The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 399 Trombone Player

It was another exciting battle between Gan and Joe. The two always put up great high scores in their games, leaving NBA fans thrilled.

These two individuals, with their exceptionally strong willpower and fierce competitiveness, consistently deliver high-level performances on the court.

The only drawback is that the Trail Blazers are already one of the league's top teams, while the Bulls are just an average team on the edge of the playoffs.

Without Jordan, the Bulls would be a complete pushover, while the Trail Blazers, even without Gan Guoyang, would still be a strong team in the West.

The huge gap in strength between the two teams made the match seem somewhat unfair, and the "clash of titans" was slightly less intense.

This loss exacerbated Jordan's dissatisfaction with the Bulls' management, leading to a further deterioration in his relationship with Jerry Krause.

Jordan complained that Krause always wanted to control him and never consulted his opinion on team recruitment, and even had a tendency to go against him.

Klaus would occasionally say that Michael couldn't listen to the general manager's opinions like Forrest Gump did, and work in unison with the management team to move forward together.

Jordan dismissed Krause's statement, saying bluntly, "It's a good thing I play for you. If it were Forrest Gump, you would have been beaten to death by now."

Having known each other for so many years, Jordan could easily say, "No one understands Forrest Gump better than me." He knew that Forrest Gump was not the kind of person who could be easily manipulated by management.

He just couldn't understand why Gan Guoyang could keep the people he wanted to keep, but he couldn't. He attributed this to Klaus's poor judgment and Rheinsdorf's shortsightedness.

Jordan never doubted that perhaps his judgment was flawed. If Forrest Gump had actually been with the Bulls, he might have agreed with many of Krause's decisions.

When leaving Chicago, Gan Guoyang made a promise with Jordan: "We'll meet in the Finals."

Although Jordan knew they were unlikely to make it to the Finals, making the playoffs would be a good result.

But Jordan always held the belief that "this season we need to win 82 regular season games and then win the championship."

His spirit can be described as "knowing it is impossible, yet still doing it; though there are thousands of people against me, I will go."

The Trail Blazers' next destination is Indianapolis, where the Pacers have been their cash cow for the past few seasons.

Portland is enjoying the second overall pick from the Pacers, while Indiana is watching their team struggle in the mire.

In the 1986 NBA draft, the Pacers, holding the fourth pick, selected Auburn University forward Chuck Paison, a classmate of Charles Barkley.

Pacers fans are very unhappy with the team's selection of such an unremarkable forward. They want a great center or a guard who plays like Jordan, not a forward who likes to shoot.

At that time, interior core players were still highly sought-after in the draft. Players like Gan Guoyang were a given, and even ordinary star-level interior players could quickly improve the strength of a team.

In the 80s, the NBA basketball court still relied heavily on big men. Having a good inside player in the paint made the game much easier.

But the Pacers took a different approach and decided to acquire Paison, who loves to shoot. He was nicknamed "The Long Gunner" in college because of his outstanding long-range shooting ability.

After the draft results were announced, die-hard Pacers fans booed loudly. To make up for their first-round pick, the Pacers selected a center in the second round, a 7-foot-2 white big man named Greg Drelin (a standard feature of NBA teams in the 80s, a white center over 6 feet 11 inches tall).
However, the Pacers didn't seem competitive at all. But after the new season started, they played well and won game after game. Near the end of the season, they were actually among the Eastern Conference playoff teams.

Pacers fans who were unhappy with Chuck Paison gradually shut up. Paison's performance was arguably the best among the 86 rookies, even better than the number one pick, Daugherty.

Paesson averaged nearly two three-point attempts per game, keeping up with the trend as three-pointers became increasingly popular in the 1986-87 season.

The person who brought the most changes to the Pacers was their head coach, Mike Schuler.

There's a real connection between the Pacers and the Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers' second overall pick in selecting Gan Guoyang came from the Pacers. When the Pacers were at their worst financially, they traded the Trail Blazers' vice president to them for a while. Then, seeing that the team's performance wasn't improving, they turned to the Trail Blazers for help, asking if they had a suitable coach.

The Pacers' top choice for coach is Ramsey, but the old man is unlikely to leave. As a second choice, the Pacers hope that Adelman can take the reins.

The Trail Blazers respect Adelman's personal wishes and will let him go if he wants to, but Adelman said he is comfortable in Portland and does not want to go.

So the Trail Blazers' management contacted Stu Inman, who was the Bucks' director of human resources. Inman mentioned this to Nelson, and Nelson recommended his assistant coach, Mike Schuler.

The NBA is a small circle where everyone is an acquaintance. As long as you find a way to get in and become a part of it, you can always find a job, and maybe one day you'll be suddenly pushed into a high-ranking position.

While NBA head coaches don't have the same absolute authority as college coaches, and sometimes even become scapegoats, it's still a very respectable job in American society, and they are one of the key figures on the court. Of course, connections alone aren't enough; those who survive in the NBA are all highly skilled and exceptional in certain aspects.

Mike Schuler is a typical head coach personality: a workaholic whose life revolves around basketball. He is always on edge, constantly thinking about the team.

He brought good defense, discipline, and a decent system to the Pacers, which was crucial for the struggling team. The young Pacers rewarded this hardworking coach with their achievements.

On game night, when the Trail Blazers dragged their increasingly tired bodies to Conseco Arena, they faced a young, disciplined, and energetic team—whose regular season record was even better than the Bulls'.

In addition to physical fatigue, the biggest problem for players on these cross-regional away trips is mental burnout.

Especially when the opponent is a mid-tier team that you only meet twice a year and then will most likely never meet again in the playoffs, the coaching staff sometimes doesn't do any pre-match research or preparation.

Gan Guoyang is a player who is passionate about the game, but in his third season, when playing against a team like the Pacers on the road, he still didn't know who the opponents were, or who the rookies and unfamiliar faces sitting on the bench were.

For the Trail Blazers, all they need to do is play their own game. Who their opponents are, what their characteristics are, and how they play are not important.

Of course, it will take another year before the Pacers become a team that Gan Guoyang takes seriously.

Of the Pacers' roster this season, the only player Gan Guoyang is relatively familiar with is Chuck Pasen.

He and Barkley were selected to represent Auburn University during the Olympic trials.

Later, Gan Guoyang and Barkley were wrestling in their dorm room, and Chuck Paison was watching from the sidelines.

Pasen used to wrestle with Barkley often, but after watching Barkley wrestle with Gan Guoyang, Gan Guoyang asked him to try, and he didn't dare to.

Later, Barkley and Gan Guoyang entered the NBA together. Gan Guoyang was unbeatable in the league. Now, when Paison sees Gan Guoyang, it's like a younger brother seeing his older brother.

In fact, Persson is no pushover. He is a player who is very good at trash talking and likes to mess with his opponents' mentality, making them feel clumsy and then reaping the benefits.

However, in tonight's game, Paison was well aware of the "Forrest Gump rule," and instead of trash-talking Gan Guoyang, he kept praising him.

From the warm-up before the jump ball, Paison launched into a sycophantic campaign, praising Gan Guoyang relentlessly, saying how amazing his scoring was, how everyone feared Gan Guoyang during the Olympic selection camp, and how his current achievements were expected.

He also praised Gan Guoyang's long-range shooting skills, saying that he wanted to learn Gan Guoyang's three-point shooting, and that it was simply the "ninth wonder of the world" for a center to win the three-point contest.

If someone is good at trash talk, they are often good at flattery as well, it just depends on whether they are willing to do it.

Paisson went to extreme lengths to flatter Gan Guoyang, even more so than Byron Scott and Quentin Stephenson.

The key point is that he didn't exaggerate; he simply recounted what Gan Guoyang had done, and you can't call him talking nonsense.

Under Paesson's spell, Gan Guoyang's performance tonight was mediocre, lacking the drive to dominate the Pacers' interior.

The two sides completed an unremarkable encounter, with Gan Guoyang scoring 27 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks, while the rest of the team did not perform well.

The Pacers, playing at home, were in high spirits. Chuck Pasen scored 22 points, including 2 of 3 three-pointers, helping the Pacers pull off a stunning upset against the Trail Blazers at home.

After winning the game, Chuck Pasen told Gan Guoyang, "We were just lucky tonight. If you had been more serious and put in a little more effort, we would definitely have lost."

Gan Guoyang shook his head and said, "Chuck, you shouldn't be called a pistolman, you should be called a trombone player. Let me tell you, this move won't work on me next time. No matter how much you praise me, I will still try my best to beat you all."

Chuck Pasen didn't care. The Trail Blazers coming to Indiana wouldn't happen until next season anyway. He had already accomplished his mission by getting rid of this plague tonight.

At one point, Paison mastered a good way to deal with Forrest Gump. There were many people in the league who flattered Forrest Gump, but Paison was the best at it. I didn't find this guy to be such a good flatterer at Auburn University.

He summarized the basic principles for dealing with Forrest Gump: First, don't provoke him; second, don't exaggerate, saying what he did is actually praising him; third, let Forrest shoot more, this is the least damaging way to your team's defense; fourth, pray that this night doesn't belong to Forrest Gump.

—Excerpt from Charles Buckley's 1992 autobiography, *Outrageous!*

(End of this chapter)