Chapter 692: Chapter 60 Joker_3
He’s now very adept, able to hold a child in one arm and lift a dumbbell with the other to work out his biceps.
Divac these days has been hanging out at Gan Guoyang’s house, mooching food and drinks, chatting, and exchanging basketball skills on the backyard court.
Facing the upcoming postseason, Divac is somewhat nervous, so he asks Gan Guoyang how to approach the playoffs.
Gan Guoyang gave him two valuable pieces of advice, "First, the most important thing for a rookie in the playoffs is not to make mistakes. Even if you can’t contribute positively, never have a negative impact. During the regular season, you can play more imaginatively; that’s a showcase, meant for improvement, but the playoffs are war."
"Second, the atmosphere in the playoffs is tense, if you get the ball and face an unsolvable problem, just pass it to me."
Divac firmly remembered Gan Guoyang’s teachings, resulting in him, three days later during the game against the Denver Nuggets, coming off the bench and passing the ball to Ah Gan, who was sitting on the bench, contributing to a dumbfounding turnover...
This became the most embarrassing pass in Divac’s professional career.
However, this did not affect the game between the Trail Blazers and the Nuggets, as the gap in strength between the two teams was too large.
So much so that before the series began, Doug Moe, the coach of the Nuggets, bluntly stated at the press conference: "We have no chance to beat the Trail Blazers in this series; our season is already over."
Doug Moe had been with Denver for a full ten seasons, becoming the longest-serving coach in the NBA on one team.
No one thought this "madman" could stay with one team for so long and achieve impressive results with the Nuggets.
In ten seasons, Doug Moe led the Nuggets to the playoffs nine times; the only time they did not make it was his first season, 1980-1981, when he took over the Nuggets mid-season, and the team was already doomed, which wasn’t blamed on him.
In the remaining seasons, Doug Moe’s unique coaching style made the Nuggets a regular in the playoffs.
Doug Moe not only led the Nuggets to excellent results, but he also shaped the team’s style and temperament with his coaching approach.
For decades to come, the Nuggets will always be a team crazy and tough, with veins pumping aggressive offensive blood.
In the 1985 season, Doug Moe was once slaughtered by Gan Guoyang for his "60 points" remark.
Knowing they couldn’t win the series this season, Doug Moe "surrendered halfway," early admitting there was no possibility of victory.
Hope Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers could show some mercy, not being too ruthless, leaving some face for each other.
As old rivals and friends, Gan Guoyang did indeed show mercy; the Trail Blazers won the first game at their home court by only 10 points against the Nuggets.
The second game 109:121, they won by 12 points over the Nuggets team. In the third game at Colorado Plateau, both sides battled back and forth for three quarters.
By the fourth quarter, Gan Guoyang scored 15 points in a single quarter, powering a surge to defeat the Nuggets, winning the series 3:0 without a doubt, advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.
After this game, Doug Moe ended his coaching career with the Nuggets and left the city and position he had worked in for ten years.
After announcing his dismissal, Doug Moe and his wife "Big Jane" enjoyed some champagne, celebrating an important phase of life coming to an end.
Years later, the Denver Nuggets issued a special jersey numbered "432" for Doug Moe, representing his number of wins with the Nuggets, and retired it to honor his significant contributions to the team.
As Denver’s first generation "Joker," his spirit of the clown forever remains with the Nuggets.
[In 1961, when Doug Moe was playing basketball at North Carolina, the Tar Heels discovered they were on the same plane as Richard Nixon.
Nixon was then the Vice President of America, one of the most famous people in the world, not yet disgraced by the Watergate scandal.
North Carolina coach Frank McGuire introduced himself to Nixon, walked him down the aisle and introduced the Tar Heels players.
Doug Moe has a fear of flying, and when Nixon and McGuire approached him, he was reading a book to distract himself.
This was probably the only book Doug Moe opened that semester, but for Nixon, this was clearly an opportunity for small talk.
He said to Doug Moe, "With such a love of books, you must be the little scholar of the team."
Doug Moe looked at the man standing before him—he was slightly hunched forward, looking somewhat weary.
He seemed not to recognize him.
Moe then buried his face back into his book, speaking to Nixon with a dismissive tone: "And who are you supposed to be, a wise sage?"]
———— November 1988 issue of Sports Illustrated, Bruce Newman wrote "The Joker is Wild," excerpted.
