For dinner, at a run-of-the-mill restaurant in Marshfield, Auerbach watched Fox Leon finish a whole turkey and wondered how long it had been since this guy had eaten a good meal in prison.

When Auerbach learned from Leon that he was the amateur boxer who was imprisoned for picking quarrels and injuring NBA players in a bar, he couldn't help but slap the table and laugh, not at all like an 80-year-old man.

"The unlucky ghost of the Timberwolves, it turned out that he was injured by you, I heard that his jaw was knocked off, and he couldn't even eat, hahaha."

Leon felt a little guilty when he heard this, and he learned from Auerbach that the player he injured was named Malik Ciri, a scoring guard for the Timberwolves, and he went to a nightclub to have two drinks after the game that night, after all, the Timberwolves' hometown is in Minnesota, a small city that is freezing cold, and of course he should relax when he arrives in the big city of Boston.

How do you know that Leon deliberately found fault and suddenly got into trouble and fought with the nightclub security guard, of course Ciri didn't want to get mixed inside, so he wanted to walk away, but he didn't expect him to be too tall and black, Leon saw him coming and thought he was a nightclub thug, and indiscriminately went up and punched him in the chin, directly dislocated Ciri's jaw, and fainted on the spot.

It was April, the NBA regular season was coming to an end, and the playoffs were about to begin, and the Timberwolves were sitting sixth in the West, and the young team was preparing for their fourth playoff journey, this time they wanted to make some breakthroughs.

Malik Ciri, who was an important member of the team's defensive line, was caught by an accident in Boston, where he was grafted in the hospital and missed the final games of the regular season.

In the playoffs, he had to wear a mask for the first round of the Timberwolves and Trail Blazers, and against the more experienced and extremely powerful Portlanders, the Timberwolves lost in four games, and their opponents made it all the way to the division finals and nearly reached the Finals.

Before it was over, Auerbach continued: "This guy is really unlucky, he was in a car accident in Minnesota in May and almost lost his life. ”

Leon could only smile wryly and shake his head when he heard this, but he didn't know that in the original historical trajectory, Malik Siri would be killed in this car accident, and Leon's punch obviously changed history and allowed Siri to survive.

Speaking of Malik Ciri, the two naturally talked about basketball, Auerbach is not a person who likes to chat, the years have made this old man who once dominated the professional basketball world become silent, especially two months ago with the death of his wife Dorohi, who has been with him for most of his life, the other half of Auerbach's soul was siphoned out.

He often spends an afternoon alone in his old office, which has no information-age equipment, flipping through photo albums that record the glory of the past, or touching the trophies in the cabinet for an afternoon.

In Marshfield, he also spent his days hanging around on his golf cart, where the Celtics' rookie camp used to run every year with his children's basketball camp, and he used to run on both sides, coaching the imps to play and the rookie camp to play against the Celtics' rookies.

And the guy sitting across from him who could eat a turkey in one go opened up the conversation to Auerbach, because Auerbach hadn't met such an interesting guy in a long time.

In Auerbach's eyes, Leon didn't talk much, often had a blank face, but he was not sluggish, his mind was extremely quick, his observation was terrifying, he could deal with any question raised by the old man, and he spared words like gold and never talked nonsense.

It's just that when it comes to the topic of basketball, Leon seems to be silent a lot, Auerbach said something about his past experience in the NBA, but Leon didn't say anything, and seemed not interested at all.

"Don't you have an interest in basketball? Then your life is really empty and boring, how can you not love basketball and the Celtics as a Boston, did you grow up in New England? Auerbach was a little angry at this, and he wanted to show the kid a show, knowing that not everyone in Boston was qualified to sit across from Auerbach and listen to him brag about the past.

"My mom was hit and killed by a car during the 1986 victory night revelry, and the ambulance was delayed by the marchers."

Leon's answer silenced Auerbach, although Leon's consciousness and body were not the same person, but they shared the same memory, the sad memory of his mother's death in a car accident enveloped his consciousness, so Leon also knew why, as a Bostonian, he had little interest in basketball, he hated the night when almost all Bostonians were partying, and when the city couldn't sleep all night for the championship, he accepted the fact that his mother died in the cold hospital, and sat on the cold floor and cried all night.

The awkward silence lasted for a short while, and Auerbach took a sip of gin and said slightly apologetically, "I'm sorry to hear that, so, we haven't won the championship since...... I don't know if this will make you feel better. ”

Indeed, in 1986 Auerbach accompanied his Celtics to their peak, and since then their good fortune has lasted for three decades, and in 86 the death of Byas dealt Auerbach a heavy blow, followed by injuries to the team, the twilight of superstars, and the sudden death of another star, Reggie Lewis, in 1993, the Celtics fell into complete darkness, darkness with no end in sight.

Seeing an old man like Auerbach turn from his excitement to sentimentality, Leon wanted to use some words to get the atmosphere of the conversation out of this inexplicable atmosphere, so he said: "We should neither dwell on the glory of the past, nor get lost in the sorrow of the past, time flies, the road ahead is long, and there are still many things waiting for us to do." ”

Hearing Leon say this, Auerbach immediately responded: "That's right, tomorrow you have to clean the large glass windows on both sides of the gymnasium, and this is what awaits you." ”

"Remember, at eight o'clock in the morning, come over for breakfast first!"

……………………

After sleeping all night in the community management center, Leon slept soundly, because he was still quite tired this afternoon, and when he dreamed at night, he dreamed again about the memories of this body.

That was before he was 13 years old, and every weekend night, after getting off work from a restaurant, his mom would take him to Boston Garden Square to watch the Celtics play.

Leon dreamed that he was in the last row of the noisy arena with his mother, it was noisy and hot, the air conditioning in the stadium seemed to be broken, everyone was sweating, everyone was shouting, he was too small to see the situation on the field, and a fat uncle sitting next to him put him on his shoulder for him to look at.

He could see the Celtics in the white jersey and the team in the purple jersey, a hard-fought game, suffocating and suffocating, and finally at the end of the game, the whole stadium poured into the center, and Leon was carried down together, and the joy and joy seemed to overturn the arena.

Waking up in the middle of the night, Leon found himself covered in sweat, the cubicles he lived in were not ventilated, and the summer nights were really sweltering.

"No wonder it's so hot in my dreams...... But why are you so happy and excited? I really don't understand......"

……………………

The next morning, Leon got up and rode to the arena again, both to solve his breakfast problem and to work for Auerbach. Unknowingly, Auerbach has trapped a quality workforce.

Today, however, Leon doesn't have to go it alone, as Auerbach's training team and a group of volunteers have arrived to prepare for the official opening of camp tomorrow.

Born in 1917 and now 83 years old, Auerbach could no longer directly coach the kids at the camp, so he brought in his old friend Danny Angie, who was also Celtics' championship defender, to be the actual organizer of the camp.

In addition to that, he also called the Celtics' former Finals MVP, Cedric Maxwell. He now works as a radio anchor in Weston, and he also has time off to help the coach with the kids in the offseason.

Another less well-known, Greg Kate, who was also a former Celtics player, a white interior player with an unremarkable career but a tough defensive stalwart, was hired by Auerbach to be an assistant coach in training camp this time.

Three veteran Celtics players from the '80s made up the bulk of the coaching bench for this training camp, plus a number of other staff and volunteers, which made the stadium, which was empty yesterday, much more lively.

Leon's breakfast consisted of two eggs, ham, sandwiches, and a bottle of fresh milk that Auerbach had brought him, and he began to work with a bucket of water and a long pole tied to a rag and began to wipe the glass.

No one paid much attention to the handsome janitor, everyone was busy setting up the arena, and every year when the camp opened, Boston's famous local people came to give speeches, and many of the residents of Mashfield came to the event.

Although there are fewer people signing up this year than in previous years, there will still be more than 100 people attending the opening ceremony, and Leon also heard from the people around him that the speaker today will be the current head coach of the Boston Celtics, Rick Pitino.