The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 446 - 64 Soul Swap

The unexpected loss to the Pacers caused the Trail Blazers to gradually fall behind the Los Angeles Lakers in the race for first place in the Western Conference.

On February 15, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics at home, with Magic Johnson scoring 39 points, dishing out 10 assists, grabbing 7 rebounds, and getting 2 steals, completely overshadowing Larry Bird’s 20 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds.

Before 1987, the Lakers often won games against the Celtics, but Bird would win on stats because the core of the Lakers was Jabbar.

At the start of this season, both Johnson’s team victories and personal stats had to win, and the scales between the black and white giants were gradually tilting towards Johnson.

After all, Johnson was three years younger than Bird, and Larry Bird seemed very tired from the start of the regular season, with the Celtics further plagued by bench depth issues and injuries.

After clinching this significant victory, the Lakers’ record rose to 40 wins and 13 losses, while the Trail Blazers, having lost to the Pacers, had a record of 37 wins and 16 losses, a gap of three wins behind the Lakers.

However, within the Trail Blazers, there wasn’t much concern for the Western Conference’s top spot, as everyone knew that Gan Guoyang had a home court advantage against the Lakers. Seizing the top spot in the West could mean losing that advantage, which could be detrimental to the playoff series.

As the defending champions, the Trail Blazers no longer focused on other teams but paid more attention to their internal affairs.

Team injuries, rotations, players’ morale, mental health, and the overall competitive atmosphere up and down the roster were among the factors being considered.

The strongest fortresses often fall from within, something Jack Ramsay was very clear about in his mind.

Since 1969, most of the defending champions that failed were not defeated by their adversaries but had internal issues.

In the ’70s, the Knicks, Celtics, and Trail Blazers all fell due to injuries. The Lakers became too old, Chamberlain backed down, the Warriors suffered from Rick Barry’s troubles, and neither the Bullets nor the Supersonics truly stood out in terms of strength.

In the ’80s, after the Lakers won the championship, internal strife began, with Johnson driving out the head coach. Just like the Celtics, after winning a championship, they dismissed their head coach, frittering away two seasons. The Philadelphia 76ers effortlessly claimed the championship, only to become complacent and be eliminated in the first round the following year.

In short, the failures of these defending champions were usually affected by internal factors, so the Trail Blazers’ focus on internal strategy was correct.

At least so far this season, there have been no significant conflicts or issues within the Trail Blazers, and the early-season lethargy of Drexler, Kossie, and others had gradually improved and dissipated.

The new playstyle, Gan Guoyang’s astonishing performance, and his exceptional charisma have united the Trail Blazers as a team, steadily progressing towards the playoffs, undisturbed by external factors.

After leaving Indiana, the Trail Blazers went on to Milwaukee and Cleveland, touring the entire Michigan region.

In Milwaukee, they faced fierce resistance from the Bucks, whose strength significantly increased after trading for Jack Sikma this year.

Old Nelson’s defensive coaching caused many sharpshooters in the League trouble, with Jordan, Johnson, Bird, and Wilkins all scoring their season-lows against the Bucks.

However, this only applied to perimeter players; Nelson didn’t have much of a strategy for the interior, with last season’s memory of Gan Guoyang scoring over 50 points in one-on-one play still fresh in everyone’s mind.

This time in Milwaukee, the Trail Blazers weren’t baptized by a hotel fire alarm, and an annoyed Gan Guoyang, after a poor performance against the Pacers, unleashed his frustration on the Bucks, efficiently notching 39 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 blocks, helping the Trail Blazers brutally finish the Bucks in three quarters.

After the game, Gan Guoyang shook hands and hugged Stu Inman, which was the first time Inman had greeted and talked to Gan Guoyang on the court since leaving the Trail Blazers.

As time passed, and the Trail Blazers seized the championship, the issues between the two men gradually faded away. Inman told Gan Guoyang, "I hope you become the greatest in history."

Gan Guoyang felt Inman’s sincerity and knew that privately, Inman was always helping him and the Trail Blazers. It was just that due to some reasons, they found it difficult to be forthright with each other.

Inman’s feelings towards the Trail Blazers, towards Gan Guoyang, Walton, Weinberg, and Ramsay were complex.

Gan Guoyang said to Inman, "We made an extra championship ring for you. If you want..."

"No," Inman rejected decisively, "Keep it. Display it in the office. It belongs to the Portland Trail Blazers, not to me."

Gan Guoyang nodded, and after returning, he relayed Inman’s decision to Weinberg; Weinberg was silent for a long time, then mounted the ring in a frame and hung it on the wall of the office.

In the future, it will be moved to the Trail Blazers’ Hall of Honor, together with the championship trophies, silently telling an untold part of the Trail Blazers’ history.

Like the Pacers, the Cleveland Cavaliers were slowly emerging from the mire. With Daugherty and Ron Harper, they found their backbone. Lenny Wilkens was reshaping the team’s offensive and defensive system.

Harper was one of the best-performing rookies of the year, averaging 22 points per game. He is an excellent ball-handling guard.

Unless there’s a surprise, the Rookie of the Year is likely to be decided between him and Chuck Person.

Lenny Wilkens was a proud coach, one of the few black head coaches in the League, and his entire career was spent trying to prove to people that black players were intelligent and could become successful coaches.

He won a championship in Seattle, but that didn’t earn him the respect and recognition he deserved. This championship from the late ’70s was often overlooked by people.

Moreover, later on he failed to manage his relationship with Dennis Johnson properly, which eventually led to the disintegration of the Supersonics. He left Seattle and started from scratch in Cleveland.

Cleveland was a terrible team, made worse by Stepien’s blundering command, resulting in the team going several years without a first-round pick. To support the Knights, the League had to grant them first-round picks.

Of course, the inexperienced Knights were no match for the powerful Trail Blazers and it was another ’walk the dog’ kind of game. The game went on until the crucial moments of the fourth quarter with the Trail Blazers and Knights battling it out.

Just when the Knights thought they had the strength to fight the Trail Blazers, the Trail Blazers unleashed a 12:2 scoring run in the last five minutes and killed any suspense in the game.

The process was very simple. Spread out in four directions, play one-on-four, and Gan Guoyang would receive the ball in the low post and demolish Daugherty.

When the Knights double-teamed, there were Parkson and Drexler’s backdoor cuts for layups, and Thompson’s mid-range lessons in humanity.

It was a very simple and efficient set of tactics with no easy counter, leaving Wilkens pacing stoically beside the court.

The score ended at 115:103, and the Trail Blazers finished their more than a week-long Eastern road trip with a victory, ready to head back to Portland for a bit of rest.

At the end of the game, Wilkens and Jack Ramsey embraced. These two rivals from the ’70s, their fates had taken different paths.

Wilkens had left the West Coast and had been coaching Eastern teams ever since, never returning.

While Ramsey stayed in Portland, not planning to go anywhere else, he was nearly worn out.

Wilkens exclaimed sentimentally, "Jack, you really are different from before. So different."

Perhaps that was the comment Ramsey heard the most these past two years, now responding in jest, "Really? I thought I just got more handsome."

Ramsey knew what others meant by "changed". Any discerning person could see his coaching style was now worlds apart from the past.

"Lenny, I never thought that one day I would become quite like you. If I had known, I should have retired earlier," Ramsey said self-deprecatingly.

In his prime, Ramsey was regarded as the ultimate coach, a type of general who controlled everything.

He was stringent with discipline, believed in his tactical system, and thought nothing on the court was coincidental.

He conducted keen and comprehensive analysis before games, always predicting things that would almost inevitably happen.

In his world, the coach was crucial, extremely crucial, the core of the team.

Lenny Wilkens, however, was a "player’s coach," having come from a player’s background, he believed more in the talent and performance of the players, willing to let them follow their instincts on the court.

In fierce games between Portland and Seattle, people often saw Ramsey exploding in anger on the sidelines, yelling at referees or making sarcastic remarks to pressure them.

Whereas Lenny Wilkens was much quieter. At most, he would spread his hands in helplessness, make some resigned gestures to catch the referee’s eye, hoping to win their sympathy.

Now? Wilkens noticed that throughout the game, Ramsey remained quietly seated on the bench, seldom kneeling on the sidelines anymore, without any outbursts or shouting.

At the same time, Wilkens observed that the Trail Blazers’ system of tactics was relatively loose and very open.

Their truly tight, powerful core tactics were limited to one and a half: one revolved tightly around Gan Guoyang’s low-post one-on-one, and a half was the cut-and-pass system between Walton and Gan Guoyang.

The rest of the Trail Blazers’ offense was based mainly on the talents of the players and their chemistry, no longer as structured, regulated, and disciplined as before, yet it was full of flexibility and power.

Wasn’t that the exact effect Lenny Wilkens had been pursuing in the beginning?

Their coaching philosophies seemed to have undergone a sort of soul swap.

"Jack, if I were you, with Ah Gan on my team, I would coach until his retirement," Wilkens said, not hiding his envy for Ramsey.

Ramsey shook his head and responded, "Impossible, Ah Gan will play until he’s 50. By the time he retires, I’ll most likely be dead."