The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 503 - 6 The Golden Bough
[In James George Frazer’s anthropological magnum opus "The Golden Bough," the opening depicts such a legend:
Near Rome, on the shores of Lake Nemi in the groves of Aricia, stood a temple of the forest goddess Diana, whose priest was fulfilled by a fugitive slave.
Once a fugitive slave assumed the role of priest, he was no longer a slave but bore the title of "King of the Forest."
Yet he led a life far from leisure and luxury; he had to constantly guard a Sacred Tree near the temple.
Armed with a blade, he would watch over the tree day and night, ever vigilant, fearing someone might approach it, for any other slave could claim the right to duel the priest if they managed to break a branch from this tree.
If the challenger could kill the priest in battle, the slave would take his place, becoming the new priest and "King of the Forest," embarking on a life of renown that was as terrifying as it was distinguished.
The branch broken from the Sacred Tree was known as the Golden Bough.
The O’Brien Trophy is the Golden Bough of the basketball world. When we win the championship, becoming the King of the Forest, we transform from slaves to priests guarding the Sacred Tree, ever watchful before it, awaiting the arrival of the next challenger.
This is the cruelest aspect of the NBA; after attaining honor, you hardly have time to bask in it before you must exert every effort to defend it.
was the most painful and torturous year of my coaching career, even more so than the agony of losing Bill Walton in 1978.
In the summer of 1987, we had won the championship and immediately began to think about securing a three-peat.
However, quickly after, the team’s Vice President, Pat Riley, resigned and left the team, going to Florida with Yin Man.
To tell the truth, I was not very fond of the guy; his mind was always on how to make money instead of how to make the team better.
But when he left, I was sure that the team would not improve without him; he was a good man.
An even greater blow was the departure of Rick Adelman. On the day he resigned, he came to my house to tell me his decision.
He was off to the Golden State Warriors to become their head coach. He felt he lacked presence in Portland and wanted more space to assert himself.
I knew that there was competition between Rick and Bobby; Bobby was Ah Gan’s teacher, and Rick had no confidence in that situation.
In fact, I personally leaned more towards appointing Rick as my successor; he understood everything about me. He could be the new helmsman for the Trail Blazers.
But he left, and the world is like that; not everything goes the way you want, just like players don’t always follow your tactics.
We succeeded in the 1987 season, but I was not satisfied with my own performance. I could feel that my tactics and system were gradually falling behind the times. My control over the team was weakening, and I even doubted how much I still contributed to the team.
Would the Trail Blazers still be able to win the championship if they replaced me?
In the finals, I landed a punch on Chuck Daly, half because I was enraged by the Pistons’ savage play, and half because I hated myself.
I missed the fourth game, but the team still won, striking a blow to me; indeed, they could win without me.
Of course, the championship was joyful, and in the summer, I strived to improve myself. I dragged Bobby along to participate in a triathlon, then spent a lot of time studying new basketball theories, new tactical thinking, attending a basketball coaching camp in Hawaii, and even took a trip to the Middle East to teach basketball coaching training courses, promoting the exchange and development of basketball around the world.
These exchange activities relaxed me, but returning to America, back to the coaching bench, the thought of fighting hard for a three-peat made me anxious and uneasy all over again.
I knew that I might no longer be suitable for continuing as an NBA head coach.
So before the 1987-1988 season began, I made up my mind that win or lose, this would be my last season in coaching.
Rick’s and Riley’s departures only fortified this belief; moreover, as far as I knew, Larry Weinberg was already considering selling the Trail Blazers.
Just for the sake of a three-peat, we kept all this to ourselves, waiting until the end of the season to address it.
People might wonder why, after achieving success, we all wanted to leave, even to the point where the team faced the risk of falling apart.
Because the championship is never just about honor; it is also the NBA’s curse, the Golden Bough that compels eternal struggle.
I was tormented before the training camp of the 1988 season because I didn’t know how to arrange the tactics for the new season.
Ironically, the person who once despised isolation play the most relied on it incredibly much in the previous season.
I had many tactical ideas in my mind, so many that I couldn’t thread a coherent narrative, unable to find what was most suitable for the team.
If we were to develop a new system, one season would definitely not be enough time to adapt, and the old isolation play, as well as the previous high-post center tactics, were no longer suitable.
This was the first time in my coaching career that I had encountered such a situation. I was unsure, even entertaining thoughts of resigning right away.
But luckily, there was Ah Gan. He would always stand out with his confidence and ability to solve all kinds of troubles.]
————2011, excerpt from "Dr. Jack On Winning Basketball" co-authored by Dr. Jack Ramsay and Neil P. Waller.
Gan Guoyang, as usual, took part in the Portland Trail Blazers rookie training camp at the beginning of October.
Jeff Hornacek and Dell Curry, both second-year players, also participated, showing a remarkable improvement, visible to the naked eye, compared to last year.
Both had made significant strides in their three-point shooting, Curry’s being particularly accurate, while Hornacek had become more well-rounded.
Gan Guoyang was very pleased with their performance, recognizing that in terms of three-point shooting, the Trail Blazers needed to take the initiative. He knew that as time went on, three-point shooting would become an increasingly vital part of the game across the league.
Greg Anderson was a big, simple kid who had seen brief action in that earthshaking battle of 1984, as a substitute for Olajuwon.
He had faced off against Gan Guoyang once, feeling for the first time the unsurpassed strength of Guoyang, completely unable to budge him under the basket.
The memory of this confrontation followed him into the NBA and to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he was incredibly nervous upon learning he was to become Ah Gan’s teammate.
However, after a few days of training in the rookie camp, he found that Ah Gan was a nice guy, kinder and friendlier than all the NBA stars he had met or heard of—off the court, of course.
Gan Guoyang had no recollection of Anderson from college; after all, the guy was just a small fry in the NCAA championship.
Gan wasn’t very satisfied with his ability to stand his ground; Anderson was very muscular but had a bit too much body fat and lacked a good posterior and thick legs. To survive in the post, he still needed a lot more training.
As for those second- and third-round picks other than Anderson, they were far worse; none seemed to have the potential to succeed.
In the end, Gan Guoyang gave a frank appraisal, "You guys are the worst batch of rookies I’ve ever coached, worse than the last batch!"
After the rookie training camp ended, by mid-October the pre-season training camp officially began, signaling the imminent unfoldment of the new season.
By the time Guoyang entered the pre-season training camp, he had reached a weight of 265 pounds and his body fat percentage had further decreased, indicating solid muscle gains.
Apart from Guoyang, Drexler, Kossie, and Gilmore all appeared much sturdier.
Drexler, in particular, had not had a good 1986-1987 season. His early-season form was a mess, although he recovered somewhat in the middle to late parts of the season, he still underperformed overall and missed out on being an All-Star.
Training and improvement over the summer are truly important.
This season was Drexler’s contract year, so he could not afford to slack off this summer.
He spent most of his time in the gym and the basketball court, boosting his strength and enhancing his skills.
Over the summer, his biceps visibly thickened, his shoulders widened and firmed up, and of course, he had less hair on his head, with the M-shape becoming increasingly prominent.
Gan Guoyang, as usual, distributed a newly compiled "Ah Gan’s Basketball Cookbook" to each player, directing their diet, and included a mortuary advertisement—should anyone need it, they could call the number on the ad.
The Trail Blazers might have been the first NBA team to pay attention to professional basketball players’ dietary management, as well as one of the earliest to focus comprehensively on strength training—all thanks to the influence of Gan Guoyang.
The first day of the training camp was relatively easy, with light recovery workouts in the morning and defensive training in the afternoon.
What puzzled the players was that the coaching staff did not conduct any offensive tactical training. Logically, the first day should have included tactical training to set the tone for the new season’s tactical system.
But Dr. Jack Ramsay rarely spoke from start to finish. Bobby Berman arranged the content of the training.
After Rick Adelman resigned, the team was left with only one assistant coach, and management didn’t seem inclined to hire another.
Gan Guoyang sensed that Dr. Jack was not his usual self, so he went to the office to find him after the training ended.
In the office, Ramsay was staring blankly at the tactical board, covered in lines, chaotic and disordered.
Gan cut to the chase, "Jack, have you become a physicist? Instead of studying basketball tactics, are you researching the three-body problem?"
Ramsay never discussed tactics with Gan Guoyang because he knew that Ah Gan was that singularity that disrupted his basketball world’s physical rules, a black hole, the source of his troubles.
Ramsay shook his head and said, "No, I... the League has banned isolation plays. I need to think of something... we need a new system."
Gan Guoyang spread his hands and said, "Why do we need a new system? Just give me the ball, I’ll solve all your problems. I can pass, I understand tactics."
"You will face more double-teams."
"Jack, double-teaming has never been a problem. I am stronger this season."
Seeing the confidence in Gan Guoyang, Ramsay thought of the scene before Game 5 of the 1986 Finals.
Trusting him, that could never be a mistake.
