He understands ordinary people better than any genius.
What truly elevated Gan Guoyang to the ultimate realm in the 1997-1998 season was actually the environment.
The environment of the NBA, the environment of the Trail Blazers Team, a place where the sky is high for birds to fly and the sea is vast for fish to leap.
Gan Guoyang was already a bird and a whale; what limited him was not himself, but whether the sky was high enough, whether the sea was wide enough.
In the 1997-1998 season, the entire league was at a turning point where veterans were gradually fading, and newcomers were growing.
Veterans like Olajuwon, Barkley, Ewing, Drexler, and Jordan, Gan Guoyang’s old friends and rivals, were all entering the late stages of their careers.
Olajuwon went to the Nets, Barkley stayed with the Heat, and Drexler was about to retire. The teams they belonged to were not as competitive as before.
And the current and new generation of players had no true flag bearers yet; players like O’Neal, Duncan, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Jide, and Wei Bo still needed time to challenge for supremacy.
Also, this season’s Trail Blazers were perfectly suited for Gan Guoyang, fully unleashing his potential.
Thus, this NBA season completely became Gan Guoyang’s ocean, where he could effortlessly showcase what he had learned all his life.
Bird, as a superstar-level coach, with keen court intuition, detected this, and he consciously began to increase Gan Guoyang’s involvement in the number three position.
Recently, during the team’s tactical training, Gan Guoyang often appeared at the number three position, and in the post-training tactical discussions, Bird often discussed the role of the number three position with Gan Guoyang.
Bird himself transitioned from the four position to the three position and achieved great success; he understood the enormous impact a good small forward could have in today’s and future leagues.
"Sonny, I think if you want to continue to dominate the league and survive in the NBA at an older age, slowly transitioning to the number three position is a great choice."
Bird expressed his opinion.
"Why? Is it because the number three position can rest hands on hips and speed up attacks, making it less tiring and allowing me to last longer in the league?"
"..."
"That’s just a small part of the reason; the number three position is indeed less tiring than the center. More importantly, I think the number three position can better showcase your talent and energy."
"Oh, what you mean is that it can better exploit me so that the team plays better, right?"
"Why do you speak so harshly? Although... it does make sense, superstars are meant to be exploited."
The number three position can decrease Gan Guoyang’s exhaustion and increase efficiency—it’s simply a win-win.
Bird considered himself a genius, so naturally, he formally pushed for Ah Gan’s transition to a small forward—this was Bird’s ace.
In previous games, Gan Guoyang had a guest role at the number three position, and tonight against the Lakers, facing their strong forward line, Bird thought he should give it a try.
Three minutes into the fourth quarter, the game was still tense, and Bird and Del Harris were not in a hurry to bring on the starters.
Bird used Kobe a lot. In this game, Kobe was in great form; whenever the team’s offense stalled, Kobe would use his individual ability to break the stalemate.
Even if a breakthrough wasn’t successful, it could give inside players the opportunity to grab rebounds for a second shot. Such opportunities are crucial (one reason the Bulls lost the finals to the Trail Blazers was their inability to execute second-chance plays).
In Bird’s mind, Kobe is that important X variable, the imperfection that allows perfection to be perfect.
As for the Lakers, Jide played the longest time tonight, as the Lakers’ offense heavily relied on Jide’s orchestration.
After three quarters, he already had 14 assists, aiming for 20 assists in the game.
That’s just the number of assists; other passes not counted as assists but having tactical impacts were even more.
The Trail Blazers’ number one position, Brellock, is very effective in defending Stockton and Van Exel, those small guards.
But not Jide; Brellock is only 183, and Jide is too tall, making it very difficult for Brellock to defend Jide.
He basically can’t interfere with Jide’s passing, allowing Jide to organize the offense effortlessly without pressure.
Later, Bird had Kobe defend Jide, but the effect was average since Kobe is good at close marking, yet Jide isn’t the type to be easily marked.
The most important thing in defending Jide is to interrupt his passing from a systemic and overall perspective to restrict this highly skilled Point Guard. Passing is Jide’s priority.
This was precisely a weak point for high school player like Kobe. One-on-one defense isn’t an issue, but when it comes to overall team defense and cooperation with teammates, he easily doesn’t know what to do.
Kobe is still young; he has a long way to go in many aspects.
The two teams battled to 91:87, with the Trail Blazers still leading the Lakers by 4 points.
Del Harris was the first to call a timeout, bringing all the main players onto the court.
As the team chasing points, the Lakers had to push harder; this was their last chance to end the Trail Blazers’ winning streak.
Bird also made substitutions, but he didn’t substitute Little O’Neal, instead choosing to sub out Mu Lin to let Gan Guoyang come on while keeping Kobe and Brellock on the court.
The Trail Blazers used a lineup of Sabonis, Little O’Neal, Gan Guoyang, Kobe, and Brellock.
The team’s frontcourt height increased significantly, and they seemed to be using a traditional tactic—"Three Tall."
This was the secret weapon of the 1986 Trail Blazers championship, where the triple-height lineup of Walton, Thompson, and Gan Guoyang made the whole league tremble.