Andy Miller wondered if there was something wrong with his ears, and wondered if it was Fox Leon who was sitting across from him, or if it was some of Leon's enemies who deliberately wore a cap and pretended to see him, and then continued to frame Leon.

After confirming it twice, Miller finally understood that Leon was going to continue to use the power of the media to attack him, and even the Boston Celtics. Miller was naturally puzzled by this, but Leon had no intention of explaining it to him, and Miller was embarrassed to ask, after all, the two were still in a hostile relationship.

After asking a question and making a request, Leon decided to leave, and he didn't mention Garnett from beginning to end, which made Miller very uncomfortable, and Miller couldn't help but ask when he said goodbye: "I heard that you want Garnett to go to the Celtics, I think it's a bit difficult." ”

Leon looked at Miller, raised the brim of his hat a little and said, "If you're not his agent, don't you need to worry about this problem?" With that, Leon left the private room, leaving Miller sitting on a stool in a daze, angry, frightened, and unaware of what was going on in the heart of the controversial figure.

After leaving the café, Leon took another trip to Times Square to meet Woj and sent him a similar message, asking him to find more of himself in future news media reports. Of course, Woj is also very surprised, there has been enough negative news about Leon recently, this guy is not asking for crisis public relations, but to find out what he is going on in his head, Woj simply doesn't know what Leon is thinking.

However, Leon still did not explain, and only chatted with Woj about the recent situation, and then talked about the state of the alliance. Now that the East has completely entered the melee, the Nets, Pacers, Pistons and Celtics are competing for the top four, and anyone has the potential to climb to the top of the East. But no matter who ascends to the top of the east, it still feels like it's not enough to see the strong in the west.

The Los Angeles Lakers, who won three consecutive championships, have seen weakness and degradation this season. The team continues to suffer injuries and the regular season record is also declining, but no one dares to underestimate this giant, after all, in 2001, after 56 wins in the regular season, they swept all the way to the Finals, and were hailed as the strongest playoff team in history.

On the other hand, after years of stumbling, Tim Duncan and his Spurs team ushered in another peak, with the growth of young players and Duncan reaching the peak, making them invincible in the regular season. Other strong teams such as the Mavericks and Kings are still strong, and the West is a whole notch higher than the East in terms of overall strength.

The two talked from the afternoon to the evening. From Woj, Leon also learned a lot about the current situation of Celtic and the outside world.

"A lot of people are now proposing that Dave Cowens replace you as the head coach of the Celtics. To be honest, he's done a good job this month, and I feel like the Celtics are more balanced offensively and defensively. And you, this kid, are running around without doing your job, aren't you really afraid that Danny Angie will directly let Cowens replace you? You know, in the NBA, especially with the Celtics, you don't have any roots. Woj said to Leon in a serious tone that he still cared deeply about Leon as a friend.

Leon smiled. He didn't seem to care very much, the one-month ban and vacation made his temperament look much more relaxed, and even the scars on his face were not so heavy. He responded: "I was worried about this before today, and even a month ago I was very worried. But after today, I'm not worried at all. ”

Khomeenez's father had spoken to Leon before, and he talked about why Cowens came to the Celtics as an assistant coach, not because of Auerbach. It's because of Danny Angie. So after that, Leon was extremely suspicious, and the condition for Angie to recruit Cowens was to promise him that Leon would leave class in the future. Cowens was replaced as head coach. Anji's appointments during the ban and the decision to take a leave of absence seem to confirm this, so Leon's concerns are also very reasonable.

"I don't understand...... Well, if you don't worry, don't worry, I'll worry about you. There's one more game your ban is about to be lifted, 15 games...... It's a long time, and you're the only one. I haven't been in the team for a long time, will it feel strange? Have you ever looked at the schedule to find out who your next opponent is? "Woj's barrage of questions poured out in his head, which are both the concerns of friends and interviews with reporters.

"Of course, I won't get used to it, but the days off are really comfortable, and I have learned a lot of things, and I hope I can use them when I go back." As for the schedule, I don't look at it, I haven't watched a lot of Celtic games lately, but every day I talk to the players on the phone and it looks like they're in good shape. Leon reluctantly revealed to Woj about his daily phone calls with players, and the keen Woj realized that although Leon was on vacation, he never relaxed his grip on Celtic.

It's like Auerbach, who often runs back to Washington on nothing to do, including game days, but as long as he's in Boston, he's at the helm of the Celtics. At this time, Leon also seemed to be leisurely and confident.

Woj wanted to invite Leon to dinner, but Leon refused, because Ayatollah Khomeenez was still waiting for him at the hotel, and the two had come to New York together. Leon solves his own problems, while Khomemenes is his advisor.

When Leon returned to his room at the Four Seasons Hotel, Holmenis was sitting cross-legged on the sofa and nibbling on the McDonald's chicken thighs in his hand.

"Eating less fried food is not good for your health...... I've got all that done with Miller and Woj, and hopefully everything goes well, and I don't end up stinking for 10,000 years. Leon said as he took off his shirt and changed into pajamas, picking up a hamburger and nibbling on it.

"Is Popper's problem solved? This is very important. Khomeenes asked, puffing her fingers after eating the chicken legs.

"Oh, solved, as you and I think, although Popper knew Miller, and it was because of Miller that he revealed the trade rumors to Joe, but he didn't accept Miller's benefits, on the contrary, he took the initiative to find Miller and said that he wanted to help him." Leon said with a burger in his mouth.

"Uh-huh. What does that mean? ”

"That means that it wasn't Miller who really directed the leak behind the scenes, he was just a trickster, and there was only one real instigator - Reed Auerbach......" Leon looked at Khamenez and finally said the final answer in his heart, which was also Khomeenez's guess when he asked Leon before.

A month earlier, after Leon had met Auerbach and returned to Boston, Holmenez had told him that she had asked her father, Pagliuca, how she knew that Cowens had been recruited by Angie and not Auerbach. Pagliuca said that Popper had inadvertently told him.

This caused Leon to wonder how this guy Popper could spread information so much, judging from his previous qualifications, he was not such a talkative person. Later, Leon also used some means to investigate Popper's private account, and found that it was quite clean and did not receive any benefit at all.

In this way, Popper's motive for leaking the transaction information is quite suspicious, and Leon suspects that Angie may be playing a trick on Mission Impossible to get rid of himself. Later, Khomemenez relied on Pagliuca's connections. After investigating Popper's career experience, I learned that Popper had a close relationship with the Celtics management back in the 70s, and he was a well-known coach in Boston's amateur basketball scene, and he was present in various basketball activities organized by the Celtics in the offseason. One of the most frequent of these is Auerbach's junior basketball camp in Marshfield, where he coached for many years.

He was also recommended by Auerbach to join the Celtics as a scout, which shows that from beginning to end. Popper was a Auerbach man, and the most likely instigator of Popper's doing these things could only be Auerbach.

But what Leon didn't understand the most was that. If so, why did he do it? If Auerbach was trying to test himself, the cost of the test was too great, and the process of testing was too complicated. Besides, Auerbach has already given himself the reins and charges, so why do such a thing?

Leon, who had just realized this problem, was quite frustrated, so when Angie unexpectedly asked Leon to take a leave of absence and not come to work, he agreed without hesitation, and there was also an element of frustration.

What really made Leon understand this problem was when he was with Dennis Rodman in Las Vegas, when Rodman played with the Celtics in the past, although the relationship between the two was good, but it was more at the gaming table, and there were very few heart-to-heart chats between the two in private. This time, Rodman saw Leon being hit, so he talked a lot about his experience with the Pistons to encourage Leon.

Among them, Rodman repeatedly mentioned how Isaiah Thomas attracted criticism for his inappropriate remarks before and after the game, and even directly caused the entire Pistons to be on the cusp of public opinion, and then how they responded on the court.

After leaving Las Vegas, Leon went to Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, and New York, where he went to the local municipal library to flip through sports journals and newspapers from the mid-to-late '80s, relying on his amazing memory and reading speed to find news related to Thomas and Pistons, especially negative news.

From 1983 to 1988, the Pistons grew from a fish belly to a champion in five years, and the growth of the Pistons was not praise, but constant scolding. Leon quickly found something unusual in these insults, and he found that Thomas, who was obviously a sane and intelligent guy, always had a clever mind to say something bad for the team on some big speeches, which attracted criticism. The most famous of these was the racist remarks that "Bird, if not white, but just ordinary people", which threw the Pistons and him into a storm of public opinion.

In the end, he apologized, was humiliated, and was slighted, but the next year they eliminated the Celtics to reach the Finals, and the next year they won the championship. Because with Thomas's continuous efforts, he has always used the power of the media to "maintain" and even "promote" the image of the Pistons as bad boys, so that such a wave of public opinion only makes the Pistons sail in the end, rather than letting them die in the ocean of saliva.

This made Leon vaguely feel that Auerbach laid such a big game, not just to test himself, he was borrowing strength, with the help of external forces to temper himself and the whole team. This kind of behavior is naturally biased, and there is a huge risk, the slightest carelessness, or some unexpected circumstances, the unity and friendship of the whole team can be ruined.

But Leon knew that Auerbach couldn't wait, and the old man of time wouldn't have much time left for him, so he could only drug himself as a guinea pig. (To be continued.) )