The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 191 The Forrest Gump Law
Gan Guoyang had no idea that his reputation for cooking delicious Chinese food had spread throughout the NBA circle and even reached the ears of Chinese food enthusiast Auerbach.

After the Trail Blazers' hook shot that sealed the victory against the Celtics, the entire team went wild. The players surrounded Gan Guoyang and ran all the way back to the locker room.

After showering and tidying up, I immediately ran back to the hotel, not wanting to stay in Boston Garden for even a second longer. Back then, there were no mandatory post-game interviews during the regular season, and players and coaches could simply leave without answering reporters' questions.

The excitement lasted until the next morning, and even after they flew to Indiana, the joy of defeating the Celtics still lingered in their hearts.

They wanted to share this joy with the Indiana Pacers fans, and they went on a scoring spree against the Pacers, ultimately defeating them 131-101, a massive 30-point victory that once again crushed the Pacers.

This concludes the year's rivalry between the two teams. The Pacers, who have been mired in a slump, will have to wait a long time before they can find their savior and have a dominant period.

After playing the Pacers, the Trail Blazers traveled to Kansas City, ending their relatively short road trip, and returned to Portland for rest.

Gan Guoyang's consistently outstanding performance has attracted nationwide attention. In the recently released All-Star voting statistics, Gan Guoyang has surpassed Isaiah Thomas, Ralph Sampson, and Julius Erving, and is closing in on the popular star Magic Johnson.

However, on January 19th, in the game between the Trail Blazers and the Lakers at the Trail Blazers' home court, the Lakers, who had just returned from their Eastern Conference campaign and successfully conquered the Boston Garden, swept through the game and defeated the Trail Blazers 135-120 at Memorial Arena, a 15-point advantage.

As the new year begins, the Lakers are in increasingly better form. They learned from the Trail Blazers' victory over the Celtics and defeated their opponents 102-100 at Boston Garden, a two-point advantage.

The Lakers unusually dragged the Celtics into a slow-paced slump, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hitting a crucial hook shot in the final moments, while Larry Bird missed the game-winning shot, securing the victory for the Lakers.

In the game against the Trail Blazers, the Lakers were even more focused. Pat Riley devised a more comprehensive strategy to deal with Gan Guoyang, which was secretly called the "Forrest Gump Rule" within the team.

The first rule of the Forrest Gump rule was contributed by shooting guard Byron Scott, who put forward the most basic requirement for defending Gan Guoyang: do not provoke him, but go along with him.

The saying goes, "You have to stroke a stubborn donkey with the right touch." Scott believed that instead of using intense physical confrontation and verbal provocation to get Gan Guoyang into a fully focused fighting state, it would be better to let him relax.

It is said that during a high school competition, Forrest Gump was repeatedly praised by his opponents, which caused him to perform poorly. Although he won the competition, his performance and statistics were mediocre.

This strategy was tested amid Pat Riley's skepticism, with Kirk Rambis guarding Gan Guoyang. Rambis was not opposed to this defensive strategy.

Unlike many players, the bespectacled Rambis was an eccentric. While other players were enjoying themselves in Fox Hill when he first joined the team, he stayed at his friend Rich Brown's house and slept on the floor of their dining room.

He only had one turkey brown suit and two stiff-collared shirts in his wardrobe. After each game, he would pack the soap, soda, beer, cotton swabs, toilet paper, and other items from the locker room into his briefcase to take home so he wouldn't have to spend money on them.

Although eccentric, he was very tough. When he first arrived at the Lakers, no one trusted him. He didn't seem like a basketball player at all.

During the training camp, he was treated roughly by other players. When they tried to break through, attack the rebound, or steal the ball, Rambis was treated like a punching bag and was beaten up by everyone.

But they soon discovered that the sandbags were not filled with ordinary sand, but with iron filings. They had met their match; this Santa Clara University graduate was not as weak and eccentric as he appeared.

So Rambis stayed and became an important member of the Lakers. He also gained more and more recognition from Los Angeles fans. Whenever the team needed toughness in the paint or to block shots, they would send Rambis in, and he always performed well.

Until he was beaten to death by Gan Guoyang.

That Lakers vs. Trail Blazers first game was always a psychological shadow for Rambis, especially the dizziness brought by that elbow and the confusion when he woke up, which was always etched in Rambis's mind.

Even many years later, he would occasionally wake up from nightmares shouting "I'm dead," so when Pat Riley said, "Go and take care of Forrest Gump," Rambis felt an unusual resistance.

Now, Riley told him to defend Forrest Gump normally, without too much physical contact, to go along with him and have a good talk with him, and even to praise him and see how it goes.

Rambis liked to defend Gan Guoyang this way. At the start of the game, Rambis started chatting with Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang quickly became impatient but there was nothing he could do. Rambis kept saying nice things to him.

Gan Guoyang wouldn't hit someone who's smiling, so naturally he couldn't say something as impolite as "you're already dead."

After the game, Rambis told Riley, "This defense worked very well against him. At least I stayed calm throughout the game and did a lot of what I could."

Of course, relying solely on the first rule is not enough. The Forrest Gump Rule also has a second rule: any player who gets close to Gan Guoyang should divert half of their attention to him, especially outside players like Cooper, Johnson, and Scott.

This rule is actually illegal defense and early double-teaming. Riley saw that the Trail Blazers' offensive fluidity relied heavily on Gan Guoyang. Although he didn't have many assists, he provided a lot of screens, ball-handling support, and his strong offensive after receiving the ball attracted the defense to create shooting space on the perimeter, as well as an exceptionally stable supply of defensive rebounds.

If they can disrupt Forrest Gump's offensive rhythm, it also means disrupting the Trail Blazers' offensive rhythm.

One person certainly cannot disrupt him; it requires two or even three people: one to defend and the others to follow like hounds at a distance.

At the time, NBA rules prohibited zone defense and double-teaming off-ball players, but starting in 1985, many teams began to employ edge defense. This was because the offensive prowess of some star players in the league was becoming increasingly formidable, making one-on-one defense impossible and requiring two players to be prepared in advance.

If Gan Guoyang receives the ball inside, it's fine; players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Spriggs, and others can quickly come over to help defend and double-team him.

However, Gan Guoyang can receive the ball on the outside and launch an attack. His three-pointers are terrifying. If you want to defend against them in advance, you will have to challenge the rules.

In this game, the Lakers were called for illegal defense three times, but they still insisted on double-teaming Gan Guoyang early by skirting the edges of the court, disrupting his ball-handling rhythm.

This tactic worked. Gan Guoyang's playmaking and passing skills were not yet at a master level, so he couldn't punish the Lakers' defensive strategy with assists.

The Trail Blazers' most important pivot point in their fluid half-court offense was cut off and surrounded, making communication with other players difficult.

If Gan Guoyang tries to single-handedly crush the Lakers like he did in previous games, the Lakers are already prepared. Two or even three players will surround and hunt him down from the first quarter, preventing him from getting into a good shooting rhythm.

Seeing Gan Guoyang receive the ball beyond the three-point line, Cooper and Scott immediately went up to interfere, determined not to let him take an easy three-pointer.

Despite these actions, Gan Guoyang was still able to score 20 points and grab 20 rebounds in a game, but his impact on the team was much weaker.

It's not difficult for a star player to put up high individual stats, but to win a game, they must be able to lead the entire team. Otherwise, even if you score 60 points, you only get a little over half of the team's total points, while the opponent can still score 130 or 140 points and still win the game.

Moreover, how many games can a player score 60 points in a season? Even if Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game in a single season, he still couldn't lead his team to a good record and win a championship.

The first two rules of the Lakers' Forrest Gump Rule are aimed at Gan Guoyang's offense. The Forrest Gump Rule also stipulates the defense against Gan Guoyang: avoid Gan Guoyang as much as possible on offense.

Riley studied the Trail Blazers' defense repeatedly and found that they used a lot of defensive traps, forcing opponents to the team's strongest defensive position and letting Gan Guoyang solve the problem.

In reality, the Trail Blazers' defensive lineup, especially on the perimeter, is very weak. Vandeweghe is a big leak, Paxson is a small leak, Drexler and Korsey are hotheads, and Thompson can guard McHale but not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Many teams have found a way to exploit the Trail Blazers' weaknesses by constantly attacking their strongest defensive positions, forcing the Trail Blazers to hide their vulnerabilities.

In particular, their attempts to draw fouls on Gan Guoyang and try to get him off the court resulted in a decrease in their own offensive efficiency, while Gan Guoyang remained on the court unharmed.

Riley reversed the thinking: I won't attack you, Forrest Gump, anymore. Whoever Forrest Gump is guarding, just pass the ball out. Other teams may have a problem with insufficient firepower, but the Lakers don't.

They have so many potential scoring threats: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, Worthy, Scott, and Wilkes are all high-level players with independent offensive capabilities.

When Gan Guoyang was guarding Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Abdul-Jabbar even pulled out to shoot two mid-range shots, pulling Gan Guoyang out of the three-second zone.

Worthy, Magic Johnson, and Scott took turns attacking the basket from the weak side, avoiding Gan Guoyang, a strong defensive player on the strong side.

With this series of moves, the Lakers finally found their rhythm, and coupled with their recent excellent form, they defeated the Trail Blazers in a big win at Memorial Arena, avenging their previous loss to the Six Arrows.

It was from this game that Gan Guoyang began to be thoroughly studied and targeted by teams across the league, and everyone began to try their best to find the weaknesses of the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang.

In the following games, although the Trail Blazers played at home, their record fluctuated. Gan Guoyang was still able to put up good numbers, but it became more difficult for the Trail Blazers to win.

With the widespread adoption of videotape technology, the exchange and dissemination of tactics became much faster than before, and teams began to establish video analysis groups to learn from the experiences of others' games.

Teams began to imitate the Lakers, using illegal early double-teams along the edges and avoiding Gan Guoyang's defense to deal with the Trail Blazers. Although they might not win, they made it very difficult for the Trail Blazers.

Gan Guoyang noticed that the players in the league had suddenly become friendly. Before the game, everyone would take the initiative to greet him, and even after he scored a goal, the opponents would praise him for it.

It made him feel a little embarrassed to say anything trash or mess with people's mentality.

In January, the Trail Blazers' record fluctuated, with wins and losses evenly split.

However, Gan Guoyang's popularity remained high, and he successfully surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be selected as a starter for the Western Conference All-Star team.

The coach of the Western Conference All-Star team is Pat Riley, who formulated the Forrest Gump rule.

(End of this chapter)