Chapter 77: Sit on the sidelines

Rodman didn’t come to the training hall until 11 o’clock in the morning when the team’s morning training was over. Last night he played stud at the famous Golden God Casino in Connecticut until wee hours, and only drove from the casino early in the morning. Back in Boston, I slept in my apartment, ate something to cushion my stomach, and drove to the training center.
Originally, Rodman didn’t want to come to training. The past season can be said to be his last season in which he still has a passion for basketball. He has a new experience in Boston, where the passion for basketball and the glorious history are infected. he. However, as a veteran who is nearly 40 years old, there is nothing left to continue this enthusiasm except the championship, and the Celtics seem to be far away from the championship.
　　It was just the stud battle at the Golden Gods Casino last night. Rodman won first and then lost. The tens of thousands of dollars he won earlier all lost within an hour, and finally tens of thousands of dollars went in. Tens of thousands of dollars a night is not a big sum for Rodman. Many years of NBA career and advertising film income have made Rodman rich. But if he loses tens of thousands of dollars every day throughout the summer, Rodman can It's just too much. Moreover, in addition to gambling money, Rodman spent considerable money on motorcycles, nightclubs and women. If he does not want to become a star player who retires and is bankrupt, he must continue to play in Boston. This summer, the Celtics offered Rodman a basic salary of two million a year for a veteran. This basic salary is already the highest ceiling in the veteran contract exception, which is to take the Celtics to exchange blood in the draft. Kenny Anderson was sent away to squeeze enough room to give Rodman such a contract without triggering a luxury tax.
In order to be able to continue to squander money, Rodman had to drive to Waltham with a headache and dizzy. Fortunately, there were not many cars on the road. Even so, Rodman almost drove to the side of the road. in. When he arrived at the training hall, there were still a lot of reporters in the reception room outside the training hall. Many reporters saw Rodman only come at this time, and they all rushed to interview this flower bug and asked him why he was only at this time. Come for training.
Rodman has always been a careless and unrestrained person. When asked by reporters, he bluntly replied: "I went to the casino last night and lost some money, so I had to come to work in the morning because I want to work to make money." Rodman squeezed everyone into the arena and ran into the locker room to change clothes.
And this time was the interview time for the team’s first open training day. O’Brien was being interviewed by reporters on the sidelines of the training. Rodman’s remarks undoubtedly embarrassed O’Brien because he was just asked. When Rodman didn't participate in training, he also gave Rodman a cover and said that it was normal for Rodman to miss training because of his injury as a veteran.
　　 But Rodman's sudden arrival hit O'Brien with a big mouth. He didn't seem to be hurt at all, but he walked a little awkwardly. When Rodman got into the locker room on his own, O'Brien, who faced the reporter's questioning eyes, could only squeeze his lips in embarrassment: "Maybe the information from the team doctor is not accurate, and his injury is not so. serious."
Unlike O'Brien, Leon, who was doing anti-interference shooting for Michael Reid on the field, rushed back to the locker room and saw Rodman slowly changing his clothes, with red blood in his eyes. The smell of wine, the unique smell of poker and plastic chips in casinos. Leon asked, "You went to the casino again? You lost a lot of money again, right?"
　　 Rodman knew that there was nothing to hide from Leon’s eyes. He spread his hands and replied, "So I have to come over to work."
Last year Leon and Rodman established a good relationship. The two have very different personalities, but they are very attractive to each other. Leon thinks Rodman is so cute. Although Rodman is a lawless guy, he is right in his heart. Those who are rigorous and calm have a good impression, such as Chuck Daly. Not to mention that Leon taught Rodman a lot of gambling skills. At the end of the season, Rodman could often win money, but at the turn of summer and autumn, his luck plummeted and he won money. Not to mention all of them, I lost a lot of money.
Leon looked at Rodman, who looked indifferent, and his heart was a little angry. This guy has played steadily for a year. Now he seems to be a little bit eager and want to play tricks. Fortunately, he doesn't care about it in the casino, otherwise No shortage of money or addiction, he will surely cause trouble like he did in the Mavericks.
"I will go to the casino with you in a while, and I will use a false identity to help you win back a little money. But recently you have to play well and take part in training seriously." Leon had to agree to Rodman to accompany him. The casino finds a place to convince Rodman to train well. In the past, Phil Jackson used a similar technique to send an assistant to accompany Rodman to casinos and nightclubs to go crazy with him, and come back to play well after having enough fun. Now Leon is an assistant himself, promising to take Rodman to the casino to win money.
When Rodman heard this, he was excited. In fact, he didn't care about Leon going to help him win money, but going to the casino with Leon to gamble was an excitement and enjoyment for him. He still remembers being at the Sydney Star. At the Hong Kong City Casino, Leon swept all gambling methods from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, and finally forced the casino manager to come out and give Leon money to invite him to appear, and recorded his identity information. The Casino Leon basically can't get in, most of them play slot machines.
　　 Since then, Rodman has not been fortunate enough to witness Leon's demeanor in the casino. Rodman has so far admired two people in his life, one is Michael Jordan in basketball, the other is Fox Leon, in gambling. Jordan has announced that he is going to come back for the second time, and Leon has to show him face in the casino. This made Rodman's bad mood because of the loss all of a sudden healed. He put on his training suit and came forward. Leon gave a hug to express his joy.
When Rodman finished warming up and came to the training ground to prepare for training, the lunch time at noon was over. The young players on the field also stopped training. Walker and Pierce got rid of the entangled reporters and returned to the field to start the afternoon. Exercises. If on the match day, the lunch is over and the group training is almost over, but the amount of training will undoubtedly increase during the training camp, especially the training effect in the morning is not satisfactory to O'Brien.
　　 The Celtics have been practicing position defense throughout the morning. All young players, including Arenas and Johnson, are required to start from the defensive end. O'Brien inherited Pitino's concept of pressing defense on the court, and at the same time, with the help of Hart, he built a new defensive system, a simple and effective defensive system that is more suitable for the NBA rhythm. This is the Celtics. The key to their success last season was that they had a defense.
But this kind of training did not satisfy the players. Michael Reid hopes to strengthen his off-the-ball ability, Walker wants to practice three-pointers, and the newcomer Arenas is eager to prove himself in training, but until now He hasn't even touched the ball a few times so far. Joe Johnson is very obedient, but O'Brien must admit that this guy has no talent on the defensive end, and lateral movement is a flaw.
O'Brien asked everyone to practice defense on the morning of the first day of training. Not only did he want to further stabilize the team’s central idea of ​​
defense first,
he also wanted to use collective defensive training to clean up the team’s discipline. The early players' lazy performance made O'Brien very angry. And Rodman arrived in the afternoon, and the things that made him lose face in front of reporters added fuel to the fire. In the afternoon training before the start of the training, O'Brien's face was blue, and he reprimanded the players for their lazy style, and at the same time bluntly said that if some players do not want to participate in training, they should not come to training.
　　 In the past days as a team assistant coach, O'Brien has always been known for his gentle treatment of players, good communication with players, and relationship management. In the case of Pitino showing an iron face, he often appears as a red face and is the glue between the coach and the players. So last year when he became the head coach of the Celtics, he got the support of most Celtics players, especially the team's star Antoine Walker.
But this kind of "player's coach" has a major drawback, that is, it is difficult to establish the majesty of the coach. Antoine Walker threw 603 three-pointers last season and hit 221 of them. This kind of excessive three-pointers The projection is related to O'Brien's indulgence. O'Brien's distress came from this. As the head coach, he found that he could not always be a good guy. A good guy would be loved by everyone, but his prestige would be challenged without the respect and conviction of the players. If a head coach can't make the players obedient, it is impossible to use all kinds of tactics.
　　 O'Brien hopes to make a difference this season, he wants to be tougher, especially when there are more young people in the team, quickly establishing prestige is good for coaching young people.
The overall poorness of the team and Rodman’s lateness and uncompromising speech caused O’Brien’s anger to erupt. At the same time, Rodman became the main point of attack. In a calm state of "don't care about me, I don't bother you" ~EbookFREE.me~ It seems that O'Brien is a little bit interested in taking Rodman's operation.
"In the afternoon, we will practice offensive tactics. However, those guys who are absent from defensive training or who have not done their best in defensive training, please go to the side for sliding training and return run! Don’t get your undershirt soaked, just Don't stop!" O'Brien is not only targeting Rodman, but also rookies like Joe Johnson and Arenas who are not keen on defensive training. This made O'Brien extremely annoyed. The newcomer dared to violate the coach when he arrived. How should he train him in the future?
　　 At this moment, Rodman suddenly took off his training suit, fell to the ground, turned and walked towards the locker room without looking back.
　　 O'Brien blushed, and he yelled at Rodman: "Pick up your clothes! Otherwise you never want to wear it again!"
Where would Rodman pay attention to O'Brien, instead he would not go to the locker room, but walked directly to the gate of the training hall, where there are many reporters, if Rodman went out naked like this , Then another Celtic negative news will be exposed.
The old assistant coach Hart hurriedly pulled Leon beside him. He knew that only Leon and the odd-tempered Rodman could do well in the entire team, and only Leon could persuade the flower bug. As long as Leon speaks out, Definitely can call Rodman. The conflict between the head coach and the players is often inevitable. At this time, the assistant coach as a buffer is to be a good peacemaker.
However, Leon was indifferent to the gesture of Old Hart. Instead, he embraced his arms and coldly watched the situation in the arena get out of control. O'Brien stood on the floor with angrily and watched Rodman walk out of the arena. ~EbookFREE.me~ Book friends are welcome to visit and read. The latest, fastest and hottest serial works are all at ~EbookFREE.me~ mobile phone users, please go to read.