Chapter 177: Iron Fist Coach

Larry Bird sat in the exclusive seat of the Conseco Arena after watching the Celtics and the Pacers in the first half of the game. His expression was as flat as ever. After all, he faced each other after winning the championship. For those who can calm down with the influx of tens of thousands of fans, it is not a big deal if your team is behind in an ordinary regular season.
The years have left deep marks on the former Celtic superstar. The once fluffy, golden hair has become sparse, sloppy yellow-gray short hair, the original full and powerful cheeks have been swollen, from the fresh The apple became a dough ball. The moustache that I had left in the past has long since disappeared. She is wearing a brown-gray coat and a navy blue round-neck underwear inside. There is no longer a player’s time, when wearing a green shirt. Not as domineering as Jordan is, or the affinity of the magician is undiminished, it seems that he is an Indiana corn farm owner.
If there is not much change compared to the past, it is Bird's expression when dragging his cheeks to watch the game, always like a good student who is focused on listening, for fear of missing any detail in the class.
But this is just the appearance. Bird has never been a person who is engrossed off the court. Only when he stands on the court will he be fully involved. Once he sits on the bench, his thoughts will drift freely. Of course, these thoughts are the same as basketball. Related, this is why Larry Bird can be successful among those basketball superstars who want to be coaches and get the best coach.
He spent half of his time thinking tonight. How to move Isiah Thomas from the position of Pacers coach? Although Thomas now seems to lead the team very well, Bird does not think he can lead the Pacers to success in the playoffs. As early as two and a half years ago, he opposed Thomas being the Pacers coach, but the boss meant it. Make him unable to resist.
Two and a half seasons down. The team continues to improve in the regular season, but Bird believes that it is the credit of the team's operation. After all, signing O'Neal Jr., acquiring Brad Miller and Ron Artest, but not much to do with Thomas , The only thing that matters is that he cultivated O'Neal and promoted his growth.
But this is far from enough in Bird's view. He is tired of Thomas’s iconic smile and complex and changeable tactics. He doesn’t like this kind of tactical construction at all. It allows players to adopt various tactics like chess pieces, but ignores the skills of the players. Embedding and training of tactical ability. And Thomas’ tactics relied so much on low-post offense, and many times those complicated runs turned into simple turn-over jumpers in the end. This is what makes Bird the most unbearable.
He missed the enthusiasm that the Pacers put into tactical training when he was a coach. Rick Carlisle and Dick Hart were his right-hand men back then. They have a specific and stable tactical routine, and the players' experience and talents allow them to bring enough changes on the spot.
Now, Hart is sitting on the Celtics coaching bench for his former club. This kind of scene is common in the NBA, and once close teammates may face each other on the court. What else is impossible. But what surprised him was that during a timeout, he actually saw the Celtics coach hand over the tactical board to Hart, let Hart lay out the tactics for the players, and the coach himself Stand aside and watch.
This allows Bird to see some of his own shadow. When he was in the Pacers, he liked to hand over the tactical explanation to the assistant coach, if the opponent could do better than himself in some details. Bird, who has been in the league for so many years, knows. Like this, the head coach who gave the tactical right to the assistant coach, apart from him, Bird, seems to have no second one. If there is one, it is the "wild boy" of the Celtics.
Although good fans call Leon "Scarface", Bird likes to call him "Wild Boy" because he is a guy who emerged out of thin air and was picked up by Auerbach from the labor camp. , After two years of washing and decorating, he was promoted to the position of head coach.
Byrd admitted that he was jealous of this guy deep in his heart. He dedicated his entire career to the Celtics and brought great brilliance, but in the end he was hung on the door like a pennant and blew cold. Have never entered the core of the Celtics, never had a chance to get the throne of the head coach, and now he has been given the hand by such a guy.
Then he seems to be doing pretty well. He is said to be a data expert. He has a good set of analysis of players' game data. He has a good memory and knows many tactics. However, what Bird hates most is such a coach, a group of data experts who have emerged in recent years. With the help of computers and video tapes, they want to use a set of numbers to deconstruct a basketball game without having played a game.
In Bird's view, these people are a group of "whimsical, pen and paper dwarfs", so Fox-Leon’s success can only be temporary and limited, just like Thomas, only in the regular season. In a game that lacks specificity, relying on the talents and on-the-spot performance of the players to win part of the game, when it comes to the playoffs, it will only be beaten.
Thinking of this, Bird took his mind back, and started thinking about how to get Thomas away again, and replaced it with his favorite Rick Carlisle, now he is in the Pistons. It's ironic that a former Celtics general manager wants to send a former Pistons coach away and get a former Celtics coach, and this coach is now coaching in the Pistons.
"It would be great if Isiah could roll back to Detroit..." At the beginning of the second half, Byrd thought from the bottom of his heart, how much he hopes Thomas can go back to coach the Pistons and let Dumars be his good partner. Sign it back in exchange for Carlisle.
However, after the second half of the game, Bird saw some differences in the Pacers, more intense physical confrontation, he did not hesitate to pull down the breakthrough of the Celtics players, and spared no effort to block the three-pointers. In the first few minutes of the third quarter. The Pacers even made the Celtics 1 of 6 shots. It's just that the Pacers' own offense seems to have been disrupted. They missed their shots and kept hitting both sides, making the scene quite ugly.
Leon continued to stand on the sidelines to supervise the battle. He has anticipated that the first half will rely too much on inside breakthroughs and three-pointers, and he will definitely encounter resistance in the second half. In the case of a strong inside attack point, it is very important to change the rhythm, but the Pacers have already determined. Playing hand-to-hand does not give the Celtics a chance to start fast. The pressure of the audience and the expansion of the defense made it difficult for the Celtics accelerator Arenas to start.
Perhaps the scene was too ugly, and the NBA officials couldn't stand it anymore. An official timeout was given during the 4 minutes of the game. During these 4 minutes, the Celtics scored a goal and scored 3 points. The Pacers scored two free goals and scored 5 points. The point difference was only reduced by 2 points.
"They are playing rugby! I suspect that the ball in my hand is round?" Arenas complained right away. He sat on the bench and drank water. Obviously he was targeted and took the ball. Someone came to double-team before halftime, and immediately disappeared as soon as a double-teamed ball. Arenas is not the kind of super ball master with insight into the audience, in a static state. His passing vision is limited to a 60-degree radius and 10 feet in front of him. Under dynamic conditions, his ability to divide the ball will be greatly enhanced.
Isiah Thomas deserves to be a super point guard. He knows how to deal with young people like Arenas, knows how to disrupt his game rhythm, and his goal has been achieved. Leon put Steve Cole after the timeout. He put on the court and let the more experienced Cole sort out the team's offense.
but. Leon didn't expect that Steve Kerr's appearance would almost lead to a super fight.
After Cole came on the field, the Pacers’ double double-teaming also lost its effect. Cole didn’t have to push forward at all. He and Pierce and Reid could easily resolve the double-team double with a few short passes in the backcourt. Begin trying to use the one-on-one ability of Pierce and Walker to open the situation. First, Pierce hit a jumper directly after receiving the ball at 45 degrees on the right, and then Walker used the Pacers' error to quickly counterattack and layup. The defending O'Neal beater fouled Walker to the free throw line.
At this time, the mood of the two sides is already a bit bad. O'Neal's foul is quite fierce. Walker fell to the ground severely. Leon can't remember this is the Celtics player's first half-time game. , He couldn't help yelling at the referee, "Is this just a normal foul? Is this just a normal foul?"
Immediately afterwards, the Pacers’ offensive focus came to Ron Artest. He caught the ball with his back at 45 degrees on the right. Sigma rushed to the basket. First he scored a goal and caused PJ-Brown to foul. The same trick was repeated again, but this time Pierce was very tight. It was unexpected that Artest would fake Pierce away after turning around. As a result, Pierce couldn't control it and immediately pressed on Artest.
Artest seemed to be very controlled. He put his arm around Pierce to prevent him from falling over. Pierce also patted Artest on the head, and the situation suddenly eased. As a result, on the free throw, Reggie Miller and Steve Cole started to quarrel, just when Artest made the second free throw, and the score was closer to prepare to return to defense. , Miller and Cole have scolded each other near the three-second zone.
"You better shut up, otherwise just wait..." Cole was obviously angry in the face of Miller's endless trash talk. He didn't play a lot of time in this game, but his grievance with Miller has a long history. , Since the Cole Bulls period in the 1990s, the famous "bow moment" of the 1994 season made Miller meet Cole on the court without being polite to him. So in just a few minutes of playing time, Miller has sprayed tons of trash at Cole.
And tonight Cole’s temper is obviously not very good. The fierce confrontation and constant fouls, the noise of the fans on site, made every Celtics player tense, and people became irritable and irritable. Everyone was there. restraint. Obviously, Miller made Cole angry. The little man who dared to punch Jordan in training pointed to Miller's nose and cursed.
The so-called action when they didn't agree, the two did not fight, but the arms and arms were entangled. The referee’s whistle sounded like a police siren. This was the second time that the two sides had such a situation in this game. This put the referee Willard and others under great pressure. Obviously, they still controlled the scale at the beginning of the game. something wrong.
The players on both sides gathered again, but there were still many persuading people. Both sides can restrain their anger. But there is one person who can't restrain himself, that is, Fox Leon. In his opinion, the Pacers' players are really deceptive and foul. Still swearing. He ran straight from his coaching area to the penalty area, squeezed into the crowd and pulled Steve Cole away, shouting at Miller: "What's-fucking-up! (What do they want to do!) "
Very few coaches will be involved in player conflicts. After all, the coaches seem to be gentle, and they are also getting older and will not be true to the players. But Leon is young among the coaches. He was so angry tonight, and he wanted to protect his players too much, just like the Bucks last time, he rushed to the front line.
This time Miller was not Mason, his mouth was smelly enough to see Leon step forward. He opened his mouth and yelled with a blank expression on his face: "Who-are-you, tell-me-who-are-you? I-made-my-bones-when-you-were-going-out-with- cheerleaders! (Who are you, tell me who you are? You were still playing in the mud when I became famous!"
Leon is not a person who is good at fighting back verbally. He has always used his words accurately and sparingly. He doesn't like to talk nonsense. But Miller's words angered him. He knew he was a rookie coach in the league, a three-no coach with no background, no qualifications and no experience. He is working hard, struggling, and changing for this. And Miller was like a vicious woman, mocking his flaws with words.
The flames of anger spread to Leon's brain center, and then from the brain center to his fists. After the pair of calloused iron fists came to this body, Leon did not pull down the punch. He often skips ropes and hits punching bags to exercise his body. This body has become accustomed to the days of boxing.
Miller watched Leon silently and did not respond, and he was still a little proud. He thought that if he didn't have the ability, he wouldn't be a front guard player. But as soon as this idea flashed in his mind, he felt a gust of wind toward his face. When it blew, a big fist quickly came into view, and Miller was shocked and didn't move. Fortunately, the fist didn't hit his face, but hit his collarbone and chest.
He only felt tight in his chest, and the whole person took two steps back. The tremendous strength made him almost unable to stand firmly. His chest was strong and received two punches from Leon!
Leon was punching so fast that no one stopped him, and perhaps no one thought that an NBA coach would punch an opponent player! But everything happened like this, and then everything fell into chaos. The Pacers' players saw the team's veteran Miller being beaten and could still sit still, and all of a sudden came up.
Ron Artest rushed towards Leon, waving his right arm like a punch to Leon, but Pierce grabbed Artest, and Leon couldn’t control that much, and turned to Artest. There were two more punches, one on the neck, one on the chest, and Pierce pulled from behind, and Artest fell sideways.
Afterwards, Leon seemed to have set up a horsepower harvester. Although Cole hugged him tightly in the back, the players who could not stop the Pacers surged here, and Leon came to fight one by one, facing him. With seven or eight arms, his straight punch is so fierce that those Pacers can't get close at all! The guys who tried to hold Leon's neck were all hit by Leon with two uppercuts.
The referee was about to collapse. They were blowing their whistle madly outside and couldn't get into the crowd. The fans on the spot were also excited. Some people threw coke and popcorn into the field.
At this time Leon has been surrounded by PJ-Brown, Dalemport and Wang Zhizhi, and no one will be allowed to approach him again. It is not afraid of others hurting him, but afraid that he will hurt others.
Leon's original meticulous hair was tossed, two more blood stains appeared on his face, his suit was torn, his tie was loose, and one shoe was missing. But the Pacers’ side is even worse~EbookFREE.me~ After Artest fell to the ground, he was pressed by Pierce and never got up again. The others punched each, and it was considered that Leon’s men had not hit their chin with mercy, or they did. He was tall and could stand awake on the court, but he was hit with pain on his body and arms.
Fortunately, the Celtics players remained calm and restrained. After all, their coach did not suffer and beat them. They also mainly discouraged. In the end, they did not form a big fight, but became Leon's single against the Pacers. pick.
Finally, the scene was finally under control. Isiah Thomas stood on the sidelines in a daze. He could have seen a big scene, but he had never seen such a scene. A coach, selected a team of people, looked at a place. He couldn't smile anymore on the stadium.
Leon was unexpectedly sent off the court and returned to the locker room under the of PJ and Wang Zhizhi. When he left, he still did not forget to yell at the Pacers bench: "A-group-of-coward ! (A group of cowards!
No Pacers player dared to reply because they were afraid of being beaten.
But Bird, who was sitting in the exclusive position on the sidelines, was still motionless, but with a slight smile on his face, watching Leon disappear from the back of the passage, gently shook his head and said: "Interesting guy, funny guy..." To be continued.)