Zhang Yang felt the odd atmosphere of the team, not as quiet as the Spurs, nor as harmonious as the Suns. These two would suddenly start yelling, those two would burst into loud laughter... and then there was Ainge, following Bird around like a lapdog.
If there had been group chats on cell phones back then, he felt their team of more than a dozen people could have been divided into over twenty groups.
However, once the team meeting started, everything changed.
Bird, McHale, Dennis Johnson, Ainge, Greg Kite, Jerry Sichting... along with other players and KC Jones, discussed enthusiastically how to play tonight.
Zhang Yang glanced around and, including himself, there were 13 players on the team—seven of whom would become future NBA head coaches, assistant coaches, and general managers.
The Boston underworld really was vast!
Zhang Yang focused his attention, listening to these teammates whose tactical abilities were off the charts when suddenly his name was mentioned.
Bird: "Jack, you’re starting tonight, matched up against Jordan!"
Zhang Yang: "I’m starting?"
Bird: "Of course, you’re our best scoring guard. You’ve been slacking off on the bench for a year; it’s time for you to take responsibility. But if you’re scared, I’ve said before, you can hide behind my ass."
Zhang Yang was somewhat surprised; Bird’s appraisal of him seemed to be the complete opposite of his attitude toward him.
But if Bird didn’t recognize his abilities, he wouldn’t have argued with him the entire season.
Being able to stand up to Bird for an entire season and still secure the sixth man spot required some substance.
Zhang Yang saw that Ainge’s expression wasn’t looking good, but he didn’t care, and asked, "How should I adjust my playing style? How should I coordinate with you?"
Bird: "You can play however you like, do I need your coordination? Just put the ball in the basket, is there anything else you want to ask?"
Zhang Yang shrugged his shoulders: "Then that simplifies things—I have no other questions."
It was precisely this annoying yet admirable confidence that Bird could not stand in Zhang Yang.
Too similar, far too similar to himself.
Seeing coach KC Jones by his side, looking unperturbed by Bird’s unilateral decision to arrange the starting lineup, Zhang Yang wasn’t surprised.
He had heard Hubie Brown joking about Bill Walton on a live broadcast, saying that the Celtics’ head coach was just a protector of Bird’s playbook.
And with this bunch of teammates around him, there were plenty whose coaching talent surpassed KC Jones’s.
In the morning, KC Jones only scheduled one training session; the rest of the time was free time, with a gathering at 5:30 PM for warm-up.
Most of the Celtics team was highly enthusiastic about training; after the official practice, most of the players stayed to continue working on their fundamentals, of course at a lower intensity.
Zhang Yang practiced his post-up footwork for a while, but without getting the hang of it, he knew he needed to watch and study more.
He aimlessly watched his teammates’ training, hoping to pick up a thing or two, but it wasn’t a big deal if he didn’t.
He was already prepared for the possibility of not learning much in terms of skills during this stint, and was content with the idea of just claiming a couple of awards, keeping a peaceful mindset.
McHale was practicing his low-post spin and step-back moves; Zhang Yang watched for a while... not suitable.
McHale’s spin and step-back shots were performed without jumping, relying purely on height and wingspan, typical of an inside player’s back-to-basket style, and too close to the hoop to be suitable for an outside player.
The other players were mostly practicing shooting, including the former ’league’s top center’ Bill Walton, who had now become a blue-collar worker.
The news and reports said that Bill Walton had refused to accept the Sixth Man of the Year trophy, which made Zhang Yang feel some goodwill toward this rugged-looking man, but he didn’t strike up a conversation.
He didn’t discriminate against stutters and had the patience.
But this legendary center had a temper too volatile; he would get so frustrated with his own stuttering that he could lash out at others.
Just as he was about to practice his shooting and then search for Jordan’s videos, he saw Bird starting to practice his back-to-basket footwork again...
Zhang Yang: Staring...
April 17, 1986, 6:40 PM, Boston Garden, the stadium was filled with booing.
The man had arrived—Michael Jordan!
The Celtics and Jordan had no real grudges against each other.
Last season in the playoffs, the Celtics had swept the Bulls out of contention.
But there were two things that made Celtics fans hate Jordan.
One was Jordan being selected to the All-NBA Second Team in his rookie season, being officially hailed by the league as a strong contender for the title of NBA’s number one player.
Lakers fans thought Magic was the number one player, Pistons fans thought the "Assassin" was the number one player, and Celtics fans thought Bird was the number one player. The fans of the three teams would compete with each other, and then jointly boycott Michael Jordan.
The other reason was the All-Star voting for the 84-85 season. Initially, Jordan was considered a small forward and placed in the forward position, where he ranked first among forwards right away. When the first vote counts were announced, Bird got pushed to third place. It was only after the league moved Jordan to the guard position that Bird managed to avoid missing the All-Star starting lineup despite having just won the MVP for the previous season.
But this was enough to embarrass the Celtics fans, who had previously mocked Magic for not making the All-Star game in his second year after winning the Finals MVP in his rookie year. Now, the boomerang had hit them in the face.
Mainly it’s because the super rookies of this era are all terrifying. Magic, a Finals MVP in his rookie year; Bird, All-NBA First Team in his rookie year and a Finals MVP in his second year; Olajuwon, in his second season this year, averaging 23.5 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 3.4 blocks, poses the biggest threat to Bird’s three consecutive MVPs... and Jordan belongs to this caliber of players.
Celtics fans aren’t afraid of someone boasting that a certain person could threaten Bird’s status, but if that person could really pose a threat, then they would start jumping, wanting to stomp on Jordan and not give him a chance to stand up.
On Zhang Yang’s side, he was now very excited; he was about to face off against Jordan!
During warm-ups, he thought he shouldn’t be too nervous when facing such a legendary player, as it might affect his performance, but after seeing Jordan in person, he tried hard to suppress his overly heightened emotions.
The time for pre-game preparations ended, and the starting lineups for both teams took the court.
The Celtics’ starting lineup: Dennis Johnson, Zhang Yang, Bird, McHale, Parish.
The Bulls’ starting lineup: Kyle Macy, Jordan, Orlando Woolridge, Charles Oakley, Jeff Colson.
Zhang Yang looked towards the opposing bench, where Gervin, wearing a suit, was.
Last summer when Jordan fractured his foot, he was initially predicted to be out for the season, and the Bulls paid a ’princely’ sum of 800,000 US dollars to poach him from the Spurs.
Gervin, extremely unaccustomed to the playing style, struggled to help the Bulls stay in the playoff standing, only for Jordan to suddenly return in March!
After a few games for readjustment, Gervin was relegated to the bench. At first, he still had about 10 minutes of playing time, but in the last two games of the regular season, he was completely sidelined by the Bulls.
From the papers, Zhang Yang read that Gervin might not find a job after the season. Last season, Gervin averaged 21.2 points on a 50% shooting rate. Truly tragic.
At 7 p.m., the game started.
Parish won the tip-off against Colson, and the Celtics got the first possession!
Zhang Yang ran to the frontcourt, waiting for Dennis Johnson to advance and initiate the offense.
Jordan’s defensive effort was extremely high; he aggressively stuck to Zhang Yang, constantly talking trash: "You’re the rookie who fought with Bird? Did he arrange for you to start and match up with me? You’re so pathetic; do you know that he’s retaliating against you?"
Zhang Yang struggled to hold off Jordan’s body blows, retorting, "You talk so much, I thought you were Larry. I didn’t expect it to be you, the swept loser. Is a loser like you this confident?"
Just then Dennis Johnson advanced, and Zhang Yang slapped away the arm that was exerting force on his waist and started to make his move.
Slipping along the baseline, cutting back, circling around McHale who blocked Jordan.
Zhang Yang accelerated full throttle while rounding the pick, rushing to the high post—the ball was passed to him!
Zhang Yang caught the ball and turned, sprinting straight down the middle towards the hoop. Oakley, who stepped up to defend the shot, was left behind, and Zhang Yang took off from inside the free throw line, one step into the jump.
Colson underneath the basket couldn’t move in time, unable to push forward or get out of the way, and even reaching out to grab him was too late, all he saw was darkness...
Along with the sound of the rim being smashed, the arena erupted with cheers!
Initially, Celtics fans really disliked Zhang Yang, but as the season progressed and Zhang Yang played better and better, at least the heckling at the venue became less and less. However, because he had hit Bird, they still couldn’t stand Zhang Yang.
Today after KC Jones revealed to the media that Zhang Yang would be starting, fans who saw the news at noon were full of doubts.
Zhang Yang had never started a game before, and now he was put in to start and go head-to-head with Jordan, who had made the All-NBA Second Team in his rookie season? It seemed like a misguided decision no matter how one looked at it.
Unexpectedly, on the very first play of the game, Zhang Yang came out with a fierce move!
This Chapter is 5800 words long; I wrote a bit extra for a while. Tonight I will update another Chapter with about the same word count, which will make up for the 1500 words I missed updating yesterday. I’m asking for monthly passes and recommendation tickets!
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om