Chapter 707: Chapter 73: Afterburning
The 1990 Portland Trail Blazers were like a riddle; theoretically, this shouldn’t have been the best Trail Blazers team.
In 1989, the team experienced failure, losing an important player ranked second on the team, and although new players were added in the summer, they were all unproven European players.
The overall structure of the team did not undergo any substantial change compared to before.
The team changed owners and management, including me, a "traitor" who came from Los Angeles all by myself—a term people from Los Angeles would occasionally use to refer to me even long afterwards.
Throughout the season I kept trying to make trades, hoping to bring a better frontcourt to the team, or to resolve our defensive issues in the backcourt.
I was never quite satisfied with our bench players at the post position; Thompson was too old, and Divac too young. I always had the opportunity to make a beautiful trade using Divac or Petrović as a bargaining chip, to further perfect and strengthen the team.
Sabonis’ injury problems were worrisome; he was plagued with various minor injuries throughout the season, missing 15 games.
The injuries limited his speed and explosiveness; he was somewhat clumsy and not the master playmaker people imagined.
Divac struggled when facing some powerful interior players; his defense was always a problem.
And he was too young and inexperienced, spending the whole season adapting to the NBA’s playing environment and lifestyle; Sabonis did somewhat better in this regard.
Our frontcourt was lacking in talent, which was dangerous; I could feel that the league’s talented frontcourt players were becoming more numerous, and the small forward position was becoming increasingly important.
Kossie was excellent, but he was too tall and heavy, which made it difficult for him to defend speedier players.
Cliff Robinson, like Divac, was talented but too young, and I thought his style of play was unlikely to hold up in tough games.
Mike-Sanders was just average; you couldn’t expect more from him, and his performance was commensurate with his salary, nothing more.
Porter and Hornacek were outstanding; they were very low-key, and the media dubbed them the "mute duo"—they were too plain.
Sometimes this was a good thing, but sometimes it was a drawback; the lack of talent made them less aggressive at crucial moments, and this deficiency in the backcourt could be more headache-inducing than not having a top-tier post player, as the ball is often in the hands of guards.
Petrović might be one of the league’s worst defenders at the guard position; his one-on-one defense and defensive efficiency were problematic, and I felt that even the 1974 version of myself could have overwhelmed him.
I admit he had potential, but in 1990, he was just a Matthews-type player; in crucial games, it was hard for him to play a decisive role.
Dale Curry, aside from his shooting, was unremarkable in other areas; he was more suitable for weaker teams in the middle and lower tiers of the league.
In short, at the beginning of the season, I was anxious as always. I prepared myself mentally for what might not be a very successful season.
But as the season progressed, they dispelled many people’s doubts with their record, victory after victory, all kinds of victories.
After the All-Star break, they reminded me of the 1972 Lakers; theoretically, that Lakers team shouldn’t have been the best either.
Wilt was 35, I was 33, my scoring average dropped to the lowest since my rookie season, and for the first time in his career, Wilt’s scoring average fell below 20 points.
Worst of all, Elgin Baylor announced his retirement after just nine games in the season; at 37, he was no longer able to keep up, he didn’t want to continue, he decided to leave.
During the entire 1972 season, our team only had 11 players; without Baylor, no one filled the void, and his starting position was taken by 23-year-old Jim McMillan, just one year into the league.
Everyone thought we were finished; without Baylor and with the visible decline of Wilt and myself, Alcindor and his Bucks were dominating the league.
But that year we secured 69 wins, set a record with a 33-game winning streak in the regular season, and defeated the Bucks and Knicks to win the championship.
The reason was that we played faster, more united, more focused, and no team could stop our progress.
When the Trail Blazers ended the regular season with 69 wins as well, I knew the same thing was happening again.
They didn’t seem like they should be the best, but they were the best.
Sabonis provided excellent defense in the three-second zone; his height and defensive instincts gave every league scorer attempting to attack the basket a headache.
Moreover, his defensive range was greatly underestimated; often he could defend beyond the three-point line, applying pressure to every opposing ball-handler, then smoothly returning to his position in the paint.
He wasn’t a master playmaker, but his coordination was superb; he quickly became an indispensable screen-setter and lookout tower in the team’s half-court offense.
His fundamentals were very solid, and many years later, Tim Duncan was considered the American black version of Sabonis.
Divac was very different from Sabonis; he was slippery, agile, smart, and liked to draw fouls from opponents on the defensive end.
This made up for the weaker aspects of his physical condition; of course, it also provoked anger from some opponents.
He endured it because he was roughed up every day in practice; he grew rapidly.
Kossie could become the team’s top scorer in some games; he and Cliff Robinson were multi-talented and were the team’s X-factors.
They were the wild Black players who infused the Trail Blazers with passion, and in those tough, tense games, their performances often uplifted the spirits.
However, compared to Petrović, they all seemed rather plain, his surging basketball passion was shocking.
Bobby Beelman insisted on giving Petrović enough time to grow and gain experience, I think he saw his own past in Petrović—a mad basketball gambler, a player who could defy fate.
He was still growing, with many problems, but in some games, he already cast the shadow of a superstar.
He brought internal competitiveness to the team.
As for Dell Curry, he had an amazing son.
Of course, all this was not enough to make the Trail Blazers as strong and excellent as they were in 1990.
We swept through all three rounds of the Western Conference playoffs, setting a new NBA historical record.
Before the start of the 1990 finals, I found Buckwalter and said to him, "Buck, I finally understand what you meant; the Portland Trail Blazers are like a Foxbat, turning the throttle to the max, it could fly a stainless steel block at Mach 3."
Buckwalter said to me, "Our engines haven’t even turned on the afterburner yet."
— Published in 2011, an excerpt from Jerry West’s autobiography "West by West."
Because the Pistons and the Bulls went to Game 7, the finals came quickly for them.
Only two days after the end of the Eastern Conference finals, on June 6th, the Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers finals began at the Memorial Coliseum.
Another sleepless night for Portland.
After the Western Conference finals were over, Portland fans had waited a week.
Both the Memorial Coliseum and the neighboring Paramount Theatre were sold out.
The scenes from the 80s where people camped out in tents to buy tickets were replayed in Portland.
Next to the Memorial Coliseum, the new arena was being built overnight, busy and bustling.
This new arena would be able to accommodate over 20,000 fans, meeting the passionate viewing demands of Portlanders.
Although the world was looking forward to a "Red and Black" finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Portland Trail Blazers, the "Hamlet" between the Detroit Pistons and the Trail Blazers was equally captivating - even if it featured a dark prince.
It was a reunion after three years since the 1987 finals.
In 1987, the Detroit Pistons were not fully prepared.
They lacked offensive players in the low post, and their front line was too inexperienced.
By 1990, they had been baptized as champions, with complete championship experience.
To deal with Ah Gan, the Pistons created a luxurious frontline lineup.
Lan Bi’er, Mark Aguirre, Melvin Turpin, Ma Hong, Salley, Rodman...
Chuck Daly nurtured a front line of Knight squad that was good at both offense and defense to besiege Ah Gan.
Lan Bi’er was still that Lan Bi’er, and Salley and Rodman had grown into the league’s best wing defenders.
Ma Hong and Aguirre, old slicksters who had dealt with Ah Gan for many years, were covered in battle scars.
Melvin Turpin was the Pistons’ best low post scorer, breaking through the Bulls’ three-second zone in a few games of the Eastern finals.
Joe Dumars was no longer that sophomore rookie, but an All-Star guard, known as the Jordan terminator.
Isiah Thomas appeared to be an old slickster after so many years in the league, but in fact, he was only 28 and at the peak of a guard’s abilities and experience.
The biggest problem with the Pistons was losing Vinnie Johnson in the expansion draft, resulting in a lack of firepower in the backcourt.
Although they supplemented with experienced veterans like Rickey Green and Gerald Henderson, they were at the end of their careers and were never known for their firepower; they could only serve as support.
Terry Porter + Hornacek vs Thomas + Dumars, equally eye-catching.
Of course, the most eye-catching thing was what kind of performance Ah Gan would put on in the finals.
Will there be another massacre? If so, who on the Pistons will take the beating this time?
