NBA Archives Debunked: The Jordan Saga

Chapter 25 Killer (1)

In Cartwright's first season with the Bulls, the team had a painful run-in.In the past few years, the Bulls' offense has been centered around Jordan, and now they are suddenly stuffed into an attack point that is accustomed to post-up singles in the low post. Jordan does not know how to adjust for Cartwright, and Cartwright does not know how to do for Jordan. Adjustment, the two of them made do without embarrassment.

The 1988-1989 season was Jordan's fifth year in the NBA.In the previous four years, except for the injured 1985-1986 season, Jordan could always lead the team to make progress, but this time, from a numerical point of view, the Bulls regressed. In the regular season, the Bulls achieved 47 wins and 35 losses, less than the previous season. 3 games, only ranked fifth in the Central Division, and dropped to sixth in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls regressed, not because Jordan regressed.Jordan played 81 games in the regular season, averaging 32.5 points, grabbing 8.0 rebounds, assisting 8.0 times, and shooting 53.8% from the field. Although his personal scoring is not as exaggerated as the previous two seasons, his overall performance is steadily improving. There is no suspicion of regressing in the slightest.In fact, at the very beginning of this season, Jordan realized the challenge and prepared himself psychologically. Looking back on this season in his autobiography many years later, he wrote:

When the 1988-1989 season began, the challenge was less physical and more mental.People recognize me as a great player, but the criticism remains the same: As long as Michael Jordan leads the league in scoring, the Bulls will never win a championship.

They pointed out that people like Wilt (Chamberlain), Dominique Wilkins, and Bob McAdoo all scored a lot of points, but they played for teams that were not as good as they were. success.After George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the only player who can both be a scoring champion and lead his team to a championship; Been to both points.For those who want to criticize me all the time, history provides a great argument, because I am far more successful personally than my team, so I must not make the players around me better.

However, I know what I can do on the court, which is why the challenge is more mental.I have to integrate my abilities into a system that makes the team better.Doug (Collins) never had a real system because he relied on individual talent.In that sense, to make the team better, I need to have the right players around me.It started to happen as Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen started to grow and the Beals became a low-post threat.It didn't happen overnight, though.

With Oakley gone and Cartwright coming, I knew I had to rebound more.Then Scottie and Horace started and I knew I had to find a way to integrate them into the offense.Doug tried everything, including putting me at point guard late in the season.That was the first time all season that everything started to work properly.We had a period where we won 14 out of 11 games and I had 11 triple-doubles in 10 games at one point.I can see the whole pitch and the opponent can no longer focus their defense on me alone.That was the first time in my career that our team had other scoring options and opponents had to respect my teammates.

Still, there was a lot of friction on the team, especially between Doug and some of the younger players, but I still understood that we had taken a step forward.We lost all six games against Cleveland during the regular season, we lost all five games against Detroit, but when the playoffs started, I really thought we could beat anybody.

As he himself said, Jordan became a super triple-double king in the 1988-1989 season. He not only continued to score high points, but also did too many things other than scoring. From the end of March to the beginning of April 1989, Jordan had a triple-double in seven consecutive games. After one game was interrupted, he had three triple-doubles in succession. In 3 consecutive games, Jordan handed over 4 triple-doubles; in those 11 games, his The average contribution per game is 10 points, 11 rebounds, 33.6 assists, and the shooting percentage is 10.8%.

In terms of comprehensive abilities and gorgeous statistics, this can even be regarded as the peak season of Jordan's career.However, due to the unsatisfactory performance of the Bulls, Jordan ranked second in the annual MVP selection, losing to "Magic" Johnson who led the Lakers to 57 wins and 25 losses.The magician averaged 22.5 points, 12.8 assists, 7.9 rebounds and 50.9% shooting. This is also one of his most beautiful years in the NBA.

Cartwright has just arrived, and the players need to run in. This is an important reason for the Bulls' decline in performance, but it is not all.This year, there were other discordant factors in the team.

Collins, 37, is in his third season coaching the Bulls, and he's starting to lose the support of his players.No one questioned Collins' mind, but one thing he never could do was properly doing nothing.Several old assistants often reminded him: try to let go occasionally, don't control it so tightly, and sometimes lose the ball, especially the ones that the coaches think should not be lost, and give the players a certain amount of space.

Properly letting go and accepting some failures that shouldn't be there is an important quality that an NBA head coach should have, and Collins is not a person who is willing to let go.He said openly: "I am like this, I coach according to my own way." But because he was too emotional, by the third year, the players quit, they began to complain about the way Collins coached, and they felt that playing under Collins , the mood is like riding a roller coaster, one day he is yelling at you, the next day he gives you a hug and tells you how much he loves you.Generally speaking, players are more emotional and coaches are more experienced and calm, which is not the case with the Bulls.

Considering his status as a superstar, Jordan is usually very careful when he speaks in public, and tries not to challenge authority as much as possible—of course, Klaus does not count—but those around Jordan can slowly sense his doubts about Collins.Jordan told his friends that Collins was a "very emotional young coach."

Meanwhile, the rift between Collins and Krauss grew.When Collins first took office, the two had reached a consensus: Not only would Tex Winter serve as Collins' assistant, but Winter's "triangle offense" would also become the team's basic tactical system.Collins tried, but it didn't take long for him to abandon the triangle offense because it conflicted with the defensive principles he believed in.Collins felt that something like the triangle offense was only suitable for college, not professional basketball.

Winter is Krause's oldest and closest friend in the coaching world.A long time ago, Klaus told Winter: If one day I can become the general manager of an NBA team, you will be the first person I hire.Winter didn't take it seriously at the time.Later, in 1985, when the 63-year-old Winter was working as an assistant coach at Louisiana State University, one day, he saw a news from ESPN that Krause was appointed as the general manager of the Chicago Bulls, and Winter told his wife Nancy Winter: The next call I get, it's this guy who's going to offer me a new job.Winter was right.

The Bulls want to implement the triangle offense, hoping to showcase Jordan's unique offensive talent while also allowing other players to better integrate into it.But such hopes have not been transformed into reality. Jordan is not interested in the triangle offense, and Collins has no belief in the triangle offense.

Without the triangle offense, what is Collins' tactical system?As Jordan said, "Doug never had a real system."Collins kept adding tactics to the team. If the opponent used an effective tactic in the game against the Bulls, Collins would add it to the Bulls' "tactical system" the next day.The players gave Collins' system a name called "A play a day".

Playing under Collins, players have to memorize forty or fifty sets of tactics. Then during the game, Collins reads the defense on the sidelines. Based on what he sees, he directs the players which set of tactics to play in this round and which set to play in the next round. tactics.This kind of coaching style is rare in the NBA, but it suits Collins himself, because he does have outstanding observation and reading skills, and he responds extremely quickly.But the disadvantage of this is that over time, the players rely too much on his judgment on the court, lose their initiative, and easily miss those fleeting good opportunities.Collins' coaching has increasingly marginalized the other players around Jordan.Too often, the Bulls' offense consists of the other four trying to spread out to create space for Jordan, and then stand by and watch Jordan show off his magic.

Out of chronic dissatisfaction with point guards, Collins asked Jordan to play point guard this season.After the adjustment, the effect was really good, but it forced Jordan to consume too much in the regular season.On this issue, Collins once had a heated discussion with Winter.Winter argues that if Collins can build a real offense—not necessarily a triangle offense, but something in place—the Bulls won't have to rely so heavily on a point guard to dominate the offense.Collins was not happy to hear that. He had had enough of Winter's endless criticism. He decided to remove Winter's coaching duties and let him go.So in the Bulls' training, there was such a strange scene: the coaches gathered together, and only Winter sat next to him, taking notes with a notebook, as if he was not the Bulls assistant coach, but another team sent to study Bulls.Winter's isolation from the rest of the coaching staff doesn't bode well.Winter once said to Collins: "Doug, for a person as smart as you, I often wonder if you know what you are doing." Loss of confidence in judgment.How could someone fire an assistant like Tex Winter?

The direct conflict between Collins and Krause has also intensified, and the two have often opposed drafts, personnel decisions and other matters. In 1988, Collins openly challenged Krause: Why do you always show up with the coach?Why do you always go away with the team?Klaus replied: Because I am the general manager!Collins said: The general manager does not need to run around with the team.During team training, Collins would yell at Klaus as soon as he saw him: "Why are you here again? What are you doing on the field?" Such quarrels have nothing to do with the work of the team, and are completely a confrontation of personality and dignity.

While Collins has become increasingly incompatible with this team, Phil Jackson has gotten along with everyone.He was close to Bach, who taught him a lot about scouting reports.He was also friendly to Winter, and even got along well with Klaus, but he didn't expect that he would be a potential head coach candidate.

Before Christmas in 1988, in an away game against the Bucks, Collins was sent off early. He handed over the command to Jackson, and before leaving, he arranged all the tactics he wanted to play to Jackson.The Bulls were behind a lot at the time, so Jackson didn't care what Collins wanted the team to play, abandoned Collins' tactics, only desperately emphasized defense, and let the players play at a pace they felt comfortable with on the offensive end.As a result, Jackson's method worked, and the Bulls completed the reversal and defeated their opponents.

The victory stung Collins, especially because Krause sat in the stands with his wife, Thelma Krause, next to Jackson's wife at the time, June Jackson. The three of them were filmed watching the game together, and then returned to Chicago, and the scene was played repeatedly on TV.Bringing up the incident years later, June Jackson also said that accepting the Krauses' invitation at the time was a "major political mistake."

Collins was outraged.It seemed to him like a conspiracy.The next day, he lividly accused Phil Jackson of undermining him and his coaching philosophy, siding with Krause and plotting against him.Soon, Collins, Krauss, and Jackson had a long but unpleasant meeting, after which the friendly relationship between Collins and Jackson disappeared.

A few weeks later, Jackson traveled to Miami to scout the Heat, but missed the game due to travel schedule issues.The next day, Krause called him and warned him seriously: Don't miss any games for the rest of the season.Clearly, something was about to happen.

The season ended unhappy.In the last 10 games of the regular season, the Bulls lost 8 games, and the results of 47 wins and 35 losses did not meet the management's expectations.After the end of the season, Collins was fired, Jackson took office, and Jordan ushered in his fourth head coach in the NBA.

In fact, for Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the 1988-1989 season was not a failure year, and Jordan did not gain nothing.In the regular season, the Bulls' performance regressed, but the playoffs are a new starting point. The sixth-ranked team in the Eastern Conference still has a chance to go very far.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Bulls' opponent was the Cavaliers again. In 1988, the Bulls were the No. 1989 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Cavaliers were the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference. When the two teams met in the first round, the Bulls had home court advantage.Now in 57, the status of the two sides reversed, the Cavaliers became the third in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls fell to the sixth in the Eastern Conference, and the home court advantage went to the Cavaliers.Besides, the Cavaliers are said to be third in the Eastern Conference. The real strength of the Cavaliers is still above the rankings. In the regular season, they won 25 more games than the Bulls. Their 5 wins and [-] losses are tied with the Lakers in the Western Conference, ranking second in the league. Second only to the Pistons, which belong to the same Central Division, but according to the NBA's ranking rules, the Knicks, the top of the Atlantic Division, automatically become the No. Entering the Eastern Conference playoffs, this was able to reunite with the Bulls.The Bulls did not win any of their six games against the Cavaliers in the regular season. Therefore, before the series started, no one believed that they could be upset. On the contrary, many people thought that the Cavaliers could sweep the Bulls.

That team of Cavaliers is really not easy to pinch. They have a neat lineup, with white point guard Mark Price and North Carolina No. 90 center Brad Doherty as the core, supplemented by Ron Harper, Larry Nance, Craig Illo, John Williams, each position has excellent players in their prime, so "Magic" Johnson boldly predicted that the Cavaliers will become the NBA's "king team in the [-]s" ".

Jordan was unwilling to accept the ending arranged by others. He later said: "If you accept other people's predictions, especially those negative predictions, you will never be able to change the result. I believe that no one can decide or stipulate what I want. The results of the games we played in. In Cleveland, no one on our team believed we were going to lose. We could make our own decisions. I’ve had that attitude ever since I was cut out from the varsity team in high school.”

The series kicked off, and the Bulls took the lead in the first game, winning 95-88 on the opponent's territory, which laid a solid foundation for the subsequent matchups. Jordan contributed 31 points and 11 assists in this campaign.In the second game, the Cavaliers pulled back a victory.In the third game in Chicago, Jordan scored 4+4 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds, leading the Bulls to victory again with a quasi-triple-double performance, 101 to 94.At that time, the first round of the NBA playoffs adopted a five-match three-win system, and the Bulls, with a total score of 2 to 1, had already held the match point.In the first three games, Jordan averaged 35 points and 10.3 assists per game.

(End of this chapter)