Just when Leon was heading to New York to take advantage of the fire, D'Antoni was worried about the team's tactical training, and in the team training on November 3, D'Antoni gave the team a three-hour tactical training session to further adjust the team's tactical use in attack and the distribution of the ball.

In particular, the issue of ball distribution is a super big problem for Leon and a big problem that the Suns have been facing in previous seasons. It shouldn't have been an issue, and after Nash came to the team, the super point guard became the team's best offensive engine, and his turnover-assist ratio was amazing, and it can be said that as long as Nash is on the court, almost every offense of the Suns has to go through Nash's hands.

And this season, Leon asked Nash to reduce his assists, reduce his offensive role, and give the ball to others more. Judging from the first game, the effect was not very significant, and the Suns still relied on the overall advantage to crush the opponent. Now, Leon has put forward higher requirements, to directly design independent tactics for Stadamire and Dior, which can make D'Antoni scratch his head, designing tactics for the interior and training is not his forte.

There was no way, D'Antoni stubbornly led the whole team to practice for three hours, and from time to time took out the tactical folder that Leon left for him to take a look, but after reading it a few times, he didn't read it, because he couldn't understand a lot of things Leon wrote, not that D'Antoni was stupid, but some of Leon's diagrams, tables, and terms, which only he could understand.

Looking forward to the stars and the moon, on the afternoon of November 4th, Leon finally returned to Phoenix, and he had almost done everything in New York, which was put on a long line, just waiting for the big fish to take the bait. Next, he will focus on putting his energy into the Phoenix Suns, from summer training camp, to the preseason, to the first game of the regular season, and the team has been running very well so far.

As Leon's experience in the past few years has shown, a tall and magnificent championship iceberg must have a larger part of the underwater support, everything is good for the team at the moment, all he has to do is to maintain this state, so after the arrival of the 1st in Phoenix, Leon called D'Antoni and asked him to give the players a holiday in the afternoon, he said that he would take everyone to eat Mexican barbecue.

"Eating barbecue? All of them? ”

"To all, to everyone, including your coaching staff."

D'Antoni couldn't believe his ears, he still had a stomach full of questions he wanted to discuss with Leon, why did Leon go to the barbecue again? But there is no way, Leon is the head coach, everything has to be listened to him, D'Antoni informed everyone that the tactical training in the afternoon was canceled, and then asked to have dinner together.

Leon went home and took a shower, took a little rest, watched the game video for half an hour, spent 20 minutes browsing the recent financial news in the United States, and spent 15 minutes looking at ESPN's basketball express. He called his wife again, chatted about the recent situation, and went out to drive to the barbecue restaurant.

Leon spoke with Nash before coming at the Rotisserie in Southwest Phoenix, a great Mexican barbecue restaurant that Leon said used to go there to have dinner and indulge his appetite a little. After arriving, the entire Suns team basically arrived, including the coaching staff, the main players and the bench, such a big battle is not common.

In the NBA, even if it is the same team, the players have a small circle, and the players are of different ages, young people and young people play together, middle-aged people and middle-aged people together, or middle-aged big brothers take young brothers out to mix, in short, it is convenient to move.

Besides, there are more than 20 players and coaches in a team, and no matter what activities they do, there are too many people, and it is inconvenient to be eye-catching, except to play basketball.

Fortunately, now that the season has just begun, the players are still in a relatively relaxed state, and the relationship and atmosphere of the team are generally very good, so it is not difficult to come out and do activities together.

Leon greeted everyone, everyone seemed to be in a good mood, most of the NBA players were relatively simple-minded, young people in their early 20s, various millionaires, they could get money every day when they played, and it could be said that they lived an ideal good life.

The Suns' players also discovered that Leon is not as terrible as the legend says, he is just very strict on the court, and his life is quite relaxed, he missed training at the beginning of the season and went to New York to "play", and now when he comes back, he invites everyone to eat barbecue, and some negative worries about him before the start of the season are quickly swept away.

Of course, this is just what they see Fox Leon at the moment, but the players don't think much about it anyway, except for smart people like Nash, who knows that everything Leon has done since coming to the Suns has a purpose, but Nash is on Leon's side, because everything Leon does is for the championship.

This meal everyone had a good meal, a small party, Leon even allowed the players to drink a little wine, and then everyone played High, some people even wanted to play poker with Leon, of course, Leon was killed as a dog, and everyone stopped cooking.

D'Antoni has been looking for an opportunity to talk to Leon about tactical issues, but he has not been able to find a good opportunity, until the end of this dinner, everyone is going back, D'Antoni ran to Leon's car, D'Antoni did not drink, he sat in the passenger seat and asked: "What have you been doing these two days?" I missed a training session, and I took the players to eat and drink, and your tactical folder, I can't even understand it! ”

Leon seemed to be having a good time, but in fact he didn't drink a drop of wine, and he didn't even eat much barbecue, because it was too greasy and heavy, and he ate more healthily now. In the face of D'Antoni's questioning, Leon put his hand on his shoulder, motioned for him to calm down, and said, "Mike, how many games have we played now?" ”

"It's just one game."

"How many lost?"

"We haven't lost yet."

"That's not great."

"But we've only had a fight!"

"Yes! Just one fight! ”

Leon emphasized D'Antoni's words again, and then looked at D'Antoni, D'Antoni stopped talking, he thought for a while, thought about it and asked: "Then our tactics ......"

"Don't worry, we still have a lot of time, slowly go to training and run in and experiment, I believe in you Mike, you have to believe in me, and you have to believe in your players. I know that the whole sun is filled with a 'I want to change' breath from top to bottom, and everyone wants to transform immediately, just like you did in '05, to be reborn and enter the championship ranks, so I am here. ”

Leon paused, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, took a puff, and continued: "And since I came here, it didn't go as you wanted, although I made some changes, but they didn't seem obvious, and even deliberately prevented some changes from coming. I know Steve Kerr has been brewing big trades to turn the team upside down. But I know Kerr, he's a great guy, whether it's a player or anything, except for the team manager. ”

D'Antoni nodded, and Leon said: "The manager and the manager are often on opposite sides, a good coach will always win the hearts of the people, get the support and support of the players, he has to learn to be obedient, of course, this obedience may only be superficial, but at least the stars are left and right, so that those big-tempered guys are willing to listen to your command, fortunately Nash is a good guy, and Amare is still young." ”

Nash is indeed very good at MVP-level players, and of course it has to do with his personality and life experience.

"The general manager is different, he is the man on the boss's side, he dominates the livelihood of the players, he is always on the opposite side of the belly, and he does the right and bad things for the long-term thinking, and it is difficult for the players to like them. So you know how difficult it is for a guy like Cole to be a manager, he will always follow the trend, but the manager can't follow the trend, he has to be unique, ruthless, and scolded by countless people when necessary, and finally let time prove that he is right. ”

After saying that, Leon took another puff of cigarette, one cigarette was almost burned, and D'Antoni was no longer speaking.

"Anyway, on my side, do your day-to-day work, it's a mature team, the players are smart, we have a lot of veterans, we have the best point guards, the problems on the court, as long as you give them guidance, they will solve it themselves." Believe me. ”

In the end, Leão persuaded D'Antoni to have a pleasant dinner, which was undoubtedly a good thing for the cohesion of the players. But for a team, there is only one thing that binds you together, and that is victory.

On the evening of Nov. 4, while the Suns were having dinner, the Los Angeles Lakers flew to Phoenix, where they will win the team's second game of the season, and their first home opener was a narrow defeat to the Houston Rockets, casting a shadow over the new season.

The team's star and the super-scoring champion of the previous two seasons, Kobe Bryant, stayed with the Lakers after a summer of exodus, but if the team still doesn't improve, the superstar still doesn't rule out being traded.

And Phoenix, Kobe Bryant really doesn't like it very, very much, especially in the past two years, two consecutive seasons have failed here, and this year the Suns have changed their head coach and ushered in that annoying guy, and Phoenix is even more disgusting.

As soon as he got off the plane, at the airport, Kobe Bryant ignored any reporters' interviews, put on headphones and got on the bus to the hotel, and in the face of some persevering reporters, Kobe Bryant only said one sentence: "I ill do my best." (I'll do my best)"