Chapter 766: Chapter 12 Borrowing Your Auspicious Words_5
The Bulls started the season with three consecutive losses, and Jordan’s scoring was not satisfactory, managing 4 wins and 4 losses in the first 8 games, only a 50% win rate.
Before facing the Portland Trail Blazers, they lost to the Phoenix Suns—Charles Barkley overshadowed Jordan in that game, scoring 37 points.
While Jordan only scored 34 points, which led to him constantly talking trash to Barkley during the game and after the game.
This seriously hurt Jordan’s pride; he cared a lot about his statistics and would confirm his scores with the officials during games.
When he felt there was a discrepancy, he would correct it; his memory was very good, and he rarely made mistakes.
At the start of this season, Jordan clearly felt that more people were provoking him.
Because he was so strong, yet unable to win a championship, this psychological gap tormented him; he hated this feeling.
In the preseason game against the Seattle SuperSonics, Gary Payton, this brash kid, encountered Jordan at a nightclub and dared to tell Jordan, "I’m worth millions, I can buy Ferraris and Lamborghinis now!"
Jordan shrugged and said, "I have them too, but mine were given for free by sponsors."
Naturally, this comment made Payton lose face, but deep down, Jordan was very angry. How dare a rookie talk to me like that?
Jordan eagerly wanted to establish his dominance in the game with victories and scoring.
But the problem was, Phil Jackson wanted him to stop being a scoring champion and share the ball with his teammates.
Regarding how to integrate the triangle offense with Jordan, the Bulls were still filled with controversy.
Reinsdorf complained to Krause, asking whether the triangle offense was restraining Jordan?
And low-post players like Cartwright were tired of Jordan trying to solve problems with solo plays over and over again.
As for Jordan himself, he was not quite sure what to do; his basketball philosophy was simple, but now someone was trying to complicate things.
Directly in training, he said, "If I had been playing for Phil from the start, I wouldn’t be who I am now. And I don’t understand, why do I have to play within Tex Winter’s system, what exactly has Tex Winter won?"
Such disrespectful remarks drove Krause crazy; he was a loyal supporter of Winter and insisted on the triangle offense.
Now, Krause was concerned whether Phil Jackson could control the locker room, whether he could control Jordan.
Jackson, on the other hand, was very confident, believing that regular-season games didn’t mean much, and that the process was more important than the result.
Before the game against the Trail Blazers, Jackson handed out books to the players on the way, a habit of his during away games.
He hoped that by reading, players could calm down and reflect on their own state, drawing guiding strength from it.
He gave Scottie Pippen "The Bonfire of the Vanities," rookie Scott Williams "Babies of Tulsa," Purdue "The Great Santini," Bill Cartwright "Collapse," and to Jordan, "Song of Solomon."
In addition to distributing books, Jackson also conducted psychological tests on the players, preferring bus rides over flights to let the players enjoy the scenery along the way.
Of course, the result was that the players had no interest in enjoying the scenery, they would sleep on the bus, and play cards on the plane.
As for the psychological tests, they felt like they were taking a school quiz and just randomly filled in the answers, resulting in the entire Bulls team being labeled as having mental issues.
Jackson once doubted whether he could communicate with the generation of the ’60s, while the players felt Jackson was too pretentious and too fond of preaching grand principles.
However, Jackson soon found a person who could quickly unite the Bulls players—Ah Gan.
After arriving in Portland, sitting on the bus, there were billboards related to Ah Gan everywhere.
Portland had no other stars, whether in sports, pop music, or film; Ah Gan was their only one.
Jackson was aware of the Trail Blazers’ recent performance and said, "The performance of the Trail Blazers and Ah Gan represents my ideal state of mind; we need to catch up with them."
Everyone knew this was reverse psychology, but it stirred up anger throughout the Bulls, with the Portland Trail Blazers hanging over them like a specter.
Jordan scoffed upon hearing this, jeering at Jackson: "Maybe Bobby Berman will reserve a seat next to you."
The Bulls teammates, rarely in agreement with Jordan, sided with him this time, concurring with what he said, but Jackson wasn’t angry; he knew that on the evening of the 18th, the Bulls would put forth their ideal performance.
Jackson looked out the window, at the giant AVIA advertisement, Ah Gan’s big eyes gazing at everyone passing by, with "Now your Time" written below.
Jackson thought to himself: "I’ll take that as a good omen, Ah Gan."
