"I need to make it clear that the coalition opposes any acts of violence. The current NBA is a civilized and orderly sports competition, which embodies the beauty and charm of sports, and I will never allow violence to run rampant on the court. The league decided to impose a three-game ban on Stephen Jackson for yesterday's game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics, throwing punches at Celtics head coach Fox Leon, in the hope that there will be no more violent clashes in future games. Once again, I declare that the league opposes all violent conflicts, conflicts on the basketball court, please use basketball to solve them. ”

On the morning of March 10, 2003, the day after last night's San Antonio Spurs-Boston Celtics game, David Stern held a press conference in New York to suspend Stephen Jackson, who had done the work in last night's game, and was already the second NBA official to be suspended for violence this season, and the last one was Fox Leon - only this time he became a "victim".

When Stephen Jackson left the court in the middle of the third quarter, he got into a verbal altercation with Leon, and finally started without saying a word, and his teammates and coaches couldn't pull it. It's a pity that Jackson's fist didn't even touch Leon's hair, Leon just a light back, dodged Jackson's attack, and then Jackson was dragged off the field by his teammates and the referee.

And Fox Leon continued to command in the rest of the game as if nothing happened, without the slightest appearance of being frightened.

“The-little-son-of-bitch…… (This little bastard)" On the way out of the press room and back to headquarters, David Stern couldn't help but say to Adam Silva next to him. As Stern's assistant, Silva has been following Stern for a long time lately, and as the playoffs approach, a lot of work has begun to get busy.

Silva knew who Stern was talking about, of course it was Fox Leon, and he responded: "This guy seems to have changed a lot after a month of ban, I don't know what medicine is sold in the gourd. ”

"There has been a lot of negative news about the Celts lately, and it's the same old way as Auerbach used to be, playing a war of public opinion, pretending to be pitiful, and making himself an enemy of the world. And it looks like he's learned a lot of tricks, and you should have kept this guy in the Development League as the Director of Player Development and let him go back to the Celtics...... "Stern gritted his teeth a little, he hadn't seen any storms, and he saw some of the recent small moves of the Celtics and Leon.

Now the entire sports public opinion circle is following the trend to criticize the Celtics, the players have a poor style, the field is too rough, coupled with the clash between Jackson and Leon last night, regardless of who is right and who is wrong, the Celtics will inevitably be deducted a "bad boy" hat. Although they are still far from the real bad boys, Stern does not allow a second army of bad boys to appear. "Actually, in the first half of the season he was quite normal, the style of the team was very light, the attack was beautiful, the record was good, I thought there would be another Adelman. But after that ban,......" Silva said, getting into the car with Stern, and the two were going on a trip to Los Angeles and were now on their way to the airport. "I knew on my toes that it was the guy at Auerbach who wanted to pull out the seedlings and get another cardinal,...... What is your impression of Leon? Stern asked. Smart, very smart, very calm, but lacking some emotional intelligence, used to feel like a typical technical coach, now ...... And he really doesn't have any background in basketball, he used to be a street bastard who didn't know where he came from...... "Obviously, Silva has investigated Leon's background. "If the next time there is violence on a Celtics player, it will be a direct ban, and the same will be true for malicious fouls. I don't want the league to have the 90s atmosphere again, and this damn guy can play better than the players. Stern said with a helpless face, a coach can play better than those strong players, it's really funny.

At the end of the 80s, under the influence of rules, tactics, and the Detroit Bad Boy Army, the league entered a period of weak offense and strong defense in a decade, and hand-to-hand combat, which in Stern's view, was a big blow to the league's business and good-looking. This became clear after Michael Jordan's retirement, so now Stern plans to constantly change the rules to ensure that the offensive side has an advantage over the defender.

He doesn't want the Boston Celtics' green shadow to loom over the NBA again.

……………………

On the other side of Boston, with Jackson ejected in the third quarter, the Celtics took advantage of the momentum in the third quarter to play a wave of 7-2 small surge, stretching the difference to more than 10 points. Then in the fourth quarter, they withstood the Spurs' counterattack, and stabilized the situation at the critical moment with a goal from Paul Pearce, defeating the visiting Spurs by a narrow margin of 93-90, three-pointers, and achieved a gold-rich victory.

In the post-game press conference, when Leon was asked what exactly Jackson said when he went off the court, Leon responded, "I just told him not to be impulsive, but the more you make him bad, the more he will happen." “

And Jackson bluntly said in the post-game interview, "Fox Leon is a hooligan, plus a liar, if he comes to San Antonio, I don't mind going head-to-head with him in the open." Jackson was then fined $20,000 for his remarks, as well as a three-game ban.

After this game, the trend of public opinion about Fox Leon was significantly different from the beginning of the season, and the media at the beginning of the season believed that the league had welcomed a new representative of a young talent, a technical coach with calm observation and superb technical and tactical skills; Half a season has passed, and the words most associated with Fox Leon are "crime", "correction center", "Scarface", "fight king" and "liar", coupled with his now bearded and long hair face, he is a big villain.

The speed and magnitude of this change was not expected by anyone, including the big hand behind it, Reed Auerbach.

After the victory over the Spurs, the Celtics slaughtered the visiting New Orleans Hornets at home with a 99-68, 31-point advantage, and Leon led the team to two consecutive wins after returning to the Celtics, and his doubts and criticisms were swept away for a while.

But next up is the Celtics have their toughest week of the season, with two games against the Nets, the Pacers, the Pistons, and a trip to Los Angeles against the defending champion Lakers, who will have O'Neal in the lineup.

Leon could feel the pressure on his shoulders increase suddenly, banned for a month, and the simple opponents were all stumbled by Cowens with the team, and they played well; By the time he returned, it was full of hard bones, and Leon could only consider himself unlucky for this.

On the night of the 12th, after the game against the Hornets, the Celtics got on the bus to New Jersey, and tomorrow they will face the New Jersey Nets on the road back-to-back.

The players of the whole team held their breath for a team that defeated the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals last season and ruined their Finals hopes.

It was already early in the morning after arriving in New Jersey, and Leon asked his players to rest quickly, while he stayed up alone in his room to watch the game footage and prepare his training plan for tomorrow's game.

Just after watching the footage, Leon heard a knock on the door, and when he opened the door, he found that it was the team's sports injury protection engineer Ed Reisert.

"Good evening, is there anything wrong with Reisert?" Leon wondered if something would come to him at such a late hour. And Leon looked at Reesert's expression, a little worried, and still had a few pages in his hand, not knowing what it was.

"I have something to report to you, Fox...... Maybe I should have told you earlier, but...... I don't think it's too late to tell you......" Reisert said to Leon, holding the paper in his hand. (To be continued.) )