The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 392 - 11 Pleasure_2
Under these conditions, the basketball community was still rife with introductions from acquaintances, pulling strings through connections, and opening doors of convenience for second and third generations with all sorts of worldly wisdom.
Hornacek, for instance, entered the League through connections, though of course he had a certain level of ability that won over the team.
Gan Guoyang had unquestionably strong skills, but along his journey, he also made use of personal relationships considerably, with Coach Cap providing him with tremendous help.
This was the case for players, and even more so for the role of a coach, a position where "water could be added." Without a mentorship, without know-who introductions, without a father, mother, brother, or sister working in the NBA, aiming to become an NBA team coach was exceptionally difficult.
Beelman had already made quite a name for himself coaching in the NCAA, but he still needed Gan Guoyang to introduce him, and even then, his first job interview didn’t go through.
At the time, it was the middle of the season, and the team couldn’t possibly bring him in immediately. Moreover, Ramsay wasn’t interested in Beelman’s approach to data analysis.
This time, Beelman came well-prepared, with four years under his belt, one NCAA championship, and two national NCAA tournaments. His résumé was indeed impressive.
Fitz knew that Beelman aspired to be in the NBA, so he no longer tried to dissuade him, instead wishing Beelman could catch a break with Ah Gan in the NBA.
Beelman, having made thorough preparations, first passed Buckwalter’s interview. Buckwalter simply acquainted himself with Beelman’s background.
His coaching experience, his coaching philosophy, and some basic coaching qualities were a breeze for Beelman.
The focus was on the next day’s coaching staff interview with Jack Ramsay and Rick Adelman. Passing this interview would officially make Beelman an NBA coach.
The interview was scheduled at Portland Community College’s training center, and Bobby Beelman showed up early in the morning at the gym, well-dressed and with a briefcase full of documents – all his tactical notes and insights.
Since the interview was for an assistant coach position, essentially to find an assistant for Ramsay, Dr. Jack’s personal opinion was extremely important.
Beelman initially wanted to ask Gan Guoyang to put in a good word with Dr. Jack, or to come with him to the interview, but Gan Guoyang refused and even said he absolutely shouldn’t come.
Beelman wondered, wasn’t it during Stockton’s wedding that Ah Gan had mentioned some conflicts with Ramsay? How come those conflicts hadn’t been resolved yet? What was going on?
Beelman also recalled when Dr. Jack had called to inquire about the guide on using Ah Gan and he had replied, "Why don’t you ask him how to use me!" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
He regretted his impudence, deeply. Although he hadn’t lied, it still seemed disrespectful to Dr. Jack. No wonder Dr. Jack had taken a dislike to him.
After many years of setbacks and toughening up, Beelman had gradually changed from being foul-mouthed and arrogant to being more calm and diplomatic, although his arsenal of swear words remained impressively vast.
Pondering over how to pass this interview, Jack Ramsay and Rick Adelman arrived at the training center just after nine in the morning and then informed Beelman that at ten o’clock, the Portland Community College basketball team would have a warm-up game with the University of Portland basketball team.
"Today we’re spectators. We’ll watch the game and chat," said Ramsay.
Beelman understood that today’s interview was definitely related to the game; Ramsay wanted to test his ability to analyze in real-time.
Sure enough, the two college teams arrived at the gym after ten to warm up. During the game, Adelman would occasionally pose questions to Beelman about the situation on the court.
Having been a successful college coach for four years, Beelman found these questions no challenge at all. He answered them quite well.
Ramsay sat silently to the side, just listening quietly, until the half-time break when he posed his first question:
"How do you feel about the recent NBA games where centers, more and more, are stepping out to shoot threes?"
Beelman thought, centers stepping out to shoot threes? That’s Ah Gan, isn’t it?
That guy hit six threes against the Lakers, killing the opposition, a classic NBA game indeed.
Moreover, last season, Ramsay had already started to design key three-point strategies.
Heard he’s becoming more open-minded, Beelman thought about embracing the three-point trend.
But as the words reached his lips, Beelman swallowed them back; he had a second thought, did Dr. Jack really like the three-pointer?
Or was it out of necessity? What exactly was the purpose of his asking himself this question? Why emphasize the center.
Combining some past incidents, and Gan Guoyang’s refusal to come, Beelman made a bold decision.
He responded, "Centers shooting threes is nothing but heresy and messing around! It’s a sign of players controlling the NBA, challenging the authority of coaches, a bad phenomenon!"
Ramsay, who had been sitting still the whole time, suddenly stirred; he turned his head to look at Beelman as if he couldn’t believe these were Beelman’s words.
"You have opinions about players controlling the NBA, too?"
"Of course, I have opinions. The league is about to become a haven for stars, tactics are increasingly based on isolation plays, nowhere near the look of traditional basketball."
"But I’ve seen the tapes of when you coached in high school and college; you relied heavily on Ah Gan."
"Ah Gan is a ball hog; if you don’t pass to him, he hits people, and he actually can solve problems."
Hearing Beelman talk this way, Ramsay seemed quite pleased and asked again, "Ah Gan is a ball hog? This is the first time I’m hearing this; you’ve always praised him before."
Beelman replied, "I praised him, but we also have to stick to the facts. Ah Gan just likes to play hero ball, doesn’t pass to his teammates. I think this new season, we need to seriously address this bad habit of his."
The two of them chatted more and more, the interview turned into a gossip session, especially when it came to bashing Gan Guoyang; you could see that Dr. Jack had been holding back a lot of complaints, and today he let it all out.
"This son of a bitch even used the slogan from their country’s prayers as our team’s cheer for the whole season!" Ramsay was still angry about it; he thought everyone was praying to God before each game, not realizing it wasn’t that at all.
Beelman thought: Just ask yourself if it was useful at all!
Still, he verbally agreed, making out Gan Guoyang to be unreliable, a troublemaker in school.
The entire second half turned into a venting session, and in the end, Ramsay felt refreshed, patted Beelman on the shoulder, and said, "Prepare to work with the Trail Blazers for the new season."
Beelman was so excited he could hardly contain himself, but he still controlled his emotions, shaking hands with Ramsay and Adelman, while thinking to himself, Sorry Ah Gan, I’m sacrificing you a bit.
Latter, Adelman asked Ramsay, "Jack, were you serious about what you said? Is Ah Gan really that bad?"
Ramsay shook his head, "Ah Gan is the most phenomenal athlete; Beelman knows that, actually."
"Then why..."
"Don’t you want to scold him too?"
"Hmm... yes."
"Satisfying, isn’t it?"
"Satisfying!"
"That settles it. Let Beelman take over the rookie training camp; the new season we’ll need some new ideas and challenges. To be honest, I’m getting old, and the team will belong to you young people in the future."
The 1986 season had drained a great deal of Ramsay’s energy, and before the new season even started, he seemed somewhat worn out, far from the vigor and fighting spirit he had at the start of the last season.
So he needed someone like Beelman, a newcomer, to inject vitality into the coaching staff, and the fact that this person was also Gan Guoyang’s mentor and college coach was just perfect.
