After losing Ewing, the Knicks finally decided to welcome another tough center from Georgetown. They realized that having Ewing around wasn’t too bad after all.
Although he had various shortcomings and seemed unlikely to lead the Knicks to a championship, Ah Gan was right; after losing Ewing, who knows when the next one would come.
So, the money-loaded Knicks didn’t hesitate to give Mourning a billion-dollar contract, pairing him with Kemp and Rice to build the new New York Knicks.
In Portland, Larry Bird read the newspapers in his office, watching these younger players make so much money, and couldn’t help but grumble.
"I fought through my entire career, only to earn as much as these kids do in a year now. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have played so hard; extending my career until 1996 would have been great."
"No wonder Magic wanted to make a comeback; he must’ve felt that the original 25-year, 15 million US Dollar contract was a loss. Now by playing one more year, he can earn it all back."
"I’ve had a spinal fusion surgery now and should be able to play again; maybe I should make a comeback, too! Player contracts are definitely bigger than coaching contracts."
Bird couldn’t help but feel bitter seeing the young players earning so much money nowadays. One generation plants the trees while the next enjoys the shade; every generation lives on the groundwork laid by the previous one.
Little did Bird know that a decade or two later, player salaries would become even more outrageous, and the so-called big contracts now would only be considered cheap contracts.
In the office, assistant coaches Rick Carlisle and Dick Hart listened to Bird’s complaints with silent smiles, merely burying themselves in sorting through their documents and data.
Bird, Carlisle, and Hart made up the entire coaching staff for the Trail Blazers for the new season.
In today’s NBA, with coaching staffs constantly expanding, having just one head coach and two assistant coaches seemed somewhat underwhelming.
But Bird believed that three people were enough; too many could lead to conflicting opinions, and having too many voices in a team pursuing a championship was not necessarily a good thing.
Especially for teams with championship aspirations, having a single voice is the optimal state, with everyone working towards the same goal.
During a meeting in Naples with Gan Guoyang and Tang Jianguo, Bird was eager to find out if the Trail Blazers’ new season would remain united.
From Tang Jianguo, he received a sure answer: Ah Gan is still the undisputed leader, and the goal remains the championship.
This was precisely the kind of team Bird wanted to join. Concerns about rookies, developing new players, or considering ticket sales were not on his agenda.
Victory and championship have always been his pursuits on the basketball court, and everything revolved around that; he wouldn’t involve himself too much beyond that.
When finalizing the assistant coaches, Bird chose the Trail Blazers’ assistant coach Carlisle, a smart guy who had been a backup teammate back on the Celtics.
Bird then asked Carlisle who would be suitable as the team’s defense coach. Carlisle thought for a moment and said, "Ah Gan..."
"He’s too expensive for me to afford; find me a cheaper option."
Carlisle then said, "Well, that would be my colleague Dick Hart... uh, he’s a really good defensive coach."
Seeing is believing; after Bird arrived in Portland, he met with Hart separately and quickly confirmed that this was the assistant he wanted.
Hart was humble, honest, loved basketball, and his defensive concept aligned perfectly with Bird’s taste.
So, Bird didn’t change the Trail Blazers’ two assistant coaches, essentially moving in to take charge of the Trail Blazers.
In the second week after Gan Guoyang announced his return, Bird decided to sign with the Trail Blazers, holding only a simple press conference.
In fact, his arrival should have been a major news story in the league; Ah Gan had returned, and even Larry Bird had come out of retirement and arrived in Portland.
But at that time, the news media’s cameras had already been drawn to labor negotiations and the upcoming Olympics, plus Bird was too low-profile.
After arriving in Portland, he hid himself away, focusing on coaching work—as a head coach, he was still a novice.
As a result, some Trail Blazers fans were asking each other who the team’s head coach was this season. Upon learning it was Bird, they were all astonished.
Simply unbelievable, Larry Bird actually became the Trail Blazers’ head coach!
Fans tried to track Bird’s whereabouts in Portland, and people quickly discovered that he would drive back and forth from his house to the arena every day, occasionally stopping by a nearby café for a drink and something to eat, and that’s it.
Compared to his flamboyant demeanor on the court, Bird off the field was very introverted; he hated crowded places, didn’t like interviews, and despite being a celebrity, didn’t enjoy making friends with other celebrities.
Besides Magic Johnson, who counts as Bird’s official "pairing" friend, all of Bird’s close friends were ordinary people outside the circle, office workers, and he didn’t like having too much personal interaction with players.
After becoming the head coach of the Trail Blazers, the first thing Larry Bird did was apply for a new, spacious enough office for the coaching staff at the Rose Garden Arena.
Before this, the Trail Blazers’ coaching staff didn’t have an office; Jack Ramsay, Bobby Berman, and PJ Carlesimo all worked and held meetings in the training center’s video screening room.
When it came time to play games, they would discuss and decide tactics in the locker room; their main workplaces were the training ground and the arena.