On the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, the annual Louis Vuitton America's Cup Series is underway, with dozens of high-sailed catamarans gliding swiftly across the wide river following the wind. On both sides of the river track, there are many small cruise ships anchored to enjoy the grand fast sailing race.

Fox Leon was on one of the yachts, watching the regatta with his good friend Woj. Today's weather was wonderful, with huge white clouds floating in the blue sky, filtering the otherwise somewhat glare sunlight into a soft light that sprinkled on the sparkling river and the white hull of the ship. The wind was not too big, not too small, blowing the yacht to sway from side to side with the waves.

Along with Leon were some of the most famous basketball reporters in New York, such as Mark Bellman and Frank Isola, who were both rivals and friends of Woj, so naturally they were also familiar with Leon, and they helped Leon a lot when he was scouting for the NBDL. Of course, in the past six months or so, they have also smeared Leon and the Celts in their own columns and topics, and Leon does not mind this, with their help, the Celts seem to have reverted back to the evil green empire of more than 20 years ago, and the only thing they lack is victory.

"I bet the green sailboat will win in the end." Leon greeted the somewhat harsh sunlight and pointed to the two sailboats rushing ahead—one white, white at the front, one position ahead of green.

"Is it because green is the color of the Celts? Can I choose the blue? Isola told Leon, a reporter for the New York Daily News, known for his poisonous snakes, who never showed mercy to Leon and the Celts in his articles. The blue sailboat was now in the last place.

"I'm not sure if green can take the first place, but blue... I guess he's got the last one. Leon was not polite, he knew that Isola was a die-hard fan of the New York Knicks, and he wouldn't save face even in the Big Apple.

Isola smiled awkwardly, no matter what, the speed of the New York Knicks' decline in the past two years can be described as steady, from the 1999 season as the eighth place miraculously reached the Finals, to the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals, 01 in the first round, 02 directly farewell to the playoffs, and this year, they missed the playoffs for the second year in a row, the previous Finals coach Jeff Van Gundy also left class, starting from the selection of Patrick Ewing in 1985, the Knicks' road to a strong team for more than ten years has also come to an end, They will begin their road of rebuilding again.

Of course, New Yorkers at this time did not realize how long and tortuous the road to reconstruction would be.

Just as the New Yorkers say goodbye to the playoffs, the other side of the Hudson River, the New Jerseyians have reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row and are making great strides towards their second Finals.

It stands to reason that the Boston Celtics defeated the 76ers and Pistons 4-1 in the Eastern Conference playoffs, which has already shown strong combat effectiveness, especially in the semifinals, when they lost one game first, and beat the Pistons in four consecutive hits, which surprised many people. You must know that when the Pistons won the first game, public opinion was unanimously optimistic that the Pistons, the No. 1 in the East, would be able to take revenge on the Celtics. Who knew that after the defeat in the second game and the rout in the third game, the Pistons were like losing their souls, and they almost didn't make a decent resistance in the fourth and fifth games, and they were run over by the Celtics and eliminated from the game.

As a result, the Celtics replicated their playoff path from last season, once again facing the Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, the Nets' performance in the first two rounds was clearly more impressive, they first defeated the Bucks 4-1, and then shaved the Hornets' head 4-0 in the semifinals, and their tough defense showed overwhelming strength in the East. Last season they were the best defensive team in the regular season, and this season they continue to rank first in defensive efficiency and are doing even better than last year.

After being swept by the Sharks 0:4 last year, the Nets sent away their white and soft interior players, such as McCulcult, Van Horn, and Mutombo, although the African mountains were plagued by injuries and age performance was far worse than in 01, at least a qualified substitute. Now their starting line-up has become Kidd, Kittels, Martin, Collins plus Jefferson, a fast, tough, well-structured lineup.

Because of this, the Celtics were not favored for the third time before the series began. The pundits and reporters who swore in the first two rounds that the Celtics would lose this time cheekily said that the Celtics would definitely fall in the Eastern Conference Finals because their opponents were too strong in the East.

León himself was aware of this, arriving in New York two days before the start of the first game on May 18 with his team, where they rented out a fully equipped indoor stadium for training in order to reduce the fatigue of the journey before the start of the match in order to perform well on the road. Leon knew that the first game would be a testing period for both sides, and if they could steal the next game, it would have a big impact on the entire series.

This year's Nets are indeed stronger than last year's, last year's Boston Celtics even led the Nets 2:1, and once saw the dawn of advancing to the Finals, but unfortunately Antoine Walker played abnormally and was defended by Kenyon Martin as the Iron King, and head coach Carroll had no way to face the change of Nets' strategy, and finally could only watch the team lose hope of reaching the finals.

And now Leon can be sure that if last year's Celtics meet this year's Nets, they will definitely be eliminated by 0:4 seconds. It's just that this year's Celtic is no longer the same Celtic of last year, and anyone who ignores the strength of the Celtic will be punished.

In the semifinals, their offense has been unleashed, and Arenas has finally found his sense of offense, and Carlisle is at a loss for a big and four small style of play, but Leon is still unsure if the Celtics can still play that kind of offense against the best outside defense team in the league, and whether they can show the anger against the Nets in the regular season.

However, Leon didn't seem nervous at all, and after coming to New York, after training, he not only accompanied Holmenes to the Broadway opera to see it, but also went to major luxury brand stores to buy jewelry and jewelry. Today was the last day before the race, and after the morning training, Leon gave the players a day off and then went to the Hudson River with Woj to watch the sailing race.

The people on board were all media people from New York, and it seemed that Leon didn't care that his relaxed appearance was known to the outside world, or that he wanted the outside world to see him relaxed or even relaxed, so that his opponent could let his guard down. In any case, unlike the 76ers and Pistons, the Nets are the only opponents in the East that deserve Leon's attention, and although there are stronger teams in the West, they will only have to send one team to the Finals.

As the regatta drew to a close, Leon could see from the bow that the white sailboat was still one position ahead of the green boat, and the others had already picked up their binoculars to look at the line.

The northwest wind that was blowing on the river suddenly changed direction to the northeast, and the sailboats, which had been sailing downwind, suddenly became headwind, and now they had to adjust the direction of the sails, from going straight downwind to zigzag against the wind, so as to turn the headwind into forward momentum.

At this time, the green boat, which had been lagging behind and could not catch up, adjusted its sails faster than the white boat, and they quickly adjusted, quickly changed the course of travel, and the boat began to continue on a zigzag course, and overtook the white boat in one fell swoop a few hundred meters from the end!

"Oh!! Look, the green boat has overtaken!! I went over it!! Come on! "Leon was the only one of all who didn't need a telescope, and his eyesight was amazingly good.

In the end, the Green Boat overtook the White Boat and reached the finish line first, becoming the winner of the New York leg of the America's Cup.

"Hey, Fawkes, how did you know in the first place that the Green Ship was going to outtake the White Ship? Don't tell you expected a change in wind direction, did you graduate with a meteorology major? Woj asked quips, he was actually curious that Leon rarely loses when it comes to betting.

Leon took a sip of champagne and replied, "Because he's green." (To be continued.) )