"There's a lot of controversy about the way the team plays, and a lot of people are talking about it. I read the Boston newspaper every day, what do I think? Is the manager's position comfortable? At his home in Auerbach, Washington, the red head lit a cigarette while looking at Fox Leon said.

After the Celtics vs. Washington Wizards game, the team didn't leave immediately because their next stop was New York, which would be available by plane in the morning and at noon, so the team was going to spend the night in Washington. Leon went to visit the old man at Auerbach's home after the game.

Since resigning from all positions with the Celtics, Auerbach has settled in Washington and will not return to Boston, even if he did not attend the Celtics' opener this season, he did not attend the home game of North Shore Garden, much to Leon's disappointment.

"If they had watched the Celtic game seriously, they wouldn't have had such and such doubts." Leon responded, standing across from Auerbach, carefully grinding the coffee beans that Holbach had brought to Auerbach, the best coffee beans that Holmenes's father had brought from Jamaica, and that Auerbach loved coffee in addition to cigars.

Leon's tone was clearly disgruntled, and the first game win over the Bulls earned Leon some praise, but there was still a significant portion of the commentary that the Celtics' victory came from the players' good feel and form, as well as Pierce's super play. The fact that the team lost nearly 10 rebounds in a game has led many commentators to believe that this style of play cannot survive in a league where strong forwards are rampant.

The victory that led the first half of the second half and was almost overturned in the second half of the second game gave Leon the evaluation of "winning because of good dribbling, good player condition, and almost losing", perhaps in the eyes of many people, a stumbling victory is not as good as a defeat despite defeat, and they certainly don't know that Leon made a strategy like this before the game. Moreover, Leon's lack of timeout in the game was also considered a sign of "inexperience, too nervousness, and not knowing how to control the rhythm".

Most of this criticism comes from Boston's media, the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, and CSNNE. basketball-insider magazine, as well as the increasingly developed online media. However, local Boston fans are unexpectedly tolerant and fond of Leon, especially young fans, who are full of anticipation for this young and brilliant new green shirts.

Auerbach saw some of Leon's grievances, and he knew that the problems faced by a manager were not comparable to those of a scout and assistant coach.

"Until you get enough wins. These are all things that must be endured. Boston is one of the cities with the most sports media in the country, and I've worked there for half my life and couldn't deal with all of them. I've introduced you to quite a few friends, but there are almost no friends in the media circle. I want to tell you that the best way to control the media is to keep winning, and all the superficial good relationships other than winning will not help you in your work, and of course, the only effect will be to make you have an image of a 'good person' in the minds of your readers. Auerbach said as he swallowed the fog that he hadn't smoked a cigar in a while. However, when he saw Leon, he still wanted to smoke one, as if this would stimulate his thoughts.

"Defense lawyers are always available." Leon said with his head down, brewing coffee, and a strong aroma began to overflow the room. Quoting Frevice II's famous quote, which was clearly deep in Auerbach's heart, a smile welled up on his lips, and he took a sip of Leon's coffee.

"But I still have a problem, Danny Ainge has always wanted to trade for a strong interior player. The chips were Joe Johnson or Reed, but I didn't want them to be swapped so quickly. I chose them. It doesn't mean they're going to stay with Celtic forever, but unless they have the right person, I won't approve of the option to trade for the sake of trading. Leon seized the opportunity to sue Angie in front of Auerbach. Since the summer, Angie has been looking to trade for a strong interior player, and his original target was Ronnie Rodgers. A powerful forward from the Phoenix Suns, although he is only 6-foot-7 tall, he is a muscular player with a fierce style of play.

"It's not the same job as a professional manager and a manager, and I've had the privilege of being in both positions. As a manager, all you have to think about is making the team stronger. Stronger than everybody, the weaker the others, the better. As a professional manager, it's different, you have to learn to think from the other person's point of view, give them what they want, and get what you want. A dime a dime will not be a good general manager. Faced with Leon's question, Auerbach said unhurriedly.

"But you are a general manager who never loses a dime." Leon's words directly pierced Auerbach, Auerbach became embarrassed for a moment, he glanced at Leon and continued: "Times are different...... It's different...... You know, Angie is from Phoenix, and he has a very good relationship there. I think it must be that the Phoenix people want Joe Johnson, and it just so happens that they have players there that Celtics need, and he needs to handle that relationship. NBA transactions are not just an exchange of benefits and players, but also an exchange of favors. You see, didn't Chris Wallace also give us a draft pick for next year? "Auerbach was clever when he was the general manager himself, and now he knows how to exchange favors.

"I paid the price! I introduced Chip Engeland to the Grizzlies, who would have been my first choice for shooting coach, without bothering Mr. Sigfried, who was almost seventy. "Leon's acquisition of the '03 draft pick from the Grizzlies didn't come for nothing, and when he picked his coaching staff in the summer, the number one candidate for shooting coach was an unknown shooting consultant, Chip Engelander, who was unknown as a player and later opened a shooting camp. Steve Kerr was one of the guests at this training camp, so he introduced Leon in the hope that he could poach Engeland from the Nuggets, and it just so happened that Hess was also from the Nuggets, and he could settle two candidates in Denver at once.

However, Chris Wallace once hoped that Leon could find a good assistant coach for the Grizzlies, and in order to return Wallace's gift to the Celtics 03 draft pick, plus Auerbach also provided an assistant coach candidate, Leon introduced Engeland to Wallace, and Jerry West used a high salary to poach England.

"Okay, okay, I'll talk to Anji and make him patient. It's not a good thing to have a disagreement between management and a manager, Danny is a good manager and you're a good coach, but you're both a little bit stubborn. Everything is looking in a good direction, looking into the distance, letting go of the unnecessary things. Auerbach finally persuaded that since his complete retirement, Auerbach's personality had softened a lot, his temper was not so short-tempered, and he seemed to see everything very openly.

The two talked for a while, and in the middle of the night, Auerbach was a little overwhelmed and wanted to sleep, Leon decided to leave and go back to the hotel, and tomorrow he also needed to get up early, he got up to say goodbye to Auerbach. Before leaving, he said, "Arnold, Wednesday's game, I want you to come to Boston." I know you won't watch TV. ”

After the trip to Washington, there are two more away games for the Celtics to return home, and next Wednesday, their opponents in the North Shore Gardens will be the three-game supremacy, the Celtics' feud and the Los Angeles Lakers. Leon hopes Auerbach will be able to watch this important game at that time.

"Yes, I will." Auerbach nodded and sent Leon out of the house.

Leon, who left in the car, did not know that the reason why Auerbach did not appear in the first game of the season at North Shore Garden was not that Auerbach did not care about Celtic and Leon, on the contrary, he cared too much and cared too much. Auerbach, who had experienced a lot of battles and seen everything, was afraid that Leon would suffer defeat in the first regular season game of his career, so much so that he locked himself in his home in Washington, not only did he not go to the scene, but he did not even turn on the radio and television. It wasn't until the next day that he read the news of the Celtic victory in the newspaper, and the stone in his heart was put down.

"Keep going, my child......" Auerbach thought to himself as he looked at Leon's distant figure.

……………………

On November 1, the Celtics arrived in New York, and this time they didn't go to Nassau Coliseum, but instead headed straight to Madison Garden Plaza, the sporting mecca of the Big Apple. After two wins, the Celtics are starting to attract some talk and attention, compared to New York's two consecutive defeats at the start of the season, and a win is in desperate need of a win to stop the bleeding. But on the night of No. 2, the Celtics didn't give the New Yorkers that chance, and the Celtics, who had a day off in this game, once again played the super-fast offense of Game 1, pushing and attacking not only Arenas, but every player of the Celtics.

119:101, the Celtics flooded the Knicks with a tidal wave of offense, and the Knicks, who tried to play against the Celtics, did not have the smooth offensive coordination of the Celtics at all. Compared with the win, the bigger news that this game attracted was that in the warm-up before the game, Leon led the team to a fifteen-minute "off-ball simulation training" at Madison Garden, which opened the eyes of the majority of New York media.

"There is no ball on the pitch, but there is a ball in the heart." That's how veteran New York journalist Fred Kerber commented after watching the fifteen-minute workout, and from that moment he knew the Celtics' coach had the potential to disrupt the NBA.

Two days later, in Chicago, when the Celtics slaughtered the Bulls on the road with an insulting score of 105-70, many in the league began to realize that a new force of old power was beginning to rise in the northeast of the United States, the Atlantic coast. (To be continued.) )