The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 606 Generosity
Phil Jackson's remarks to reporters were largely intended to provoke Michael Jordan.

Jackson realized that it was unlikely that Jordan would hate Forrest Gump, because Jordan's unique pride would not allow him to be a subservient hater when facing Forrest Gump.

They are fair competitors who respect and admire each other, enjoy fighting each other, and yearn to settle their differences on the highest stage.

The goal isn't to make Jordan hate Forrest Gump, but rather to make him realize that if Forrest Gump could do something, then Jordan must be able to do it too.

Anyone with eyes can see that Forrest Gump is superior to Jordan in every aspect. Even Jordan's most prized ability, scoring, could be snatched from Forrest Gump if he wanted to.

Forrest Gump was the best carrot dangling in front of Michael Jordan, the biggest driving force urging Jordan to change himself.

Of course, Jordan wasn't stupid. After learning about Phil Jackson's comments about Forrest Gump from the media, he realized that this was Jackson's little trick to "sow discord."

Jordan didn't mind this. He knew that many people didn't understand what the competition between him and Forrest Gump was like, and they couldn't comprehend it.

Jordan stated early on that he was Forrest Gump's number one fan, and when he first entered the NBA, he never thought about achieving great things.

Championship? MVP? Finals MVP? Defensive Player of the Year? None of these were in Jordan's career plan. He just wanted to play well and survive in this league.

Forrest Gump serves as a role model, guiding everyone, especially these young people, ever since the 1984 Olympic selection training camp.

He now has four championships, while Jordan has none, but Jordan never feels disappointed, much less jealous.

He was getting more and more excited; nothing could be more joyful and wonderful than beating a Forrest Gump like this.

As for being defeated by Forrest Gump?
Oh, so what? There's still a long way to go.

Jordan firmly believed he would win; that's how confident he was.

However, after Jordan started training camp for the new season with full confidence, he quickly discovered a problem:
Pippen didn't come.

Pippen initially said he had back pain and needed to rest for two days before reporting to training camp.

Jordan didn't take it to heart. He welcomed his new teammate, Buck Williams, a respected, strong, and hardworking excellent center.

Williams is only 30 years old this year and is in the prime of his career. His arrival has greatly strengthened the Chicago Bulls' interior defense, especially in rebounding and one-on-one defense.

Leaving aside Forrest Gump, the Detroit Pistons' formidable frontcourt will face the Bulls' toughest challenge yet, making Buck Williams the natural choice to start at power forward for the Bulls.

Although Horace Grant was not entirely convinced, Buck Williams was the better one in terms of ability, seniority, and experience.

The Bucks' only problem is that he needs to go through training camp to understand and adapt to Phil Jackson's triangle offense.

After three days of high-quality training, Buck Williams integrated well, but Scottie Pippen was still nowhere to be seen at the training camp.

Jordan asked Jackson and Krause, "Where did Scott go?"
"Didn't we get Stacy as our bargaining chip in the trade, but Scott instead? And you sent him to New Jersey?"

Jerry Krause quickly denied it, and he was also very anxious at the moment, as he could not get in touch with Scottie Pippen.

Pippen does have some injuries, but that's not the reason he missed the team's training camp for the new season. The real reason is money, and his contract.

In his rookie season, Pippen signed a four-year, $283 million contract with the Bulls, which was quite reasonable for a first-round pick in terms of both length and price.

After the 1990 season, Pippen hoped to secure a higher and longer contract to provide stability for his life.

Pippen came from a poor family. He came from a small town and had 11 siblings. He was the second oldest and the only one in the family to go to college.

Because his family was too poor, his parents could only afford to send Pippen to school. Therefore, Pippen carried the burden of his family's livelihood and future on his shoulders, and he needed security.

With one year remaining on his contract, Pippen wanted to negotiate a contract extension with the Bulls. He didn't want to become a free agent after the 1991 season and have to find a new job.

Unlike Jordan, Pippen lacked sufficient confidence in himself.

However, Bulls owner Reinsdorf is not a generous man.

While it's slightly better than the Boston Celtics' practice of exploiting players' sense of honor, it's not much better overall.

Jordan, such an outstanding player, can be called the savior of the Chicago Bulls. Last year, his salary was only $250 million, only half of Forrest Gump's and two-thirds of Ewing's.

Of course, Jordan earned a lot off the court, and he was very confident in himself, so he didn't particularly care about his earnings from playing basketball.

Pippen was different; he cared a lot. Rheinsdorf wanted to keep Pippen, but was unwilling to renew his contract openly, instead repeatedly trying to lower the price.

This is a common tactic of Rheinsdorf; he usually works in tandem with General Manager Jerry Kraus, with Kraus playing the bad cop and Rheinsdorf the good cop.

When players are signing or renewing contracts, Jerry Krause will relentlessly drive down the price to an unbelievably low level.

For example, if a player can get a contract with an annual salary of about $100 million in the free market, Jerry Krause will directly offer $20 a year, which will drive the player crazy and feel that it is incomprehensible.

When the two sides were at loggerheads, Rheinsdorf would step in as the good guy and say that $20 was too little, and he would raise the price to $80, which Rheinsdorf would then accept.

Many players in that era disliked moving around and preferred to stay in one city to play. Through this process of lowering and raising the price, he was originally worth $100 million, but ended up staying with the Bulls for $80.

In the era before standardized contracts and imperfect collective bargaining agreements, many team owners and general managers did this; Bird and Olajuwon both experienced it.

Jerry Krause, who played the bad cop, was too aggressive in driving down prices, which made the Bulls players very disgusted with him. Jordan felt this way, and Pippen was no exception.

Pippen's good friend Horace Grant just signed a contract extension with the Bulls this summer, and Jerry Krause, as always, tried to lower the price, saying that Grant was only worth $80 a year.

Grant, of course, disagreed. After repeated back-and-forth negotiations, Rheinsdorf stepped in at the opportune moment and offered Grant a three-year, $5.6 million contract, raising his annual salary to $186 million, an increase of one million each year, thus keeping Grant in Chicago.

Now, Jerry Krause is using the same trick on Pippen. Pippen simply refuses to talk to Krause and disappears. After training camp starts, no one can find him.

Krause panicked. Faced with Jordan's questioning and inquiries from the media, Krause became restless and gave vague answers, only saying that Pippen was injured and still recovering.

Finally, Pippen's agent, Jimmy Sexton, found him. The guy had gone to Memphis, found a hotel to hide in, and was keeping up with the Bulls' moves through sports news.

Sexton went to Memphis to persuade Pippen, telling him that the 1990-1991 season was very important for the Bulls and for Pippen personally, and that he had to attend training camp to get a good start to the new season.

He hopes Pippen can be selected as an All-Star next season, which would be a huge benefit to increasing the value and duration of his contract.

"Contracts are not just negotiated, but earned through performance. You need to perform on the field and train. This may be your season."

Pippen eventually heeded Sexton's advice and returned to Chicago to participate in the team's training camp. He then traveled with the Bulls to Vancouver, Seattle, Iowa, and other places to play preseason games.

Although they haven't won the championship yet, the Chicago Bulls have received a crazy welcome all over the United States. Young fans clung to the Bulls' bus and refused to let go, all trying to catch a glimpse of Michael Jordan.

Most preseason games are just formalities, serving as a warm-up for the new season, with only a few thousand people attending a single game.

However, the Chicago Bulls' preseason games sparked a frenzy across the country, with tens of thousands of spectators flocking to the games just to catch a glimpse of Michael Jordan.

Jordan's appeal has nothing to do with championships, but rather with his playing style. Fans love his cool, high-flying style of play.

Since entering the league in 1984, his popularity on the court has been unparalleled. Many fans come to watch the games not to see the championship and victory, but to appreciate basketball itself and the aerial man on the basketball court.

In the final stages of the preseason, the Chicago Bulls traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida, to face the Seattle SuperSonics at the newly built 25,100-seat Florida Sunshine Coast Dome.

This massive arena was originally the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but now more than 25,000 fans come here not to watch football, but to watch basketball, or more precisely, to see Michael Jordan.

However, the Bulls lost to the SuperSonics in this game. Jordan went 0-for-7 in the first half, which made the fans in the stadium very impatient and even booed repeatedly. They were not satisfied with Jordan's performance.

So in the second half, Jordan didn't follow the triangle offense's tactics, but instead took the ball more often and attacked the SuperSonics' basket one-on-one.

His goal wasn't to win the game, but to satisfy the fans in the arena. In this ordinary preseason game, Jordan played 35 minutes and took 18 shots.

After the game, Bill Cartwright expressed his concerns: "One thing I'm worried about is that I've been in the league for so long, been so close to a championship, and ended up with nothing. I want to win. Michael is very talented and can do so much for the team, but I keep thinking that unless he can change, he'll take us all far away from a championship. In particular, he won't be able to beat Forrest Gump."
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The Portland Trail Blazers' preseason games for the 1990-1991 season were scheduled in Honolulu, Hawaii, where they would play two exhibition games against the Lakers. The Blazers had a full roster, retaining 13 players as a backup.

Reggie Lewis and Ed Pinkney made their first appearance at the training camp in Honolulu, attracting a lot of media attention.

Ed Pinkney graduated from Villanova University, where they reached the NACC finals in 1985, but narrowly lost to Georgetown University.

In a little-known corner, amidst the dazzling aura of star players, there was a short old man mingling among the giants.

Princeton Tigers head coach Pete Carell was invited by the Trail Blazers to participate in the training camp as a special advisor.

At a coaching meeting in Los Angeles, Carrel accepted the invitation, but his purpose was to get a close look at the training of the best NBA team and to observe the best player, Forrest Gump.

As for Rick Adelman's statement that he hopes Pete Carell will coach the Trail Blazers' offense, the old man thinks that's a pipe dream. Princeton University is known for its defense, okay?

Since the NCAA implemented the shot clock restriction rule in the 1985-1986 season, Carrel's Princeton University has been one of the very few teams that can still hold opponents to around 50 points.

In the recently concluded 1989-1990 NCAA season, Princeton University averaged 65 points per game, while holding their opponents to an average of only 51 points per game, an extremely low score.

Furthermore, Princeton University will continue to keep its opponents' scores below 50 points in the future.

In contrast, Georgetown University, once the strongest defensive team in the nation, allowed opponents an average of 57 points per game in their championship-winning 1985 season.

By the 1989-1990 season, Georgetown had allowed opponents an average of 64 points per game. In terms of controlling the opponent's scoring, Georgetown was far from being a match for Princeton.

In the 1989 NCAA National Championship, Princeton University faced the number one seed Georgetown, leading by 8 points at halftime and pushing Georgetown to the brink of defeat.

Georgetown boasts Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, and Charles Smith, while Princeton's center is 6'8", and none of their players made it to the NBA.

In the end, Princeton only lost to Georgetown University by one point, 50-49, almost pulling off a major upset by the 16th seed against the 1st seed.

This victory brought Peter Carell and Princeton University back into the spotlight, but the focus was on Princeton's team spirit and amazing defensive scoring ability.

Yes, an ordinary team that relies on teamwork, if your defense is weak, how can you compete with a super school like Georgetown with its star-studded lineup?

At the time, Rick Adelman was the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. He met Pete Carell during a road trip to New Jersey, and the two had many exchanges on basketball philosophy.

However, Carrel never expected that Adelman would invite him to design offensive tactics for the Portland Trail Blazers, since the Princeton offense was considered a "commoner's system".

Their strong defense isn't due to high intensity or finesse, but rather to a slow, very slow pace. They drag the game into a quagmire of positional warfare, using exquisite passing and efficient positional attacks to defeat their opponents, preventing them from speeding up their offense and scoring.

In this respect, the Trail Blazers' tactical philosophy is similar to the Princeton offense, both favoring a slow pace and preferring not to counterattack themselves in order to prevent the opponent from launching a fast break.

But the Trail Blazers' tactics are essentially built around the superstar Forrest Gump. After accepting the invitation, Carrel joked, "If I had Forrest Gump, I wouldn't need the Princeton offense!"

Joking aside, after arriving in Honolulu, Carrell still threw himself into the work of the coaching staff.

Working with young NBA coaches like Bobby Bellman and Adelman has also been very rewarding for Carrel.

Through repeated exchanges and meetings, Carrel gradually understood the needs of the Portland Trail Blazers.

They wanted a system not to make Forrest Gump a member of the "mediocre" class, but to use the system to bring those "mediocre" people as close to Forrest Gump as possible.

The Princeton offense, with its tactical approach similar to that of the Trail Blazers, is indeed a very good choice. It can provide a complete set of supporting facilities and quickly instill them in every player.

The offensive core of the Princeton offense is the center, who is the team's organizer, hub, and core.

Portland happens to have two of the league's best passing centers, and if Divac hadn't been traded, that would have been three.

During training, Pete Carell witnessed Gan Guoyang's astonishing training volume and extremely dedicated and disciplined professional attitude.

Like the triangle offense, Princeton also requires every player to be a "play-maker" on the court, and everyone should be an initiator and organizer of the offense when they have the ball.

Unlike Michael Jordan, Forrest Gump was not opposed to the Princeton offense. He did not question it and quickly accepted and supported Carrel's tactical explanations at the meeting, and put them into practice, which moved Carrel.

Gan Guoyang accepted the idea so quickly for two reasons: first, he had long heard of Princeton's reputation, and second, he found passing the ball to be a really fun activity.

Scoring, blocking, and rebounding no longer provide much stimulation for Gan Guoyang; instead, passing is increasingly stimulating his enjoyment on the court.

In the first preseason game against the Lakers, Gan Guoyang repeatedly orchestrated the offense from the high post, dishing out 8 assists in the first half, making him a match for Magic Johnson.

Although the Trail Blazers ultimately lost the preseason game 114-119, they began to show some different sides of themselves throughout the game.

The Trail Blazers' previous "two reductions and one increase" strategy included reducing passing in order to reduce turnovers and make more use of individual player abilities for one-on-one plays.

However, by the 1990 season, the policy of reducing passing among the two reductions and one increase was practically dead, since passing was essential in positional offense, and the tall, one-on-one forwards on the perimeter were no longer available.

The strategy of reducing fast breaks and increasing three-pointers was implemented very thoroughly.

Once the Trail Blazers adopt the Princeton offense, the strategy of "reducing passing" will become history, and Gan Guoyang and Sabonis, two skilled inside players, will dominate the Trail Blazers' half-court offense.

Sabonis has officially risen from a supporting role to a key player for the team—but he still needs to be honed and tested in official matches.

Two days later, in the second game between the Trail Blazers and the Lakers, Gan Guoyang easily delivered 13 assists, helping the Trail Blazers to a 107-87 victory over the Lakers by 20 points.

One win and one loss are not important. What is important is that the Trail Blazers gradually discovered some new things in training camp, which everyone found very interesting.

Newcomers Reggie Lewis and Ed Pinckney were inspired by the Trail Blazers' pure and harmonious atmosphere and quickly threw themselves into the game.

Reggie Lewis brought back a long-lost outside athleticism to the Trail Blazers. Since Drexler left, the Trail Blazers have lacked a player with explosive, high-flying perimeter skills.

Besides training, Reggie Lewis is also concerned about his contract renewal. His agent has been talking to Jerry West, hoping to renew the contract as soon as possible so that Reggie can play in Portland with peace of mind.

West and Klaus are different, and Tang Jianguo and Rheinsdorf are also quite different.

Tang Jianguo was also a businessman, and he also valued profits, but he valued face even more.

Tang Jianguo's interests are largely derived from his reputation, which is the difference between him and Rheinsdorf.

With other projects mired in bankruptcy, the Portland Trail Blazers have become Tang Jianguo's most solid foundation and lifeline.

Moreover, although Tang Jianguo has suffered setbacks in the traditional real estate and gambling sectors, his fame across the United States is rising, and his personal brand value is also increasing.

The Trail Blazers' championship win in 1990 gave Tang Jianguo a lot of exposure and made him a lot of money. He now fully supports the team and pours all his money into the Trail Blazers.

Therefore, during the preseason training camp, the Trail Blazers quickly reached a contract extension agreement with Reggie Lewis, offering him a four-year, $13 million contract.

This means that starting from the 1991-1992 season, Reggie Lewis's annual salary will be higher than Michael Jordan's, making him the second highest-paid player on the Trail Blazers.

开拓者的薪资总额届时将冲到联盟最前列，1991新发布的工资帽1187万美元，比1990赛季的723万美元提高了464万美元之多。

It's no wonder that players like Pippen and Lewis are hoping to extend their contracts early this offseason; they've sensed the potential for a big salary cap increase and the possibility of securing lucrative deals.

The Trail Blazers' generosity has led some to question whether Reggie Lewis deserves such a large contract and whether he can truly compete with Michael Jordan.
After Lewis signed his contract, Gan Guoyang was asked by reporters in the locker room after the game how he felt about Lewis's contract being bigger than Jordan's.

Gan Guoyang shrugged and said, "So what? They're not as big as mine anyway."

The reporters then asked, "Everyone says Reggie Lewis was made for Jordan. Can he contain Jordan?"

Gan Guoyang added, "Suppressing Michael is my job, and Reggie just needs to do his job. Of course, at times, I will help him so that he can better deal with Michael."

This was the Trail Blazers' last preseason game. After this game, the 1990-1991 regular season would begin.

(End of this chapter)