The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 318 - 55: Incitement Crime_2

Gan Guoyang and Lan Bi’er, although they had been trash-talking before the game, played pretty clean in the first quarter, and the real physical confrontation hadn’t started yet.

The Trail Blazers were leading the Pistons 31:23, up by 8 points, and Daley, looking at the situation on the court, pondered how to find a breakthrough.

Gan Guoyang finished the first quarter with 7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, and also 2 assists, still exerting MVP-level influence.

As long as he was on the court, the Trail Blazers showed overwhelming pressure on both offense and defense.

Daley was wearing a blue suit tonight – his suits were always blue. He always said, "No one looks bad in a blue suit."

His hair was always impeccably styled, and he was always very conscious of maintaining his image; he knew how important it was for an NBA head coach.

Because the first enemy you have to face is not the coach of another team, but your own players. You have to convince them, make them listen to you.

NBA players are not well-behaved children, especially the Pistons’ players, from Thomas to Lan Bi’er, each of them had a ruffian-like approach and very strong personalities.

If a coach thinks that just by virtue of being the head coach he could suppress the players and make them play basketball his way, that’s impossible.

Without the respect and support of the players, an NBA coach can’t last a single day.

So the first thing Daley had to do every day was to maintain his dignified and meticulous image.

He said to Lan Bi’er and Melvin Turpin, sitting on the bench, "In the second quarter, Bill, you don’t guard Ah Gan."

Lan Bi’er was dissatisfied, "Why? I can handle him! I’ll show him some intensity in the second quarter!"

Daley shook his head, "You take on the Trail Blazers’ front line. Go for the rebounds, go after Vandeweghe, Thompson, and Walton. Suppress them. Don’t waste your energy on Ah Gan, it’s not worth it. Melvin, Ah Gan is yours. Tonight, your only task is to stick to Ah Gan, got it? It doesn’t matter how many points he scores, 40 or 50, just do your best."

Turpin looked somewhat bewildered, staring at Daley as if to say, you’re asking me to take on Ah Gan, isn’t that sending me to my doom?

Daley saw Turpin’s confusion and said, "There’s nothing to be afraid of, he’s just a player. Come on, show him some color."

Turpin thought to himself, easy for you to say, coach, you don’t know how terrifying this guy is, if I end up knocking you over with Ah Gan, don’t blame me.

When the second quarter began, Lan Bi’er and Turpin were still sitting off the court, with Lan Bi’er snickering on the side, "Melvin, Ah Gan is all yours! He’s just a player after all!"

Turpin licked his lips, "Actually... Ah Gan is a pretty good guy..."

Lan Bi’er’s face darkened, "No matter how nice he is, it doesn’t concern you. He’s the opponent now, the enemy. What you have to do is to harass him, disturb him, even throw an elbow at him!"

Turpin blurted out in surprise, "Why don’t you throw an elbow at him?"

Lan Bi’er replied very straightforwardly, "I don’t dare."

Lan Bi’er was a blunt petty person; he didn’t hide his misdeeds or his cowardice.

When it was time to step up, he did; when it was time to back down, he backed down. He wouldn’t withdraw easily, nor would he show off recklessly.

Turpin couldn’t be like Lan Bi’er; he was a very conflicted and tormented person, always living in the uncertainty of indecision. (Note: The real Melvin Turpin committed suicide in 2010.)

He was quite happy after leaving Los Angeles for Detroit; he had escaped from Sterling, that dreadful owner, and the terrible Clippers team environment, joining the unified, though not very friendly, Pistons team.

Unified, because under Daley and Thomas’s leadership, the team had only one goal: victory. Everyone was focused on the court, intent on winning, which made Turpin feel like he was back in Kentucky. He missed Kentucky.

But it wasn’t a friendly relationship, and that was because Lan Bi’er told Melvin Turpin that in Detroit, one had to fight to earn respect, and fight with all one’s might, otherwise, you’d be treated as trash, and no one would sympathize with you.

Lan Bi’er helped Melvin Turpin quite a bit, such as supervising his weight loss, urging him to cut down on high-calorie foods, encouraging him to train hard, and mocking him during training and games to point out his mistakes and make him compete with even greater effort.

The two were quite complementary on the court; with Melvin Turpin positioned under the basket, Lan Bi’er could move out to the top of the arc. On defense, Melvin Turpin could help Lan Bi’er by guarding opponents, something the Pistons had been lacking in their frontcourt.

Lan Bi’er had always been the last line of defense without any buffer, and according to what Daley said, with his 2-inch vertical leap, he had to be extremely rough to deter players from driving to the basket.

The Detroit Pistons’ average number of blocks per game had always been at the bottom of the League, as they never had a proficient shot-blocker. Although Melvin Turpin was not a master of blocking, his height of 6 feet 11 inches could still provide some help to the Pistons’ rim defense.

Melvin Turpin had a premonition that the Detroit Pistons would be a successful team, even though they seemed to have many problems and a poor reputation.

But sometimes, a bad reputation can act as a bonding force for the players, uniting everyone to stand against the world, with no one but your teammates and fans liking you.

Melvin Turpin was still hesitating inside, wondering how he should confront Ah Gan on the court later. Should he really throw an elbow?

Meanwhile, on the Trail Blazers’ bench, Gan Guoyang shrugged at Ramsay, "I didn’t hit anyone in the first quarter."

Ramsay replied, "Do you want me to grant you a Nobel Peace Prize?"

Gan Guoyang shook his head, "Forget it, if I haven’t hit anyone, I don’t deserve it."

Ramsay got up to direct the game from the sidelines, and Gan Guoyang took the towel from Terry Porter to wipe his face.

Porter hadn’t had a chance to play tonight, with Ramsay preferring the Parkson and Kolter combination during the transition periods.

As a rookie, Porter had yet to earn Ramsay’s full trust, particularly because of his somewhat casual and bold outside shooting, which often dissatisfied Ramsay.

Although Ramsay had become much more tolerant than before, his leniency to accommodate free-spirited players like Gan Guoyang and Drexler was already commendable, and adding rookie Porter to the mix was proving to be difficult.

By comparison, Kolter, with a more traditional style of play and more experience, was more trusted by Ramsay.

However, Kolter’s defense on Thomas tonight was not good; he lacked aggression, which was essential in Detroit.

"Porter, if you get on the court, target Thomas more in your attacks."

Porter made a face, looking at Gan Guoyang, "Isn’t that kind of bad?"

Gan Guoyang said, "I told you to attack him, not hit him, to go on offense, to score!"

"Dr. Jack doesn’t like it when I shoot too much."

"No problem, just listen to me on the court, Dr. Jack doesn’t call the shots there."

"...Is this for some tactical consideration?"

"No, I just want you to build some courage. And, if you could really land a punch on him, that would be even better."

If the NBA had a charge for instigating, Gan Guoyang and Lan Bi’er would be the kind who could get sentenced from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

According to American tradition, they could even throw in the electric chair.