The Whip of the God of Basketball

For Arenas, when Jim O'Brien announced his resignation as Celtics head coach on the morning of Nov. 24, he felt that his basketball career had broadened again. After being picked by the Celtics with the 21st overall pick, he held his breath in his heart, wanting to prove that the Celtics picked him with the last pick when they had three picks. kind of mistake. It is even more necessary to prove to all the previous teams that did not choose him that they were all wrong.

It is with such a mentality that he trained himself crazily in Los Angeles and Phoenix in the summer, shooting countless shots every day, using parachutes to train explosive power, practicing shoulder strength, and his three-pointers. The Celtics are a team that loves three-pointers.

But after coming to the Celtics, he found that he did not have a chance to play. Although the Celtics traded away guard Kenny Anderson, O'Brien did not give Arenas too many opportunities to play, and he trusted him even more. Veteran Steve Kerr and Eric Stekeleland. Arenas also got a few minutes, but every time he came on the court, he made some stupid mistakes in his eagerness to express himself, and then was replaced by O'Brien.

In daily training, Arenas is one of the most diligent, but did not get the attention of the coaching staff, including Fox Leon who picked him, he put more energy on Michael Reed and Joe - Johnson's body seems to be left to its own devices for Arenas. It was John Carroll who gave Arenas a lot of guidance and help as a player development coach, so when Danny Ainge found Arenas and told him that the team would force O'Brien to resign after the game on the 23rd night, And when Carroll was made the team's head coach, Arenas agreed after a little hesitation.

Arenas became the vanguard in this quick and sudden forced palace operation. When O'Brien was interviewed by the media, veteran Randy Brown called all the players to hold an impromptu meeting. Arenas was the representative of the rookie players. Expressed his position, agreed to oppose O'Brien's coaching, and asked the team to change the head coach. Randy Brown is the oldest player of the Celtics. Although he only came to the Celtics last year, he has a certain prestige. Standing behind Brown is Steve Kerr. He was a teammate during the three consecutive championships, and Cole was responsible for agitating Brown. Of course, standing behind Cole is Arnold Auerbach.

Now Arenas is sitting on the team's special plane flying to Washington. No matter what happens to the team, the game will continue. They will usher in a back-to-back game and go to the capital to challenge the Wizards with Michael Jordan. Due to time constraints, John Carroll announced his appointment as the head coach of the Celtics directly on the plane. The ceremony was simple and hasty, and Carroll himself was unprepared. Before O'Brien dismissed get out of class and Carroll took over, Auerbach notified almost everyone involved through various means, from the players to the coaching staff to the staff. Only three people knew everything until yesterday when the incident happened. The parties O'Brien, Carol, and Leon.

"Tonight we will usher in a difficult game, back to back, the Wizards have Michael Jordan, which will make us a lot of public opinion. The pressure is there, but I believe everyone will overcome it, and now it is more important How to let us have a new look to face the future. Of course, tonight we will continue the previous style of play without making too many changes, but everyone’s playing time and specific requirements will change, I hope to understand.” Carroll is doing After giving a brief inaugural speech, they began to arrange and arrange some situations for the evening game, because they will not have much time to train after arriving in Washington, so some requirements Carroll must be arranged on the plane.

As he spoke, he took out some small cards from his jacket pocket and began to make some demands on the players. Although it happened suddenly and Carol became the head coach without knowing it, it doesn't mean that he is an incompetent fool who will panic and panic. Auerbach chose him to be the head coach not only because He is an easy-talking and honest man, also because compared with O'Brien, he actually has more experience as a head coach. Before O'Brien took office last year, he had been working as an assistant coach in several universities. As the head coach last year, he also relied heavily on the assistance of Hart and Vogel.

On the contrary, before entering the NBA, in addition to being an assistant coach for Carlesimo for many years, Carroll has always served as the head coach of the team and won the honor of the best coach in the Atlantic 10 league, so even if he did not get What a particularly remarkable achievement, but it can also be called a unique coach.

Carroll prepared a temporary strategy for today's game last night. He also talked with Leon on the phone for more than an hour and asked about the team's tactics and training. Leon gave Carroll a lot The suggestion was written on the small card he took out today.

"We must have a more decisive offense. When you have an offensive opportunity, don't hesitate to throw the ball into the basket. Also, we need to reduce some unnecessary full-court pressing on the defensive end and reduce the intensity appropriately. , control the rhythm of the game, remember to put pressure on the non-ball holders, instead of focusing on the ball holders..." Carroll was talking endlessly, but the players Not particularly concerned. A team's style of play has inertia, and everyone will not change the routines they are used to in training just because they change a coach, only the details will change.

Leon listened to Carroll's arrangement and thought in his heart that Rick Pitino's influence on this team is still very deep. After all, the two pillar stars of the team grew up under his hands. The team's basic style of play-full court press, three-pointers, will not change in a short time. And Leon doesn't really agree with Pitino's shaping of this team. In terms of defense, he believes that the full-court press has been proved to be surprisingly effective in a game of this level in the NBA. As a routine method, apart from hitting the confidence of one's own players and wasting physical strength, it seems that there is no particularly good effect. On the offensive end, Leon also loves three-pointers. He recognizes the efficiency of this scoring method and the great tactical significance it brings, but he does not think that the initiation of the three-point shooting space needs to rely on strong insiders. It can rely on the cooperation between outside players to create three-point opportunities, especially in the bottom corner position. Leon feels that it is necessary to vigorously develop here.

But all of this is difficult to change in a short period of time. Fortunately, it seems that Carol is much better at communicating than O'Brien. He accepts many of Leon's opinions and is willing to follow the ideas Leon gave. For example, tonight he will give Arenas more chances to play.

…………………

After arriving in Washington, the whole team checked in at the AKA White House Hotel, and then went to the MIC Center, the home of the Wizards, at around four o'clock. Outside the arena, Leon saw a huge portrait of Michael Jordan hanging on the wall. Wearing the Wizards uniform No. 23, staring into the distance. Leon knows that this is the god of basketball in the past, and now he is unwilling to be lonely, and wants to climb back to the god position again, but it seems that everything is not optimistic. Before this game, the Wizards have already encountered a shameful eight consecutive games Lost, Jordan can not lead the Wizards to victory.

After an hour of conditioning and shooting at the MIC Center, the players got a half-hour to relax, hang out or grab some dinner, and at 7:00 ET, the game officially began. Leon said hello to Carol, and took a taxi to Auerbach's home. Before he went, he also brought two boxes of Monterey Boulevard cigars, which Auerbach also liked.

But when Leon arrived at Auerbach's home, he threw his cigar on the table and asked, "Why did you kill O'Brien directly? He is a good coach, and such frequent coach changes are not good for the team." .”

Auerbach was reading a book when he opened the door, wearing old-fashioned overalls and a small black vest, and a pair of reading glasses on the bridge of his nose. Facing Leon's questioning, he pushed his glasses, picked up a crutch from the table, It hit Leon directly on the head. Leon didn't dodge, just closed his eyes and got a cane from Auerbach, then Auerbach threw away the cane and yelled at Leon: "If it wasn't for you, I would bear the accusations of the media and my old friend like this Complaining, using all my connections to get rid of O'Brien? Last year he helped the team so much, now I'm going to be an ungrateful, manipulative dictator!"

After finishing speaking, Auerbach sat down on the rocking chair angrily, because the rocking chair kept shaking due to excessive force, Leon stepped forward to fix the rocking chair, took out a box of matches from his pocket, and Auerbach also took out a box of matches from his pocket. Leon gently helped him light an unfinished cigar. In fact, the two hadn't seen each other for several months, and only Leon was as straightforward as he dared to question Auerbach when he saw him. In fact, Leon knew the whole story clearly, but Auerbach kept his face and didn't inform him at all, which still made Leon feel a little nervous.

"You don't need to do this. My background is not clean. If someone wants to dig it, it can't be covered up." Leon said to Auerbach. He knew that the reason Auerbach didn't notify him was because he didn't want him to Participating in a forced palace incident will do a lot of damage to the reputation of a player or coach.

"At least you are clean in the basketball circle. Some people have capped me enough and talked about it, so what if I add another one?" Auerbach took a sip of his cigar and calmed down. , Leon questioned him as soon as he came home and was about to piss him off.

"Then why do you want to encourage Arenas to come forward? He is still a rookie, such things...will damage his reputation and affect his future in the future...His talent is really good." Leon thought of yesterday For those few players, Brown is a ten-year-old player. It doesn’t matter at all. Paul Pierce put forward mild opinions but didn’t object. Walker simply went to take a shower. Dealing with it, and among the newcomers, Arenas is the first bird.

"Everyone's personality determines their fate to a certain extent. This kid has such a personality. You have also said that he needs anger. Then I will let him keep angry. Being too gentle is not good for him."

"I've advised Carroll to increase his playing time and adjust some of the team's defensive strategies. Hart will take care of that. Hopefully tonight will be a new start."

After listening to Auerbach, he looked at Leon. He hadn't seen him for many months. He could feel the change in Leon's temperament. In the past, he relied too much on his own powerful brain, and he would speak amazing words from some trivial details, giving people the illusion of seeing the whole leopard at a glance. Now he no longer needs that kind of cleverness. He is rich in basketball knowledge and experience, has the ability to think in a big way, and with his perfection in details, he is constantly moving towards the path of an excellent head coach.

"If it's not that I don't know when I will die suddenly, I should give you more time and experience to prepare to be a good coach. Now, I can't wait. Whether you will be a great coach or you will be in vain. What an idiot, let God decide..." Auerbach thought in his heart.