Chapter 955 - 13 Historical Records

Gan Guoyang once again delivered astonishing stats against the Bulls, winning the fourteenth Gan vs. Jordan battle. The entire NBA is exclaiming: Who can stop Ah Gan?

This season, everyone has high hopes for the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, believing that Jordan might lead the Bulls to revenge against the Trail Blazers and overthrow Portland’s dominance.

However, in the two regular-season encounters, the Bulls seemed to have no way to deal with Gan Guoyang.

On the contrary, the Trail Blazers did a great job restricting Jordan, as Reggie Lewis was an excellent one-on-one defender with height, speed, explosiveness, and skill to match Jordan.

There is no such player in the Bulls lineup. Jerry Krause has been trying to trade Bill Cartwright for Sam Bowie or the Pistons’ Melvin Turpin.

The Kentucky duo has been beaten by Ah Gan since their NCAA days and have developed resistance to him by now, at least not suffering from ’Gan-phobia’ in one-on-one defense against Gan Guoyang.

But the aging Cartwright won’t fetch a better role unless he’s packaged with Horace Grant, and Krause is reluctant to trade Grant.

So the Bulls can only maintain the status quo; after all, Cartwright is still very useful against other teams in the Eastern Conference.

Jerry Krause’s other targets include the Celtics’ center Robert Parish, and like Pat Riley, he’s also eyeing Patrick Ewing and Olajuwon.

But these targets can only be pursued in the offseason. For now, the Bulls can only look internally and try hard to find a way to deal with Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers.

After the game between the Bulls and the Trail Blazers, the Bulls’ locker room was dead silent, and everyone was very unhappy.

Jerry Krause came in and talked to Phil Jackson, reminding him, "You must find a way to deal with Ah Gan!"

In the finals, they had already paid a heavy price, thinking that in the regular season, whether in tactics or morale, they should reach a level of stopping Ah Gan.

But the reality is, their check on Ah Gan is even worse than in the finals, and the team has found no way to suppress him.

"I’ve already been working on it, Jerry, allocating the best resources. The only thing left is five people holding hands and surrounding him!"

"Then try it next time, five people holding hands, making a circle to surround him!"

Phil Jackson knew Krause was venting, so he put his hands on his waist and patiently said to Krause: "Jerry, haven’t you noticed that Ah Gan is different from any other player in the past? He can no longer be handled with existing strategies. Look at his stats; tonight he hit three 3-pointers, with a higher three-point percentage than Hodges. He and Sabonis collaborate a lot from the top of the key to initiate offense. Our double-team strategy will come at a great cost, we..."

"Stop, stop, stop! Phil, that’s your problem, I’m not the coach, and that’s not what I’m here to solve. You tell me what kind of player you need, and I’ll try to get them for you. That’s all I can do. The rest is your job, understand?"

Phil Jackson understood that Krause made a point, but he still felt helpless because Krause couldn’t grasp his predicament.

He vaguely sensed that Gan Guoyang was even stronger than in the 1991 finals, that Ah Gan was still evolving upward.

After the 1991 finals ended, Phil Jackson spent a lot of time in the summer studying Gan Guoyang.

He collected important game footage of Gan Guoyang dating back to his college days, watching repeatedly, and studying carefully.

After painstaking research over a summer, Phil Jackson could confidently say that he is one of the world’s coaches who understands Ah Gan the best.

Oftentimes, enemies know you better than friends do.

To better cope with Gan Guoyang, Jackson devised a thoroughly meticulous defensive system to counter him.

From the inside Bill Cartwright, to the fours Buck Williams and Grant, the three Pippen, the two Jordan, and the one Parkson, every position had the task of defending and harassing Gan Guoyang.

Truly five players against one, especially to strictly control Gan Guoyang initiating offense from the low post, employing a variety of double-team modes, and creating various defensive traps targeting Ah Gan.

As the NBA moved into the ’90s, national coaches have delved deeper and deeper into defense studies, with increasing meticulousness; simple double-teaming and fake zone defenses are no longer secret weapons.

From college to the professional league, coaches began weaving more stringent defensive networks, employing multi-layered blockades, rapid rotations, and a clear strategy of switching, coupled with an overall defense strategy, turning defense more into a systematic art form.

Undoubtedly, Phil Jackson and his coaching staff were among the best in this regard, exhausting their brains to deal with Ah Gan.

When the training camp began in October, Jackson spent two weeks repeatedly practicing various schemes, watching finals footage with the players, analyzing Ah Gan’s playing patterns, so everyone was intimately familiar with how to limit Gan Guoyang effectively.

When the new season began, before their first match against the Trail Blazers, Jackson and everyone on the Bulls were filled with confidence.

They had the confidence for revenge, they hoped to fiercely kick Ah Gan’s butt, filled with anger needing an outlet.

As a result, at Memorial Coliseum, they were doused with cold water, with Gan Guoyang destroying the Bulls with 51 points and 32 rebounds.

Jackson identified the first problem: Ah Gan had increased his weight to 270 pounds, his low post power was stronger, and they couldn’t even double-team in time before he pierced through.