Chapter 873: Chapter 48: Kill Charles_2
On the evening of the 22nd, during the halftime of the second game between the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, David Stern presented the MVP trophy to Michael Jordan.
This time, Jordan modestly said: "This is not just my honor, but the entire Chicago Bulls’. Without the Bulls, without my teammates, I wouldn’t have been able to receive this honor. I thank them, thank each and every one of them."
However, it’s said that in a pre-game interview, Jordan wasn’t so humble, he believed "I deserve this award every year."
When asked why he wasn’t like Gan Guoyang, able to make his teammates better, Jordan got angry and said, "I’m not a babysitter, I’m also part of the team. If teammates want to improve, they should step up themselves, make the shot, earn respect, they need to play well themselves, rather than counting on others."
This sharpness of Jordan is an important reason why he and his teammates can never truly be close. His thorns are too sharp. As a consistently successful genius, it’s hard for him to understand and empathize with those ordinary players — although these players were once extraordinary too.
Gan Guoyang is different. He is more successful than Jordan, but precisely because he once experienced a very unsuccessful and sports-irrelevant life, he is able to understand everyone around him.
This unique dual life experience is something no one else in this world has. It’s quite normal that Jordan couldn’t compare to Gan.
However, in formal occasions, Jordan still needed to be polite. After receiving the trophy, he took photos with his teammates, accepted their applause and cheers.
Phil Jackson was very pleased with this scene, as it was what he had been striving for — at least on the surface, Jordan should appear united with his teammates.
This is one of Phil Jackson’s successes. He is not a perfectionist; he never thought of completely changing Jordan to make him a team player.
He only hopes Jordan can moderately integrate into the team, maintaining his personality while keeping a harmonious relationship with his teammates, striving for balance and harmony.
This is what Phil Jackson calls "Eastern philosophy," which he summarized from Zen, Taoism, and Buddhism’s ideas, not seeking rational perfection, but striving for emotional harmony and balance.
Of course, when Jackson sees this harmonious scene, the shadow of Gan still crosses his mind.
In Jackson’s view, Gan exemplifies Eastern philosophy more perfectly, after all, he’s a Chinese person.
Jackson has inquired about the Trail Blazers team situation from various channels and clearly understood that Gan is a more excellent leader than Jordan.
So Jackson is both worried about the upcoming finals and looking forward to confronting Gan head-on.
Every regular season matchup was thrilling, the finals are the only stage where attention and pressure are incomparable.
Just imagining it made Jackson’s palms sweat a little.
As a result, tonight’s game against the Detroit Pistons seemed rather ordinary.
In the first half, the Bulls took the lead, though the Detroit Pistons tried their usual tricks, using some rough moves to disturb the Bulls’ offense.
For example, Dumars knocked down Armstrong in the second quarter, Pippen was knocked down by Mahorn and Turpin when breaking through, Rick Mahorn knocked John Paxson flying with his hip during defense.
But the result of the Pistons’ actions was three malicious fouls, giving the Bulls free throws and ball possession, leading the Bulls to a 10-point lead over the Pistons in the first half.
In the third quarter, Jordan, having received the MVP trophy, began to display his power, scoring 13 points in a single quarter, helping the Bulls to further broaden their lead.
The Pistons’ hard defense started to lose its effect, not only they couldn’t stop Jordan from scoring, the bigger issue was they couldn’t stop Pippen.
Phil Jackson adjusted Pippen’s role in this game, letting him hold the ball more and participate in the offensive organization.
The reason for this was that when John Paxson and Armstrong and other guards held the ball, they encountered too much defensive pressure.
The Pistons’ guards and forwards were very good at attacking the opponent’s backcourt, especially the point guard, obstructing the Bulls’ offensive organization and ensuring their first pass was not guaranteed.
Therefore, Jackson simply had John Paxson, Armstrong, Hodges and others play as shooting guards, running off the ball on the court to catch and shoot.
The role of ball control and organization was given to the taller Pippen, who was less likely to be double-teamed or attacked, to distribute the first pass in combination with the team’s triangle offense.
This move rendered the Pistons’ pressing defense ineffective and allowed Paxson, Armstrong and others to find many shooting opportunities, overwhelming their opponents.
In the third quarter, with the lead in hand, Jordan took over the game and solidified an even greater advantage.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulls revealed their defensive secret weapon, deploying Pippen, Jordan, and Buck-Williams to crazily double-team the Pistons’ inside players.
Melvin Turpin, an important low-post attack point for the Pistons, faced the Bulls’ most rigorous defense. Whenever he got the ball in the low-post, Pippen would come over to double-team immediately.
This season, Turpin had grown to be a very important low-post attack point for the Pistons, the only inside player with tactical value in the low post, an important tactical anchor for the team.
