The Golden Age of Basketball

"**!**!**!"

In the Blazers locker room, Adelman's hoarse curses filled everyone's eardrums. In the team, Adelman's nickname was "Headman", which was given to him by Gan Guoyang, because he was middle-aged With that hairstyle and the mustache, Adelman is almost the same as Hitler.

And Adelman at halftime was also furious like Hitler. For the performance of the Blazers in the first half, Adelman used three words "shit" to evaluate it.

As a relatively young head coach, Adelman has always been known for his calmness and even slowness in these two seasons. No such anger was shown.

In his view, it is natural for a team to lose, and there can be no team that wins forever. Currently, the Blazers are in a low ebb, which every team will experience every season. He has to do The most important thing is to get out of this low tide with the players and solve the problems faced by the team.

But in this game, the Blazers' first half was full of turnovers, fouls, being chased and counterattacked, low shooting percentage, poor basket protection, and I don't know the so-called defense. In the last game against the Clippers, The Trail Blazers exposed their lack of concentration and low morale, but finally relied on Gan Guoyang's tip-up lore to win the game, covering up some of the team's problems. Now facing the much stronger Los Angeles Lakers, the problem completely exposed.

"Where is your fighting spirit, your desire to win, and your desire to win? How long have you been satisfied like this before the end of the season? Do you think you are already a championship? Or do you think that seeing President Reagan means winning the Olympic Games?" The Bryant Cup? No! Reagan is about to step down, don’t you want to be pulled down from the No. [-] position like him!” Adelman’s scolding didn’t stop, and to be honest, the players were a little scared .

They were really not in good shape tonight. During the two days in Los Angeles, Cosey, Porter and other players went to nightclubs to experience the colorful world of Los Angeles. Drexler went to Hollywood to participate in the For the premiere of the movie "Batman", even Gan Guoyang, who has always been self-disciplined, asked for leave to visit Wang Zhengmin's house, which also caused the Blazers to cancel a day of training.

Even so, it was the first time for the Blazers players to see Adelman, who is usually not happy or angry, lose his temper. When Ramsey was around, he often yelled at the players. Adelman's The coaching style is obviously different from that of Ramsey, and now Adelman is in a hurry to get angry like this, which is enough to show how bad the Blazers are playing.

"Porter, look at you, how many times have you dribbled the ball over the half court? How many times? Five times! God, are you just out of high school? You are facing a magician, a head taller than you You're going to be robbed by him! Are you kidding me?" Terry Porter was bad enough tonight.

"Clyde, tonight I see you flying like you're in the fucking military no-fly zone in Vietnam, where's your break, where is it?" Drexler's break was completely He didn't hit it, and he was very delayed.

"Avidas, if Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hits you with consecutive hooks again, I will replace you immediately, immediately!" Sabonis has no ability to turn the tide of the battle under such circumstances, so he has to deal with it. Abdul-Jabbar is a big problem for him.

"Cosy, look at the number of shots you made from beyond the arc. You are almost as fucking as Larry Bird, but can you make more shots than Manute Ball?" In the first half, Cauchy made wide shots from the outside and missed a three-pointer.

The four starting players were yelled at by Adelman one by one. Everyone's poor performance was seen in Adelman's eyes, and all four of them lowered their heads and had nothing to say.

At this time, Gan Guoyang was the only one left in the starting line-up. He was sitting in the innermost part of everyone, silently listening to Adelman's hoarse voice, and every word hit his heart heavily.

In fact, Gan Guoyang played very well in the first half. Riley's double-teaming was different from other teams. It was not continuous, but varied. AC Green and Michael Cooper suddenly strengthened double-teaming from time to time. Worthy Occasionally, he will come up to help, Riley just hopes to disrupt Gan Guoyang's offensive rhythm.

The effect in the first quarter was very good. Gan Guoyang made zero shots. But in the second quarter, after taking the lead, Riley relaxed the interference on Gan Guoyang, allowing the players to focus more on offense to maintain their advantage. Gan Guoyang started to slow down. Slowly recovered and hit difficult goals many times, slowly stabilizing the situation.

But the performance of his teammates tonight was really scum. Gan Guoyang tried to encourage his teammates, but the effect was not obvious in a short period of time. The Lakers still firmly suppressed the Blazers and expanded the score advantage little by little.

Adelman walked up to Gan Guoyang at this time, put away his previous tone, and said to Gan Guoyang: "Gan, you did a good job and played normally. But you have to remember that a leader is one who wins when the team wins." The most praise, the most responsibility when you fail, if your personal performance does not lead to the team's victory, everything is in vain, you will not be the mvp, I believe you must understand this truth."

"You are doing well, but you can do better." Finally, Adelman said to Gan Guoyang's ear again.

Adelman is not stupid at all. He deeply understands that Gan Guoyang is the soul of the Blazers team. If anyone in the team is in a bad state, Adelman can encourage him or him to adjust; The state of the team is not good, so just adjust Gan Guoyang, he is the switch valve of the team, if he is in control, he can control the team well.

This is Adelman's tricks and shortcuts for teaching a championship-level team as a young coach without too much experience-all of which are actually taught to him by Bellman.

At this time, everyone was looking at Gan Guoyang. After entering the locker room, he didn't say a word. Even though the team's overall condition was not good throughout January, Gan Guoyang still maintained his high efficiency and tried his best to integrate into the whole team. In offense and defense, that is to say, compared with November and December, Gan Guoyang has not changed, he has become a teammate and opponent.

Teammates are tired, opponents have found targeted tactics and are getting more and more prepared, all of which make it more and more difficult for the Blazers.

And Adelman stubbornly stated that he would not make targeted improvements to tactics, but would continue to respond to changes with the same. He claimed that "if this difficulty cannot be resolved, then the Blazers do not deserve a championship."

Soon, the intermission time will be over, Gan Guoyang stood up from the chair, looked at Adelman, then went to the door, said to everyone without looking back: "let's-go" ( let's go).

The other Blazers players didn't say a word, they stood up from their chairs, walked out of the locker room, and prepared to re-enter the field with Gan Guoyang.

........................

"Tom, the Blazers had a terrible first half, probably the worst first half of the season for the Blazers. The losing team, is it because the Blazers are too poor or the Lakers are too successful? Tom, tell me your opinion.” Just as the second half was about to start, Dick Stockton was still fighting with Tom -Hein Thorne explores the Blazers' problems.

"Oh, there must be some problems with the Blazers, which may be tactical or rotation. The Lakers have also obviously made targeted tactical adjustments. Their aggressiveness on the defensive end, frequent double-teaming, and more use of fast breaks, The strategy of multiple mid-range shots in positional battles is an effective means of attacking the Trail Blazers that has been summed up by various teams recently. However, I think the key problem lies in the morale of the team. The morale of the Lakers is very strong. I know that Riley This guy is an out-and-out hair dryer; while Adelman of the Blazers is a boring gourd. When the team needs encouragement, I don’t know if he can do anything other than draw tactical boards; but, we must not forget that in 1986 Last season, the tragedy that Gan made in the Boston Garden Square, I believe if Riley missed this, he will definitely regret it."

The Boston Garden Plaza tragedy in 1986, as the veteran of the Celtics, Hein Thorne, of course, knew it clearly. It was Friday, December 1986, 12, when the Portland Trail Blazers played against the Celtics. Gan Guoyang was in the third place. Scored 6 points in the quarter, sprayed the "solar storm", and destroyed the Celtics in a single quarter.