The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 244 - 129: The Two-faced Person

Vandeweghe started his rookie career with the Nuggets, during which Donnie Walsh was the coach, but soon Walsh resigned, passing on the coaching baton to his junior at UNC, Doug Moe (the UNC system has a substantial influence in the NBA).

In a few seasons with San Antonio, after a last-minute failure (in 1979 they were up 3:1 and overturned by the Bullets), Doug Moe brought his insane offense from Texas to the Colorado Plateau.

Doug Moe’s coaching style was a perfect fit for Vandeweghe, all offense and no defense, no set plays, with practices that were three days on, two days off; Doug Moe himself was more passionate about golf, often said to be missing from the training ground, having probably gone off to play golf.

He sparked offensive frenzies with both the Spurs and the Nuggets—with the Spurs it was George Gervin, and the Nuggets became about English and Vandeweghe—pushing the team to an average of 126 points per game for a season and setting a record for the highest points scored in a single game with the Detroit Pistons.

Logically, such a coach should have suited Vandeweghe well, but Vandeweghe told Gan Guoyang, off the court he got along quite well with Doug Moe, who had a good relationship with everyone; Moe was very relaxed, humorous, and carefree, a unique presence among NBA coaches.

But the guy was two-faced; his demeanor would change completely on the court, suddenly lashing out at the players, raging, and even forcing them to get physical with opponents.

"Forced you to hit someone? He’s done that kind of thing?" Gan Guoyang had never heard Vandeweghe mention this before.

"Yes, just last season, before I came to Portland, during the game against the Supersonics, we were playing poorly and falling far behind. You know I always play by the rules, so Doug Moe was really unhappy with me."

Vandeweghe’s playing style was called disciplined if you put it nicely, or too soft if you didn’t, with almost no physicality in defense and never having received a technical foul in his career until today.

This time in the playoffs, Vandeweghe had toughened up a bit, making a key block at a crucial moment in the third game, which was of great help to the team.

"Then during halftime, Doug Moe cornered me against the wall and yelled at me to hit someone in the second half, I had to hit someone. His neck veins were bulging out as if they were going to split open, and he looked scarier than you."

"What do you mean ’scarier than me’? What kind of comparison is that? Am I that scary?" Gan Guoyang was dissatisfied with Vandeweghe’s analogy; if you’re going to tell a story, tell the story, why involve me?

"I’m just saying. Listen to what I’m saying. I was really out of options then. In the second half, he kept watching me, so I took the chance to bump Lonnie Shelton hard. That guy was strong like a Bull, I pushed him over with all the strength I could muster, I must have been crazy. Then I saw a Supersonics player charging at me, I forget who it was, but I tackled him to prevent him from pouncing on me. At that time, the Nuggets’ bench was cheering like crazy..."

Hearing Vandeweghe talk about his memories with the Nuggets, Gan Guoyang said, "Wow, I think that’s cool, it makes for a good memory!"

Vandeweghe shook his head, "Not for me, I don’t like that, it’s not me. Even the referee felt sorry for me that night. I believe the referee was Jack O’Donnell, and even with me pushing and tripping, he didn’t call a technical on me. Later I heard him say, he saw how badly Doug Moe was treating me and didn’t want to foul me any further; my expression must have looked terrible."

NBA referees aren’t cold, impartial enforcers. Many of them have strong personalities, especially the well-known ones who have their own style when officiating and inevitably bring their personal preferences into it.

O’Donnell refrained from calling a foul on Vandeweghe out of sympathy, but in the future, his relationship with Drexler wouldn’t be so cordial.

Understanding Vandeweghe, Gan Guoyang realized Doug Moe wanted Vandeweghe to play the role of a bad boy on the court, forcing him to commit offenses against the opponent.

But Vandeweghe’s personality was already set; his background and upbringing meant he couldn’t become the player Doug Moe wanted him to be.

So, Vandeweghe ended up being traded to Portland, and Doug Moe got the players he really wanted, which led to the Nuggets greatly improving their record this season.

If it hadn’t been for Gan Guoyang, it would have been a failed trade for the Trail Blazers; Vandeweghe’s softness compromised the team’s toughness and depth, all they got was a scoring ability that wasn’t too unstoppable.

Luckily, Gan Guoyang’s arrival compensated for everything. He held up the sky, allowing a scorer like Vandeweghe to do what he excelled at without having to get physical—Gan Guoyang alone took care of all the fights that needed fighting.

It’s hard to imagine any coach asking Gan Guoyang to get physical with someone, even Doug Moe would probably advise against it upon seeing Gan Guoyang in a fight, reminding him that hitting was wrong.

"Also let me tell you, Coach Moe and Dr. Jack’s relationship isn’t great; although Doug Moe respects Dr. Jack to his face, behind his back, he often snarks about Dr. Jack being an obstinate old baldy, a buzzard feasting on carrion," Vandeweghe whispered to Gan Guoyang.

"Hmm... there’s some truth in that."

"What truth?"

"About the buzzard metaphor, it’s pretty good."

The grudge between Doug Moe and Jack Ramsay isn’t something that can be summed up in a few words; while there were no direct public conflicts between them, they represented two coaching factions within the league, and that was the source of their discord.

One is the collegiate coach who comes from an academic background; they’ve coached college teams, possess high tactical literacy, and follow the traditional team basketball approach.

Ramsay was the NBA coach with the most game wins at the time, and the 1977 championship made him a representative figure of the collegiate faction.

Another faction is made up of coaches who were professional players; they have never coached at the college level and became NBA head coaches directly after retirement, often eschewing tactics and preferring what appears to collegiate coaches as unorthodox methods.

The representative figures for this are Doug Moe and Gene Shue of the Washington Bullets, both rebels of convention.

At that time, the prevailing view in the League was that player-coaches were inferior to collegiate coaches. Ramsay even pointed out that players becoming coaches directly after retirement was pure folly; all they did was let the ball roll around on the court and make the players run.

Gene Shue lost to Ramsay in 1977, and Doug Moe lost to Dick Motta in 1979—both were "evidence" that player-coaches were inferior to collegiate coaches.

Although player-coach Pat Riley achieved success, the foundation of the Lakers was laid by Jack McKinney, who had coached at Saint Joseph’s University and was an assistant to Jack Ramsay.

After Ramsay moved to the NBA, he took over the coaching position and later joined the NBA himself as an assistant for the Trail Blazers, winning the championship with Ramsay.

He then became head coach of the Lakers and created the Showtime offense, unfortunately succumbing to injuries from a freak bicycle accident, which led to Pat Riley and Westhead stealing his thunder.

So, the struggle between Ramsay and Doug Moe represented two opposing coaching forces in the NBA, and beyond competing in game results, they inevitably had a lot of friction in other aspects.

For example, in a November 1983 game between the Nuggets and the Trail Blazers, Vandeweghe said:

"In that game, the Trail Blazers were already leading by a large margin, trying to break the team scoring record, probably hitting over 150 points. Coach Moe told us not to defend, so we just stood there motionless, letting the Trail Blazers score at will. Coach Moe thought he was being nice, but Dr. Jack believed it was not fair competition and we shouldn’t do that."

"After that game, there was a lot of arguing between the two, and Coach Moe was fined $5,000 and suspended for two games. He felt the League was favoring the old coaches, and Dr. Jack was an old stubborn mule. He didn’t get along with Coach Hubie Brown from New York either; you know Hubie, right?"

Gan Guoyang nodded, saying, "I know him, Bernard King mentioned him to me, saying that the coach likes to curse people. Once Bernard King warned him, ’If you mock me one more time, disrespecting me, I’ll fucking kill you.’ Then he calmed down, haha. Didn’t Morris Lucas do something similar?"

"Yes, exactly, Hubie didn’t get along with Doug Moe either. Coach Moe once insulted him, saying he’s lived his whole life on a deserted island with just three people, one being himself, and the other two were Jack Ramsay and Dick Motta."

"These three old men living on an island? That’s fucking terrifying... such a nasty insult."

"That’s not the nastiest thing he’s done. Moe coached a player who later tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest, but the bullet missed his heart. Moe went to the hospital and comforted the player, saying, ’I knew you wouldn’t hit the heart because you never shoot accurately.’

"What? I would’ve wanted to beat him to death."

"But Moe wasn’t being malicious; he just wanted to encourage the suicidal person to live well, like he wanted to toughen me up. It’s just his methods that are... somewhat hard to accept."

This was just a small part of Doug Moe’s ridiculing of others; he also said of one player on his team that they "have nothing above the neck," to which the player (Hanzlik) retorted, "At least I have something below the neck, Doug has nothing at all."

In short, many people in the League didn’t like him, and the media often wrote mocking news about him because his way of thinking was always different from others—he often had "good intentions with bad outcomes, good words wrongly said," causing a mess.

But he could indeed win games, and whenever he switched teams, the results were immediate, with his contrariness often fascinating people.

Hearing Vandeweghe’s words, Gan Guoyang thought this Coach Moe sounded quite interesting; he had only focused on the court in previous games against the Nuggets, but he hadn’t realized their coach was such a character.

He was curious why someone without tactics, who disliked training, was unkempt, and had a dual persona on and off the court, could always lead the team to respectable results.

Vandeweghe explained, "The Nuggets don’t really lack defense; Doug Moe has his own basketball philosophy, inherited from Dean Smith of UNC and his ’Theory of Rhythm.’ He believes defense and offense are just rhythm changes on the court, not distinct but part of a whole, and in the end, it’s all reflected in the score. As long as we score more points than the opponents, that’s enough without worrying about how to defend. That’s what he always used to say during training."

Gan Guoyang nodded, saying, "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Anyway, the proof is on the court. Sonny, don’t go back on your word; leave behind some good memories." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"How about I punch him for you?"

"Oh, never mind, Doug’s a good guy, just a bit crazy on the court."

"Geez, you spineless fellow."