The first week after the end of the Celtics '01 season is also the busiest week for Leon, according to the schedule, he will first go to Austin, Texas, where he will go to Washington to meet Auerbach after a two-day stay, and then he will prepare to become an assistant coach for the Celtics. Although the old man called him to inform him that he had become an assistant coach with the Celtics, the official appointment has not yet come down, and Auerbach must have a lot of preparation to do before that, assistant coaches are not the same as scouts, and this is a crucial step for a basketball manager to reach the top, just like a player is selected in the draft. It took Frank Vogel seven years to get to this point, while Leon has only been in the industry for a year, and his previous basketball experience is blank.

So Leon knew how hard it would take for Auerbach to settle everything, which was why he would call in the middle of the night, and when everything was almost done, he couldn't save the news until the next day.

Early the next morning, Leon called the airline and booked a flight to Austin at noon. Because Boston to Austin isn't American's main route, León can only book flights to JetBlue Airways, a low-cost airline that primarily serves the Central and Caribbean. A year of scouting is absolutely enough, and for Leon, the level of familiarity with each airline is basically the same as the level of knowledge about the 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 trip, Leon had time to enjoy his trip to Texas for a while, and he was still able to hang around Austin before Vojnarowski arrived, after all, it was his first time in Texas. After leaving his luggage at the hotel, Leon decided to go out and have a look.

Unlike the Wild West, Austin, the capital of Texas, is a small clean and green city, with no red rocks, no prairie cattle and horses, and the air is not as cold and heavy as Boston, nor is it sun-drenched like Los Angeles, but only gives people a simple and fresh feeling. The weather in Austin was very good today, and when the sun was about to set at four o'clock in the afternoon, the colorful glow reflected the whole city, and Leon went to a grassy park to sit down, enjoy the upcoming sunset, and think about the road ahead.

Auerbach made Leon the right choice to become a scout, and this year of flying work has exposed Leon to all aspects of the basketball circle, from the glossy arena floor to the dirty locker room, from those superstars who appear on the front cover all year round, to the nameless youngsters who go to the lower leagues to eat basketball for mixed meals, from New York to Los Angeles, from Boston to Philadelphia, from Chicago to Minneapolis, the huge basketball world of the United States is presented to Leon from the inside out, from light to dark.

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, behind the shining stars is a large group of people who are struggling for their dreams and lives. For example, Leon knew a guy named Jeff Shepard, who was a MOP in the 1998 NCAA Finals and was in the limelight in college basketball for a while, but in the NBA he played only 18 games before being swept away, then went to Italy to play, and then returned to North America to play for a club in Toronto. As a Boston scout, Leon once went to see his game to consider whether he could be recruited to the team as a bench supplement, Shepard also very much wanted to return to the NBA, but he was not strong enough for him to get a foothold, and finally Leon regretfully told him that he could not go to Boston to play.

This is the same person who has been successful in the past, and even if Shepard will never be able to go further on the basketball court in the future, but after all, he has been brilliant, he has his own pride to remember, and Leon knows more unknown people whose dreams are nothing more than to get a job in some lower league. As he scoured the small arenas as a scout for the Development League, he could see in the eyes of the young people the desire for success, fame and money.

In addition to these young players, there are also some outdated professional players, such as the former No. 1 Giorgio Muressan, who went to France to play after retiring in the 00 season, and Leon once met the Romanian giant when he and Chris Wallace went to France to look for a good rookie, and he said that he would like to return to the United States to play if he has the opportunity. But considering his physical condition, no American team is willing to accept him anymore.

Leon flipped through his phone, there were probably more than 500 numbers in it, some of them were from the young men, some were from their agents, some were from former NBA players, and he thought that maybe there would be two more numbers in it tomorrow. Since Vojnarowski asked him to come, there must be another good player who has been discovered by him, but Leon knows that the so-called good here is defined by the level of the development league, and the real talent has long been known.

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

When Leon arrived at the restaurant, Wojnarowski was not alone in the box, but another member of the scouting team, Presti, a video researcher from the Spurs.

If Leon is the smartest in this small scouting group in the Development League, then Presti is second. Like Leon, he has an amazing talent for observation and calculation, as well as an unusual instinct for basketball. Luckily, his immediate boss, Popovich, is a serious and professional guy who takes basketball seriously, and also has an extraordinary eye, which gives Presti good guidance and exercise. He was able to become a member of the scouting team, which was also highly recommended by Popovich.

Unlike Wojnarowski, Leon and Presti are not good friends, perhaps because they are both too smart, and they play on different teams, and the two teams are bitter rivals in the 1997 battle for Duncan, and Auerbach still often talks about Popovich's good luck.

The three of them exchanged pleasantries and quickly got to the point, and Wojnarowski said to Leon: "This time our target is Chris Anderson, an inside lineman, I don't know if you've heard of it, he played in China last year, and now he's back in the United States to play for Texas University in Austin." Presti watched his game and thought the guy had potential, but Spurs didn't need that kind of player, and he reached out to me and thought the Development League would be a good fit for him. I was thinking maybe the Celtics needed an interior player like that, and Presti said he was a lot like Rodman. ”

"Like Rodman? Is that why Spurs don't need him? I'll take a look at his profile. Leon said as he picked up Chris Anderson's resume and looked at it. Leon was very interested in his time playing in China, which was the home of his soul, and he thought he might find some memories of himself in Anderson.

Rodman also played for the Spurs that year, but he refused to accept Popovich's discipline and eventually left, but the Bulls won their second three-game championship. Leon was also sarcastic when he said this, and he even had some doubts that Presti was trying to mess up the Celtics' locker room by introducing a player like him, because judging from Anderson's resume, this guy is not a player who keeps to himself, he has a more complex experience, and may have a history of drug abuse, which is 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 wanted to sell a favor, first of all I think his talent is really good, and then Rodman hasn't been good in Boston this season? Maybe you're the only one who can handle a player like that, and I'm not exaggerating, but the history and heritage of Celtic can make a difference in a person's life. After a small show off, Presti began to praise Leon and the Celtics, which alerted Leon.

"Either way, I'm going to see him in action." Leon had already begun to speculate in his mind about the purpose of Presti's trip.

……………………

On May 4th, the day after Leon arrived in Austin, he went to the University of Texas with Presti and Vojnarowski, and Presti had already arranged a tryout for Chris Anderson today, when they waited an hour in the training hall with the coach of the University of Texas to wait for Anderson to be late, simply because he played with friends too late last night and didn't wake up in the morning.

Leon looked at Anderson, a white boy, with long blond hair pressed by a headband like a hippie in the seventies, and Leon remembered his father having a hairstyle like that. He is about 6'10 tall, but he looks a little thin. has an unruly face, revealing youth and immaturity, but also a little wild, with a ruffian in every move, it really looks like a bit of Rodman's shadow.

Anderson's performance in the morning trial was not bad, although he was late and detracted from the points, but he showed superhuman qualities in all aspects, especially the agility on the defensive end, Leon was able to detect his talent on defense, especially his blocks, and showed a good level in touch height, continuous bounce and block tests.

Presti said to Leon after the tryout: "How's it going, isn't it a great guy?" Although it is still just a blank, the performance on the offensive end is also unsatisfactory, but it is full of vitality, and it has the interior blocking ability that the Celtics lack the most, which is a good seedling. ”

Leon was also pleased with Anderson's performance, and he and Wojnarowski decided to add him to the Development League's draft picks for the new season, where he would be picked by a Development League team, and then Leon would consider letting the Celtics get the youngster. That was for later, but Leon was more concerned now about what else Presti had for purpose.

In the evening, Leon and the three decided to have dinner with Chris Anderson, and before the meal, Leon asked Presti, "I owe you a favor now, but you want to give me away, what do you want?" It's not me who has the final say in the Celtics, I'm just a scout. ”

Presti was able to fully expose the fox's tail at this time, and he smiled and replied: "I'll just say it bluntly, the draft is still more than a month away, and in two weeks it will be the draft draw, you know we can't get the top 20 signings anyway, but we don't need high signings." Boston will have three first-round picks, and as long as you can give up on Tony Parker, we can pay a little more. ”

Hearing this, Leon also smiled, and it looked like he had a windfall on his trip to France with Chris Wallace, who had wanted to trade half a team for Tim Duncan Auerbach in the past, and now it was the Spurs' turn to bleed.