The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 309 It Can't Get Any Worse
In the 1986 Western Conference Finals, we went to Houston. Before heading there, the whole team was relaxed and happy, after all, we were leading 2-0 and could see the Finals beckoning us.

I was incredibly excited. I saw this as a great opportunity to get revenge on the people of Houston and make them regret not choosing me in 1983.

As it turned out, it was wrong to approach the game with that mindset. We all underestimated the Houstonians' intense desire to win and Akim's determination to defeat Forrest Gump.

During the playoffs, Akem and I didn't have any contact privately. Of course, we would exchange a few words on the court and chat when we had free time, but when the game got intense, we would trash talk, which was very rare for us in the past.

Akim was quite spurred on in the first two games, being dominated by Forrest Gump and losing to him in the final moments. However, before the third game began, he seemed relaxed and even had a smile on his face.

He had been wearing a long face and looking tense, like he was about to participate in the Normandy landings, but that night he relaxed and greeted the referee, Forrest Gump, and me.

On the contrary, Forrest Gump looked much more serious. He frowned. Forrest Gump was one of the few people on the team who remained tense. On the plane to Houston, he kept telling everyone that winning the game at The Peak Arena was not easy, and we had to concentrate and be completely focused.

We were all surprised. Forrest Gump, who has always been a very confident person, had just made a spectacular game-winning shot that will be broadcast on local Portland television for the next thirty years.

As it turned out, Forrest Gump's concerns were justified. In our first game in Houston, we were met with a relentless counterattack from the Rockets. That night, my mother, brother, and sister all came to the top to watch the game. They all supported the Rockets. I played terribly that night, and I can't even remember how many mistakes I made.

The Rockets put immense pressure on our backcourt, and I even had a hard time getting the ball to Agan. We lack a true, experienced point guard.

Terry Porter: "In the 86 Western Conference Finals, our backcourt faced its most terrifying test. Whether our guards could support Forrest Gump was key to our victory. Bill Fitch's defensive setup was very targeted, leaving Forrest Gump to face the Rockets' twin towers alone in the paint. I was sitting on the bench, watching the intense competition on the court, and I kept asking myself, 'If I go in, can I hold my own? Can I support the team?'"

The backcourt problem is quite fatal. Anyone else on our team, including Agan, can take on some of the ball-handling and playmaking duties, but that's not a full-time job. Everyone has other tasks. Facing the Rockets' high-intensity defense, we need a seasoned veteran.

Unfortunately, we didn't. When I had to take on a lot of ball handling responsibilities, some mistakes were inevitable. My dribbling was intercepted, and my passes went out of bounds. I was under tremendous pressure.

The Houston residents who used to support me were booing me. The boos started from the first quarter and they cheered loudly and yelled at me when I made mistakes.

The pre-match ease was long gone. My whole body and my mind were tense. I felt terrible. We were behind from the very beginning.

We were down by 11 points at halftime, and we tried our best to catch up in the third quarter, but the problem was that we lost our rhythm and made a lot of small mistakes.

Forrest Gump and Walton came out to receive passes and set screens frequently, and they were constantly under attack, making each positional attack difficult. Forrest Gump was double-teamed most tightly by Hakeem Olajuwon and Sampson.

I've never seen such intense defense. They were practically fighting in the paint. I bet they both made a lot of illegal plays, but the referee didn't call them.

Forrest Gump didn't complain; he kept fighting to catch up. We narrowed the gap to 4 points at the start of the fourth quarter, but turnovers ruined our efforts again. We had a total of 21 turnovers tonight, which was terrible.

This was my worst performance in the playoffs. I only scored 8 points and had 3 assists. I was completely shut down. The Trail Blazers lost the game, 101-105, making the score 2-1.

Vandeweghe: Game 3 was a turning point. The Rockets found some winning formula, their defense became incredibly intense, and they were very physical. Jim Paxson and I were a bit uncomfortable. Some of the fouls we committed in regular season games weren't called by the referees; they were encouraging physicality. For shooters like us, physicality often means losing our touch. Plus, our backcourt was under pressure, our offense became disjointed, and we became extremely reliant on Forrest Gump.

After the game, I declined interviews, and the next day I canceled my meeting with the University of Houston basketball fraternity. I couldn't face them; I wanted to reflect and prepare for Game 4.

The team realized the problem: our backcourt was too weak. We only had two point guards, Terry Porter and Steve Cortés, and they were younger than me, so it would be difficult for them to carry the team.

After all, not everyone is Forrest Gump. He played like a point guard in Game 3 and put up a triple-double, but we didn't give him enough support.

The situation didn't improve in Game 4. Summit Arena is bigger than Memorial Arena, and Akem still seemed relaxed before the game. I think he's found a way to deal with Forrest Gump. Although his stats declined—in Game 3, he and Sampson combined for the same points as Forrest Gump—they put in a tremendous amount of effort on the defensive end.

Many years later, when I asked Akim, he said that he had truly adjusted his mindset towards Forrest Gump. He abandoned himself during the game and fully integrated into the team. He said that he didn't have Forrest Gump in his eyes, only the game and victory.

Hakeem Olajuwon: "Before Game 3, Sampson and I drank all night watching film. We had a deep conversation, poured our hearts out, and cleared up some old grudges. We only had one goal: to beat Forrest Gump and the Trail Blazers. Later, Fitch told us that it was even more important to cut off Forrest's connection with his teammates, so that even if he scored 60 points, we couldn't win. In Houston, we did that. We still couldn't completely contain Forrest, but the Trail Blazers were dismantled by our systematic defense."

I couldn't do what Akem did back then. All I could think about was how to pass the ball accurately to the inside, how to launch a fast break, and how to beat that damn McGrady.

The Rockets continued to pressure our backcourt, and we found some ways to counter it, such as long passes and lots of receiving and screens, which had some effect.

But I want to say that this is not our rhythm. When Ramsey brought on three tall players, we played a very good positional game, but the problem was still in the backcourt. We made fewer mistakes, but our first pass was terrible.

The poor first pass resulted in our fast counterattacks failing to materialize, and our positional attacks were a beat slower than usual. In the end, the game fell into one-on-one situations for Agan, which was a trap set by the Rockets. Olajuwon and Sampson had carefully woven a net that Agan was caught in.

Forrest scored 40 points in Game 4, but he couldn't carry the team alone. The score was 105-107. Forrest missed the final shot, and we lost Game 4, bringing the score to 2-2.

Things started to turn sour. On the plane back to Portland, the relaxed atmosphere had vanished. Everyone was silent. We thought things would be better back at home. We would win the match point game. We wouldn't let the Portland fans down.

But honestly, leaving Portland for Houston with a 2-0 lead and then returning to Portland with a 2-2 tie is a bad feeling.

There were about a thousand fans at Portland Airport to greet us. They cheered and comforted us, but I have to say I felt ashamed and under a lot of pressure at that time.

Our fifth game was crucial, but as is often the case, when you think it's absolutely essential, something unexpected always happens. The unexpected thing in the fifth game was that our outside shooting went awry. Every year in the playoffs, there's always a game where the team's shooting goes terribly, and we can't even make open shots.

Unfortunately, that unfortunate night in the playoffs that year was the crucial Game 5. The Rockets desperately tightened their defense, giving us many opportunities to shoot from the outside, but we just couldn't make the shots.

The more we missed, the more nervous we became. We quickly fell behind and started struggling to catch up. It was a terrible feeling. All I wanted to do was slam the ball into the basket. I was agitated and committed three charging fouls. I went crazy and complained to the referee, which resulted in another technical foul.

The referee that night was Jack O'Donnell, and I've disliked him ever since. He's too vengeful, which is unacceptable for a referee, even though he's very fair.

We fought until the very end, but the momentum and luck weren't on our side. Agan hit a three-pointer that almost turned the tide of the game, but he stepped out of bounds.

It felt like a volcano suddenly erupting, and then, after half a minute, the flames went out instantly, leaving everyone extremely frustrated.

He stepped on it just a little bit, and it counted as two points. We couldn't tie the score. After the game, everyone thought it was a problem with Avia's shoes, that they were too thick.

94-95. In the end, Akim deliberately missed a free throw to waste time, and we lost the game. That was the worst day I experienced in 1986. I don't even know how I got back to the locker room.

The atmosphere in the locker room was as solemn and heavy as a funeral. Forrest Gump walked in and said, "We can't play any worse than tonight, can we? So there are two more games, and we can win them, right?"
If I were to say that everyone was inspired and immediately cheered up, that would be utter nonsense; it's impossible.

But I did feel a lot better then, and then we started planning our comeback, right there in the locker room, starting with that terrible defeat.

—Excerpt from Clyde Drexler's autobiography, *Clyde The Glide*, published in 2004.

(End of this chapter)