[At the All-Star game in 1985, when I had the opportunity to coach Ah Gan, I redefined the word "excellence" that was originally in my vocabulary. This is not some extravagant praise; when evaluating players, it is easy to use words like "great," "excellent," "incredible," as if they were flawless in their careers, invincible in battle.
But when readers get excited by these words and then learn about the players' lives and achievements, they often feel deceived upon discovering reality is not as perfect, suspecting this is just mutual flattery among insiders.
Ah Gan is different. As is well known, he created a storm in the NBA in his first season, which even compelled me as the Lakers coach to secretly devise an "Ah Gan rule" to restrict him, something most people were unaware of. I was worried that revealing this would expose the team's weaknesses, that we were so concerned and focused on a rookie.
