The Whip of the God of Basketball

Leon soon discovered that Scalabrine was a lovely guy. Except for the jokes when he just met and shook hands, Scalabrine always showed his kind and humorous side. He was unrestrained in front of Leon, and kept saying some funny and witty words, which eased the serious atmosphere brought by Leon a lot. Leon is not a relaxed and friendly person in terms of personality. He has always been known for his ruthless personality in the scouting circle, and his evaluation of players is accurate and ruthless. The scouting report was extremely concise, with only two sentences: Comprehensive skills but mediocre talent, no development potential.

After really getting in touch with Scalabrine for the first time, Leon felt that he should add a sentence later, that is, "he has a good personality and will be a very good lubricant for the team." Seeing Scalabrine, Leon remembered In addition to the Celtics player Vitali Potapanko, the Ukrainian insider also has a cheerful personality and likes to laugh at himself. Although his strength is mediocre, he is very popular with fans in Boston. From the perspective of scouts, such players are not very powerful, but from the perspective of team managers, they are all positive parts of a team, adjusting the atmosphere to make the locker room relaxed and happy.

Thinking that after the draft, the team will have a small thorn in the side of Arenas, and in a few months, they will sign a problem child like Chris Anderson. Leon knows the problem of the locker room at that time. But some head coaches are affected. It may be much better if the team has players like Scalabrine to adjust. Looking at Bryan, who was chatting and laughing with his juniors during training, Leon felt that if the Celtics had a pick in the second round this year, it would be an unexpectedly good choice to take him.

The first day of training ended quickly. At 2:30 in the afternoon, Bibby announced the disbandment, and at the same time notified the players that they would enter the official training day tomorrow, requiring the players to arrive before 9:00 in the morning and prepare for the hard training.

Bill Sharman has been sitting on the sidelines watching the young people's training. Unfortunately, except for Scalabrine, no other student can really recognize who he is. The old man is really an old-fashioned figure in the basketball world. . After the training, Sharman and Leon said goodbye first, and he said: "Work hard here, Arnold will definitely send someone to check and accept it. Also, I will come again in a week or so, Arnold still wants me Bring someone to coach you on tactics, so you figure out the management side of things this week. Come on boy, there's nobody like you."

After speaking, Sharman drove away from the University of Southern California, leaving only Bibby and Leon in the arena. The students had already gone to the locker room to change clothes and take a bath to relax.

"Come to the video room with me. I will meet with that kid tonight. I will show you his performance on the court first." Bibby put the topic on the help he asked for Leon. The "kid" he was referring to was a small Chicago point guard named Will Bynum. The deepest impression is that besides being strong, he is also strong.

After watching the videos of the three games, Leon commented: "It's really a strong little frog. It would be pretty good if he can share a little bit of his long bones with his height. But he should be the best in the street now. Good player, good speed and power projection, great dribble, impressive dribble in the crotch, 100 meters should be around 10.7 seconds. And I have to say, although he is strong, but this is in high school, I don't think he'll have that kind of advantage in college, especially in the NBA. Anyway, he's a pretty good player, but it seems..."

Leon wanted to say it, but it didn't seem worth the effort to dig him out. Leon originally thought that Bibby wanted to help persuade some talented high school students to join the University of Southern California, although Leon didn't dabble in high school basketball. , but he also knows that as a large number of high school graduates enter the NBA with high picks, this field is also getting more and more attention. Maybe this Will Bynum is very famous in Chicago, but Leon doesn't know much about him. He remembers that when he read the Tribune in Chicago, there was a report about a certain basketball TV program that mentioned Bynum. Hum, Leon was very impressed with that report, and Dockery and Eddie Curry also participated in the show. But Leon knew nothing about Bynum's skills before watching these three video tapes.

Bibby knew what Leon meant, he shook his head and said: "It's not exactly what you think. I want to get Bynum. On the one hand, it is because of the needs of the team. We lack such an attacking point guard. At the critical moment against Duke last year, no one could score with the ball. If there is an assaulter like Bynum, maybe we can bite the score. In fact, I contacted Bynum as early as last summer, and he was interested in it at that time. He has always played in California, but in the end he signed a letter of intent to play at the University of Arizona in November. He will go to Arizona to sign up this year. However, before officially registering, he still has a chance to change. It happens that there will be a training camp in Los Angeles recently. , Bynum signed up for training camp to come to Los Angeles, I have invited him to meet tonight. I want to get him no matter what, Olson guy they already have Jason Garnard and they want to snatch Bynum Namu, you are deliberately setting up obstacles for me..."

In the end, Bibby was already gnashing his teeth, and Leon could see that Bibby wanted Bynum not so much from the perspective of the team, but from the perspective of competing with the University of Arizona. His love and hatred are indescribable. He once worked as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona, where he started his coaching career, but was expelled from the NCAA for admissions violations. At that time, the University of Arizona did not give Bibby any asylum, but directly terminated his contract, forcing Bibby to go to the CBA, unable to follow a regular path of advancement like most famous coaches.

So when he became famous 10 years later, he readily accepted the invitation of the University of Arizona's rival University of Southern California to become an assistant coach for the Trojans. Unexpectedly, when he became the head coach of the University of Southern California, the University of Arizona snatched his son again. Old Henry, who once tried his best to persuade Mike Bibby to come to Southern California, was once again stabbed severely by the University of Arizona, so when the Arizonans snatched Will Bynum again, Bibby did everything possible to get Bynum from him. They snatched it back.

The arrival of Leon undoubtedly added a boost to Bibby. At a steakhouse near the University of Southern California at night, Bibby and Leon met Will Bynum who came to Los Angeles to participate in the training camp. In order to recapture Bynum, Bibby reimbursed Bynum's fees for signing up for the training camp, travel and accommodation, and meals, and this steak meal was no exception.

Leon saw Bynum who was about the same height as himself. This young and strong black boy had broad shoulders and a short neck, and he looked very stocky. He had a silent personality, and he just ate steak at the dinner table, and he simply responded to what Bibby said to him. When Bibby introduced Leon, Bynum just nodded and didn't have much reaction. It seems that Bibby's strategy of attracting Bynum through Leon's status as a well-known scout failed.

"What else do you want to eat? Would you like a caramel biscuit? I think you like it very much..." Bibby looked at Bynum, who was eating too much, and could only order for him to try to break the dull situation up. It seems that Bynum didn't reject Bibby's help to him, but he didn't seem to have much interest in coming to Southern California to play.

Leon stared at Bynum for a while, and after Bynum finished eating the third steak in front of him, Leon asked: "Is your mother Rose okay? If you play in Arizona in the future, who will go to Chicago?" Take care of her? Los Angeles is actually a good place to recuperate for a person with bad kidneys, which will be good for his body."

Bynum finally stopped talking. He looked up at Leon and said, "How do you know that my mother's kidneys are not good."

Leon took a sip of coffee, pointed to his head and said, "You know, I have everything in my head."