The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 220 - 106 Need Some Luck

[At the All-Star game in 1985, when I had the opportunity to coach Ah Gan, I redefined the word "excellence" that was originally in my vocabulary. This is not some extravagant praise; when evaluating players, it is easy to use words like "great," "excellent," "incredible," as if they were flawless in their careers, invincible in battle.

But when readers get excited by these words and then learn about the players’ lives and achievements, they often feel deceived upon discovering reality is not as perfect, suspecting this is just mutual flattery among insiders.

Ah Gan is different. As is well known, he created a storm in the NBA in his first season, which even compelled me as the Lakers coach to secretly devise an "Ah Gan rule" to restrict him, something most people were unaware of. I was worried that revealing this would expose the team’s weaknesses, that we were so concerned and focused on a rookie.

By then, the All-Star Game had changed significantly from the ’60s and ’70s. Back in those days, All-Star games were played in earnest, because players’ salaries were low, and the rewards for the winning team were quite substantial. By the ’80s, players were earning high salaries, and the game was more like a performance, a show of gratitude to the fans.

The stars could take the opportunity to relax. They might choose to sleep in, sunbathe, drink, and revel all night; it was their time to unwind.

However, staying in the same hotel as me, Ah Gan still got up early to run and work out on the day of the game. When we met in the restaurant in the morning, he told me he had already trained for three hours. I was curious about his day of game preparation and asked if I could observe his training process, to which Ah Gan happily agreed.

In the morning, he went to the gym, and I finally learned where his amazing strength came from. At that time, the majority of the teams didn’t engage in strength training, while Ah Gan was already like Mr. Olympia. Avia had specially equipped him with a strength training coach, and I decided then that we would do the same next season.

For lunch, he ate in a very controlled and healthy manner, consuming a lot of fish. At that time, vegetarianism was popular in the League, but Ah Gan was not one of them. He said high-quality protein was very important and even told me that in Portland he cooked for himself, which was surprising.

Even more astonishing was that in the afternoon he started reading books and taking notes, though not for long, about an hour or so, doing some simple reading. He read anything and everything, and he read with full attention, not just skimming the introductions. In this respect, he was like Karim, who also loved reading.

What was different, after reading for a while, was that Ah Gan would take notes about pre-game preparation for basketball, even though the All-Star game the next day was just an exhibition, Ah Gan still made preparations, noting down the characteristics of the Eastern stars and formulating strategies to deal with them.

The level of detail in these strategies shocked me. For instance, he mentioned Moses Malone, pointing out that Moses preferred initiating low post moves from the left of the basket, while on the right side he tended to shoot and pass more. He tallied approximate ratios and success rates of these habits through video observation, as well as drawing a conclusion from previous 76ers game data that "luring Moses to the right and encouraging him to take shots at will was beneficial in reducing his lethality."

He also noted that since January, Moses’s form had fluctuated; hit rates were hit or miss from one game to another, and his offensive rebounds had slightly decreased, indicative of a drop in physical condition, necessitating continuous wear down in confrontation.

Of course, because it was the All-Star game, Ah Gan’s strategy was adjusted to let Moses play strong on the left and let him dunk.

To be honest, back then the coaching departments of NBA teams weren’t this meticulous; much of our work was still based on experience and intuition, plus boundless enthusiasm.

Since the Trail Blazers and 76ers had no more games that season, I asked him where he got this data and conclusions, and he said he summarized them while watching videos with Adelman in his training downtime.

The fact he would spend a great deal of time viewing other teams’ game tapes and statistics struck me at that moment; I thought, if only he were my center, how good it would be for us to study game tapes together every day.

I also asked him how he could arrive at statistical conclusions when each play differs, and what were those strange mathematical symbols and numbers. Ah Gan smiled and said that was his basketball secret, and he couldn’t tell me.

Many years later, I came to know that Ah Gan had already been using advanced data to guide his play back then. At Gonzaga University, he studied data statistics, and we were more than a decade behind him!]

—— Excerpt from "The Winner Within," a best-selling book written by Pat Riley for New York Times and published in 1994.

Among the myriad of books written and published by NBA players, coaches, and related practitioners, the semi-autobiographical book that Pat Riley would write in the future is quite a special one.

Firstly, it was written by Riley himself, not co-written with a biographer as many players do, dictating their story for someone else to pen, leaving readers unsure of how much content is genuinely authored by the individual.

Secondly, unlike traditional biographies which dedicate large portions to the author’s childhood and upbringing, town elders, friends, teachers and so on—portraying each person as playing a crucial role in their path to success, making it seem like missing any one of them would spell failure—Riley’s book, much like his coaching style, cuts to the chase, focusing on what people are most interested in: team building and winning—like a good adult film that gets straight to the point without unrelated plot twists.

Thirdly, Riley intersperses his book with a plethora of quotations from famous literary figures, statesmen, and philosophers, like Shakespeare, Tacitus, Benjamin Franklin Thoreau, and others.

In an era when online searches were not advanced, to know and skillfully quote these prominent figures implied extensive reading and note-taking.

Riley also peppered his narrative with numerous references to American historical events to validate his points, mentioning the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Vietnam War, and various movie plots like "Wall Street" and "Gambler."

All these suggest that either Riley enlisted an extraordinarily knowledgeable support team to help write the book, or he himself had vast reading and movie-viewing experiences, being well-read and articulate, able to quote classics with ease.

Gan Guoyang spent three days at the All-Star game with Riley and concluded that this man indeed had substance, and was not all glitter on the surface with shoddy content inside.

-----------------

On February 7th, after the Trail Blazers defeated the Utah Jazz at home, Gan Guoyang got home to pack up his things and prepare to report in Indiana.

Stockton, who happened to have a game in Portland, was heading there with Gan Guoyang. The team dispersed on the spot; those who needed to go to Indiana went to Indiana (Dantley), and those who could take a break went home to rest.

Stockton had originally planned to return to Spokane but was pulled by Gan Guoyang to join the All-Star festivities, bringing along both of their girlfriends to experience the excitement of the NBA All-Star Game.

They arrived in Indiana by plane on the 8th, and Gan Guoyang and Stockton felt like they were back in the summer of last year when they came to the Olympic training camp; in reality, it hadn’t even been a full year.

Back then, they were still college students. Now, Gan Guoyang had become a professional player known throughout America, and Stockton had gradually secured his rotation spot with the Jazz, without the worry of being kicked off the team.

The accommodation was arranged in the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. The NBA really went all out this time—not only could the players get reimbursed for their stay, but family and friends could also get free room arrangements.

The purpose of the NBA doing this was to enhance the enthusiasm of the stars attending the All-Star Game. For several years, All-Star Games were uneventful, with poor attendance and TV ratings.

With their rising incomes, the stars didn’t care much for a small win bonus and were not very eager to participate in the All-Star Game. They would rather rest at home. Even if they came to play, their interest was lackluster.

The events organized by the NBA were of no interest to the new generation of stars. For several years, players were invited to a large ballroom where they would eat fried chicken while watching a stand-up comedy show—a program someone thought up that was quite unimaginative.

When the comedians invited realized that most of the attendees were Black players, many jokes simply could not be told, so they resorted to telling boring Japanese jokes or risqué material without considering Christian audience members.

After the 1984 All-Star Game ended, a weary Larry O’Brien finished his term and handed the reins of power over to David Stern.

This year was Stern’s first All-Star Game after officially taking office. As the new commissioner, who had already made sweeping reforms in many areas, he naturally wouldn’t ignore the All-Star Game as a golden advertisement to promote the NBA League.

On Friday evening, the 8th, Stern canceled the previous All-Star Game’s customary large banquet and instead organized a buffet party in a private room of the hotel. The players could choose whether or not to attend and could bring family and friends, ensuring the privacy and comfort of the gathering.

The despised stand-up comedy performance was also canceled—and instead, Stern invited R&B star Jeffrey Osborne to perform for the players, singing his new 1984 song "You can’t be serious," which was well-received by the younger players.

It was the first time Gan Guoyang saw David Stern in a private setting, the league executive who would bring significant change and controversy to the NBA.

He was short, with a smile on his face and a small mustache, looking at everyone with a benevolent gaze. Gan Guoyang now kind of understood why Larry Fleisher said that every time he saw David Stern, he wanted to yank off the little mustache on his mouth.

Because he had an air of unassailable perfection about him, and when people see something that perfect, they often want to cause some destruction.

Stern took the initiative to chat with Gan Guoyang at the buffet dinner, inquiring about his trip to China. He mentioned that Fleisher was making arrangements and asked what Gan Guoyang thought about it.

Gan Guoyang said he was certainly willing to contribute to developing the Chinese market, stating that he believed China would definitely be a huge market with great potential in the future.

Stern nodded in agreement and said, "My dream is that one day on the streets of China, kids will wear caps with NBA logos and play basketball on the courts at the street corners."

"You will be our best brand ambassador," Stern said, showing a real ability to win people over, as personalities like Magic and Bird really liked him.

Gan Guoyang joked, "Then when will you give me a championship so that my image can stand even taller?"

Unfazed, Stern replied, "A championship is something you need to fight for yourself. It’s proof of your talent and a reward for your efforts."

Gan Guoyang laughed, "Talent and hard work are indispensable, but at critical moments, luck is also needed."

Stern just smiled and said nothing, took a sip of wine, patted Gan Guoyang on the shoulder, and then moved on to someone else.