The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 490 - 107: The Enchanting Silence
After the second game at the Portland Memorial Coliseum, something happened in the visiting team’s locker room.
The consecutive defeats sent the Detroit Pistons’ mood to rock bottom, everyone was silent, immersed in the depression of failure.
Chuck Daly was unable to speak loudly due to the pain in his nasal bone and could not communicate normally with players during the second game, the venue was too noisy.
He could only tell Versace what he wanted to say, letting Versace relay it to the team members, which sapped Daly’s command of any passion, and a crushing defeat was inevitable.
Dennis Rodman was the last to enter the locker room, and the 26-year-old rookie kicked the door vigorously, startling everyone.
Then, showing no sense of a rookie’s awareness, Rodman began to shout at every member of the team and criticize each of his teammates for playing like cowards.
He cursed Bill Laimbeer for being timid at heart, that seeing Ah Gan was like a mouse seeing a cat, and he accused James Donaldson of being reduced from 7’2" by Ah Gan to 2’7".
Melvin Turpin became Rodman’s "big idiot," capable of nothing but bumping into people, while Adrian Dantley defended with his eyes rather than his legs and hands.
Even the team leader, Isiah Thomas, was not spared; Rodman’s criticism of him was the most vicious, "You’ve already been scared witless by Ah Gan, just look at your performance on the court, you hide behind others whenever there’s a conflict, are you afraid of getting hit? What are you scared of? At worst, it’s just a punch! Where were you when the old man was knocked over by him? Where were all of you? That son of a bitch did it on purpose, and the old man had no choice but to make peace, but what about you guys? You act as if nothing happened, no defense, no intensity, you’re all a pile of shit! I fucking don’t want to play on a team like this, I don’t want to be a member of such a team!"
As he swore, Rodman kept kicking the locker room’s cabinet doors, scattering water bottles, towels, and slippers everywhere.
But no one stopped him, not even Chuck Daly. Everyone just listened quietly to Rodman’s endless tirade, watching him go wild.
After venting for about five or six minutes, having said everything, and feeling tired, he sat on the bench, covered his head with a towel, and wept.
This was when Chuck Daly stepped forward and said, "Dennis has said what I wanted to say, we played too badly, and my performance was also terrible. I thought my sacrifice would inspire you, but instead, what I got was fear. The next game, at Silverdome, victory is the best solace. We still have time, we still have a chance."
With that, Daly patted Rodman on the shoulder, and everyone else followed suit.
This quirky, headstrong kid was fearless and unphased by anything since entering the league.
Before the draft, many scouts couldn’t figure out what exactly this kid was doing on the court.
He couldn’t shoot; he could only grab rebounds with exaggerated movements and an odd running posture—his style on the court starkly different from others.
He was already 25 at the time of the draft, and he had just turned 26 during the Eastern Conference Finals.
Daly was attracted to his energy and had also done a background check on him, learning about the theft record he had while working as a janitor at Dallas Airport, where he had stolen several expensive watches.
But he didn’t sell the watches for money; instead, he gave them to his friends. After being caught, he returned the watches and avoided prosecution.
This reminded Daly of his own impoverished youth. Although Daly had never stolen anything, he understood that kind of hardship and believed he could handle this young man, which led him to choose him.
Of course, another reason for picking him was the "Rodman gene." He had two formidable sisters, Deborah Rodman and Kim Rodman from Louisiana Tech University, the strongest rebounders there.
In the earth-shattering women’s college basketball championship of 1983, Rodman’s sisters, along with Reggie Miller’s sister, the future NBA player JaVale McGee’s mother and aunt, as well as Cynthia Cooper, Kim Maki, and other supremely talented American female basketball players, had delivered the most classic game in the history of women’s college basketball.
This NCAA women’s final was as influential as Bird’s showdown with Magic Johnson in 1979 and Ah Gan’s battle with Olajuwon in 1984.
Dennis Rodman undoubtedly inherited the Rodman family’s basketball talent; he was long-limbed and athletically gifted, bounding tirelessly around the court like a young deer.
Despite his quirks, Daly appreciated the courage in him that would stop at nothing for victory, and that he might be the only one on the Pistons who truly was unafraid of Ah Gan.
After a liberating outburst, Rodman returned to Detroit with the team to prepare for the third and fourth games.
The third game was crucial for the Pistons; a loss would mean the end of the finals, as no one can recover from a 0:3 deficit.
Rodman’s tirade served as a brutal awakening for the Pistons; they were indeed ashamed of their performance in the second game.
Their head coach had been taken out by the opponent, and instead of seeking revenge for him, they submitted to Gan Guoyang’s tyranny.
The only way to wash away this disgrace was to make a comeback in Detroit.
However, when Rodman proposed to take the main defense against Gan Guoyang in the third game, Daly refused.
He told Rodman, "Suicide is an act of cowardice. We will find a way to defeat the opponent with intelligence and technique, not just spontaneity. Your courage has inspired everyone, but courage alone is not enough, we’ll go back and study the game together."
On the other side, the Trail Blazers arrived at the Sheraton Hotel in Detroit a day before the third game.
Gan Guoyang, as usual, brought only three days’ worth of clothes, making it clear he intended to sweep the Pistons and win the championship in Detroit.
"If the fifth game is in Portland, I might consider bringing the series back to Portland to let the fans properly celebrate the championship," he said.
Due to the 2-3-2 format of the finals, the middle three games were all held in Detroit, and if it were to return to Portland, the score would definitely be 3:2.
Gan Guoyang wouldn’t allow the series to progress to such a point—he believed it should be resolved within five games, preferably four.
Bobby Berman reminded Gan Guoyang, "The Pistons aren’t so easy to deal with, they will surely fight back fiercely in the third game."
Beelman spoke from experience; generally, the third game after switching home and away courts was the hardest, most arduous, and most unattractive.
Especially for a team that’s down 0:2 and returning home, they would do everything possible to secure victory on their home court.
The Pistons had been humiliated in Portland, with their coach getting hit and the team suffering a resounding defeat—for which they had no solution in Portland.
Now back in Detroit, they would definitely strive for victory with all their might, even resorting to any means, compounded by the potential intervention of the referees, leaving the outcome uncertain.
Gan Guoyang knew Beelman was making sense and he whispered to Beelman, "I told my wife, if we lose the third game, to bring some clothes to Detroit for me."
Beelman just shook his head after hearing this. You really are a cunning one, bragging no matter whether you win or lose.
If your bragging turns out to be hot air, just pretend nothing ever happened, right?
But so far, Gan Guoyang really hadn’t made any brags that had deflated.
Gan Guoyang’s bravado was always grounded in reality; he wouldn’t just spout it recklessly.
For instance, during the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers, with a 2:0 lead away, he never claimed he would sweep the Lakers.
Because he understood the strength of the Lakers, he knew sweeping them would be extremely difficult.
Leading 2:0 gave them the initiative. If they lost the third game, they could let the teammates play the fourth game. Winning would be best, but losing would still save their energy to fight for the crucial next game.
That’s how the series goes, when the teams are evenly matched, it’s difficult to win every game. The key is to control the pace of the series, being able to push and pull as necessary.
The Pistons were different. After two games, Gan Guoyang had a good measure of the Pistons’ strength.
Although their front line was formidable, overall they seemed a bit inflated, with too many younger players.
Gan Guoyang was young enough, and core players like Rodman, Salley, and Dumars were even less experienced than him.
Almost half of their rotation had been playing together for less than, or just about, a season.
The fact that they made it to the finals already involved a fair amount of luck.
They were well-prepared for the first game, but the moment something unexpected happened, everybody was baffled.
This showed that the team lacked the requisite seasoning, and the players were not calm and resolute enough when facing sudden incidents. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
Against such opponents, Gan Guoyang felt that if he seized the opportunity to deliver a decisive blow in the third game, he could completely crush them.
Leading troops in battle required the understanding that one should not chase an exhausted enemy; however, in a series, especially in the finals, when facing a flawed opponent, it was essential to pursue them relentlessly.
Once the third game was won, the fourth game would be indispensable, as the fifth was still to be held in Detroit—there was the risk that the series might be turned around.
This was determined by the characteristics of the 2-3-2 format; the three consecutive away games in the middle were far too prolonged, lasting an entire week, during which anything could happen.
On June 7, the third game of the finals took place at the Silverdome, a venue familiar to Gan Guoyang. That night, an audience of 39,188 spectators—nearly forty thousand people—arrived at the site.
Even though a new arena was under construction, destined to replace the Silverdome, hosting major events in such a massive sports stadium still had a unique charm.
Fans seated at the highest point had to view the game through binoculars, and the atmosphere and noise level at the venue were a notch higher than at the Glass Palace.
After all, the crowd here was more than three times that of Portland, and it was the Detroit Pistons’ first appearance in the finals in their history, so naturally, the fans were wildly supportive of their team.
Gan Guoyang, an old friend of Detroit fans, was greeted with a warm chorus of boos during the pre-game ceremony; the fans continuously chanted "fake Yo Gan" in unison, creating an impressive scene.
The passion and hospitality of Detroit fans made Gan Guoyang’s blood boil and filled him with inexplicable excitement.
He loved competing in such a venue; he loved the noise and commotion of the moment.
Because the noisier it was now, the more enchanting the silence would be later.
