Chapter 657: Chapter 47 The Enemy
"The first half of the game ended with the Bulls trailing the Trail Blazers by 2 points, 57:59."
"Ah Gan scored 23 points in the first half, getting 11 points in the last five minutes of the second quarter."
"Jordan put up 19 points and 6 assists at halftime, with Michael and Ah Gan running ahead of everyone."
"Petrović played well, scoring 10 points in the first half along with 3 assists, and his two three-pointers were crucial."
During halftime, Bill Schonely summarized the first half of the game, and he especially mentioned Petrović.
Schonely is a stalwart figure for the Trail Blazers, the voice of the team, having been a live commentator since the team’s inception.
However, Schonely is not easy to get along with, and not every Trail Blazers player has a good relationship with him.
After all, there have been too many players coming and going over the years. For a Trail Blazers player to be esteemed by Schonely and emphasized during commentary, they must earn his approval with their performance on the court.
Moreover, Schonely is quite fair and objective; he doesn’t hesitate to shower praise, to say "Rip City," but he is also straightforward with criticism if the team performs poorly, saying, "They played terribly tonight."
Schonely never says "we played well," "we were great tonight," "we don’t feel too good"; he always uses "they," "he," instead of "we."
Although he is one of the longest-serving figures at the Trail Blazers, he maintains that it is the players’ excellent performances on the court that decide the game’s outcome.
He considers himself just a journalist, a commentator, nothing more; he doesn’t insert himself into the team too much or believe he should share in the glory of victory.
Of course, the players of the Trail Blazers are willing to do this, to share the glory with Schonely.
As the players left the court at halftime, Schonely stopped Petrović to ask if he had time after the game to grab a drink and some food with him.
Petrović, having kept to himself since arriving in Portland with little socializing and focusing on basketball, was somewhat surprised by the invitation from Schonely, the totem of the team, knowing that Schonely is typically stern and especially so with young players, rarely showing new faces a good side unless they perform excellently.
Recently, Petrović had been playing well, especially with his three-pointers in tonight’s first half.
Though he couldn’t stop Jordan, he didn’t fall completely behind and didn’t look terrible.
"Sure, no problem, thank you," Petrović replied, then headed back to the locker room.
In the locker room, he mentioned this to Gan Guoyang, who was hydrating with water.
Hearing Schonely wanted to treat Petrović to dinner, Gan Guoyang took out 100 US dollars from his locker and handed it to Petrović, saying, "Remember to pick up the tab tonight, don’t let Bill pay; he won’t do it, that old miser... Besides, it’s beneficial to mingle with him. Sometimes you should engage in social activities and integrate into the team and the city. If you play well, you’ll stay here for a long time."
But Petrović didn’t accept Gan Guoyang’s money, saying, "If I am offering, then I’ll cover it. I’m not lacking 100 dollars, and I won’t let Schonely pay."
Although Petrović was a rookie, his salary wasn’t low, over a million dollars a year, just like Drexler’s last season.
The NBA has a salary cap now, but there were no regulations on the amount and duration of contracts; there was no standard fixed contract. All were privately negotiated between the players and teams under the framework of the collective labor agreement.
Hence, it wasn’t unusual for role players to earn more than the star players on various teams. With Petrović’s status in the European leagues and his agent’s shrewd dealings, the Trail Blazers offered him a contract worth over a million dollars.
Scottie Pippen of the Bulls was earning just over 700,000 dollars a year.
Gan Guoyang had forgotten that Petrović wasn’t like Curry, Kossie, and those rookies who got paid very little and had mouths to feed at home; they were really in need of money, so he smiled and took his money back.
Petrović curiously asked, "Is Bill that stingy?"
Gan Guoyang replied, "Bill... his stinginess is about on par with my dominance on the basketball court."
Petrović thought to himself that your braggadocio is unmatched.
All the old hands of the Trail Blazers knew about Schonely’s stinginess. Mychal Thompson had once said that Schonely was the type who would go out with 200 dollars and manage to come back with 198.
His favorite things were anything free: free food, free tickets, free mini bottles of booze, and so on.
Back in the days when the Trail Blazers team was smaller, and everyone was closer, Schonely would often go out for late-night snacks with Ramsay, Calvin, and others after games.
They would split the bill, with each person paying about fifteen to twenty dollars.
But when it came to paying, Schonely would always say, "I only had the soup and salad; I’m only paying four-fifty."
Ramsay would protest that it wasn’t right, but Schonely would lay down exactly five dollars on the table, refusing to spend a cent more.
Furthermore, he wouldn’t share the cost of a taxi, and he was always the first one to get on the plane and eat the free lunch.
Later, when everyone saw how tight-fisted he was, they played a trick on him. During a broadcasters’ convention in New York one summer, when Drexler and other Trail Blazers were training there, they happened to eat at the same Italian restaurant.
Seeing Schonely, Drexler had everyone charge their bills to Schonely’s account and then quickly left.
When Schonely went to pay, he found that the meal cost him 500 dollars!
In the end, the bill was settled by Gan Guoyang. He didn’t care much about the money.
But he did care about Schonely’s well-being, fearing that the 500 dollars might drive Bill to suicide.
So although Schonely was harsh on players, he made an exception for Ah Gan—who after all, was his lifesaver.
As the second half of the game began, Schonely continued his enthusiastic narration of the game’s progress.
From Schonely’s tone, one could tell that the match became very intense compared to the first half.
Jordan began attacking the Trail Blazers’ basket as soon as the third quarter started. Using a screen from Bill Cartwright, he faked a shot to shake off the defense, then drove down the middle with the ball in one hand for a dunk!
His speed had increased from the first half, and he even managed to deceive Gan Guoyang.
Gan Guoyang’s mid-range shot didn’t go in, and Jordan grabbed the rebound to initiate a counterattack.
He passed the ball to John Paxson, who was at the right corner; Paxson shot a three-pointer and scored!
62:59, the Bulls suddenly took the lead, now ahead of the Trail Blazers by 3 points.
Next, Pippen, Grant, and Jordan triple-teamed Gan Guoyang.
Guoyang passed the ball to a cutting Porter, whose layup attempt was disrupted by Cartwright and missed.
During the counterattack, Jordan took a jump shot from the high post and, when Guoyang came up to defend, he suddenly passed the ball to Grant beneath the basket.
Grant easily scored with a layup, and the Bulls went on a 7:0 run against the Trail Blazers in the third quarter, widening the gap to 5 points.
Beelman stood up from the bench but didn’t call a timeout; he knew Guoyang would solve the problem.
The Bulls had made targeted adjustments during half-time, catching the Trail Blazers somewhat off guard.
The Trail Blazers spread out, and Guoyang went for a low-post one-on-one; this time, Grant was defending him.
Jordan and Pippen doubled up again, and this time Guoyang passed the ball to Thompson.
Thompson made a jump shot from just inside the free throw line, regaining two points.
Then, on defense, Guoyang took on Jordan, leaving the inside to Thompson.
Together with Petrović, he double-teamed Jordan in the middle, forcing him to pass to Pippen.
But Kossie intercepted the pass and scored with a coast-to-coast dunk on the counterattack!
64:63, the Trail Blazers quickly closed the gap to just 1 point.
Jordan went for another drive to the basket, on the left side this time, attempting a left-handed layup, but Guoyang blocked the shot!
However, as Jordan landed, he still controlled the ball and managed to toss it to Grant before stepping out of bounds.
After catching the ball, Grant took on Thompson with a floater off the glass and scored, maintaining the Bulls’ 3-point lead.
Guoyang had defended as well as he could, even blocking his opponent, but Jordan still controlled the ball and passed it to his teammate.
Jordan himself sat down on the floor after the play, then got up, smiled at Guoyang, and shook his head, as if to say you can’t handle me.
But Jordan’s smile quickly faded when Petrović, using Guoyang’s screen on the left, drove to the basket. Jordan tried to stick with Petrović by going around Guoyang.
He wanted to up his defensive intensity on Petrović, but the two collided under the basket and fell to the ground.
Jordan clearly committed a blocking foul, and after getting up, he pushed Petrović.
As a result, Petrović, enraged, turned around and punched Jordan in the chest!
Jordan couldn’t believe this rookie from Europe, with number 44, dared to hit him?
He moved to retaliate, but Pippen wrapped his arms around Jordan, telling him not to be rash since Ah Gan was there.
But Grant didn’t understand; he rushed at Petrović, eager to avenge his leader.
The two scuffled on the ground amidst the chaos, with players from both teams converging around them.
Just then, Grant suddenly felt himself lifted and dragged out of the fray.
Then he was flung out of bounds, flying into the spectator seats and colliding with the journalists there.
Grant was dazed. He looked up to see Ah Gan, wearing a white jersey, in the midst of a crowd of red-clad Bulls players, spewing trash talk at everyone.
"This ain’t the Silverdome, you motherfuckers! All of you, get the fuck back!"
"If you want to leave here after the game, I suggest you play nice and fair!"
"Ref, give me a technical foul!"
The conflict dissolved into nothing; nobody dared to confront Ah Gan.
Fair? Unfair. Although Jordan had pushed Petrović, it was Petrović who struck first, hitting Jordan.
Double standards? Absolutely. But this was competitive sports, where you stand by your teammates first. Right and wrong can be sorted out after the game.
The referees issued technical fouls to Guoyang, Grant, and Petrović. The Bulls were awarded free throws.
Phil Jackson pulled Jordan aside and said, "Michael, Ah Gan will never be on your side. If one day you have a conflict with his teammate, he won’t hesitate to punch you."
Jackson didn’t want to miss the chance to drive a wedge between them.
Jordan didn’t respond, just quietly went to the court to take the free throws.
Jackson thought to himself that the outcome of the game no longer mattered.
What mattered was that Jordan understood Ah Gan was his enemy, his greatest enemy.
