Auerbach only stayed in Boston for one day, and after dinner he flew back to Washington, D.C., which was a bit unbearable for his old arms and legs to run back and forth between the two places in one day, not to mention the fact that Leon was so angry at dinner that he finally got into a taxi in a huff.

The next day, Michael Carr, in the name of the head of player operations, asked for a signing press conference for Dennis Rodman, although the team management said that there was not much need, and their original arrangement was to have a group of new players such as Rodman and Reed attend a big signing ceremony together, rather than holding a separate one for Rodman.

However, several leaders of the team's non-basketball management, such as Cousy and White, said that for a veteran like Rodman, it was absolutely necessary to hold a signing ceremony for him separately to show off his new jersey to fans across Boston.

So after the next day's practice, at 4:30 p.m., in the press room of the North Shore Garden Square Arena, the Celtics held a signing meeting for Rodman alone, at which Rodman unveiled his new jersey and new number 71 to all Boston fans - Rodman explained that this was because he thought his season with the Mavericks would be his last, and now he continued his basketball career in Boston, so he had to add a 1 after the 70, which is the 71.

Throughout the show, Rodman wore a pair of sunglasses and a green gentleman's hat on his head to show Celtic characteristics. Rodman would never let go of this opportunity to show off himself in front of the media, and he also showed the media his new tattoo on his neck, a shamrock.

Leon had been watching Rodman giggle on stage, and at this time he sincerely admired Auerbach, a seemingly stern old man with a tolerant heart, and the rumors that he would dislike Rodman or clash with Rodman were just villains, and there were not many freaks who had stayed under Auerbach.

If Rodman and Auerbach clash, there can only be one reason, and that is his inability to contribute to the Celtics.

As for his private life, his dress, his bizarre remarks, or his unruly personality, he would not be an eyesore in Auerbach's eyes. In contrast, Pitino lacks a lot of wisdom in this regard, which is why he often makes clever signings and ends up not retaining players. It also doomed Pitino to succeed in college and struggle in the more complex world of the NBA.

Thinking of this, Leon understands that signing Rodman will not be an obstacle to Auerbach's return to Boston, but on the contrary, it will hasten Pitino's departure from the Celtics, and perhaps Pitino himself understands this and made this deal.

……………………

When the Celtics' training camp officially began, it meant that the new season was approaching, and Leon finally felt the pressure of the team's high-speed operation when the new NBA season came.

Leon was busy as a scout in the offseason, but he was more of a man running around and doing his job alone. When the holiday season ended and preparations began for the new season, the somewhat loose Celtics team worked closely together, with players in place, trainers, video analysts, medical staff, coaching staff and operations team all up and running. As a member of the coaching staff, Leon couldn't go to the state library in the morning, and from the third day he rented himself a third-hand Chevrolet to drive to Waltham, where his main duty in training camp was statistics and analysis.

He measures the performance of every player on the team during training, and from the first whistle, he begins to record every move of all the players in his notebook with tables and accurate drawings that no one else can understand.

Rather than watching them in the game tape, you can get to know them better on the training camp ground.

Like the team's number one star, Antoine Walker from Kentucky, a big forward with a round head and a comedy star face, with a height of 6-foot-9, Leon has carefully watched his game footage and knows that this guy loves to shoot three-pointers, has a flexible pace, has both strength and speed, and is a very difficult guy to defend on the offensive end.

And after two days of training observations, Leon discovered more. For example, this guy is lazy, Leon has calculated that Walker runs an average of 12 rounds less than other players in the switchback running training, and his defensive training time is also relatively short, he is more enthusiastic about relatively easy shooting training, especially loves three-point training, and likes to play more than a dozen midfield three-pointers after training every day.

Leon also found that his left and right ankle bones were not very good through his running posture, and he should have been injured, which may be why his steps are always so fine, and the movement of big strides will put a lot of pressure on his ankles.

There's also the team's defender, Kenny Anderson, who dribbles more flashy than in the game, and is always the one who always looks the easiest in skill training, with a rubber band stuck between the ball and his hand, and he never gets out of his hands whether he slaps the ball under his crotch, behind his own ass or behind someone else's ass. Other than that, though, Anderson's physical metrics aren't good, and in Leon's notebook, Anderson's performance in physical training has been poor for several days in a row, and he doesn't like to spend more time in the gym, driving away on time at the end of a group training session every day.

It seems that he didn't put much effort into physical training this summer, and perhaps the divorce case with his wife took up too much of his time.

At the top of Leon's "training time" statistic table are two people - Michael Reid and Dennis Rodman.

Of course, Leon's training time statistics are not purely counting the time it takes for players to start training and leave training camp, so Rodman will definitely not be in the front. He will calculate a ranking table of his own based on the level of commitment of the players in training, minus the small time spent playing, chatting and farting, and finally weighting it.

Like Rodman, he would be late every day, but once he started training, his attention was 100 percent, his body was 100 percent engaged, and he didn't like to giggle in training, whether it was boring physical training or brain-draining tactical drills, Rodman would have a serious face.

In contrast, Reed has the characteristics of being the earliest and the latest, as well as being 100% committed, and has never stopped questioning Reed after being drafted by the Celtics to Boston. Similar to the original management's opinion, the Bostonians also felt that they needed an interior lineman, after all, they already had Anderson, Pierce and Walker, a three-point maniac, did they need a three-point guard? So who will resist O'Neal, Duncan, O'Neal Jr. and other strong insiders?

And in the summer league in Minnesota, Reed didn't play as well as he wanted, and he suffered a knee injury after the first game and missed all the subsequent games, which made his public opinion situation in Boston even worse.

Reed remained silent. If you don't explode in silence, you perish in silence. He's sweating more and more in practice, and only Leon knows that he shoots the basketball, runs and moves the most of any player per day.

On top of that, some of the guys at the end of the bench tend to be overlooked by fans compared to these big-name free agents, team staples, and high rookies, but in the team's training camp, Leon observes them more carefully than others.

At present, the Celtics have a total of 18 players in the roster, excluding Pierce, who can really have a stable rotation, that is, nine players who can play an average of more than 20 minutes, which is also the product of Pitino's large-scale rotation.

Even with so many players in the rotation, there are still eight players who are not guaranteed playing time, at most 15 minutes and at least a point. For example, new signing Chris Carr, and Milt Palesio, who was just acquired in a mega-trade in August.

Leon observed them in the summer league and produced two detailed scouting reports, which were presented to Auerbach for review and then handed over to Celtics management, and the conclusion was that both men were embarrassed. However, in the end, Pitino still chose to sign and trade.

From the beginning of the draft, many of the choices Pitino made didn't look normal. Leon didn't think about it that much, and he continued to watch them during training camp, after all, the likes of Milt Pallesio are still young, a sophomore rookie, and have great potential.

It's just that Leon has never seen a shining point worth investing in these players, and the preseason is getting closer and closer.

During the summer league in Minnesota in July, Leon became half an assistant coach, where he could sit in the dugout, pretend to watch the game with a notebook, and occasionally scribble on it, like an assistant coach.

Now that the preseason is approaching, Auerbach does not know what force has put pressure on the Celtics management to let O'Brien directly direct the preseason game, while Pitino will not appear in the preseason dugout for physical reasons and team management reasons. In this way, Leon can finally become a temporary assistant coach, and his ascent through the ranks is staggering.

Of course, Leon is far from being a real assistant coach and has a much better path than going from a temporary scout to a full-fledged scout, at least until now, Leon doesn't even know a single NBA tactic.

The reason is simple, because Cardinal does not allow Leon to learn any tactics.