I’ve repeatedly said that no coach should stay in one position for more than three years.
If you exceed this time, you’ll become stale, and the players won’t take you as seriously.
So, I had already decided that after my three-year contract with Portland expires, I wouldn’t renew it but instead resign as head coach.
Someone asked me what if we don’t win the championship in those three years? Or if we win, and I don’t want to leave?
I don’t think any of that would affect my decision. Whether we win the championship or not, I’ll still leave.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t love the Trail Blazers or don’t want to play and fight with them.
On the contrary, in this short period with them, I realized what a great team this is, united and caring about victory.
The whole team, a dozen or so people, all care about the team, keep the victory in mind, and always put the team’s interest first on the court, which is very rare in the NBA.
As you know, it’s a selfish league, and it’s becoming more so. Selflessness seems like an outdated quality, and when people say you’re "selfless," it’s more like calling you a "damn fool but I can’t say it outright so I give you a ’selfless’ hat."
If a team has one or two players who don’t care about winning or are very selfish, things can get very bad.
As a head coach, you have to discern the players’ states, because they can be in flux.
Today they’re in a good mood, everyone gets along, passing constantly, playing beautifully.
Tomorrow, due to something, their mood sours and they might become lone wolves.
Does this make NBA players sound like immature children in a primary school class?
That’s right, they are like that. Don’t think that just because they’re tall, big, and earn a lot they are mature and stable people.
Many of them are not even as well-behaved and sensible as elementary school students, mostly spoiled, and moody due to growing up issues.
When I was with the Celtics, the person I never could figure out was Tiny Archibald.
He was a great player, but a quirky guy, you never know what might happen with him.
When Tiny was in a good mood, everything from practice to games went extremely well, but once this guy got in a bad mood, he’d become uncontrollable on the court, and things got messy.
Everyone has their methods to judge these athletes’ states and situations. I’ve always trusted my intuition.
When Danny Ainge was working in Phoenix, he specifically hired a guy who, apparently, could judge you by observing your facial micro-expressions and connect to your brain waves, determining what kind of person you are and in what mood or state.
Then, based on these observations, determine your position in the team and the role you’ll play.
Danny was very interested in and believed in this stuff, and in the summer of 1997, he found an opportunity to tell me about it and even introduced that guy to me, saying it would help me coach.
I sat there listening, thinking, "Damn, this guy must be crazy."
Then I started mocking him, saying that this trick was no better than Ah Gan yelling "Bodhisattva bless us" before the game.
Danny stared at me for a while and said, "Larry, from my observation, you are a sensitive and tense person with high personality traits, many serial killers share the same traits."
I said, "That’s right Danny, because you said that, I should kill you."
When I first joined the Trail Blazers in 1996, there was a psychiatrist on the team, Dr. Bruce Ogilvy.
He had been working with the Portland Trail Blazers since 1980, and it was nearly 20 years by that time.
He was always responsible for conducting psychological tests for the players, judging from different dimensions whether a player had leadership, and how strong their desire and craving for the championship were.
Later, it’s said he even proved Dr. Jack Ramsey had some psychological issues... Anyway, I don’t believe in this stuff. I think if you give me a month, I can figure out what kind of characters my players have without any tests. Why bother with tests?
Can you change him after the tests? Or end his contract with him?
I’m not questioning the doctor’s academic capabilities. The test report he gave to Ah Gan is still in the team’s historical exhibit, a genius who scored full marks in all 13 dimensions, a born leader.
It’s just that I trust intuition, believe in emotional communication and daily interactions between people, not in scales and statistics.
I don’t wish to reiterate how outstanding and great Ah Gan is as a leader, too many praises about this aspect, he is not perfect but he is strong enough, which grants him divinity.
I do not wish to glorify divinity in this book, merely portray men.
The Trail Blazers is a selfless team that can help each other, they encourage one another, progress together.
For instance, Chris Mullin, his arrival was nothing short of a rebirth miracle.
He left Golden State, where everything was falling apart, and here he wanted to succeed, and his teammates also wanted him to succeed.
At the start of the 1997-1998 season, he performed far better than the previous season and was the engine of the team for a long time.
We all know he was facing problems with alcoholism, yet throughout the entire season, Mullin only drank once after a 41-game winning streak because Ah Gan treated him.
Aside from that, he didn’t touch a drop of alcohol. He restrained himself and devoted himself entirely to the court.