603 three-pointers last season and hit 221 of them. Projection is related to O'Brien's connivance. O'Brien's distress came from this. As the head coach, he found that he could not always be a good man. A good man would be loved by everyone, but if he could not get the respect and conviction of the players, his prestige would be challenged. If a head coach can't make the players obedient, even if there are thousands of tricks and tactics, it is impossible to display them.

O'Brien hopes to improve this season. He wants to be tougher, especially when there are many young people in the team. Quickly establishing prestige is good for coaching young people.

The overall badness of the team and Rodman's late arrival and unscrupulous words made O'Brien's anger explode. At the same time, Rodman became the main point of attack. In a calm state of "leave me alone, I don't bother you", it seems that today, O'Brien wants to attack Rodman.

"We'll be doing offensive play in the afternoon, but for those of you who missed or didn't give it your all in defense, step aside and do the slides and switchbacks! Don't get your sweatshirts soaked, just Don't stop!" O'Brien targeted not only Rodman, but also rookies like Joe Johnson and Arenas who were not keen on defensive training. This made O'Brien extremely annoyed. The rookie dared to defy the coach as soon as he came, how would he train him in the future?

At this time, Rodman suddenly took off his training clothes, fell to the ground, turned around and walked towards the locker room without looking back.

O'Brien blushed, and he yelled at Rodman: "Pick up your clothes! Or you'll never try to wear them again!"

How could Rodman pay attention to O'Brien? On the contrary, he stopped going to the locker room and walked directly to the door of the training hall. There are still many reporters there. , Then another Celtics negative news will be revealed.

The old assistant coach Hart hurriedly pulled Leon beside him. He knew that only Leon and the eccentric Rodman got along well in the whole team, and only Leon could persuade the flower bug. As long as Leon spoke up, You can definitely call Rodman. The conflict between the head coach and the players is often unavoidable. At this time, the assistant coach who acts as a buffer is to do a good job as a peacemaker.

But in the face of Hart's gesture, Leon was indifferent. On the contrary, he folded his arms and watched the situation in the gymnasium out of control. O'Brien stood on the floor angrily and watched Rodman walk out of the arena. .

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