Rodman didn't come to the gym until 11 a.m., when the team's morning training was over, and last night he played stud at the famous Golden God Casino in Connecticut until the early hours of the morning, drove back to Boston from the casino early in the morning, and then slept in his apartment, ate something to pad his stomach and drove to the training center again.

Rodman didn't want to come to training, but the past season was arguably his last season with a passion for basketball, and he had a new experience in Boston, where his passion for basketball and its illustrious history infected. However, as a veteran in his 40s, there is nothing left to continue that passion except for a championship, and the Celtics look like they are still a long way from a championship.

It's just that in the stud battle at the Golden God Casino last night, Rodman won first and then lost, and the tens of thousands of dollars he won earlier were all lost within an hour, and finally tens of thousands were put in. Tens of thousands of dollars a night is not a lot of money for Rodman, many years of professional basketball career, advertising and film income make Rodman have a lot of money, but if he loses tens of thousands of dollars every day all summer, Rodman can be a little unbearable. In addition to gambling, Rodman spends a lot of money on motorcycles, nightclubs and women, and if he doesn't want to be a star player who retires and goes bankrupt, he has to continue playing in Boston. This summer, the Celtics offered Rodman a base salary of 2 million a year for veterans, which is already the highest ceiling in the veteran contract exception, that is, taking advantage of the Celtics' exchange of blood in the draft to send Kenny Anderson away, so as to squeeze enough space for Rodman to such a contract without triggering the luxury tax.

In order to be able to continue squandering the money, Rodman had to drive to Waltham with a splitting headache and grogginess, but fortunately there were not many cars on the road, and even then Rodman almost drove into a ditch on the side of the road. When he arrived at the training hall, there were many reporters in the reception room outside the training hall, and many reporters saw that Rodman had only come at this time, and they all flocked to interview this big worm and ask him why he had come to the training at this time.

Rodman has always been a big and unbridled person, and he answered bluntly to reporters' questions: "I went to the casino last night and lost some money, so I had to come to work in the morning because I had to work to make money." After saying that, Rodman squeezed through the crowd and went straight to the arena and ran into the locker room to change clothes.

At this time, it was the team's first open training day interview time, O'Brien was on the sidelines of the training field to be interviewed by reporters, Rodman's remarks undoubtedly embarrassed O'Brien, because when he was just asked why Rodman did not participate in training, he also covered Rodman and said that Rodman is due to injury problems, as a veteran, it is very normal to miss training due to injury.

But Rodman's sudden arrival hit O'Brien in the big mouth, and he didn't look hurt at all, but he walked a little shaky. When Rodman went into the locker room on his own, O'Brien, who faced the reporter's questioning eyes, could only purse his lips in embarrassment and said: "Maybe the information from the team doctor is not very accurate, and his injury is not so serious." ”

Unlike O'Brien, Leon, who was practicing Michael Reed's anti-interference shooting on the court, rushed straight back to the locker room and saw Rodman slowly changing clothes, with red bloodshot eyes remaining, a smell of alcohol on his body, and the smell of poker and plastic chips that is characteristic of casinos. Leon asked, "You're going to the casino again?" I lost a lot of money again. ”

Rodman knew that nothing could be hidden from Leon's eyes, and he spread his hands and replied, "So I'm coming to work." ”

Leon and Rodman have established a good relationship last year, the two have very different personalities, but they look at each other, Leon thinks Rodman is really cute, and Rodman, although he is a lawless guy, has a good impression of those who are strict and calm in his heart, such as Chuck Daley. Not to mention that Leon taught Rodman a lot of gambling skills, and at the end of the season, Rodman could still win money often, but at the turn of the summer and autumn, his luck plummeted, and all the money he won was put into it, not to mention a lot of losses.

Leon looked at Rodman with an indifferent face, and his heart was also a little hot, this guy played peacefully for a year, and now he looks a little impatient and wants to play tricks, fortunately he is not happy in the casino, otherwise he will definitely make trouble again like when he was a calf.

"I'll go to the casino with you in a while, and I'll use a fake identity to help you win your money back. But lately you've got to play well and train hard. Leon had no choice but to agree to Rodman to accompany him to the casino to find a place to convince Rodman to train hard. In the past, Phil Jackson used a similar technique in the Bulls, sending an assistant to accompany Rodman to casinos and nightclubs to play wildly, and when he had enough, he came back to play well. Now Leon works as his own assistant and promises to take Rodman to the casino to win.

Rodman heard this but came to the energy, in fact, he didn't care about Leon to help him win money, but went to the casino with Leon to gamble is a kind of excitement and enjoyment for him, he still remembers that in the Sydney Star City casino, from eight o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon, Leon swept all gambling methods alone, and finally forced the casino manager to come out to send money to Leon to ask him to play, and wrote down his identity information, resulting in the future large casino Leon basically can't enter, at most play slot machines.

Since then, Rodman has not had the privilege of witnessing Leon's demeanor in the casino, and Rodman has admired two people most in his life so far, one is Michael Jordan, in basketball, and the other is Fox Leon, in gambling. Jordan has announced that he will make a second comeback, and Leon is also going to find face for him in the casino, which makes Rodman's bad mood because of the loss suddenly improve, and he puts on his training clothes and comes up to Leon to give him a hug to show his pleasure.

By the time Rodman warmed up and came to the training ground to prepare for practice, lunch was over, the young players on the field had stopped practicing, and Walker and Pierce got rid of the pestering reporters and returned to the field for the afternoon practice. If it's a game day, lunch is over and the group training is almost over, but there is no doubt that the training volume will increase during the training camp, especially in the morning, which is not satisfactory to O'Brien.

The Celtics practiced their positional defense all morning, and all the young players, including Arenas and Johnson, were asked to start on the defensive end. O'Brien inherited Pitino's philosophy of full-court press-and-go defense, while building a new defensive system with Hart's help, a clean, effective defensive system that is more in tune with the NBA's rhythm, which was key to the Celtics' success last season, and they had defense.

However, this training did not satisfy the players, Michael Reid wanted to improve his off-ball ability, Walker wanted to practice three-point shooting, and the new Arenas was eager to prove himself in practice, but so far he has not even touched the ball a few times. Joe Johnson is obedient, but O'Brien has to admit that this guy doesn't have much talent on the defensive end, and lateral movement is a hard hit.

O'Brien asked everyone to practice defense on the first morning of training, not only to further consolidate the team's central idea of "defense first", but also to use collective defensive training to clean up team discipline. And Rodman only arrived in the afternoon, and the thing that made him lose face in front of reporters added fuel to the fire. In his pre-training remarks in the afternoon, O'Brien reprimanded the players for their laziness and bluntly said that if some players didn't want to attend, they shouldn't come to training.

In his past days as an assistant coach on the team, O'Brien has always been known for being gentle with his players and good at communicating and dealing with them. In the case of Pitino's iron face, he often appears as a red face, the glue between the manager and the players. So when he became the head coach of the Celtics last year, he was supported by the vast majority of Celtics players, especially the team's star Antoine Walker.

But one of the drawbacks of this kind of "player's coaching" is that it is difficult to establish the majesty of a coach, and Antoine Walker hit 221 of 603 three-pointers last season, and this excessive three-point shooting is related to O'Brien's connivance. O'Brien's frustration came from this, and as a head coach, he found that he could not always be a good man, and that a good man would be loved by everyone, but without the respect and convincing of the players, his prestige would be challenged. If a manager can't get his players to obey, he can't use all kinds of tactics.

O'Brien will be hoping to make a difference this season and he wants to be tougher, especially when there are a lot of young players in the team, and it would be good for young coaches to build up their authority quickly.

The team's overall bad and Rodman's lateness and unscrupulous words made O'Brien's anger explode, and Rodman became the main point of attack, and O'Brien and Rodman have been in a calm state of "you leave me alone, I don't bother you" between O'Brien and Rodman last season, and today it seems that O'Brien wants to take Rodman a little bit.

"In the afternoon we will practice attacking tactics, but those who are absent from defensive training or who are not giving their best in defensive training, please step aside and do the switchback! Don't stop until you get your undershirts soaked! O'Brien is not just targeting Rodman, but also rookies like Joe Johnson and Arenas who aren't keen on defensive work. This made O'Brien extremely annoyed, as soon as the newcomer came, he dared to disobey the coach, how to train him in the future?

At this time, Rodman suddenly took off his training clothes, threw himself on the ground, and turned around and walked towards the locker room without looking back.

O'Brien's face turned red as he yelled at Rodman, "Pick up your clothes!" Otherwise, you'll never want to wear it again! ”

Where would Rodman ignore O'Brien, instead of turning his feet into the locker room, he walked directly towards the door of the training hall, where there are still many reporters, if Rodman goes out topless like this, then another negative Celtics news will be exposed.

The old assistant coach Hart hurriedly pulled Leon next to him, he knew that only Leon and the eccentric Rodman got along in the whole team, and only Leon could persuade the big worm, as long as Leon spoke up, he would definitely be able to stop Rodman. Conflicts between the manager and the players are often unavoidable, and the assistant coach as a buffer is to play the role of peacemaker.

But in the face of old Hart's gesture, Leon was indifferent, instead he crossed his arms and coldly watched the situation in the stadium get out of control, and O'Brien stood on the floor with a look of indignation and watched Rodman walk out of the arena.