After leaving Condeco High School in the morning, Bellman drove to Palo Alto, a small city in the southwest of the Bay Area. Today he is going to Palo Alto High School to interview for the position of head coach of the basketball team.
He combed his hair smoothly and put on a decent suit. Along the way, he kept looking in the car mirror and applying some cream on his face to cover up his depression after being drunk last night.
The position of head coach at Palo Alto High School was an opportunity for him, an opportunity to turn around.
Before the age of 35, Bellman had a smooth ride. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, he stayed on the school basketball team as an assistant coach while studying for a graduate degree in sociology.
The year he graduated from graduate school, he married his long-time girlfriend and soon had a lovely daughter.
He is full of passion for basketball and continues to improve himself as an assistant coach. His goal is to become the head coach of an NCAA first-level team before the age of 35.
But in 1977, he was involved in a gambling case, which was quickly suppressed by the NCAA without fermentation, but Bellman lost his job as a result.
Although subsequent investigations proved that he was innocent, his job had been replaced and could not be restored.
Immediately afterwards, he and his wife had a marital crisis. They divorced in 1979, and their daughter followed his wife to New Jersey.
During this period, he contracted alcoholism and reported to a mutual aid club every week for alcohol treatment, but to no avail.
This spring, he suddenly received an invitation from Frank Alok, a former team member and junior student, to come to San Francisco. He said that he wanted to open a long-term basketball training camp and needed to find professional coaches to help.
The economic situation declined and Bellman, who couldn't find a way out, came to California. At that time, many people from the central region went to the West Coast to dream of California - Raymond's friend Isbell was one of them, and he later founded the company with Ross. "Guns N' Roses."
With Bellman's ability, the summer camp was completely overqualified. Moreover, he had a bad temper and was notorious for being dirty on the court. He was rarely complained by customers.
Therefore, engaging in a full-time team coaching job is his best way out.
Palo Alto High School is a well-known private school in the Bay Area with a beautiful environment, good teaching environment and good student quality.
It is definitely a very good choice to work here.
When he arrived at the high school, the fresh Mediterranean style of white and green on campus had already sobered up Bellman's groggy mind.
The interview also went very smoothly. Behrman's past resume and professional knowledge were more than enough to serve as the coach of an ordinary high school basketball team.
And because the interview was introduced by Karp LaVine, the school already had the intention to admit him, but the procedure still required interviews with other people and went through the process.
After the interview, Bellman hoped to take time to come to the school to see the basketball team training.
The director of the physical education department said that the team is undergoing summer training today and can be visited.
So Bellman went to the school gym and stood on the sidelines to observe the Palo Alto Vikings' training process up close.
The Vikings are not a strong team in California, and the quality of their players is naturally so-so.
After watching for more than 20 minutes, only a white defender named Diepenbrock left some impression on Bellman.
The others are all mediocre players who have no way of getting college basketball scholarships.
As he looked at these players, Bellman kept thinking of two people:
One is his own player at the University of Notre Dame, Bill Laimbeer.
This guy is a piece of shit playboy who wasted his talent. He wasted his time in college and did mischief. After graduation, he went to Europe to play in the autumn. He recently returned to the United States and joined the NBA.
He found a center job on a bad team like the Cavaliers and became a blue-collar defensive player. With his talent, he could become an All-Star if he worked hard.
After Behrman left the University of Notre Dame for some reason in 1977, no one was yelling in his ears to control him.
The other one is Gan Guoyang. He has a kind of confusing potential, like a black hole, bottomless, constantly attracting you.
During the 10 days of summer camp, Behrman felt that he was improving almost every day, and he was like an incredible white paper that you could apply whatever you wanted.
But in fact, he is already rich and colorful, maybe this blank paper is too big.
I don’t know what kind of performance he can perform in the 5v5 confrontation at the end of today’s class.
With his heart full of worries, Bellman ended his interview trip. The school said that he would consider it carefully after research. Privately, the school's sports director said that if there were no problems, he would be able to take up the post next week when school starts.
After having a light meal in Palo Alto at noon, Behrman returned to Walnut Creek in the afternoon. The COPA Sports Center was empty except for the cleaning staff mopping the floor.
I went to the office to see Alok, and he asked Behrman about the interview. Behrman said it was very good, and he had a high chance of getting hired.
Alok is very happy for this former assistant coach. Although he has a bad mouth and a bad temper, he is really a good coach and was really buried in the summer camp.
Moreover, in the first year of the summer camp, Alok had to think about his reputation and not make any more complaints.
Bellman asked about the 5v5 match on the last day. Alok raised his eyebrows and said, "Are you concerned about Forrest Gump's performance?"
"Of course, don't be too pretentious. How many points did he get?"
"Unfortunately, Forrest Gump didn't score a single point in the morning match."
"Not a single point? He got 0 points? You're kidding, how could that happen? This pig deserves to be thrown in even if it's thrown around."
Alok smiled and said: "Because he didn't throw any. He didn't take action on purpose. The gap between others and him is too big."
"Deliberately not taking action? This bumbling bitch, then...did his team win the game?"
"Of course, we won. He just didn't score, but he grabbed 44 rebounds and blocked 12 shots to the opponent. In fact, he still let it go, otherwise the game would not go on at all and the opponent would not be able to attack. I told you earlier. No, he doesn’t belong here, everyone is here to play and experience, this guy is serious about it.”
"... Damn it, who was the last person who could do this? Who do you think it was?"
"The last one? Bill Russell. It is said that when he was training with the Celtics, if he defended well, the team match could not go on. But I think this kid is not as good at jumping and bursting as Russell. , but he is more cunning than Russell and is good at manipulating the psychology of his teammates and opponents. He is only sixteen years old. God, I even feel that I, the referee on the sidelines, are dominated by him."
Alok's words sounded incredible, and they cast an even more mysterious and alluring veil over Gan Guoyang.
Behrman bit his fingers. He wanted to know what this guy would grow into in the future.
