For Arenas, when Jim O'Brien announced his resignation from his position as Celtics head coach on the morning of Nov. 24, he felt his basketball career open up again. After being picked by the Celtics with the 21st pick, he held his breath in his heart to prove that it was a mistake for the Celtics to pick him with the last one when they had three draft picks. And to prove to all the previous teams who didn't choose him that they were all wrong.

It was with this mentality that in the summer in Los Angeles and in Phoenix, he trained himself like crazy, shooting countless times a day, using parachute training to activate explosiveness, practicing shoulder strength, and his three-point shooting, he knew that the Celtics were a team that loved three-point shooting.

However, after coming to the Celtics, he found that he did not have a chance to play, although the Celtics traded away guard Kenny Anderson, but O'Brien did not give Arenas too many playing opportunities, and he trusted veterans Steve Kerr and Eric Sterkliland more. Arenas also got some playing opportunities, but every time he came on the pitch, he made some stupid mistakes in his rush to show himself, and was replaced by O'Brien.

Arenas is one of the hardest working in training on weekdays, but he doesn't get the attention of the coaching staff, including Fox Leon, who picked him up, and he focuses more on Michael Reed and Joe Johnson, and seems to be left to his own devices. John Carroll, as a player development coach, gave Arenas a lot of guidance and help, so when Danny Ainge approached Arenas and told him that the team would force O'Brien to resign after the game on the night of the 23rd and make Carroll the team's head coach, Arenas only hesitated and agreed.

In this quick, abrupt action, Arenas was the vanguard, and when O'Brien was interviewed by the media, veteran Randy Brown called for an impromptu meeting of all the players, and Arenas, as the representative of the rookie players, agreed to oppose O'Brien's coaching and asked the team to change the head coach. Randy Brown is the oldest player on the Celtics, and although he only came to the Celtics last year, he has some prestige, and standing behind Brown is Steve Kerr, who was teammates during the Bulls' third consecutive championship, and Kerr was responsible for agitating Brown. Standing behind Kerr, of course, is Arnold Auerbach.

Now Arenas is sitting on the team plane to Washington, D.C., and no matter what happens to the team, the game will continue as they have a back-to-back game to take on the Wizards with Michael Jordan in the capital. Because of the tight schedule, 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 not mentally prepared. Before O'Brien stepped down and Carroll took over, Auerbach informed almost everyone involved through various means, from the players to the coaching staff to the staff, and only three people didn't know everything until yesterday's incident: O'Brien, Carroll, and Leon.

"We're going to have a tough game tonight, back-to-back, and the Wizards have Michael Jordan, which is going to give us a lot of attention. There is pressure, but I believe that everyone will overcome it, and now it is more important how to give us a new look to face the future. Of course, tonight we will continue the previous style of play without too many changes, but everyone's playing time and specific requirements will change, I hope you understand. After giving a short inaugural speech, Carroll began to lay out and arrange some of the situations for the evening game, because they wouldn't have much time to train when they arrived in Washington, so some of the requirements had to be set up on the plane.

As he spoke, he pulled some small cards out of his jacket pocket and began to make some demands on the players. Although it happened suddenly, Carroll himself didn't know that he became the head coach, but it doesn't mean that he is an incompetent fool who will panic and follow the rules, Auerbach chose him to be the head coach not only because he is an honest man who is easy to talk to, but also because he is actually more experienced as a head coach than O'Brien. O'Brien had been working as an assistant coach at several universities before he took over last year, and he relied heavily on Hart and Vogel as head coach last year.

On the contrary, before entering the NBA, Carroll has always served as the head coach of the team, except for many years as an assistant coach for Callesimo, and won the honor of the best coach in the Atlantic 10 League, so even if he has not achieved any special results, he can be called a coach in his own right.

Carroll prepared a temporary strategy for today's game last night, and he also talked to Leon on the phone for more than an hour, asking about the team's tactics and training, and Leon gave Carroll a lot of advice, which was written on the small card he took out today.

'We have to be more decisive and when you have an opportunity, don't hesitate to throw the ball into the basket. Also, we need to cut down on some unnecessary full-court pressing, reduce the intensity, control the tempo of the game, and remember to put pressure on the non-ball handlers as well, rather than focusing on the people with the ball............," Carroll gushes, but the players didn't particularly care. A team's style of play has inertia, and everyone will not change the routines they are used to in training just because of a change of coach, only in the details.

Leon listened to Carroll's arrangement, thinking in his heart that Rick Pitino's impact on this team is still very deep, after all, the two pillars of the team have grown up in his hands, and the team's basic style of play - full-court pressing and three-point shooting will not change in a short period of time. And Leon doesn't really agree with Pitino's shaping of this team, and defensively he thinks that this kind of thing is proven to be surprisingly successful in a game at this level in the NBA, but when used as a conventional means, it doesn't seem to have any particularly good effect except for hitting the confidence of his players and wasting physical strength. On the offensive end, Leon also loves three-point shooting, and he recognizes the efficiency of this scoring method and the great tactical significance it brings, but he doesn't think that the initiation of the three-point shooting space needs to rely on a strong interior line, on the contrary, he feels that he can rely on the cooperation between outside players to create three-point opportunities, especially in the bottom corner, and Leon feels that it is necessary to develop vigorously here.

However, it is difficult to change all this in a short period of time, but fortunately, it seems that Carroll is much better than O'Brien at the moment, and he accepts many of Leon's suggestions, and is willing to arrange the lineup according to the ideas given by Leon, such as tonight he will give Arenas more opportunities to play.

……………………

Upon arrival in Washington, the team checked into the AKA White House Hotel, then headed to the Wizards' home MIC center around four o'clock, and outside the arena, Leon saw a huge portrait of Michael Jordan hanging from the wall, wearing the Wizards' No. 23 jersey, staring into the distance. Leon knows that this is the former god of basketball, and now he is unwilling to be lonely, and wants to climb back to the god position, but it seems that everything is not optimistic, the Wizards have suffered a wave of shameful eight consecutive defeats before this game, and Jordan cannot lead the Wizards to victory.

After an hour of acclimatization and shooting practice at the MIC Center, the players were given a half-hour to relax and go out for a stroll or dinner, and at 7 o'clock Eastern time, the game will officially begin. Leon said hello to Carroll and hailed a taxi to Auerbach's home, bringing with him two boxes of Monterey Depression cigars, which Auerbach liked.

However, when Leon arrived at Auerbach's home, he threw the cigar on the table and asked, "Why did you just kill O'Brien?" He's a good coach and it's not good for the team to change coaches so often. ”

Auerbach was reading a book when he opened the door, wearing old-fashioned bib pants and a small black waistcoat, and a pair of reading glasses on the bridge of his nose, he pushed his glasses in the face of Leon's questioning, picked up a cane from the table, and shot it directly at Leon's head. Leon didn't dodge, just closed his eyes and hit Auerbach with a crutch, and then Auerbach threw the crutches away and yelled at Leon: "If it weren't for you, would I be so burdened with the accusations of the media and the complaints of old friends, and use all my connections to get rid of O'Brien?" He also helped the team a lot last year, and now I'm going to be an ungrateful, behind-the-scenes dictator! ”

After saying that, Auerbach sat down on the rocking chair angrily, because the rocking chair was shaking too hard, Leon stepped forward to fix the rocking chair, took out a box of matches from his pocket, Auerbach also took out an unsmoked cigar from his pocket, and Leon gently helped him light it. The two hadn't seen each other for months, and only a straight man like Leon dared to question Auerbach when he saw him. In fact, Leon knew the truth of the matter, but Auerbach was silent and did not inform him at all, which still made Leon a little embarrassed.

"You don't need to be like this, my foundation is not clean in the first place, and if someone wants to dig it, it can't be hidden." Leon told Auerbach that he knew that the reason Auerbach didn't inform him was that he didn't want him to be involved in the forced palace incident, which would be very damaging to a player's or coach's reputation.

"At least you're clean in the basketball hoop, and some people have buttoned me up enough hats and talked about it, so what about another one?" Auerbach took a puff on his cigar and calmed down, and as soon as Leon came home, he confronted him that he was about to him off.

"Then why encourage Arenas to come forward? He's still a newcomer, something like that...... It will damage his reputation and affect his future in the future...... His talent is really good. Leon thought of the players who came out yesterday, Brown was a ten-year veteran and didn't care at all, Paul Pierce made a moderate opinion but didn't object, Walker simply went straight to the shower, Dennis Rodman had long been at odds with O'Brien, and Arenas was the one who made the first bird.

"Everyone's personality determines their fate to a certain extent, this kid is such a personality, you yourself said that he needs anger, then I will let him stay angry all the time, too gentle will not be good for him."

"I've suggested that Carroll increase his playing time and tweak some of the team's defensive strategy, and Hart will take care of that. Hopefully tonight will be a new beginning. ”

Auerbach looked at Leon after listening, and after not seeing him for many months, he could feel the change in Leon's temperament. In the past, he relied too much on his powerful brain, and would speak surprisingly from some small places, giving people the illusion of seeing the whole leopard at a glance. Now he doesn't need that kind of cleverness anymore, he has a lot of knowledge and experience in basketball, he has the ability to think big, and with his perfection in details, he is on his way to becoming a good head coach.

"If it weren't for not knowing when I was going to die suddenly, I should have given you more time and experience to prepare to be a good coach, and now, I can't afford to wait. Whether you're going to be a great coach or just a bale of straw, let God decide......" Auerbach thought to himself.