The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 213 - 100: The Gap

The most important point in arguing is to never follow the other person’s line of thinking or logic, as many people tend to get provoked and then sidetracked by the other party.

For example, someone insults you, "You play basketball like XXX"!

To prove you don’t play like XXX, you might try to excuse yourself, claiming that you play beautifully, and may even want to showcase your elegant layup.

This traps you in a cycle of self-justification; arguing is never about proving yourself right but about attacking the other person, and it should be an attack without any rationale.

So, the correct approach at this time is to ignore whether you play beautifully or not, and not to get involved in the trivial dispute over who plays more beautifully, but to directly launch an attack on the opponent.

If you know the opponent’s weaknesses, it’s even better to focus your attack on those weaknesses.

Gan Guoyang had been teammates with Bird during the Olympic Team vs. All-Star Team game, and the first time they met, Gan Guoyang had detected a familiar scent about him.

That scent was a mix of arrogance at the top, self-fulfillment in the middle, and an undercurrent of inferiority. It was all too familiar.

The last time Gan Guoyang caught this scent was on his teammate Xu Xun, only Xu Xun didn’t have nearly the athletic talent as Bird. Last summer, Xu Xun and his family moved away from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a city with a larger Korean population, where they set up a shop to make a living.

For Bird, coming from a poor family in rural Indiana to Boston was no different than an outsider coming to a big city in America; in either case, they were looked down upon as country bumpkins.

His family life was not complete; his father, never having psychologically recovered from his participation in the Korean War, committed suicide by gunshot in 1975, leaving Bird with a lifelong shadow.

Arrogance and pride weren’t Bird’s true colors but were his weapons for attacking opponents and armor for protecting his inner self.

Of course, Gan Guoyang would never attack Bird using the death of his father, as that would be too unethical; and for Gan Guoyang himself, the only weakness in his heart was his father in this life. If anyone tried to use this against him on the basketball court, Gan Guoyang would want to kill him.

Because he was familiar with this scent, Gan Guoyang was quickly able to find a gap in Bird’s armor—he guessed that Bird, while a leader on the Celtics, might not be liked by everyone, and that he was quite concerned about this.

Indeed, Bird was not as popular within the Celtics as outsiders might think; on the contrary, he had a poor relationship with McHale, and the two hardly spoke.

An Ji always had a bit of defiance towards Bird, regularly acting as the main character and shooting excessively, overlooking Bird and causing Bird’s dissatisfaction.

Parrish only admired Bird’s skills and disliked his mouth, for in the summer training camp when Parrish had just been traded to the Celtics, Parrish struggled with shuttle runs. While others reached the baseline, he would only reach the free-throw line, prompting Bird to mock, "There’s a guy running back and forth between the free-throw lines."

Bird, on the other hand, had better relationships with the fringe bench players, possibly because they were all country folks too.

After hearing Gan Guoyang’s words, Bird fell silent.

At this moment, Vandeweghe came attacking with the ball, breaking past Bird with a left-handed move to gain a body’s lead.

Parish tied up Gan Guoyang to prevent him from grabbing another offensive rebound, but it also meant he couldn’t help on defense.

Vandeweghe pushed Bird away, scored with a left-handed layup, and took two points.

The score reached 15:12, with more than half of the first quarter played, the Trail Blazers were leading the Celtics by three points.

After that basket, Vandeweghe had already scored 8 points; his personal offense at the start was quite good.

Since his rookie season, he always performed well against the Celtics every year.

In his sophomore year, he put up 40 points against the Celtics, in his junior year another 40 points, and last season he scored 38 points against the Celtics.

Whether it was Dennis Johnson, or Larry Bird, or Maxwell, none were the kind of defenders that Vandeweghe feared.

Of course, in all those games Vandeweghe’s team lost, and lost badly, which shows that the Celtics weren’t afraid of that kind of individual outburst from any player.

Vandeweghe didn’t like to talk trash, otherwise he would definitely have taunted Bird, "Why isn’t anyone double-teaming me?"

But if Cheche didn’t say it, Gan Guoyang would say it for him. On the way back to defensive position, Gan Guoyang took the initiative to chat with Bird: "How come no one is helping you on defense, Larry? You seem a bit lonely."

Bird’s face turned iron-blue, and he ignored Gan Guoyang. On receiving the ball at the high post, he hesitated before not passing, feigned a shot, and then suddenly cut from the high post for a drive to the basket.

However, his intention to attack the basket was too obvious, and under Gan Guoyang’s blocking interference, the shot missed. Gan Guoyang turned and grabbed the defensive rebound.

The Trail Blazers launched a counterattack, with Vandeweghe passing to Parkson and Valentine making a layup through the middle to score 2 points.

Celtics’ head coach KC Jones called a timeout. He was very dissatisfied with the Celtics’ start tonight, both tactically and morale-wise, they were being overrun by the Trail Blazers.

KC Jones was famously flashy during his brief coaching stint with the Washington Bullets in the 70s, but after coming to his old home, the Celtics, he reverted to a more modest attire, just like his coaching style, which wasn’t very flashy but excelled in its stability, simplicity, and good relations with his players.

He wouldn’t yell and jeer at the players like Bill Fitch did; he would directly point out the issues, "We haven’t had a single fast break in more than half a quarter, that’s not our style. Our defensive rebounds and defense have given the Portland people too many opportunities. We talked about teaching them a lesson before the game, but now they are schooling us more. Focus up, and start running like antelopes!"

Indeed, the Celtics had hoped to teach the Trail Blazers, a hot young team, a lesson before the game. Although they were thwarted on the practice court, the Celtics’ pre-game preparation was as rigorous and detailed as ever.

Before the game, in the locker room, Jones laid out seven tactical strategies as options for the start, and everyone spent half an hour watching footage of the Trail Blazers’ games, analyzing their starting five in considerable detail.

As arrogant as the Celtics’ players were in the training gym, they were just as serious and meticulous in the preparation meeting, because all their arrogance and conceit needed to be supported by victory.

During the timeout, Jones especially reminded Bird, "Larry, you’re playing a bit strange, don’t get tangled up with that No. 11, your goal isn’t to beat him, but to beat the Trail Blazers."

Bird took a sip of water and nodded, replying, "I know, the game has just begun." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

During the pre-game preparation meeting, the strategic response to Gan Guoyang was the least of their concerns, not because he was unimportant, but because nobody knew how to deal with this guy.

From his previous game videos and statistical data, he appeared to be extremely versatile, and his playing style varied. At times he resembled Moses Malone; at others, Sikma, and yet at others, Hayes.

He would adjust his playing style based on the specifics of the game. For example, when playing against the 76ers, he played steadily like Robert Parish, but tonight in the first quarter, his offensive rebounding was ferociously aggressive.

On the court, he was relaxed and natural, not tense, not making mistakes, playing the game with an attitude superior to others, showing no signs of hitting the rookie wall.

Typically, rookies would hit the rookie wall around the 30-game mark, since a college season also counts about 30 games, while an NBA season is much longer.

A rookie’s physical condition would start showing signs of discomfort, and as teams studied and targeted them, their performance would tend to be very poor.

But Gan Guoyang showed none of these signs. Bird’s thoughts wandered to another rookie: Michael Jordan.

On December 22, the Celtics had faced the Bulls away and Bird had been in poor form, scoring only 10 points off 3 for 14 shooting, while Jordan had completely controlled the game with 32 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, shooting 12 for 18 from the field, and making all 8 free throw attempts, dissecting the defending champions with a perfect performance.

However, that game was at Chicago Stadium, and moreover, Kevin McHale had been out due to injury, and the team had been somewhat lax so close to Christmas.

Tonight, the game was at Boston Garden and the team was well-prepared. Coupled with the morning’s conflict, everyone wanted to win and teach the youngster a lesson.

As play resumed after the timeout, Kevin McHale came on for the Celtics, bringing a change to the team’s offensive and defensive strategies.

McHale had a very high scoring percentage in low post one-on-one situations, and there were very few in the League who could defend against him.

But one of those "few" happened to be on the Trail Blazers, Mychal Thompson, McHale’s senior from college, who understood all McHale’s low post one-on-one habits.

As McHale held the ball in the low post, he mentally felt at a disadvantage. Holding the ball at the 45-degree angle, Bird ran the baseline to the corner.

Passing the ball, Bird received it, his mid-range jump shot went up and in!

The Boston Garden regained some of its energy.

Bird tried again to double-team and steal the ball while Gan Guoyang was handling it.

Gan Guoyang passed the ball to the substitute Jerome Kossie.

Kossie wasn’t Vandeweghe; upon receiving the ball, he couldn’t initiate the offense directly.

He could only pass back to Parkson to reorganize, while the Celtics’ defense had positioned itself.

Bird actively provided help defense, making it difficult for Gan Guoyang to receive the ball, and ultimately Drexler took the jump shot.

It didn’t go in, and McHale grabbed the defensive rebound, passing it to Bird as the Celtics tried to launch a fast break.

At that moment, however, Gan Guoyang grabbed Bird’s arm, choosing to commit a foul to prevent the Celtics from executing the fast break.

It was a tactical foul. Gan Guoyang didn’t use much force; had it been Lan Bi’er, he would have likely knocked Bird to the ground with force.

Gan Guoyang didn’t do that; he just tugged lightly and then patted Bird.

But Bird became angry, saying, "Don’t fucking touch me!"

Gan Guoyang smiled, "Oh, angry now? I just touched you, didn’t hit you. Don’t be so hasty."

This had been a moment for the Celtics to pick up momentum, and Gan Guoyang had disrupted it.

The ball still belonged to the Celtics, but a set offense was nowhere near as efficient and exhilarating as a fast break.

McHale’s attack facing Thompson did not succeed, and Gan Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound.

A long pass to the frontcourt, and Drexler, the Glider, took off, executing an unstoppable flying dunk!

The Trail Blazers’ fast break was simple and crude, but very effective.

At the end of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers led the Celtics 27:23, up by 4 points.

During the intermission, Bird was extremely displeased, feeling like he had been toyed with.

He had been manipulated by Gan Guoyang, which affected his emotions. On a few occasions, he had become distracted, argued with teammates, and his mind was preoccupied with other matters.

He closed his eyes and covered his face with a towel, thinking back to when Gan Guoyang had chosen to foul just as the fast break was shaping up, Bird calmed down.

"Damn, I let that kid get to me. What bullshit. He’s been messing with me throughout. All he’s thinking about is winning. Fuck," muttered Bird, tossing away the towel, angry at himself for allowing a rookie to play with his emotions in the first quarter, and feeling a bit scared.

It was not just about Gan Guoyang’s verbal traps, it was also about "This guy actually knows how to disrupt our fast breaks. Is it Dr. Jack’s arrangement, or his own decision?"

Previously, Ramsey’s Trail Blazers did not play this way.