The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 436 The Long Revenge

"Every time Riley got angry in the past, it was carefully prepared; it was his way of motivating players," Magic Johnson said. "But in the 1987 Western Conference Finals, Riley lost control. He always loses control when he's facing Forrest Gump."

After the fourth game, he berated everyone in the locker room, saying they played like a pile of crap, couldn't defend, couldn't shoot, and allowed Forrest Gump to score under the basket.

In the past, when he did this, the players would feel ashamed and terrified, and someone would step up to take responsibility and build up their strength for the next game.

But this time is different.

Riley noticed that his players were expressionless and not listening to him at all; they no longer paid attention to his reprimands.

Riley turned around and vented his anger on the glass cabinet of the fire extinguishers, smashing the glass with his fist and cutting his hand on the shards.

Blood dripped from the cuff of his tailor-made Armani white shirt. Riley silently walked out of the locker room, closed the door, and only the team doctor followed him.

No one said a word. The Lakers players changed their clothes in silence and then returned to the team car to wait.

Twenty minutes later, Riley finally sat in his reserved front-row seat, his hands wrapped in thick bandages, and remained silent all the way back to Los Angeles.

“Nobody brings it up again,” Johnson said. “It’s a taboo subject. Otherwise, Riley would have to admit he had weaknesses too, and he didn’t want to do that.”

Four days later, the Trail Blazers eliminated the Lakers and advanced to the NBA Finals.

The Lakers' 1987 season has ended. They had a splendid run, achieving an impressive 64 wins and 18 losses. Magic Johnson's performance would have earned him the regular season MVP award in any other year.

But they ran into the Portland Trail Blazers and Forrest Gump. Gump's average of 38 points per game and 81 points in a single game were so impressive that Johnson fell out of favor, just like Larry Bird in 1986.

Magic Johnson remains his leader and a friend he can trust, but he can sense that Johnson no longer trusts his coaching abilities.

When Riley realized this, he knew his time with the Lakers was numbered.

Owner Jerry Buss quickly summoned Riley and told him that the best option was to remove him from his position as head coach.

It was a sincere meeting. Buss genuinely thanked Riley for his contributions to the Lakers and offered him a substantial sum of money as compensation for his dismissal.

Bass also agreed that Riley's resignation as Lakers head coach would be announced as a "mutual decision."

Riley was very unwilling. Johnson had just entered his prime, and in his opinion, the Lakers were definitely strong enough to win one or two more championship rings.

Unfortunately, just like the Lakers in the 60s with West and Alkin Baylor, they were incredibly talented but could never overcome the Celtics.

Forrest Gump and the suddenly rising Portland Trail Blazers were the Boston Celtics of the 80s.

Riley accepted the decision, and the first person he went to see was Magic Johnson.

The doorbell rang at Magic Johnson's house, and he was surprised to find Riley standing at his door.

“Little buck, I’m leaving,” Riley said. “People have stopped responding to me. It’s time for me to go.”

"Little Buck" was the nickname given to Magic Johnson when he first joined the Los Angeles Lakers. At that time, he was full of energy, always jumping around, with an innocent smile on his face, like a newborn fawn.

At this moment, Riley addressed Johnson as he had when they first met, concluding their final meeting as coach and player.

Tears welled up in both of their eyes.

For the next hour, Riley sat on the steps outside Magic Johnson's house, sobbing as he said goodbye.

Riley expressed deep regret over the separation, saying the Los Angeles Lakers have a bright future ahead and their journey is not over. Magic Johnson agreed with Riley's assessment, but he knew Riley's departure was inevitable; Riley had lost the support of the players, and even his relationship with Jerry West had been affected.

West is gripped by a deep fear of the Trail Blazers. He has Celtics PTSD, and now, seeing a new Bill Russell and the rise of the Celtics, West can no longer tolerate the team's continued losses to the Trail Blazers.

West believes Riley wasted the Lakers' roster talent, and his overly emotional coaching made the team lack resilience when facing Portland, plunging them into a black hole of negative emotions.

Riley believes that West did not prioritize building up the team's interior defense, failing to acquire Walton in 1986 and failing to trade for James Donaldson in 1987, thus ignoring the threat posed by Portland.

Many years later, however, they reconciled and admitted that there was nothing they could do at the time, and that Forrest Gump was ahead of his time.

On the day Pat Riley officially announced his resignation, Larry Bird felt a sadness that he couldn't explain.

Part of this stems from the bond between the two arch-rivals who met in the Finals for two consecutive years.

Another reason is that this bond began to disappear in 1986-1987 and will never return.

Three days after the Los Angeles Lakers lost the Western Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics lost a decisive Game 7 against the Detroit Pistons at Boston Garden.

This was a dirty, tiring, and physically and mentally exhausting series. The Pistons wore down the Boston team in seven games, wearing down Bird, McHale, and Parish.

Bill Laimbeer nearly killed Bird in the series, and after defeating the Celtics in Game 7, he triumphantly bowed to the fans in celebration.

The Celtics lost their chance to avenge their loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in the Finals—in fact, Bird knew that even if they made it to the Finals, they would be no match for the Blazers.

The Detroit team was ecstatic. Through a series of trades, drafts, and team building, they quickly rose to prominence, challenging the Celtics' reign in the East and winning the Eastern Conference championship.

Johnson and Bird both failed, being defeated one after another by new challengers, and their era is rapidly coming to an end.

But after this failure, their relationship became even closer.

After the 1984 and 1985 finals, Converse wanted them to collaborate on an advertisement.

The answer they received was "Don't even think about it," and both of them were unusually firm, regarding each other as enemies.

This defeat made them realize that such hatred was meaningless, and that the competition on the field would eventually end and the game would be over.

Johnson agreed to film the advertisement and went to Byrd's home in Indiana, where Byrd's mother and brother warmly welcomed him.

To Johnson's surprise, Bird's mother was a die-hard Isaiah Thomas fan, and she still loved Thomas even after the Pistons defeated her son in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Johnson realized that the hatred on the court wasn't that important; basketball was just basketball. He had a heart-to-heart talk with Bird and discovered that they had a lot in common and could get along well.

They became very good friends and began a long friendship.

After a brief rest, Pat Riley made an important decision in the summer of 1987—he was going to the South Coast to participate in the construction of the league's new team.

The person who invited him was Stu Inman, the former general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, who was accompanied by the Blazers' vice president of marketing, Erik Spoelstra.

Riley began his revenge against the Portland Trail Blazers—a long and arduous process.

—Excerpt from "When the Game Was Ours," edited by Jackie McMullen, published in 2003.

(End of this chapter)