On the morning of June 28, Leon sailed in Bill Sharman's open-top Chevrolet to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, a little more than an hour's drive from Redondo, located southwest of Los Angeles near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, once home of the Los Angeles Clippers. This is one of the famous basketball academies in California and is also the alma mater of Bill Sharman.

Born in 1926, Bill Sharman is 75 years old this year, but he is still in good spirits, very responsive, articulate, and can drive, and Leon quickly fell in love with this tall old man with a big smile. He was very talkative, but quite different from Auerbach, not the haughty but slightly rude noise, but moderate, comfortably eloquent.

"College basketball is the foundation of American professional basketball, it is the thick and powerful backbone of this basketball tree, and the NBA is just the lush branches and leaves that grow on the trunk, if the branches and leaves wither one day, as long as the trunk is still accumulating nutrients, then the dense canopy can still flourish in the spring. And California is not only a place where professional basketball is developed, but also college basketball, and Arnold has good intentions to let you run to this place to learn and learn, and don't let down his hard work. Sharman spoke in a tone that was different from Auerbach's, gentle with beautiful metaphors, with the smell of the elder's consolation, and Leon had to sit down and nod his head seriously as he sat next to him. In front of Auerbach, he has always been more aggressive.

This time, Sharman is going to take Leon to his alma mater, and now that the USC basketball team is actively training in the summer, Sharman will let Leon devote himself to it as an assistant coach.

Although Leon has participated in the Celtics' training camp and will join the team's daily training when he is working in Boston, NBA training is not the same as college, and there are no beginners among the participants in NBA training, from coaches to players to trainers, everyone is professional. Maybe the team will give some time for rookies who are just entering the league to learn and buffer, but not for an assistant coach to learn from scratch, because in school, Leon can have the opportunity to seriously understand and devote himself to the coaching position from every detail.

It's completely different from scouting, scouting is a skill and coaching is an engineering.

It was already noon when they arrived at the USC campus, and when they arrived at West Museum Avenue, it meant that they had entered the USC campus, but instead of driving to the campus on the north side of the avenue, Shaman turned right into the Los Angeles Stadium area.

"Los Angeles Memorial Stadium......" Leon read, looking at the letters engraved on a white stone plaque.

"The young man's eyes are so good that he can see the words on it from such a distance. It's Los Angeles Memorial Stadium, and there's a basketball arena next to it, where the 1932 and 1984 Olympics were opened, and I was only 6 years old when I first held them...... Get out of the car, boy, let's go to the gymnasium, it's not easy to find a parking space. Like most old people, Sharman began to nag. Although he often participates in some basketball activities, he is not keen to participate in it because of the excitement, but he comes out with young people like Leon, which he can't ask for.

Leon is a good listener, he doesn't talk much, but he is not sluggish, he is very perceptive, he is very good at catching Sharman's words, and Sharman feels comfortable chatting with him. He also thought in his heart that the young people who could make Auerbach value were really not simple.

"Do you still come back often?" Leon asked as he walked as he looked at the huge gymnasium of the prototype. It was midday, and the blazing California sun reflected intensely off the white stadium walls, and Leon, which had been cool in the northeast yesterday, was now walking in the California sun.

Shaman smiled, shook his head, and said, "I'm old, no one will recognize me when I walk down the street, and those little ones won't know who I am, and I don't have the energy to come here." But after all, I graduated here and worked in Los Angeles for many years, so I still have some face. I'm just an introducer today, and I'm going to have to listen to the USC team coach at that time, maybe he'll have any requirements for you, or any help he needs. It's up to you then, I know you're a smart guy, and it's up to you how much you can learn. Also, don't underestimate every coach who teaches at the university, I know what happened to Pitino in Boston, and he did a terrible job because college coaching is completely different from a professional team. If it's purely a school coaching business, coming to university and studying with them is the best option. ”

Shaman's earnest teachings Leon kept in mind, and the two had only met for half a day, but old Shaman did not miss any opportunity to teach Leon like his own child. This is also the reason why Auerbach asked Leon to come to Sharman because Sharman is a good teacher.

If Auerbach is a trailblazer in the coaching position, then Sharman is a communicator. Some of the things that coaches now have to do in their daily training and command, such as arranging detailed training schedules, creating individual training plans for each player, adaptation training when they arrive at the away game, watching video clips in pre-match tactical preparation meetings, etc., did not come out of nowhere. Auerbach was undoubtedly a pioneer in this area, and his various initiatives have raised the status of coaches to a new level in basketball.

Bill Sharman intensified these initiatives, refined them more carefully, and brought them to the West Coast, and slowly these ideas spread throughout the league. Because of this, Auerbach knew that Sharman was better suited to be a teacher than himself, and a teacher should know how to learn, and then teach the methods and content to the students.

A lot of geniuses are very creative and have a strong ability to learn, but they just don't teach students, just like the big coaches in the league are often not superstars when they are players, and superstars can't be coaches.

Auerbach constantly assigned Leon tasks, but almost never gave Leon guidance in terms of basketball skills and tactics, he knew he couldn't, but Sharman could. And even if Sharman is too old to teach, he will know who can do the job.

The two men walked half a circle around Memorial Stadium to the Memorial Coliseum, located on the southeast side of the stadium, which is now USC's home stadium and training ground, where they are now training after the season is over.

"I've got in touch with the USC coach and he'll take care of everything for you when the time comes. Let's go in first and see how they train. Sharman led Leon into the huge, old Memorial Coliseum, where the sound of basketballs touching the floor and shoe vamps rubbing against the floor.

Soon Leon heard the roar of the coach, which is all too common on the training ground, and the managers seemed to have to yell their voices out of their mouths, otherwise the players would not know how to play.

On the sidelines, Leon met the yelling coach, a middle-aged man with a bald head, Henry Bibby.

Leon looked at the coach closely, his complexion was a little dark, but it was not that pure black, but a faint brown color, and he seemed to be a half-race like Leon. He has a round head and face, which looks like an egg, which is a little funny, but standing on the sidelines in a white T-shirt with a color on his face is not funny in any way. When he saw Shaman coming, he didn't immediately come over to say hello, but criticized a player who made a mistake, and only walked up to shake Shaman's hand when he was done.

Looks like a somewhat impersonal guy, Leon thought to himself, but he wasn't worried at all, because he was quite good at dealing with this kind of person.

"Hello, you are Fox Leon, I have been famous for a long time, and I am very happy to come here......" Bibi held Leon's hand and said, at this time, a player on the field turned his head curiously and projected his gaze, Bibi seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, and immediately turned his head and scolded: "Put your eyeballs away and put them on the court, otherwise I will pick them out and step on them!" ”

"Henry, don't always be so fierce with the children, it's good to be a little more lenient. Isn't there no official training season yet? Shaman persuaded.

"No, these guys, if they don't be strict, they will be lazy like piglets, and I want to keep an eye on them all the time." Bibi said. Shaman didn't say much, but just told Bibi about Leon's coming, in fact, in the morning, Shaman had already called Bibi to talk about the matter, and asked Bibi to consider some conditions.

Bibby looked at Leon, thought for a moment and said, "Of course I won't ask for money, but I hope you can do me a favor and get a player for our team." ”