While Leon was on vacation in Las Vegas, the Boston Celtics were still battling the regular season. It stands to reason that even if Leon is banned and unable to be on site to direct, he can still stay in Boston to participate in team training, but for some reason, Danny Angie forced Leon to take a vacation to go out, and Leon actually agreed.

As a result, the team's former assistant coach Dave Cowens replaced Leon as the Celtics' interim head coach, responsible for the on-site command and daily training of these 15 games.

To say that Cowens was also a little unlucky, as soon as he took over the coaching whip of Leon, he encountered the toughest stretch of the season for the Celtics. First of all, the first opponent led by Cowens was the former club New Orleans Hornets, who had contributed to the team here for many years, and was cheered and applauded by the fans at the New Orleans Arena, but the Celtics were not polite, and they won the opponent by 102:96, 6 points.

They then returned home to meet the challenge of the Seattle SuperSonics, and after playing the SuperSonics, the league ushered in the 2003 All-Star Game, in Atlanta, Michael Jordan began his All-Star farewell, his equalizer at the buzzer in regulation time gave everyone a glimpse of the afterglow of the former basketball god, but in the end Jordan's perfect farewell was destroyed in overtime by another extremely stubborn man, Kobe Bryant.

In short, in the early days of February, there was a sense of nostalgia and loss in the league, and the news of Leon's previous fight with the Pacers was no longer the focus of the media, and everyone devoted their pen to Michael Jordan, who was about to say goodbye.

After the All-Star break, the Cowens-led Celtics ushered in the longest road trip of the season, with six consecutive road trips in the West, challenging the SuperSonics, Trail Blazers, Clippers, Suns, Warriors and Kings, which was a long and arduous game. Fortunately, the opponent is not particularly strong. The Celtics ended the journey with a qualifying record of 4 wins and 2 losses, and relied on this good record to overtake the Detroit Pistons and move up to third place in the East.

For a while, there was even a voice in the public opinion circle that let Cowens directly replace Fox Leon as the head coach of the Celtics, because judging from the performance of the Celtics in these games. Their points per game average has dropped as well as the points conceded, and Cowens has slowed down the pace of offense and put more effort into defense, making the Celtics look more like a traditional powerhouse with a balanced offense and defense.

That voice reached its maximum on Feb. 26, when the Celtics defeated the Pacers again with a super-low score of 71-66 at home, and even a small number of fans began to write and call Danny Ainge, hoping to let Cowens go directly to the Celtics' head coach and abandon the Fox Leon, who was suspended for fighting. Let him revert to his familiar role as a scout or assistant coach.

However, in the post-game interview of the Celtics' home win over the Raptors on February 28, Paul Pierce was asked what the difference between the current coach Dave Cowens and the previous Leon answered.

"Dave is very respected, he's a great player and coach in Celtic's history. In the last few days of his representation, he has injected defense into our team and made us play more aggressively and hard. It also has a very good effect. And Leon, he's our coach. We are all waiting for him to come back. I talk to him on the phone almost every night, especially after the game, and he watches our game, points us out, tells us about the flaws and weaknesses in the game. I think...... I think when he comes back, we'll be even better. ”

Except for Pierce. The response from the rest of the Celtics players was pretty much the same, Dave Cowens was good, but everyone was waiting for Leon to come back, and they didn't know where Leon was now.

Soon, though. There was news of Fox Leon in the news media, first the Arizona media revealed that Leon was in Las Vegas with his girlfriend and Dennis Rodman, and then the Los Angeles media broke the news that in an NCAA Big Ten League game, Leon appeared at the game scene to watch the game with fans. Then more and more media reported the news that Fox Leon was running around the United States during the ban, giving people the feeling of not doing business at all.

He appeared in New York with the last two games left in Leon's suspension, but this time no one paid attention to his whereabouts, for the current NBA league, the head coach who was refreshing at the beginning of the season, has been eliminated from the public eye after the gradual decline of the season's results, negative news and fights, and now he appears more in some negative news and gossip news, and even some basketball game commentators will mention it - used to ridicule and ridicule.

In a private room at the Crescent Café on Fifth Avenue, Leon met one of the two people he had come back to New York to meet, Andy Miller.

After meeting Rob Eze, Miller stopped searching for new recruits and focused his work on legal proceedings, consulting with many prominent lawyers in New York, and getting all the results - if Aaron Minz sued, he would almost certainly lose, especially since Miller's audio recordings were useless.

In the end, Miller had to follow Eze's instructions and return to the Crescent Moon Cafe at 3:30 p.m. on March 4 to meet with Fox Leon in the private room where they had previously met. Before the meeting, Andy Miller didn't know who would be coming to meet him, and when he saw Fox Leon in a blue cap sitting in front of him, his expression was quite complicated.

Although he had heard of Fox Leon for a long time and kept stumbling on him in the media, this was the first time the two had met. It stands to reason that Miller's current experience with Fox Leon should be very satisfying, and in many people's mouths, he is almost about to lose the Celtics' position, so his plan to pry Garnett away will also be in vain.

But now, his sore foot is held in the other party's hand, and Miller has already thought about it, if Leon's condition is that Garnett must be traded, Miller will decide to break the net, fight his company can't start, and he won't let Fox Leon get Garnett.

"I have a question and a request, and as long as you can answer my question and agree to my request, the matter of Tripnir will be written off." Leon didn't take off his cap, and from the long brim, Miller could see those bottomless eyes, and he was now worried that if he refused Leon's request, the guy would punch him and break his nose. After all, even NBA players are no match for him, let alone a weak agent.

"Good...... Okay, you ask, you mention. Miller didn't ask any more questions, nodded in reply, and at the same time he clenched his fists, ready to resist.

"What kind of benefits did you give Popper to give you the news that Joe Johnson is going to be traded?" Leon's problem is related to Popper, and it is clear that there is such a spy in the Celtics who will be a destabilizing factor for the team.

Miller was stunned for a moment when he heard this question, and then looked a little embarrassed, but he quickly replied, "I... I didn't give anything to Popper, nothing good, and he was willing to help me with a walk...... Well, to tell you the truth, it was Popper who took the initiative to come to me and say that he wanted to do me a favor and said that he wanted to show you some color. “

Miller's answer was much beyond Leon's expectations, he thought that the two would have a monetary transaction, so that they could find evidence through accounting transactions or other clues, and finally pull out Popper, a traitor, but he didn't expect him to take the initiative to contribute to Miller.

Leon obviously didn't expect this to be the result, he didn't continue to ask, and from Miller's expression he could tell that the other party was not lying, unless he had been trained by the CIA.

"Okay, now that I'm done, I'm going to make a request, and you have to promise me." Leon continued, and Miller nodded, still hesitating whether to refuse Garnett's offer.

"My request is to mobilize all your media relations and continue to spare no effort to discredit me, and it would be better if you could smear the Celtics by the way." Leon said what he wanted.

This time it was Miller's turn, and he never expected it. (To be continued.) )