Chapter 656: Chapter 46: Good Luck to You
"Learning the triangle offense was like learning a foreign language; just when we thought we had it down, trouble cropped up again.
Some of us hoped Phil would change his mind and scrap the whole plan.
Now I understand why Doug never changed his mind—the head coaches are all stubborn.
’This is what we’re going to do,’ Phil told us, ’you have to figure it out on your own.’
Through constant repetition, we did just that.
Players gained more confidence in plugging the holes they found in the defense and stopped blaming themselves.
During the 1989-1990 season, from the end of November to the beginning of January, we racked up a record of 14 wins and 3 losses.
Maybe believing in this system made us winners. Who knows? Who cares?
Anyway, I fell in love with the triangle offense.
Every player on the court got to touch the ball almost every time we had possession, feeling like a part of the offense, whether they shot the ball or not.
By working together, we learned to respect and trust each other, to believe in one another.
Phil critiqued in a constructive way; he didn’t embarrass us in front of the fans and teammates but pulled us to the side or had an assistant coach explain what we did wrong.
As a player, I felt respected, and more importantly, as a person, I was respected.
I didn’t agree with some of the Zen stuff he introduced to the team, like burning sage and having us close our eyes to meditate and so on.
Sorry, Phil, I know you meant well, but that was too far out for me.
I also never read the books he distributed each year as gifts.
On the other hand, I fully agreed with his view that a basketball team is a group of people, not just a collection of individuals.
He brought us together as one.
On road trips, Phil didn’t always go straight from the hotel to the gym for practice.
He’d sometimes take us to see landmark buildings in Washington or visit the Statue of Liberty, making sure to manage the timing and frequency well.
There’s a fine line between on and off the court, and as a longtime player, Phil knew where that line was.
Our practices were often more intense than the actual games.
Most of the time Michael and I were on the first team, but every so often Phil would put me with the second team to go against Michael, Horace, and the other starters.
I liked the challenge; when I was with the second group, I’d primarily guard Michael.
My strategy for guarding Michael was no mystery:
Force him away from the basket into the so-called ’help’ zone, so that teammates could come over in time to double-team him.
At that point, Michael wouldn’t pass; he would attack even if it meant going up against two or even three defenders.
And on defense, he would take the lead in guarding me, and we both improved through these continuous offensive and defensive battles.
Phil didn’t push us too hard, especially after we turned thirty, saving our energy and legs for when it really counted.
Our training was structured, every move, every drill had a purpose.
He would tell us, ’Train hard, shorten the working hours, and increase work efficiency.’
Though he believed in the triangle, Phil believed in something else more: winning.
To translate: pass the ball to Michael. The rest of you, clear out.
Usually, this dealt a devastating blow to our opponents because they had been focusing on defending the triangle offense.
Now they had to suddenly switch their entire strategy to focus on stopping one player.
And that player was Michael Jordan.
Good luck with that.
Of course, that doesn’t include Ah Gan.
Those who know, know."
—From Scottie Pippen’s autobiography "Unguarded," published in 2021, excerpt.
When Jordan and Gan Guoyang took the court, the game’s offense and defense immediately revolved around the two of them.
Jordan didn’t rush to take over the game by himself; instead, he continued to use his defensive draw to create opportunities for his teammates.
On the counterattack, Jordan, with an awareness of the entire court, delivered an accurate bounce pass to Hodges on the right side, who caught the ball and scored with a jump shot.
After the Bulls made that shot, Gan Guoyang couldn’t resist saying to Jordan, "Michael, you’re starting to play more like me now, knowing how to pass the ball."
Jordan was speechless. Me sharing the ball is playing like you? What does that have to do with you?
"I’m not playing like you; it’s just that you can’t score as well anymore," Jordan said.
Indeed, Gan Guoyang’s scoring had been on the decline for the past couple of years. Following a peak season averaging 38 points, Gan Guoyang no longer chased high scores.
His average points dropped to around 30 per game, leaving the scoring title solely to Jordan, with no one else to challenge him.
Gan Guoyang didn’t respond but immediately hit Stacey King with two plays on the offensive end, with the second one being a three-point play, drawing a foul from King.
King shook his head, thinking you two bosses can trash-talk each other, but don’t drag me, a rookie, into it!
Phil Jackson didn’t deploy heavy resources to guard Gan Guoyang nor did he devise any special tactics. It was mainly one-on-one, with occasional help defense.
He knew that Scottie Pippen’s help defense on Ah Gan was quite effective, but past experiences showed that drawing Pippen into expending a lot of energy on helping guard Ah Gan often wasn’t worth it.
Pippen would get in foul trouble or, once Ah Gan exploded, he’d be rattled and underperform in offense and other tasks.
Jackson needed Pippen to do more: to organize, to score, to defend the perimeter, to grab rebounds, to fill gaps in the interior defense.
Attaching him to Ah Gan was a futureless endeavor, a waste of talent. For an interior player, just using multiple muscled defenders to cover him for the entire game would suffice.
So after going around in circles, Phil Jackson returned to the original carousel defense many coaches had employed against Ah Gan in the early days.
Those coaches had all failed; Ah Gan’s scoring ability far exceeded what most people could imagine, and a carousel defense couldn’t wear him down.
But Jackson still wanted to do it because, firstly, if Pippen was worn out and at the same time Ah Gan could organize the entire Trail Blazers through his passes, the Trail Blazers would become even more powerful, making them even harder to play against for the Bulls.
Secondly, the other coaches didn’t have Jordan; he, Jackson, did.
Matching Jordan against Ah Gan was the Bulls’, Jackson’s, and the Trail Blazers’ greatest confidence in their competition.
Purdue received Jordan’s pass at the 45-degree angle but his turn-around jump shot missed.
But Jordan had already cut to the basket from the middle, slamming the ball home with a follow-up dunk!
When Jordan passed the ball to Purdue, he knew that facing Ah Gan, Purdue definitely wouldn’t make it.
So he was already ready to rush in for the rebound, while Divac was unprepared and hadn’t sealed his position in advance.
Immediately in the counterattack, Divac got the ball at the high post and a clever cooperative pass found its way to Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang, shockingly unguarded, cut to the basket, easily slamming the ball home.
The Bulls’ defense too had issues. Under single coverage carousel defense, they weren’t focused enough on defending Gan Guoyang.
This made Gan Guoyang very angry.
He ran to the sideline and said to Jackson, "Phil, are you looking down on me? Letting me score an open dunk? Where’s your defense? The double-team? What are you all doing?"
Jackson spread his hands and replied, "We’re respecting you, Sonny! Anyway, even if we send a couple more guys, they can’t handle you!"
Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "You’re much nicer to talk to than Pat, that guy. But if you don’t send more defenders at me, I won’t show any mercy."
Since Larry Bird, hardly any player has been as arrogant and confident as Gan Guoyang, even Jordan was almost humbled.
After all, Jordan hadn’t secured a championship yet, while Ah Gan was already a true dynasty creator.
After Gan Guoyang spoke those words, Phil Jackson was also drenched in cold sweat.
He glanced at the stat sheet; so far, Ah Gan had scored 12 points, obviously not putting in full effort yet.
Jordan was in a similar situation, having scored only 10 points in the first half.
With five minutes left before the end of the second quarter, was Ah Gan about to make his move?
Both teams’ starters gradually returned to the court. Beelman subbed out Divac for Thompson, substituted Robinson for Kossie.
Jackson brought Cartwright back in, substituting Purdue, and put John Paxson in, taking out Hodges.
Paxson dribbled, Jordan received the ball at the top of the arc, and passed to Cartwright cutting down the middle.
Knowing he couldn’t move Ah Gan, Cartwright chose to pass the ball to Grant, who was cutting to the basket.
Grant’s layup was blocked by Thompson, and Gan Guoyang grabbed the ball and started a fast break himself.
Gan Guoyang’s dribbling skills were now so superior that he wasn’t afraid of the smaller players intercepting him; those who dared to come close were simply bumped away.
And once he charged up, who would dare to stop him? Who would dare to risk an offensive foul? After all, was there still a game to play afterwards?
So Gan Guoyang surged all the way to the basket, slamming it home with one hand!
While gliding through the air, he didn’t forget to give a pat on the back of his head—his signature dunking pose.
The Memorial Coliseum was thrust into its first climax of the night’s game.
Seeing this, Jordan knew Ah Gan had started to speed up, and he had to keep pace.
Otherwise, the Bulls would be left behind by the Trail Blazers in a scoring run at the end of the first half.
"Inbound the ball, quick!"
Jordan reminded Pippen, who received the ball and quickly moved past the halfway line.
Facing Petrović, he easily shook him off with a change of direction.
A pull-up mid-range jumper—swish!
Petrović no longer contested Jordan but obediently passed the ball to Gan Guoyang.
Classic baseline catch, facing Cartwright, a mid-range jumper for the score.
Jordan backed down Petrović, pushing inside.
Terry Porter came from the middle to double-team, Jordan quickly turned around, cut in at a 45-degree angle, and in the face of Ah Gan, pulled up for a jumper off the glass—and it went in.
"Your defensive game’s slipping, Sonny!"
"No, you’re just luckier!"
Gan Guoyang similarly backed down inside, quickly turned and leaned forward for a shot—the net didn’t even flutter.
The game by the end of the second quarter turned into a shootout between the two, with everyone else just watching.
If the court had spotlights, they would be shining on these two alone, with darkness enveloping the rest of the place.
And then, Pippen suddenly popped out, catching a pass from Jordan who was under pressure and cutting down the middle, attempting a dunk.
But he was met by Gan Guoyang’s rejection that sent him flying, losing balance and grace, falling hard to the ground.
It was a clean block with no fouls, and the Trail Blazers initiated a counterattack, with an advantage in numbers, Petrović leading the charge.
As he burst into the basket area, he cheekily dropped the ball behind, evading Jordan’s block, and Ah Gan received the ball and easily slammed it home.
At this point, Pippen had only just gotten up from the floor, his back aching from the fall.
Pippen had dunked over Olajuwon, over Ewing, and not just once.
But he couldn’t dunk over Ah Gan; Ah Gan wasn’t as tall as those two, but his reaction speed, explosiveness, and strength were superior.
More importantly, at this moment, he should not have been stealing the limelight; he thought he could step into the spotlight, but instead got kicked out harshly.
