The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 321 - 58 Silverdome Killer
The third quarter began, and although the score difference wasn’t large, the Trail Blazers played with ease, holding an absolute advantage.
During the half-time break, Ramsay only reminded the players to control their fouls and mistakes, to stay focused and avoid errors, and not to let the Pistons affect the game’s pace.
The Pistons have always been good at stirring emotions, especially at their home ground, the Silverdome, where their win rate reaches 75%, while their away win rate is merely a pitiful 31%.
This fully demonstrates that at the Silverdome, the Pistons play more recklessly, daring to rough up the game, inciting the emotions of players and fans alike to influence the opponent’s mental state to achieve victory.
Aside from the temperament of the core players, this also has a lot to do with the team’s lineup; their backcourt lacks height, their frontcourt lacks mobility, and the defensive capabilities of individual players are not strong.
In such situations, without resorting to some underhanded tactics and clever strategic planning, just straightforward battling will most likely not be enough to overcome those teams that are filled with talent.
The Trail Blazers are one of those talent-filled teams, especially on offense. As the third quarter started, Vandeweghe coordinated with Gan Guoyang, setting a screen and then immediately hitting a mid-range jumper.
Vandeweghe’s jump shot, whether in terms of form, softness, or release, was actually even better than Larry Bird’s, but when it came to training intensity, Vandeweghe was inferior to Bird and could not compete in terms of versatility.
Vandeweghe once scored 51 points in a high-scoring game where the two teams totaled more than 360 points against the Detroit Pistons, and the Pistons’ defense at that time was genuinely poor.
Today, the Pistons haven’t made significant changes to their forward lineup, and Vandeweghe has already scored 21 points in the third quarter.
On the outside, Tripucka tried to launch an attack, but Gan Guoyang lurked about like a ghost, ready to help defend at any moment.
Tripucka passed the ball to the weak side, where Dumars broke to the left and drove hard to the basket, but his layup was disrupted by Gan Guoyang and did not go in.
Thompson grabbed the defensive rebound, and the Trail Blazers counterattacked. Vandeweghe received the ball on the left wing and drove to the basket, only to be violently knocked down by Lan Bi’er from behind!
Vandeweghe tumbled out of bounds, while Lan Bi’er had already raised both hands, admitting to the foul proactively, with a grin on his face.
However, when Gan Guoyang charged towards him, the smile on Lan Bi’er’s face vanished instantly, and he immediately hid behind the referee, pointing at Ah Gan and yelling, "Don’t hit! It’s wrong to hit!"
The referee quickly intervened and calmed Gan Guoyang down, blocking him with his burly arm and saying, "Stay cool, Sonny, stay cool, I will make the right call!"
The head referee tonight was the famous "Yogashi", "The Piper", "Earl", possibly the most explosive and showy official in NBA history, Earl Strom, who was even more eye-catching than many players.
Even when NBA referee uniforms were still "prison style", Strom was enforcing league rules, making him a venerable figure among referees.
Strom had faced all sorts of situations and his officiating style was quite fiery.
For example, during the 1965 Celtics vs 76ers Game 7, when Havlicek made the steal and Johnny Most shouted, "Havlicek stole the ball!", Strom was the referee of that game, and he was officiating with a cast on his arm because he had broken it in a fight with a fan during the previous game.
There was also a game between the Hawks and the 76ers, where the Hawks’ manager, upset with a call, accused Strom of not having guts, and Strom went up to him, grabbed his collar, ready to fight. The situation escalated as fans swarmed around him, but thankfully Chamberlain stepped in to protect Strom and help him leave the court.
In the 1967 All-Star Game, he ejected Eastern All-Stars coach Auerbach, making Auerbach the only coach in NBA history to be ejected from an All-Star Game.
In the ’70s, he refereed in the ABA and got into a fight with fans in Denver. After an unsatisfying stint in the ABA, he returned to the NBA, and in a 1974 Bulls vs Bucks game, he ejected the Bulls mascot, Benny the Bull, from the court.
In a Jazz game in 1982, with the Jazz way behind and the victory out of their reach, head coach Layden, unable to bear it, wanted to leave early. He insulted Strom, who, unfazed, responded, "I know what you’re trying to do. I won’t eject you. You’ll have to stay and watch the game with me to the end."
In a 76ers vs Nets game, where Strom was paired with Dick Bavetta, with a crucial call at the end going against the Nets, Bavetta overturned Strom’s call after consulting the scorer’s table, leading the Nets to victory. Consequently, in the referee locker room, Bavetta was beaten up by Strom and had to flee with a battered face, bumping into players returning to the room, leaving everyone dumbstruck.
Strom’s fiery character is inconceivable to later NBA fans, but in the wild, rough era of the NBA, a referee needed such bravery to withstand the pressure of making calls on the court.
Especially when you make a call against the home team, you have to bear the wrath of thousands of fans; fans back then weren’t civil—they mobbed referees, threw water, and hurled objects at them.
Referees would take off their whistles when leaving the court post-game, as fans would grab the whistle lanyard and pull it, toppling the referee to the ground.
Some extremist fans would even issue death threats to referees. In America, where firearms aren’t banned, referees become ordinary citizens once they leave the court and don’t have any security measures.
