The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 495 - 112: I’m Always the One Who Gets Hurt
Chuck Daly wasn’t punched for the first time.
The last time he had been hit was during a game against the Bulls in the previous season.
At that time, Jordan had not been written off yet, it was during a game at the start of the season in October 1985.
Bill Laimbeer committed a vicious foul on Jordan, knocking him down under the basket.
Albeck, who was then the coach of the Bulls, immediately blew up and started arguing with Chuck Daly.
As they argued, Albeck, feeling unsatisfied, got into a scuffle with Daly.
Luckily, the referees and players reacted in time, rushing over to separate the two before it escalated into a major coach brawl.
But tonight, Daly wasn’t so lucky, first because he was caught off guard, not expecting 60-year-old Ramsay to rush up and throw a punch at him.
Secondly, the court was already in chaos, with players from both sides and referees too busy to manage, as fights were breaking out everywhere.
After taking a punch, Ramsay, still having some sense of martial ethics, didn’t aim for the injury on his nose, but the pull was painful enough.
Pain can stimulate the adrenal glands, and Daly had also been holding back anger due to being significantly behind in the score, so after feeling the pain, he immediately pounced on Ramsay!
The two of them got into a tussle!
Cunningham, the commentator, could no longer watch; Ramsay was his former coach with the 76ers, his mentor.
He immediately leaped from the commentator’s booth onto the court, striving to get between Daly and Ramsay, trying to stop the two coaches from fighting.
Dick Stockton, sitting there, was stunned. A commentator too, on the court? I’m also a commentator, should I join in?
Stockton was completely bewildered; in all his years of commentary, he had never encountered such a scenario.
With more than 40,000 people in the Silverdome, if everyone erupted into violence, tonight could indeed turn deadly.
However, the scuffle between Ramsay and Daly quickly captured everyone’s attention.
Seeing the coaches set it off, the players stopped fighting and immediately rushed to intervene, pulling apart the two red-eyed old men.
Although Ramsay was advanced in age, he had a background in the Marine Corps and regularly participated in triathlons, so he was in great shape.
Plus, Ramsay had one significant advantage: he didn’t have much hair; his forehead was already bald.
The advantage of being bald in a fight is that you can’t have your hair pulled.
Daly, on the other hand, was worse off. His carefully maintained curly hair was a mess after being grabbed by Ramsay.
Not to mention the hairstyle was ruined, he also lost a tuft of hair, which infuriated Daly, turning his face beet red.
Gan Guoyang had broken his nose, but his hairstyle hadn’t been messed up. Now you’re pulling my hair, Dr. Jack, you’re being too rough!
Dennis Rodman and Isiah Thomas, although thrown onto the scorer’s table by Gan Guoyang, were unharmed.
When they saw Daly and Ramsay fighting, they immediately ran over to break it up.
Bill Laimbeer had been kicked hard in the bottom, which was sure to bruise, but there were no bone injuries.
However, because he had fallen flat on his face, his nose was bloodied from hitting the ground.
The players’ jerseys on both sides were ripped to shreds, with Thompson’s vest twisted like a braid.
Drexler’s clothes got damp from the cola thrown down from the stands.
Jerome Kossie was bare-chested, his jersey nowhere to be found.
Gan Guoyang, however, was unscathed. First, after Thomas was thrown, no one dared challenge him, and second, Walton and Jones protected him.
The Detroit fans kept cursing him on the spot, but Gan Guoyang didn’t care and even smiled at the fans, causing some to feel oddly embarrassed.
For the first time in his refereeing career, Strum felt helpless; his whistle was nearly worn out, and no one paid him any heed.
He wished he could also pick a fight with someone; if only his refereeing partner tonight were Bavetta.
He would’ve definitely thrown a punch at Bavetta to spice things up.
After nearly 15 minutes of wild brawling, calm was finally restored with the entrance of Detroit police.
The playing field was a complete mess, with the last 6 minutes of the fourth quarter still to go.
The scorer’s table, after a tense discussion by the officials, decided to eject Gan Guoyang, Thompson, Kossie, and other Trail Blazers players from the game.
On the Pistons side, Dennis Rodman remained on the court; he had been hit, not the hitter.
But Isiah Thomas and Melvin Turpin were sent back to the locker room, with Turpin having thrown several dirty punches.
Bill Lambier, rubbing his butt with a face full of grievance, communicated with Strom, saying that Ah Gan kicked him for no reason and that he should be suspended for the next game.
He had white cotton stuffed up his nose again, looking quite pitiful.
Strom didn’t believe it and said, "You must have provoked Ah Gan."
"I didn’t! I didn’t do anything, and he just came over to hit me!"
"It takes two to make a quarrel. Since I didn’t see it, I won’t penalize you. You go on and play."
Lambier was speechless, feeling like he had fallen on eight generations of bad luck, just like last time at the Silverdome.
Just watching the excitement, he got punched, and this time, having learned his lesson, he turned to run, only to be kicked!
Why am I always the one getting hurt?
Fistfights, kicks, and wrestling – Lambier had experienced it all, marking a well-rounded player career.
During this interruption in the game, CBS became ecstatic.
Last year’s finals, Gan Guoyang shattered the backboard, delaying the game by half an hour, and the network blasted commercials.
This time, with the large brawl, the network seized the opportunity to insert more ads, driving the ratings to new heights.
Gan Guoyang truly was a ratings magnet; his games never lacked hot topics for discussion.
Moreover, the grand scale of the brawl entertained the audience and fans thoroughly, yet no serious consequences ensued.
Despite the frenetic fighting, upon tallying the damages, it was the same as last time: the only person who bled was Lambier.
The rest had minor injuries and bruises, but blood was always drawn from Bill.
Though the spectators were emotionally charged, the excitement was real, and quite a few people took a stroll on the court without anyone getting hurt.
One point was quite clear to Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers players: they knew what was acceptable to hit and what wasn’t.
After the chaotic scene ended, the referees and the scorer’s table nevertheless decided to let the game continue.
The remaining players from both teams finished the match on the court.
Both team coaches were also ejected, so the courtside commanders were Versace and Adelman.
Without their core players, the Trail Blazers, leading by 14 points, did not give the Pistons a chance.
Drexler once again took control of the game, scoring 8 points in the last 6 minutes by driving and shooting.
The Trail Blazers ultimately won 117:110, not letting victory slip from their hands after a chaotic battle.
With a 3:0 lead in the finals series, they were just one step away from clinching the 1987 championship.
After the game in the Trail Blazers locker room, everyone was both happy and worried: happy for the victory and worried about potential suspensions from the brawl for the next game.
Gan Guoyang said, "We’re already up 3:0, there’s nothing to fear from a suspension. Even if we lose the fourth game, we’ll still clinch the series and the championship in the fifth!"
With that said, everyone’s hanging hearts were put to rest, and they continued to savor the aftertaste of the great battle together.
Ramsay didn’t attend the post-game press conference; Gan Guoyang and Adelman faced the reporters’ questions.
Confronted by a barrage of questions from the journalists, Gan Guoyang responded calmly:
"I just wanted to teach the Pistons a lesson; they always use malicious moves to injure others. There’s an old saying in China, ’He who wields a sword shall die by the sword.’ I would like to offer this saying to Mr. Daley."
David Stern hadn’t attended the game that night; he was in Arizona dealing with the Suns’ affairs.
When he found out about the brawl from his hotel in Downtown Phoenix, he almost blacked out and fainted.
However, two hours later, Johnny Hay, the director of the Suns’ shoe operation department, died in a car accident in Downtown Phoenix.
For Stern, because of this accident, the finals series brawl actually came at just the right time.
He had been worried there were no newsworthy distractions available.
The next morning, David Stern held an emergency press conference to address the fighting between the Trail Blazers and Pistons.
Gan Guoyang, Thomas, Ramsay, and Daley were all suspended for one game, with each fined 8,000 US dollars.
The League announced that it would perfect the suspension rules to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Beyond that, the League launched a high-profile investigation into the violence, extensively reporting on the NBA court incidents.
But when the new season began, people found that the thunder was loud but the rain small; everything remained as before, without fundamental changes.
Because the dazzling ratings and hotness of the news topic were evidently much preferred over drugs on the court.
As for the death of Johnny Hay, it no longer concerned anyone, and soon he, along with the Suns’ drug scandal, would be forgotten.
