In Washington, Auerbach returned to his home after dinner at the Chinese Doll's Restaurant, and it was Thursday, not a day for club parties. After his wife's death, his life became monotonous, and the two would go together to see their daughters and granddaughters, or walk around Washington together. Now, the club, the small garden at home, and the Chinese doll restaurant have become his main places of activity, and he no longer has the energy to run around.

Unless it's for the Celtics, or for Fox Leon.

Some time ago, he made a special trip to Boston to get a separate signing press conference for Rodman, and then it took a lot of effort to get Leon on and off the training opportunity to get a temporary assistant coach. He contacted Boston boss Paul Gaston for Wycliffe Glospike, who is currently very active in Boston's financial circles.

Glos Pike and his father are building a basketball financial investment team with the Boston Celtics in mind. The financial investment group is still expanding, especially with the addition of Steven Pagliuca, which has advanced their acquisition plans by a big step, and has begun to enter the actual team building and seller contact stage.

At this time, they needed someone with enough weight to open the way for them to buy Celtic, but Gross Pike did not expect Auerbach to deign to be a middleman. The benefit for Auerbach is that Paul Gaston pressures Pitino not to be in the dugout in the preseason.

Such a move means a complete break with Pitino, Auerbach did not want to let Pitino fall from the Celtic head coach position so early, he originally wanted to keep Pitino and let him stay with the Celtics for another half of the season to see how it goes, if there is still no improvement, then Pitino himself will be embarrassed to sit in that position.

But Auerbach couldn't wait, because he felt that his physical condition was getting worse and worse, and after the death of his wife, his daughter and son-in-law advised him to quit smoking, and those fans stopped giving him cigars, but he still couldn't give up this hobby for most of his life. But in August he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, his heart had been operated on several times in more than a decade, and modern medicine had extended his life, but Auerbach knew that he could hardly withstand another operation.

Maybe he will live another five or six years, but who knows when he will lie in bed and be immobile until he dies? If that happens, his last effort to revive the Celts will be ruined.

So he can't wait any longer, and he won't give Pitino another half a season, enough time has been given to him, and Auerbach has to train his successor as quickly as possible, that is, Fox Leon.

Scouting is a great place to start, the most important thing for a coach is not to reverse those complex tactics, but to know people well, and a coach who is good at discovering and using players will always be more powerful than those tactical freaks. Although Auerbach also knew that Leon had the potential to evolve into a tactical maniac, he didn't want him to go down this path of no return for very few successful coaches, which is why he didn't allow Leon to learn basketball tactics, he was too capable of learning.

When he got home, Auerbach wanted to order a cigar, but despite the doctor's advice, he silently put it in the box. In his large study, there are many former medals of honor, photographs and a variety of cigars, all of which lie quietly in the humidor, slowly brewing a refreshing fragrance.

After ten minutes in his seat, Auerbach couldn't help but pull out a "Dutch Master" and light it with a cigar match. He thought that tonight the Celtics had gone to distant San Antonio, where they would experience back-to-back preseason games to challenge their opponents on the road. It was a good adaptation for the Celtics for the new season, back-to-back, distant away games, and a very strong opponent, Tim Duncan and his Spurs.

Auerbach's heart stings every time he thinks of the name, for this player he made the Celtics give up their dignity as an old-school powerhouse, record the worst regular season record in team history, and in the end failed to play David Stern's lottery draft system, continue the team's tradition of not winning the championship, and also lose the best chance of the team's revival.

Auerbach knows that the Celtics at this time have to face not only the weakness of the team, but also the heavy history and the suppression of the league, Auerbach, who once almost covered the sky with one hand, after 86 years, will always miss a move, and will always miss a millimeter, in the struggle with the president of the league, David Stern, he finally failed to resist the power of the league's capital, the progress of the times and the teasing of fate, so that Boston's basketball empire dream was annihilated in history.

"I wonder if Leon felt that kind of power in Duncan, and if he did, what would he think?" Auerbach recalled the shock and ecstasy he felt when he saw Duncan, and he whispered in his heart, "That's my second Russell, I've never seen anyone more like Russell, no, he's better than Russell." Thinking of this, Auerbach took a deep puff of his cigarette and spit out all the unwillingness and regret.

Meanwhile, at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, the Boston Celtics are playing their second back-to-back preseason game.

In the first game, they lost at home, losing to the visiting Milwaukee Bucks by 11 points, the difference in strength between the two sides is still quite obvious, and it is also a team dominated by the outside line, and the Bucks' firepower under George Carr has been developed quite thoroughly, with simple and decisive offensive routines and accurate outside projection, so that the Celtics who lack Pierce leak on all sides.

Reed found some sense in the fourth quarter, but he didn't have the ability to turn the tide, and the six-pointer and rebound performance didn't give Boston fans much hope for him, and he knew that Leon could sense the small changes that had occurred in Reed.

That change was evident at San Antonio's Alamo Dome, where he was given a start and hit his first three-pointer on the NBA floor in the first quarter — a 45-degree quick shot from the left side that slammed the ball into the basket in a trebuchet-like stance.

"Ugly posture, but it works pretty well." O'Brien's assessment of Reed's shooting moves is quite pertinent. However, tonight, Leon's attention was not on Reed, the boy who has slowly become civilized no longer needs to pay too much attention, he will watch the video carefully in the evening, and now his attention is drawn to the Spurs' No. 21.

At this time, the game was already in the middle of the second quarter, No. 21 Tim Duncan was replaced by their head coach Popovich, it seemed that he would not play again in the second quarter, Leon pulled out his notebook and wrote: "Tim Duncan, expressionless, but full of emotion, can be seen from the small actions of playing. The strength is strong, not easily noticed, and the flexibility is unique and easy to ignore. There are no technical blind spots, the defensive positioning and judgment are very accurate, almost not shaking, the offensive selection is calm, very good at using the body, and the feel is extremely good, which is related to flexibility. You should know every detail of the tactics, although I don't know what the tactics are, but I can see that his movement is regular, and if I show me two hours of footage, I can sum it up. ”

After writing these words, Leon closed his notebook and began to sit on the bench in a daze, he was not too interested in the next game, and at this time he was thinking about what kind of method should be used to contain the team he led in the face of such a player, if there is no way to bring him to his own team.

Leon knows Tim Duncan's history, as well as his 1999 rookie sophomore championship and MVP, as well as Auerbach's behavior of giving up almost everything in order to select him.

When you really stand on the sidelines and observe Leon, you will realize that this is indeed a very strong player, and Leon faintly feels that there are many things in him that he has not seen, and he can't experience it just by relying on video or watching the game on the sidelines, and he must lead the team, the player, and this player to compete on the court in person, to contain him or be broken by him, in order to feel the things related to basketball behind him.

It made Leon's heart tickle, and the last player he had a similar feeling was Kevin Garnett, who saw him in Minneapolis that time, and even if he didn't watch him play, just looking at his body was enough to make people's hearts itch. After returning home, Leon found a lot of Garnett's game footage from Vogel, and he also felt that there was something behind such players that could not be seen at a glance.

Leon was immersed in such thoughts until the end of the first half, and at halftime, the shocking news suddenly came from the locker room, Celtics head coach and president, Rick Pitino, announced in Boston that he would resign from all positions, terminate his contract with the Celtics, and at the same time announced that he would not take on a basketball-related job in the NBA, but would return to college basketball.

The Celtics' Pitino era came to an abrupt end, and Leon didn't know how long he could remain as a "second interim assistant coach."