The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 215 The Two-Faced Man

Vandeweghe started his career with the Denver Nuggets, where Donnie Walsh was coaching. However, Walsh soon stepped down and handed the reins to his former teammate from North Carolina, Doug Mo (the North Carolina group has a strong influence in the NBA).

After several seasons in San Antonio, marked by last-minute misses (including a 3-1 lead against the Bullets in 1979 that was overturned), Doug Mo took his frenetic offense from Texas to the Colorado Plateau.

Doug Moe's coaching style is a perfect fit for Vandeweghe, focusing solely on offense and neglecting defense, with no fixed tactics and inconsistent training sessions. Doug Moe himself is also an avid golfer, and it's said that he's often nowhere to be found at the training range, most likely because he's off playing golf.

He sparked an offensive frenzy with both the Spurs and the Nuggets. With George Gervin on the Spurs, and English and Vandeweghe on the Nuggets, the team once averaged 126 points per game in the season and set a team record for points in a single game with the Detroit Pistons.

Logically speaking, a coach with this style should be very comfortable, but Vandeweghe told Gan Guoyang that he and Doug Moe had a very good relationship off the court. Doug Moe got along well with everyone. He was very relaxed, humorous and easygoing, and a maverick among NBA coaches.

But this guy is two-faced. His personality changes drastically on the field. He can suddenly lash out at the players, fly into a rage, and even force them to fight.

"Forced you to hit someone? He's done something like that before?" Gan Guoyang had never heard Vandeweghe mention this before.

"Yes, it was before I came to Portland last season, in a game against the SuperSonics. We didn't play well and were down by a lot. You know I've always played very disciplinedly, and then Doug Mo was very unhappy with me."

Vandeweghe plays a game that, to put it nicely, is disciplined; to put it bluntly, is too soft. He has almost no physicality on the defensive end, and has never been called for a technical foul in his entire career.

Vandeweghe has shown a lot more toughness in this playoff run, making a crucial block in the third game, which greatly helped the team.

"Then during halftime, Doug Moe cornered me against the wall and yelled at me, telling me I had to hit someone in the second half, I absolutely had to hit someone. At that moment, the veins in his neck were bulging, like they were about to burst, and his face looked more terrifying than yours."

"What do you mean 'more terrifying than me'? What kind of metaphor is that? Am I that scary?" Gan Guoyang was very dissatisfied with Vandeweghe's metaphor. "If you're going to tell a story, just tell a story. Why drag me into this?"

"Just so you know, listen to me. I was really desperate at that point. He kept marking me in the second half, so I found an opportunity and rammed into Lonnie Shelton hard. That guy's as big as a bull, and I pushed him down with all my might. I thought I must be crazy. Then I saw a SuperSonics player charging at me, I forget who it was, and I tackled him to the ground to prevent him from attacking me. The Nuggets bench went crazy with cheers..."

When Gan Guoyang heard Vandeweghe recount his time with the Nuggets, he said, "Woh, I think that's cool, it's a great memory!"

Vandeweghe shook his head and said, "It wasn't for me. I didn't like that. That's not me. Even the referee felt sorry for me. I remember the referee that night was Jack O'Donnell. I pushed and tripped people like that, and he didn't call a technical foul on me. Later, I heard him say that he saw how badly Doug Mo had abused me and didn't want to foul me anymore. I think my expression must have been terrible."

NBA referees are not cold, impersonal enforcement machines. Many referees have very strong personalities, especially the renowned ones. They have their own style of officiating and inevitably incorporate personal preferences.

O'Donnell didn't call a foul on Vandeweghe out of sympathy, but things won't be so friendly between him and Drexler in the future.

Hearing Vandeweghe say this, Gan Guoyang understood Vandeweghe. Doug Mo wanted Vandeweghe to be a bad boy in the game and force him to do things that would offend his opponents.

But Vandeweghe's personality was already set in stone, and his background and upbringing determined that he could never become the player Doug Mo wanted him to be.

So later, Vandeweghe was traded to Portland, and Doug Mo got the player he wanted more, and the Nuggets' record improved significantly this season.

Without Gan Guoyang, this would have been a failed trade for the Trail Blazers. Vandeweghe's weakness cost them roster toughness and depth, and all they gained was a scoring ability that wasn't as unstoppable as they thought.

Fortunately, Gan Guoyang's arrival made up for everything. He held up the sky, allowing scorers like Vandeweghe to do what they were good at without having to fight—Gan Guoyang took on all the fights he could.

It's hard to imagine any coach letting Gan Guoyang hit someone. Even Doug Mo would probably try to stop him if he saw Gan Guoyang hitting someone, saying that hitting someone is wrong.

"And let me tell you, Coach Doug Mo and Dr. Jack don't get along very well. Although Doug Mo outwardly respects Jack, he often complains in private that Dr. Jack is a stubborn old bald man, a carrion-eating vulture," Vandeweghe whispered to Gan Guoyang.

"Hmm...that makes some sense."

"Where does that make sense?"

"The metaphor about vultures is quite good."

The feud between Doug Mo and Jack Ramsey cannot be explained in a few words. The two did not have any direct conflicts on the surface, but they represented two different schools of thought among coaches in the league, which was the root of the conflict.

One type is the college-trained coach, who has coached college teams, possesses high tactical skills, and follows a traditional team basketball approach. Ramsey was the most successful active NBA coach at the time, and the 1977 championship made him a representative of the college style.

Another group consists of coaches who were professional players. They did not coach in college and went directly to the NBA as coaches after retiring. They often do not pay attention to tactics and like to do things that seem unorthodox to college coaches.

Notable figures include Doug Mo and Gene Shu of the Washington Bullets, both of whom were unconventional.

At that time, the prevailing opinion in the league was that the player-led approach was inferior to the academic approach. Ramsey even pointed out that it was complete nonsense for players to become coaches directly after retiring, and that all they did was keep the ball rolling on the court and make the players run.

Gene Shue's loss to Ramsey in 1977 and Doug Moe's loss to Dick Motta in 1979 are both "evidence" that the player-centric approach is inferior to the academic approach.

While player-oriented coach Pat Riley achieved success, the Lakers' foundation was laid by Jack McKinney, who previously coached at Saint Joseph's University and served as Jack Ramsey's assistant coach.

After Ramsey went to the NBA, he took over as head coach and later went to the NBA himself, serving as an assistant coach for the Trail Blazers and winning a championship with Ramsey.

He then became the Lakers' head coach and developed the Showtime offense, but unfortunately, he was injured in an unexpected bicycle accident, allowing Westhead and Pat Riley to take over the reins.

Therefore, the rivalry between Ramsey and Doug Mo represents a struggle between two coaching factions in the NBA. In addition to competing for game results, there will inevitably be a lot of friction in other aspects.

For example, during a game between the Nuggets and the Trail Blazers in November 1983, Vandeweghe said:
"In that game, the Trail Blazers were already leading by a large margin. At that time, the Trail Blazers players were trying to break the team's scoring record. The Trail Blazers probably scored more than 150 points in that game. Coach Doug Mo told us not to play defense. We just stood on the court and let the Trail Blazers players score. Doug Mo thought he meant well, but Dr. Jack thought it was not fair competition and that we shouldn't do that."

"Anyway, after that game, the two argued a lot. Coach Doug Mo was fined $5000 and suspended for two games. He felt that the league was favoring these veteran coaches. Dr. Jack is a stubborn old man. He also doesn't get along well with Coach Hubie Brown in New York. Hubie, you know?"

Gan Guoyang nodded and said, "I know. Bernard King mentioned him to me, saying that this coach likes to yell at people. Once, Bernard King warned him, 'If you keep making sarcastic remarks to me and speaking disrespectfully, I'll kill you.' Then he behaved himself, haha. I remember Maurice Lucas did the same thing, didn't he?"

"Yes, that's right. Hubie and Doug Mo don't get along either. Coach Doug Mo once berated him, saying that he'd lived his whole life on a deserted island with only three people on it: himself, Jack Ramsey, and Dick Motta."

"These three old men live on an island? That's fucking terrifying...and the insults they hurled were truly vicious."

"That's not the most vicious thing. Mo once coached a player who later committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest due to psychological problems, but the bullet missed his heart. Mo went to the hospital to comfort the player and said, 'I knew you wouldn't hit your heart because you've never been a good shooter.'"

"What? If it were me, I'd want to beat him to death."

"But Mo didn't mean any harm. He just wanted to encourage people who were suicidal to live well, just like he wanted me to be tougher. It's just that his methods were a bit... a bit hard to accept."

This is just a small part of Doug Moe's taunts; he also said that the players on his team "have nothing above their necks," to which the player (Hanzrik) retorted, "At least I have something below my neck, Doug has nothing."

In short, many people in the league dislike him, and the media often writes about him for amusement because his thinking is always unconventional. He often "does good deeds but ends up doing bad things, or says the wrong thing with good intentions," causing a lot of trouble.

But he does win games, and his success after switching teams is always immediate; his unconventional style is often fascinating.

After hearing what Vandeweghe said, Gan Guoyang thought that Coach Doug Mo was quite interesting. He had only focused on the court when playing against the Nuggets, but he didn't expect their coach to be such a fascinating person.

He was very curious: how could a two-faced person who had no tactics, disliked training, was unkempt, and had two different faces on and off the field always lead the team to remarkable results?
Vandeweghe explained it this way: "The Nuggets weren't really not playing defense. Doug Mo had his basketball philosophy, which he inherited from North Carolina Smith's 'rhythm theory.' He believed that both defense and offense were just a change in rhythm on the court. They weren't separate but a whole, and ultimately it was reflected in scoring. We just needed to score more points than the opponent, and we didn't need to care about how to defend. He always told us that in practice back then."

Gan Guoyang nodded and said, "Hmm, that makes a lot of sense."

"In short, let's see who's the best on the field. Sonny, don't go back on your word, leave some good memories."

"How about I punch him for you?"

"Oh, never mind, Doug is a good guy, he's just a bit crazy on the court."

"Hey, you good-for-nothing."

(End of this chapter)