Fox Leon inherited from Auerbach more than just a few assistant coaches or professional team coaches, he also learned a lot of shady tricks from the Bishop's thick black dictionary. It's just that this era is different, and it is no longer so easy to plot in secret and secretly make evil, and everything is exposed in broad daylight. But that doesn't mean that those battles will disappear on and off the NBA's court, but rather that with the help of advanced technology and a widely influential media, some of the schemes are more sophisticated and deadly.

The game on the 3rd night was out of balance with Rasheed Wallace being sent off the court, and the Celtics took advantage of the victory, and Leon almost immediately replaced Chris Anderson with Antoine Walker, who relied on his skillful pace and hot touch to make consecutive strong shots on the inside, and in one fell swoop to overtake the score at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Trail Blazers, who have lost their interior backbone, can only rely on a half-crippled Sabonis and 37-year-old Scott Pippen to lead the game, and Bunch Wells has completely stopped facing PJ Brown's inside blockade in the second half after a mighty first half.

The Celtics' defense is getting tighter and tighter, and the Trail Blazers' outside jumpers can't be thrown, and the Celtics took advantage of this to play a 13:2 attack wave in the fourth quarter, stretching the difference to 15 points, and the winner has been decided, and the Celtics finally beat the Trail Blazers at home 111:101, with a 10-point advantage, and completed a beautiful comeback battle.

After the game, Leon didn't have much time to celebrate with the players, he patiently attended the post-game press conference and answered various questions from reporters, and then left the arena alone and drove directly to the Hilton Hotel in Boston, where he met Woj, who had arrived from New York.

Leon and Woj met in a small bar on the second floor of the hotel, with a quiet, intimate box where people could talk about intimate issues. As Woj gradually gained popularity in the world of sports media. His schedule is also getting busier, often running around during the season, and in the offseason he is even busier, going around to find out what the teams are doing and providing material for his column. This time, he also took time out of his busy schedule when he came to Boston, in order to help Leon solve the dilemma he encountered in public opinion.

Although Leon's emergency response in the first two days was quite beautiful. But his sentence at the MCI correctional center, as well as some of his past fake boxing and gambling in bars, were dug up by good reporters, after all, the New Yorker's column was like a bounty notice telling gossip reporters that "this league's popular fried chicken has something to dig up." ”

Woj is a well-known figure in the media, but he hasn't been a big deal yet, and his influence is limited to his columns and reports, and maybe he can write some interviews for Leon, but no one in the United States has yet to silence all the media to stop the spread of bad news. So Woj didn't come to help Leon with crisis PR, but to help Leon develop a strategy to fight back. Counter-attack against Andy Miller.

"You've done a very nice job, you've done a pretty good job, and the negative effects of this story have been minimized...... However, the bad effects are still very large...... Sometimes I wonder, Fox, how did you live like that before? With your level of intelligence, there are so many good universities in Boston that you can study in one of them and graduate. If you join a club, you might even be able to make your mark in the NCAA. Then he went to coaching. What a flawless career path, but you chose a hellish path, and then one day you were suddenly brought back to earth by God. But the imprint of hellfire on you will never fade away. Woj took a sip of the whiskey in front of him and said to Leon in a crepe with a frown. You're right about one thing, yes, it was God who brought me back to earth. There is an old Chinese saying. The prodigal son turned around and didn't change his money, but unfortunately the people here don't seem to understand it, and this experience is my original sin. I don't mind the slander that comes with this, and who in this world is innocent, the more successful the person. The more discredited it is, the more discredited. Now I'm more concerned about whether the fundamental purpose of these actions is to target Garnett's trade, and if so, how can I stop it. Leon clenched his fists hard as he spoke, slamming the table with a slam on the table, and the wine glasses on the table jumped to the ground.

As Leon said, he didn't care too much about his reputation, and he didn't live on fame anyway, and it wasn't a bad experience for him to go to jail. But if the news leads to a decline in the Celtics' record, a decrease in the attractiveness of the players, or a change in management, the end result will be a complete failure for Leon's hard-fought layout for more than a year, and the Celtics' chances of being a championship team in a short period of time will be greatly reduced.

Leon may be able to slowly build a championship team in five years, but he is afraid that Auerbach will not be able to wait for that day, and letting the team acquire a player like Garnett is undoubtedly an important way to realize the championship dream. "Everything still looks a little confusing, but Andy Miller is a guy who is notoriously greedy and cunning among agents, and he has secured a huge contract for Kevin Garnett, but he has also blocked Garnett's path to a championship. I have some information from New York that the New Yorker article was written by their famous pen boy, Ian Crouch, who is said to have a good relationship with Andy Brown. However, I always think that this matter may also have something to do with the larger capital operation, since 2002 there has been a major change in the agent market, Andy Miller has pulled his own people to set up another mountain, but I heard that some agents want to join forces, form a larger agent consortium, gather those superstars in the league into a group, and then manipulate the player trade. In front of Leon, Woj also said everything, because he knew that Leon was calm-headed, well-read, and could find out the key points as long as the information was put in front of him, so even if it was just some hearsay, he would tell Leon and listen to his opinion.

Leon thought for a moment and said, "It's going to be a trend where the vampires will attach themselves to the stars and form a parasitic relationship, and they'll be responsible for making the players' wallets grow and then draw profits from them." However, if Andy Miller is in line with this trend, he should not be afraid of player turnover and trade, but instead he should encourage and facilitate transactions to fully activate the market so that he can grab more profits. So, if Miller was involved in these activities, then he is innocent, if not...... I also need some proof. ”

Leon's current thoughts on Miller are only speculation, after all, he is not the FBI, although in many ways can point to this Garnett's cunning agent, but there is still no definite evidence, so Leon and Woj cannot use the resources in their hands to fight back. Leon also doesn't want to waste too much energy on this kind of thing and affect his coaching work in the team, otherwise he will pick up the sesame seeds and lose the watermelon.

Just then, there was a knock on the door of the private room, and a waiter opened the door and poked his head in, and then said cautiously, "There's a gentleman looking for you, Mr. Fox Leon." It seems that the waiter at the bar also knows Fox Leon, who is now a household name in Boston.

Leon nodded, wondering who would find him, while Woj was a little nervous, afraid of a reporter who knew him. When the man entered the door, Woj realized that he didn't know him, but Leon recognized the man, who was the legal counsel of the Woodmont Club and had helped him at the Masfield Social Work Center.

"What news does Arnold have to bring?" This was Leon's first reaction when he saw Eze, and Eze dragged off his coat and said with a smile: "You are still so rude, you don't know how to say hello first, at least ask Mr. Auerbach if he is well." But you're right, it was Mr. Auerbach who asked me to come, and he said you had some minor trouble and needed a little help. ”

"I just want to know some news to see if Andy Miller is behind it, and then I'll figure out how to deal with him." Although Leon has been in good business for many years, he is a person who can face the predicament after crossing over, and calmly think of a way to get out, how can he be a guy who is slaughtered by others.

"Calm Fox, Auerbach said, he believes you can solve these problems with means, but he doesn't want you to get involved in a dispute that has nothing to do with basketball. Your mission is to train the Celtics well, and by the way, plan for the future of the Celtics and recruit great players. Those off-court things will be handled by their old Celtics, who have the ability and energy to deal with those who are indiscriminate, because the Celtics are also the ancestors of the indiscriminate - this is what Auerbach himself said, not that I slander the Celtics. Eze said with a smile, then asked the waiter outside for a glass of wine and drank it.

"This gentleman is right, Fox, you should focus more on basketball, head coaching is not a job that allows people to be distracted." Woj also persuaded him, and he also felt that Leon should calm down.

Leon rubbed his nose with his index finger, and Eze thought he was hesitating and trying to persuade him again, but Leon pulled out a paper card from his pocket, which he used to write tactical notes. He asked the waiter for another pen, then wrote down a string of numbers on the paper, then wrote the name after the number, handed it to Eze and said, "I have a plan in my head, since you won't let me do it myself, I'll leave it to you." Here are a few phone numbers, they are friends I met while working in the scouting group, call them, tell them about the plan, and then get it done. “

With that, Leon took a sip of the wine in front of him and began to describe his plan to Eze. (To be continued.) )