The Whip of the God of Basketball

The hot July has begun to arrive on the North American continent, and the hot summer has officially arrived. All parts of the United States are shrouded in scorching heat. This summer seems to be especially hot. As the off-season for professional leagues, and as an odd-numbered year, there are no championships, so players are either comfortably on vacation or busy participating in various business and social activities. But for those newcomers who have just joined the NBA and are preparing to start their careers in three months, the summer league in July is a necessary transition. Even a talented player like LeBron James should try his hand at the summer league and experience the atmosphere of a professional league in advance.

Since 30 teams are scattered across the United States, the host cities of the summer league are divided into four, namely Las Vegas, Minnesota, Los Angeles and Orlando. The Boston Celtics chose to participate in the summer league in Orlando to train. Their rookies, and see if they can recruit in the summer league and discover some useful cheap players.

Because the deal was officially completed on June 29, and after Kevin Garnett joined the Boston Celtics, their staffing was really stretched. For this reason, Fox-Leon had to personally lead the summer league team and prepare to use his vicious eyes to find treasures in Orlando.

At his hotel in Orlando, Leon was agonizing over the roster. The summer league also needs to gather a 15-man roster. The problem is that the Celtics can't even gather 12 people now, and they still have to gather 15 people for the summer league team.

In fact, it is not difficult for Leon to gather 15 people. In summer training camps like Orlando, three-legged toads are hard to find, and two-legged young players are everywhere. Some are undrafted players who failed to be selected in this year's draft, and some are players in the Development League or other leagues. Anyway, they all want to rely on the summer league to show their face in front of NBA coaches and scouts, and they may not be able to get a valuable trial training opportunity. , and even got a short contract and found a chance to enter the NBA.

Therefore, there are basketball gold diggers everywhere here. If Leon wants to, call some local scouts or agents, and they will immediately provide Leon with a dozen young guys who can play.

But Leon came to Orlando with a mission this time. His goal was not only to train his two newcomers, but also to discover one or two available talents as much as possible to fill the Celtics' lineup. For this reason, Leon released news that the Celtics need players with minimum salary to join. He hopes that those players who think they have the ability to enter the NBA can sign up for the Celtics' summer team.

As soon as the news came out, Leon quickly received a large number of calls and text messages, all from third- and fourth-rate agents, recommending their players to Leon. Leon didn't care about anything, but first asked these agents to send all the players' basic data and information to his mailbox, and then he started the painful screening.

Although these agents will exaggerate in player reports, the data does not lie. Leon used his powerful data processing capabilities to quickly set a standard in his mind. For him, he doesn't need those who are good at scoring and rebounding in lower-level leagues, because he knows that such players will have no room to perform in the NBA. What he wants are guys with special abilities in other aspects.

After two overnight screenings, on July 6, Leon finally selected the 12 Celtics summer league roster, including Marquis Daniels, Boris Diaw, Alexander, and Dele. Except for the five players, Mbote and Bellman, who are playing for or will play for the Celtics, the other seven are all undrafted players in recent years.

Leon does not look at position when selecting players, which means that he will not deliberately select two or three players in each position in order to form a team, but will select the best based on ability. So among these 7 people, there are 4 forwards and 2 shooting guards, and the Celtics are currently in short supply of only one point guard.

However, Leon also knows that it is unrealistic to find an undrafted or young lower league player to fill the position of point guard. Point guards rely very much on experience and maturity. Each of these young point guards are going With a speedy route, a point guard's skin and a shooting guard's heart, Leon simply doesn't expect to find a good point guard in the summer league.

On the contrary, forwards eat their bodies. As long as they dare to play hard, one or two forward players will be born in the NBA every summer league. Ben Wallace was one of the leaders back then and is now the core of the Pistons' defense.

Of course, it is not easy to find another Ben Wallace, and these strikers all have the same obvious flaw as Ben Wallace - Undersize. Among the four strikers, two power forwards are both small forwards. Height, both small forwards are the height of guards. There is nothing that can be done about this. If they had normal height for their position, they would not be selected.

Early in the morning on July 1st, Leon came to the basketball stadium of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, which is the venue for the Celtics' summer training camp this year. In order to facilitate the management of players, Leon and the Celtics summer league team arrived in Orlando a week in advance and rented a local university venue for training in order to avoid possible interference in Boston and allow the players to focus more on practice.

Leon came very early. When he opened the door of the training hall, it was just dawn. You must know that this is summer, and it was completely bright at about six o'clock. At this time, the arena was empty, no one was there. Last night, Leon sent a text message to all the players participating in the training camp, asking them to arrive as early as possible without specifying a time, just to see if anyone was earlier than him.

As a result, Leon sat on a bench on the sidelines and watched the sky outside gradually lighten up. The 12 players arrived one after another. To the last player who arrived at the arena, Leon said bluntly to him: "You don't have to do it tomorrow." Come on, professional basketball is not for you." Just like that, the 12-man roster became 11, and for a while the entire team was silent.

This improvised team, with no organization and discipline, and everyone with their own goals, stood in front of Leon. As a coach, no matter what the ultimate goal is, leading a team well should be the most basic requirement for you.

"Today is the first day of training. Some of you are eager to enter the NBA, some are about to enter the NBA, and some have been playing in the NBA for a few years, but I don't see the basics that a professional player should have from you. Quality. You came later than a coach!" Leon began his training, which was also the first step in his selection.

"If you want to play in the NBA, then please come to training earlier. If you are about to enter the NBA, then please come to training earlier. If you have been playing in the NBA for several years, then you should come earlier. Training!" Leon's sudden roar startled everyone.

"Of course, I didn't tell you that time is also a problem, so starting from tomorrow, I will accompany you at 5:30 in the morning." At 5:30, NBA teams actually do not train so early. But this is not an NBA team, but a more cruel NBA candidate team.

Leon quickly started his first training program. It was neither tactical practice nor basic skills training, nor was it exquisite off-ball simulation training. It was the simplest physical training - running circles, and ran for a whole morning.

Leon knew that nothing could be accomplished in more than a week of training, so this week was more of a test than training, testing the will, endurance, motivation and basic skills of this group of players. Through these tests, combined with his performance in the summer league, Leon will make his choice.

A morning of running left everyone exhausted, and two guys even started complaining that they shouldn't participate in the Celtics' summer training camp. They felt that such training was meaningless and they couldn't improve themselves. Naturally, these two people were silently blacklisted by Leon. The training camp is called training camp. It is actually a place for players to show themselves. The real training improvement depends on their own daily efforts.

The two rookies Daniels and Diaw also looked very tired. Obviously this was different from the NBA training they imagined, but they were frightened by Leon's brutality and did not show any emotion at all.

What really caught Leon's attention was a small forward. He showed plenty of energy and vitality in the morning's physical training, and did not show a trace of impatience. He seemed to be satisfied with everything, and he also Came very early.

Therefore, Leon silently recorded his name on the watch list, this guy named Haslem.