Almighty Coach

The head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Gray, was one of the best coaches in the NBA. He was a tactical master and also had the wisdom that comes with age. During his tenure as the coach of the Spurs, he had led the team to the championship of the NBA. Some thought that he was the most accomplished head coach in the league.

In recent seasons, the Spurs had gotten a bit worse, but they still frequented the playoffs. This year, the team was ranked fifth in the Western Conference. The fourth-ranked team was only one game ahead of them.

Last night, the Spurs had beat a strong team in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers, in a home game. Their next game was an away game against the Clippers. Based on their schedule, the players flew to L.A. in the afternoon and were staying a night in L.A. to prepare for the game the next night.

Coach Gray held a roster and moved in front of the players. The Spurs players quieted down as they saw Coach Gray.

“I’m going to announce the starting lineup for tomorrow’s game against the Clippers. The starting players are…”

Gray called out five names but none of the names were the usual starting players. They were all substitutes.

The players looked around at each other, confused. Some players were annoyed, wondering if Coach Gray had Alzheimer.

Later, Coach Gray named the players who would be substitutes. Two of the team’s key players were not even included on that list.

An NBA team had 15 official spots. Apart from that, they also had two two-way contracts that were not counted towards the 15. Only 12 players could make an appearance in a game. Any other players on the team were not allowed to play in that game. They were put on the inactive player list. According to NBA rules, players on the inactive player list had to wear a suit if they were to watch the game besides their teammates.

The Spurs team had one injured player, so he was not playing. On top of that, Coach Gray put two key players in the inactive player list. This meant that, even though those two came to Los Angeles, they could only watch the game and show their support from the side of the court.

The two key players placed in the inactive player list looked at each other, confused. They knew that they hadn’t made any mistakes recently, so the coach was not punishing them. The coach must only have one objective, to let them rest for a match.

Finally, a player asked, “Coach, is this rotation?”

Coach Gray nodded. “You can treat this as rotation.”

“Coach, it’s only the end of March right now. Isn’t it a little early for a rotation? We normally only start to rotate the second half of April. The competition in the Western Conference is fierce this year. Right now, it’s not given that we’ll make it to the playoffs. The teams below us are close behind us, and we are only one win away from the team in fourth,” another player stated.

“Then you should treat this as me giving you a vacation.” Coach Gray looked at his disciples. He decided to explain, “To me, the toughest team to face right now in the league isn’t obvious. It isn’t the defending champions, Warriors, or the team with the best record, the Rockets. It’s not even the team with the league’s best player, the Cavaliers. It’s the L.A. Clippers. Do you know why?”

“Is it the overtimes?” Someone immediately asked.

Gray nodded. “That’s right. Those damn overtimes! I don’t know what the new head coach of theirs did to get the Clippers to play so many overtimes, but I don’t want you to follow suit. You all know that competition in the Western Conference is tough. I don’t want you to waste your energy and strength on the Clippers.”

Gray looked at everyone and continued. “If we were playing another weak team, perhaps you could play three-quarters of the game. When it comes to the Clippers, once you enter the game you might need to play two or three overtimes. We’ll be spending twice the energy than we’d normally be using against a weak team! Moreover, playing overtime will increase the risk of injury. I have no interest in losing any of you before the playoffs.”

“Coach, a lot of reporters said a few days ago that, because the Clippers keeps playing overtime, they will fall apart. Perhaps we can use this and keep shaving away at their energy. When they run out of steam, we can defeat them,” a player suggested.

Gray shook his head. “Don’t listen to that bullsh*t. If those sports commentators were that smart, they would be your coaches instead of me! If the Clippers were going to fall apart, then they would have done so long ago. Don’t forget who their head coach is! Dai Li might be the world’s greatest fitness specialist!”

A few players were unconvinced. They felt that Gray was exaggerating things.

Gray explained further. “You probably know Dai Li from the Olympics. He led the U.S. National Track and Field Team to their best performance ever. However, I heard his name way before the Olympics. I have an old friend who is a boxing coach, he’s named Ares. Some of you may have heard of the ‘White Devil’ Ares? Ares’ wife was in a coma due to an accident. The doctors believed that his wife would have to spend the rest of her life in bed. I visited his wife at the hospital.

“However, when I went to visit my friend again, I discovered that his wife could already stand and walk with a walking aid. That surprised me I had personally talked to the doctors. I knew how serious his wife’s condition was. It was supposedly impossible for her to stand up again, but a miracle happened.

“It was only later that I found out that it was a Chinese rehabilitation coach who helped Ares’ wife recover. That Chinese coach is now the head coach of the Clippers. I also know that Dai Li also trained Kevin Taylor and helped him recover.

“I’m sure you know the rest of the story. Taylor was over 30 years old and performing better than he did in his 20s. He also had better stamina than he had in his 20s.” Gray looked at a few of the players older than 30. He then said, “Some of you are over 30 years old, some are even 35. You know the physical difference between a 30-year-old and a 20-year-old. You must understand how impossible what Li did with Taylor is.”

The players who were over 30 nodded. All of them experienced it, so the knew what it was like.

“Dai Li made the impossible possible. In truth, after I saw Kevin Taylor’s match, I thought of getting Dai Li to be our fitness coach. That way, even you older guys would be able to be starters at 40.” Gray pointed towards the balding player who had been with him for more than a decade. As he teased him, he shook his head, “Unfortunately, he already has his own physical fitness training center. His revenue isn’t bad either. The only way to have gotten him to be on the Spurs would have been to off him my position.”

…

Los Angeles, Staples Center.

It was the L.A. Clippers against the San Antonio Spurs.

Before the game, Dai Li got a hold of the starting lineup of the Spurs.

“All five of their starters have changed. What are the Spurs trying to do? Are they rotating? Isn’t it a little early for that? Don’t people only start to rotate in the second half of April?” Dai Li said to himself. It looked like he was looking for the advice of those around him.

“I’m guessing that old fox, Gray, doesn’t want to play with us in overtime. The players on the Spurs are a bit older. If they played overtime, they would expend more energy and be more prone to injury,” Cassel explained.

“You’re saying the Spurs chickened out? They are avoiding overtime?” Dai Li asked.

“Ugh… I guess you could say that,” Cassel answered.

Interesting, Dai Li thought with a frown. He then asked, “If we’re only playing the substitutes, we should have a chance to win, right?”

“Our starting lineup should be stronger than the bench of Spurs. This time, Gray even put in some of the players who would normally never play. It shouldn’t be a problem for our starters to play against their subs,” Cassel said with a nod.

“Okay, then I understand. The Spurs brought us a giant gift.” A weird smile appeared on Dai Li’s face.

…

When Dai Li saw that Spurs decided to send out their substitutes against them, he decided there was no need to use “Evenly Matched” in this game. He just let the players do their thing.

Although the Clippers were a weak team, the starters were still starters. Players who could become starters in the NBA would still be a lot better than the players on the bench.

It was the same for players who could make to the rotational roster. They were definitely much better than the “water dispenser” type players who did not even normally play.

The match was just like Tianji’s horse race [1]. The Spurs were a strong team, but they sent out their middle-class and low-class horses. The Clippers were a weak team, but they sent out their high-class and middle-class horses. When the starters played against the starters, the high-class horses of the Clippers were going against the middle-class horses of Spurs. When the benches played each other, it was the middle-class horse of the Clippers against the low-class horse of Spurs. The result was obvious.

…

“Beep…” The digital bell signaled the end of the game.

Gray looked despondent. He intentionally hid his main force to avoid overtime and, in the end, there had been no overtime.

One of the most experienced and qualified head coaches in the NBA, Gray felt ashamed. Initially, he had wanted to play tricks to show off his skills as a tactical master. Looking at the result, it was clear that he had dug a hole and jumped into it.

“Where’s the overtime? They always going into overtime against strong teams. Where are those two to three overtimes? If I had known that there wasn’t going to be any overtime, I would have used my starters and secured the win…”

Endnotes

[1] Tianji was a general of the kingdom of Qi. He lost all his horse race bets against the king of Qi. His friend Sun Bin helped him think of a plan, which was to pair his weakest horse against the strongest horse of the king, to pair his strongest against the king’s middle horse, and to pair Tianji’s middle horse against the king’s weakest horse. With that plan, he defeated the king of Qi by 2 to 1.