In the world of competitive sports, victory is the foundation of all good things, and to talk about every character and every game without winning, no matter how beautiful the whitewash, always carries a sourness. The Celtics, an old-school powerhouse that hasn't tasted back-to-back wins in years, won nine in a row after a win over the Mavericks, and the last time they had such a season start was back in the distant 1972-1973 season, when they started the 10-game winning streak and finished the regular season with a franchise-best record of 68-14.

If the previous victories still made many people feel that there was a certain element of luck, then the defeat of the Mavericks at home not only made the Celtics the only undefeated team in the league so far, but also made the Celtics youth army the national basketball world sideways, and made Fox Leon's name begin to appear in the news pages of major media. Even the local media in Boston, which had not dealt with Leon too much before, began to praise Leon's preparation and strategy in this game.

But even the 68-win regular-season record didn't guarantee that the Celtics would win the NBA championship that year, and they still have a long way to go for the Celtics 30 years later. So on the second day after the competition, Leon still got up early as usual, prepared the basic materials for a day's training at home, and then spent more than an hour before driving to the training hall. When he came to the training hall, he felt that he would be like usual, seeing a few young guys already sweating on the field, he would come forward to chat with everyone, give some guidance and communication, and wait until the whole team gathered to start the day's practice.

But when Leon came to the training gym today, he found that Michael Reed was alone on the court practicing three-point shooting, Joe Johnson was not there, and Daimporter was not there. Even Arenas wasn't there. It was rare for some of the Celtics' hardest working youngsters not to come to the training gym early to practice, and Leon looked at the somewhat empty arena and felt very unaccustomed.

"Where's the rest?" Leon asked Reed, who shook his head at first, but then he said, "After yesterday's game, Antoine invited everyone to the bar for a drink, Samuel, Joe, and I went. Later, I left first, and my head hurt a little in the morning, but I still came to train. Actually, I've just arrived. Leon looked at Reed, only sweating slightly, and it looked like he had just warmed up.

"Did Gilbert go?" Leon then asked, and Reed shook his head again and said, "No, he didn't go." But he seems to have gone to an event, I don't know the specifics. After the game, a lot of reporters surrounded him, and then he left. ”

Reed's words were a little sour, in the high-profile battle last night. Reed didn't have much of an impressive performance other than his opening three-pointer, finishing with just five points, three rebounds and one assist. In the confrontation with Michael Finley, he fell to the upper hand. It's not the old Foxes' opponent, and the Celtics have played a two-point guard style that allows Arenas and Kerr to shine, and Reed is more often a spectator on the bench.

This may be the reason why Reed came to train early the next morning after enduring a drunken headache. The competition within the Celtics is still quite fierce, and Reed's starting or main position is not necessarily so solid, and he needs to find a better balance between offense and defense.

Leon just nodded. He has always been open-minded about his players' off-field lives, as long as they do their duty in training and games. Dennis Rodman was as fun-loving and gambling as he was, but during his two years in Boston, he barely delayed his training and did his best every night.

But not everyone is Dennis Rodman, and when the clock comes to half-past nine, the Celtics' players are really together, and they are usually all in full force at nine o'clock. In the pre-training meeting, Leon's face was not very good-looking, but he still arranged today's training plan, took all the players to watch the video of yesterday's game before the official training began, had a fifteen-minute tactical lesson, and then organized the team to start the formal training.

When Dave Covens took the interior players for a confrontation session, Leon pulled Arenas aside and asked, "I don't care about your private lives, but you didn't come to practice early this morning, and it didn't happen once last season." Tell me what's going on, if I can know. “

Arenas hesitated, Leon really never asked about the private life of the players, even for the young players who were prone to mistakes, Leon treated them with freedom and respect like adults. But when he pressed his throat to ask about the situation, Arenas felt like he was back in college and was controlled by his coach, and he thought about it and replied, "I was interviewed by a couple of reporters last night, and then we went to eat something together, okay, we went to eat lobster and drink some wine." Then I was approached by the owner of a sweatshirt store in Boston and asked me to take a few photos to make a small advertisement for their store...... "Maybe one day more people will invite you to dinner, a party, and a sneaker company will give you a big contract for sneakers instead of taking a few photos for a small advertisement." But you have to remember what exactly is the basis for all this, and if you forget, then you have nothing. Leon reminded Arenas.

Arenas just nodded perfunctorily and ran back to the field to continue training without any response, seemingly unfazed by Leon's admonition.

Arenas hasn't really tasted the taste of money and fame yet, and although he has been offered a million-dollar contract, he has used it more often to improve his life and that of his father, as well as to meet his own real mother. Other than that, he was just a relatively ordinary player, and he started to have fans in Boston, but he didn't sell as many jerseys as Walker and Pierce, and he was occasionally recognizable on the street - not much.

Now, after a good start to the season, he's starting to earn some attention, alongside the Celtics, and last night's game really made a name for himself with 17 points in the final quarter, as well as that game-killing three-pointer. The influx of reporters after the game and the rush to hand over business cards made Arenas a little flustered.

Arenas is certainly not the kind of person who is prone to complacency, his self-discipline and tenacity are not inferior to any player of the Celtics, but he is still young after all, after all, he has only been in the NBA for more than a year, after all, he has not yet escaped the years of youth and frivolity. Leon remembered the scene after picking Arenas in the draft, and thought to himself that maybe this kid wouldn't be able to move forward at full strength without putting pressure and pressure on him.

However, Leon soon discovered that it was not Arenas who was really in trouble with the team, but someone else.

After a day. Boston has another opponent, and one of their bitter opponents in recent seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers made a trade in the summer, sending away Mutombo, who reached the Finals in '01, and acquired Nets center Todd McCalloche and power forward Van Horn to bolster the team's offensive power and get rid of the team's lack of offense and over-reliance on Allen Iverson in recent seasons.

It's just that the team's form after the start of the season is still average, with a five-win and four-loss record barely in the middle of the East. Before the game, everyone was optimistic that Celtic could win another game at home and win ten in a row, which would also tie Celtic's best season start since 1973. However, Larry Brown's team is not willing to be a wedding dress easily, and Arenas, who was in full swing in the last game, was lost in Eric Snow's defense and Allen Iverson's offense. He stubbornly made 15 shots throughout the game, but only hit 4 of them, including 0-of-3 three-pointers.

Even without Mutombo to guard the interior, Larry Brown's defense can still strangle the Celtics without an interior attack point. Their layered and pressing perimeter defense was a fatal obstacle for the Celtics, who needed to move the ball quickly, and the Celtics' offensive line, which had no inside attack points, was over-flattened. There is no three-dimensional effect at all. The only one who played well was Paul Pearce, who helped his team bite the score again and again with breakthroughs and mid-distance.

But Iverson in '03 was still unstoppable when necessary, and the Celtics died in the fourth quarter from Iverson's three-pointer and a mid-range jumper on the counterattack, 91:88, and Pierce's three-pointer in the final minute did not save the home team. Leon and his team finally suffered their first defeat of the season.

After the game, the locker room was no longer as cheerful as last night, and Leon didn't know what to say when he looked at the gloomy atmosphere in the locker room, and then he realized that how to overcome defeat is a more serious and important subject than defeating the opponent. He was as sad as the players, but he still had to cheer up, explain to the players the shortcomings of the team in the game, and ask everyone to be at the airport on time tomorrow, and in the morning they will fly to Milwaukee, where the challenge awaits them is the Bucks.

When he left the arena, it was nearly ten o'clock in the evening, and Leon went to the garage to drive his car home as usual, but he saw Joe Johnson at the exit of the garage passage, along with Antoine Walker, and a few of Walker's friends, who got into an elongated white Lincoln, and it seemed that it was another night of indulgence.

Walker has been like this for more than a day or two, and after getting the big contract of tens of millions of dollars, he took more than 30 relatives and friends to Boston to start a luxurious life, anyway, in his opinion, he can't spend all his money. Unlike some flurry boys who only know how to squander, Walker still understands where his wealth comes from, so he still trains and competes quite seriously and hard.

Johnson has somehow been getting close to Walker recently, and Leon is a little puzzled, this young man from Little Rock has always been well-behaved and hardworking, but his recent performance on the field is really average, and Pierce's hot form has given him little chance to play. The next day, Leon found Johnson on the plane, sat down next to him and asked, "Your life seems to be richer lately, how do you feel about the nightclubs in Boston?" Have you ever been to a casino, you can give my name next time you go, maybe the casino will send you some money. “

Leon tried to make his tone as relaxed as possible, but Johnson's expression was very solemn, and he was silent for a while before he said, "After all, I'm about to leave here, and I have to learn more about the city before leaving." (To be continued.) )