The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 192 requires some luck.

At the 1985 All-Star Game, when I had the opportunity to coach Forrest Gump, I redefined the word "excellence" in my vocabulary. This wasn't some exaggerated praise; it's easy to use words like "great," "excellent," "amazing," and "incredible" when evaluating players, as if they were flawless and invincible throughout their careers.

But when readers are excited by these words and then learn about the players' lives and achievements, they find that reality is not so, and they inevitably feel deceived, thinking that this is just mutual flattery among insiders.

Forrest Gump was different. As everyone knows, he caused a storm in the league in his first season in the NBA. As the Lakers coach, I even had to secretly develop the 'Forrest Gump Rule' to limit him. At the time, most people didn't know about it. I was worried that leaking these things would expose the team's weakness. We were so worried about and targeting a rookie.

The All-Star Game back then was very different from the ones in the 60s and 70s. In the 60s and 70s, the All-Star Game was a real competition because players' salaries were low, and the prizes for the winners were very generous. But by the 80s, players' salaries were already very high, and the All-Star Game was more of a performance, a show to give back to the fans.

The stars have a chance to relax. They might choose to sleep in, sunbathe, drink and party all night. This is their time to unwind.

But Forrest Gump, who was staying at the same hotel as me, still got up very early on the day of the race to run and work out. When we met in the restaurant that morning, he said he had already been training for three hours. I was curious about how Forrest Gump spent his day preparing for the race, so I said I would like to see his training process, and Forrest Gump readily agreed.

He went to the gym that morning, and I finally understood where his amazing strength came from. At that time, most teams didn't do strength training, but Forrest Gump was already like Mr. Olympia. Avia had assigned him a strength training coach, and I decided then and there that we should do the same next season.

He ate a very moderate and healthy lunch, including a lot of fish. At that time, vegetarianism was popular in the league, but Forrest Gump wasn't one of them. He said that high-quality protein was very important, and he also told me that he always cooked for himself in Portland, which was surprising.

What's even more surprising is that in the afternoon he started reading and taking notes, though not for long, about an hour. He did some simple reading, looking at everything and reading very attentively, not just skimming the prologue. In this respect, he's like Karim, who also loves reading.

The difference is that after reading for a while, Forrest Gump would take notes on pre-game preparations for basketball games. Even though the next day was an All-Star exhibition game, Forrest Gump still prepared by writing down the characteristics of Eastern Conference stars and devising strategies to deal with them.

The level of detail in these strategies amazed me. For example, when mentioning Moses Malone, he pointed out that Moses preferred to initiate low-post attacks on the left side of the basket and shoot and pass more on the right side. He analyzed the approximate ratio and success rate of these two approaches by watching video footage, and summarized the strategy of 'having Moses go to the right side to induce him to take random shots, which helps reduce the offensive threat' from the previous 76ers game data.

He also pointed out that Moses' performance fluctuated after entering January, with his shooting percentage fluctuating wildly and his number of offensive rebounds slightly declining, indicating that his physical condition was not as good as before, and that he needed to be worn down in physical confrontations.

Of course, since it was the All-Star game, Forrest Gump changed his strategy to have Moses drive hard on the left side and dunk.

To be honest, even the coaching staff of NBA teams didn't work this meticulously back then. Much of our work relied on experience, intuition, and boundless enthusiasm.

The Trail Blazers and 76ers have no games left this season. I asked him where he got these data and conclusions, and he said he summarized them by watching videos with Adelman in his spare time.

He would spend a lot of time watching other teams' game videos and statistics. I thought to myself, how great it would be if he were my center, we could study game videos together every day.

I asked him again how he could draw some statistical conclusions when the situation was different in each round, and what was going on with some strange mathematical symbols and numbers. Forrest Gump smiled and said that was his basketball secret and he couldn't tell me.

Many years later, I learned that Forrest Gump was already using advanced data analysis to guide his competitions. He studied statistics at Gonzaga University, and we were more than a decade behind him!

—Excerpt from Pat Riley's 1994 New York Times bestseller, *The Winner Within*.

Among the vast number of books written and published by NBA players, coaches, and related professionals, Pat Riley's semi-autobiographical book is quite unique.

First of all, it was written by Riley himself, rather than by a biographer like many players do, where the writer dictates and the other writes, so readers don't know how much of the content was actually written by Riley.

Secondly, Riley did not spend a lot of time introducing his childhood experiences like traditional biographies do, including his grandparents, parents, even distant relatives, childhood friends, teachers, etc., as if each of them played an important role in his success and none of them could have been missing.

Riley and his book, like his coaching style, get straight to the point, addressing what people care about most: team building and winning—like a good porn movie that gets straight to the point instead of beating around the bush with irrelevant plot points.

Third, Riley included numerous quotes from famous figures in the book, mostly renowned writers, politicians, and philosophers, such as Shakespeare, Tacitus, Benjamin Franklin, and Thoreau.

In the days before widespread internet search, knowing and quoting the words of these famous people required extensive reading and note-taking.

In the book, Riley also cites numerous American historical events to support his point of view, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, and various movie plots to enrich his narrative, such as "Wall Street" and "The Gambler."

All of this suggests that Riley either hired a highly knowledgeable support team to help him write the book, or he himself possesses a vast amount of reading and film knowledge, and is erudite and eloquent. Gan Guoyang, who spent three days with Riley during the All-Star game, concluded that the guy was indeed very capable, rather than just a pretty face with nothing to offer.
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On February 7, after the Trail Blazers defeated the Utah Jazz at home, Gan Guoyang returned home to pack up and prepare to report to Indiana.

Stockton went with Gan Guoyang. He had just finished a game in Portland, and the team disbanded on the spot. Those who were going to Indiana went to Indiana (Dantley), and those who were going to go home to take a break went home to rest.

Stockton originally wanted to return to Spokane, but Gan Guoyang dragged him along to the All-Star Game, and they also brought their girlfriends along to experience the excitement of the NBA All-Star Game.

Gan Guoyang and Stockton arrived in Indiana by plane on the 8th. It felt like they were back in the days when they came to the Olympic training camp last summer, which was less than a year ago.

Back then, they were still college students. Now, Gan Guoyang is a well-known professional player in the United States, and Stockton has gradually secured a position in the Jazz's rotation, no longer worried about being kicked out.

The accommodation was arranged at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. The NBA really went all out this time, not only reimbursing the players for their accommodation, but also providing free rooms for their family and friends.

The NBA did this to increase the enthusiasm of its stars to participate in the All-Star Game, which had been lackluster for several years with poor attendance and viewership.

With rising incomes, star players are less interested in the meager rewards of winning and have little enthusiasm for participating in the All-Star Game. They prefer to rest at home and show little interest in playing.

The NBA's events are of no interest to the new generation of stars. For several years in a row, the stars have been invited to a large dance hall to eat fried chicken and watch comedy talk shows—I wonder who came up with this kind of entertainment.

When the invited comedians discovered that most of the attendees were Black players, many of their jokes were simply untellable. In the end, they had to resort to telling boring jokes about Japanese people or some sexually suggestive material, completely failing to consider that there were Christians in the audience.

After the 1984 All-Star Game, a weary Larry O'Brien ended his term and handed the reins to David Stern.

This year marks the first All-Star Game held since Stern officially took office. The new commissioner, who has already implemented sweeping reforms in many areas, will naturally not miss the opportunity to use the All-Star Game as a golden advertising platform to promote the NBA.

On Friday evening, the 8th, Stern canceled the usual large banquet for the All-Star Game and replaced it with a buffet party in private hotel rooms. Players could choose to come and go as they pleased, and could bring their families and friends to participate, ensuring the privacy and comfort of the party.

The comedy talk show performances that the players disliked were also canceled, and Stern invited R&B star Jeffrey Osborne to perform for the players, singing his 1984 hit "You Can't Be Serious," which was well-received by the young players.

This was the first time Gan Guoyang met David Stern, the controversial and influential figure in the NBA, in private.

He was short, with a smile on his face and a small mustache. He looked at everyone with kind eyes. At this moment, Gan Guoyang understood why Larry Fleischer said that every time he saw David Stern, he wanted to pull off his mustache.

Because it appears to have an impeccable sense of perfection, people always want to sabotage things when they see something that has such a sense of perfection.

At the buffet dinner, Stern struck up a conversation with Gan Guoyang and asked him about his trip to China. He said that Fleischer was busy arranging it and asked Gan Guoyang what he thought about it.

Gan Guoyang said he was certainly willing to contribute to the development of the Chinese market, and that China would definitely be a huge market with great potential in the future.

Stern nodded in agreement, saying, "My dream is that one day in China, children will be able to wear hats with the NBA logo on them and play basketball on the streets."

"You will be our best spokesperson." Stern's words were indeed very persuasive, and Magic Johnson, Bird, and others liked him very much.

Gan Guoyang joked, "When are you going to give me a championship to make my image even more impressive?"

Stern remained unfazed and said, "You have to earn the championship yourself. It's proof of your talent and a reward for your hard work."

Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "Talent and hard work are indispensable, but luck is also needed at crucial moments."

Stern smiled without saying a word, took a sip of his drink, patted Gan Guoyang on the shoulder, and went to find someone else.

(End of this chapter)