"How would you rate the Suns today?"

"5 points."

"Is a 5 out of 5?"

"No, 100 out of 100."

During the post-game interview, Leon's jokes drew laughter from reporters, a scene that was rare in the past, and Leon rarely joked with reporters in Boston, and even embarrassed some reporters — though most of it was self-inflicted.

Of course, Leon's score is not all a joke, and today the Suns did only have 5 points in his opinion, but the full score was 10.

"Your next opponent is the Lakers, you've met in the playoffs two seasons in a row, what do you think of them?" A reporter mentioned the next game, the Lakers and the Suns, which is destined to attract attention.

Leon's answer was unexpected, and instead of belittling the Lakers or joking, he said, "The Lakers are going to be a tough opponent, and I think they're going to be our big opponents in the West this season." ”

The contrast between Leon and before and after makes people a little confused.

After the press conference, Leon and the Suns players returned to the hotel to check out of their rooms and flew directly out of Seattle and back to Phoenix on an early morning charter flight. On Friday, November 2nd, they will have their first home game of the new season against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Before the start of the game, the Suns had two days off, Leon gave the players a half-day off on the morning of the 31st, and asked everyone to come to the training hall in the afternoon for tactical training. At noon, Leon invited the entire Suns coaching staff to dinner at a restaurant, a multi-purpose restaurant that is said to be able to cook dishes from all over the world. They were a group of seven people, and each of them ordered their favorite food.

Leon made a clam broth, a Los Angeles Mountains oyster, and then ordered a paella, but it wasn't his main course, his main course was the restaurant's signature Chinese dumplings, and he ate many of them in one sitting. Of course, Leon's meal is not a big deal in the NBA, and this amount is just an appetizer in the eyes of many players and coaches.

It's just that except for Leon, the other people eat more fixed cuisines, like D'Antoni likes Italian food, Phil Webb likes gourmet dishes like hamburgers and french fries, and Dan D'Antoni likes bisque and lamb chops, as well as fresh fish, and eats in the old Northeast. D'Antoni looked at Leon's miscellaneous eating methods, and couldn't help asking: "Your eating preferences are as incomprehensible as your configuration of the team." D'Antoni was not polite in front of Leon, and the main reason why he said this was that in yesterday's game with the SuperSonics, Leon's substitutions and the words he said to him, he was still a little confused in his mind and couldn't figure it out.

Leon had long known that D'Antoni would ask these questions, and he ate another dumpling and said: "Sometimes I want to be able to eat a perfect meal, but there is no way, I like to eat a little bit too, and I like to eat a little bit too, so I just eat casually, but it's good and it doesn't affect my appetite." ”

"Really? I just think that our lineup still has a way to play, do you stew a pot of stew? ”

"Why would you say that, Mike, I thought you could understand me."

"What did you say to me? What did you say about yesterday's game? That's what I'm going to do, and I don't even know how to train anymore. I thought about it all night, and I didn't know why I was doing this. "Now D'Antoni has to take on the role of assistant coach in the team, responsible for the team's tactical training.

"I agree, Steve, Amare and Boris, how to distribute their ball and tactics, to be honest, I don't understand." Dan D'Antoni on the side spoke for his brother, who was previously the team's assistant coach and was responsible for his brother's current job.

Leon knew that when it was time for his class, he still had a dumpling left in his bowl to eat, so he first put the clam broth and the bowl of mountain oysters in front of him, and said, "This is the broth and the mountain oysters, of course, you know what the mountain oysters are, these are used to appetize, to open up the appetite and eat a lot of things." That's what Steve is all about on the team, and with his appetizer, everyone eats well and has a lot of energy. ”

As soon as Leon finished speaking, everyone laughed, because the Los Angeles Mountain Oysters were not oysters or shells, but were made from animal eggs, mainly from cows or sheep. And the fresh and rich clam broth will also make you appetizing.

Then, Leon brought the bowl of pilaf and said, "Jamba, you have everything in it, you can taste a lot." This is Boris, I think everybody can understand it, he can play a lot of positions, he can plug a lot of holes, of course he didn't play very well last season because Amare is back, he doesn't seem to be very compatible with Amare. That's the main problem we're trying to solve, and it's the one that keeps bothering me these days. ”

Finally, Leon took out the uneaten dumplings left in the bowl: "Dumplings, the food that Chinese love to eat, no matter what festival it is, many ordinary people will eat this at home." You know why? Because it is delicious, convenient and simple, it can be used as a staple food, can also be used as a side dish, of course, the Chinese take him as a staple food. ”

"Is this what Amare is?" Dan D'Antoni said.

Leon smiled and nodded, although the analogy was a bit strange, he still said: "If Steve is given a week off and Amare is used to lead the team, what do you think will be the result?" ”

"Oh no, it's not like this before, has it been Mike?"

D'Antoni nodded, starting from the 04-05 season, as long as Nash is injured, the team will be in trouble, even if Nash is off the court for a while in the middle of the game, the team will play hard: "We can do without Amare, we can't do without Steve, it was proven last year. ”

Leon said, "But you have Steve, and you have Amare, and since you have both, you have to make good use of them." You're too little confident in Amare, he's definitely going to be able to hold up a team on the offensive end, not just Steve's finishing machine. So, I'm asking everyone to work together to design a strategy around Amaré and use his impact. ”

"But Amare's pass ......"

"You don't have to pass the ball."

"Do you want Boris to play point guard like he did yesterday."

"Yes, that's what he thought." D'Antoni answered his brother's question, and sure enough, this was indeed Leon's final thoughts, and he wanted to try to communicate with each other today to see if he could make Leon change his mind. It's not that D'Antoni is afraid of trouble and doesn't want to devise tactics, but he thinks that this kind of play will really work well? Can Boris really take on the role of point guard? Or is it just a façade and a pretense?

Leon knew D'Antoni's doubts, so he specially arranged this meal, and then he took out a folder from his backpack and handed it to D'Antoni, saying: "Here is the training manual I rushed out in the morning, which can give you some reference, and there is also a CD in it, which burns the tactical training video I recorded in college." Of course, these are just references for you, you are experienced and definitely have your own ideas. ”

D'Antoni took the folder, in fact, he was not interested in the contents, as a senior NBA coach, he would not believe that there were any "tactical training cheats" in this world, even if Leon was awesome, it was impossible to write a tactical cheat in a morning, he said it was a reference, it must be a reference. He was strange, listening to Leon's tone, as if he didn't plan to participate in the afternoon training.

Leon wiped his mouth, went to the bar to settle the bill, and lifted his backpack: "Okay colleagues, the afternoon training will depend on you, come on, I'm leaving." ”

"Where are you going, Fox! You're the manager! ”

"I'm going to New York! I didn't participate in the afternoon training! ”

After saying that, Leon walked out of the restaurant, got into his car and drove away, leaving the Suns coaching staff looking at each other, and the head coach actually ran away? But D'Antoni was the first to react and said: "It's okay, as long as he doesn't run during the race." And we're doing the same now, and it's good, just like last year. "It's true that apart from the addition of Leon, the Suns' coaching staff has not changed anything.

As for Leon, he drove straight to the airport, he had a flight to New York in the afternoon, of course, he didn't really start to be a shopkeeper and let himself go, but now Wall Street, it was time for him to go over and collect his debts.

The subprime mortgage financial crisis in the United States has begun to bear rotten fruits this fall.