The Lakers' crushing defeat in the season opener was like a warning shot, plunging contending teams across the league into unprecedented panic.
Zack's speed getting to the basket with his skill and talent was simply too fast.
After reviewing game footage, teams realized that when facing the Warriors, they were doomed to be like the Lakers: they had to find a way to force Zack into jump shots or make him give up the ball.
However, in this era, with the league having already implemented rules against hand-checking and strict prohibitions on body contact...
Teams, only able to offer limited interference when Zack shot, quickly witnessed the flaws in this defensive strategy.
The Warriors' second regular season opponent was the Denver Nuggets.
This game took place at Oracle Arena.
To stop Zack's rampant drives, Nuggets head coach George Karl specifically devised a strategy called the "Triangle Defense" before the game.
That is, once Zack attempted to break through from the perimeter, Kenyon Martin and Ben Wallace, responsible for guarding the two sides of the paint, would immediately team up with Chauncey Billups, who was near the free-throw line, to double-team him.
And in the game, Anthony, primarily responsible for guarding Zack, would employ a sag-off defense to prevent Zack from using him as a highway to the basket.
Karl's idea was beautiful.
But on the court, under Anthony's fervent prayers, Zack first transformed into a human shooting machine, going 11-of-19 from the field in the first half, including 4-of-9 from three-point range.
Then, facing the Nuggets' frantic double-teams, Zack dished out 9 assists in the first half with only 2 turnovers.
At halftime, Karl was interviewed by ESPN.
"You ask me which player is easiest to guard in this zone defense? Of course, Michael Jordan and the Messiah," Karl said with a look of despair. "Guarding other players, you need to make various adjustments based on their characteristics and offensive tactics. But against Michael and the Messiah, you can only pray that their shots don't go in."
After a pause, Karl didn't forget to add, "Compared to Michael back then, the Messiah is in an era where you can't pressure offensive players with high-intensity physical contact. I have no doubt he could score 50 points a game in this era."
Zack ultimately finished the game against the Nuggets with 42 points, 12 rebounds, 14 assists, 3 blocks, and 1 steal.
He didn't score 50 points as Karl predicted, not because his ability wasn't strong enough, but simply because he punched out early after playing only three quarters.
After the game, Anthony, feeling that Zack had even gone easy on him, said in an interview, "I prayed all night, but his response to me was 'swish, swish, swish.'"
After two games, the fear the GOAT instilled in people had undoubtedly escalated.
In November, the Orlando Magic, who challenged the Warriors on their home court, were highly anticipated by everyone.
Dwight Howard was currently in his career prime; theoretically, his defense could cover from the paint to the three-point line.
Stephen Jackson was a tough defender, and under Stan Van Gundy's tactical system, he would protect the Magic's perimeter defense on the wing.
Additionally, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu were two tall forwards.
Although they weren't as skilled at defense as Jackson, their excellent physical dimensions were enough to ensure they could put some pressure on Zack during help defense.
The Magic pulled out all the stops in that night's game.
But on the court, Jackson, responsible for guarding Zack, was the first to break down.
To avoid being easily pushed past by Zack, Jackson, knowing he lacked Zack's bulk, focused his defensive energy primarily on limiting Zack's catch-and-shoot opportunities and using a sag-off defense to gain survival space.
However...
"Typically, players of his height would demand the ball after posting up in the low block," Jackson said emotionally after the game. "But he can pull up high to catch the ball and attack you from miles away."
Moreover, similar to the Warriors' game against the Nuggets...
Jackson, only able to apply weak interference when Zack shot, found that every time he prayed, Zack's response was "swish, swish, swish."
Three-point shooting was indeed Zack's only current weakness.
But if you could only weakly interfere with Zack when he shot threes, how could you guarantee that you could effectively lower his three-point percentage?
A good perimeter shooting environment, on the contrary, allowed Zack to comfortably attempt three-pointers on the court.
And once Zack entered the three-point line, his steadily increasing long two-point shooting percentage, under the opponent's sag-off defense, would also inflict significant damage on the opponent's defense.
In the game, Jackson wasn't without trying to let Zack get into the paint and then double-team him with Howard.
But unlike LeBron James, whom the Magic could limit by sealing off the paint, when Jackson tried to let Zack, who was a full size larger than James, into the Magic's paint, Howard quickly fell into foul trouble and was forced off the court.
Jackson didn't want to say he was the one who harmed Howard.
But from the course of the game, he was indeed the culprit who caused Howard to only play 29 minutes and 58 seconds in this high-stakes game.
Final score, 109-127.
The Warriors opened with a long-awaited three-game winning streak, and Zack recorded "40+" triple-doubles in three consecutive games.
The GOAT's increasingly perfected skills after his recovery had already sent shivers down the spines of all the Warriors' opponents.
Nike, which had suffered a collapse last year due to Zack's season-ending injury, was secretly working at full throttle, attempting to further build Zack's GOAT image.
However, David Stern, noticing that Zack's strength had not diminished but increased after his major injury, promptly made the following adjustment to the increasingly unstoppable GOAT after the regular referee meeting in November:
Given the GOAT's incredibly headache-inducing ability to break down defenses, from now on, the GOAT's star whistle on the offensive end would be replaced by a reverse star whistle.
Furthermore, when defending the GOAT, except for flagrant fouls and overly obvious fouls, defensive players would no longer be required to adhere to the league's already abolished Hand-Check rule, and could, to a certain extent, apply higher-intensity defense to the GOAT through body contact.
Of course, as compensation, the GOAT's star whistle on the defensive end would still be retained.
In addition, all referees in the league would turn a blind eye to officiating when the GOAT was defending, ensuring that the GOAT could "vent" appropriately on the defensive end.
For Stern, who deeply understood the principle of balance in all things, this emergency update of his was undeniably crucial.
In November, the Warriors continued to play at home, welcoming their fourth regular season opponent—the Charlotte Bobcats.
This summer, Ron Artest, who re-signed with the Bobcats, proactively offered to guard Zack before the game.
As Zack's former teammate, Artest knew very well that Randolph, Okafor, and Biedrins were no match for Zack.
Although Artest himself wasn't confident he could limit Zack, as a true warrior, and having been completely "reformed" by Jordan to see himself as the Bobcats' leader (a nod to Sakuragi's transformation and loyalty to Shohoku, but with Artest's personality), Artest still took on the challenge without hesitation before the game started.
However, what confused Artest was that shortly after the game began, when he had to foul Zack due to a defensive lapse, the referee seemingly went blind, ignoring his foul on Zack's attempt to steal the ball.
So, Artest, who was already good at testing the referees' tolerance by hand-checking in games, gradually increased his defensive intensity on Zack.
"That's not a foul?" Artest wondered inwardly after a fierce body collision on the court.
"That's not a foul either?" In the paint, Artest, who was practically hanging on Zack's arm at the time, if not for experiencing it firsthand... He simply couldn't believe that the head referee officiating the game was Dan Crawford, who was usually on good terms with Zack.
In fact, shortly after the game against the Bobcats began, Zack fully felt the reverse star whistle he was "enjoying" on the offensive end.
And when Zack told Crawford, as he usually would, "Hey, Dan, remember you owe me a free throw," Zack noticed that Crawford would intentionally avoid him.
It proved that to form a truly meaningful "Zack Rule," the efforts of defensive players alone were definitely not enough.
But as this game, officiated by Crawford, was televised and showed NBA teams the treatment Zack was receiving on offense, with the regular season progressing, the "Zack Rule" was just a matter of time from being finalized.
Although in this game against the Bobcats, Zack still scored 34 points under the collective, united defense of his old teammate Artest and the Bobcats' players, it was unprecedented that Zack only got six free throws given the Bobcats' defensive intensity, which was comparable to the 90s.
"You won't hold this game against me, right?"
After the game, Artest looked at Zack, who had been elbowed and brutally collided with, and said tremblingly, "I don't know why the referees allowed me to use such rough defensive methods on you."
Zack, still immersed in the joy of leading the Warriors to a four-game winning streak, smiled faintly, "Ron, why would I be so petty? I told you, we're just not teammates anymore, but we can still be friends."
Seeing this, Artest breathed a slight sigh of relief.
But shortly after Artest left, Brown, who knew Zack best, said, "Boss, do you want me to tell management to reduce Ron's screen time in our championship documentary?"
"Who's Ron?" Zack, suddenly changing his expression and gritting his teeth while clutching his bruised chest, said, "Did we even have such a person when we won the championship back then?"
Hearing this, Brown nodded knowingly.
Indeed, even after becoming the GOAT, Zack was as petty as ever.
Of course, Zack was just joking with Brown and wouldn't actually ask team management to cut Artest's footage from the Warriors' championship documentary.
In November, after Stern's emergency update, the frequency of Zack's "40+" triple-doubles in games significantly decreased.
Although Zack hated Stern's unfair treatment more than anyone, Tim Grover's advice to him during his recovery to change his playing style, and the hard work he put into post-ups and mid-range jump shots, helped him adjust quickly.
In fact, Zack's recent scoring decline was mainly because he didn't want to overexert himself in the regular season.
And, as Zack gradually felt that the star whistle he enjoyed on defense was better than before, he quickly found his enjoyment on the court in tormenting the players he was responsible for guarding.
Kobe, who led the Lakers to challenge the Warriors in mid-November, saw his teammate Pau Gasol unfortunately become a victim.
In the game, as Pau Gasol was repeatedly knocked to the ground by Zack's fierce collisions, throughout the night, Gasol, who shot only 2-of-10 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line, only put up 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists.
And Zack?
Zack totaled 31 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 blocks, and 4 steals.
With the referees' tacit approval, Zack, who could freely use his physical gifts to bully opposing players, repeatedly stole the ball from Gasol on the court.
In this second matchup against the Lakers, it was precisely Zack's lockdown defense on Gasol that allowed the Warriors to effectively limit the Lakers' triangle offense.
Moreover, after this game, the Lakers, who lost again by a score of 106-118, couldn't even protest Zack's "atrocities" on the court after the game.
Because to protest, they first had to admit that they used various non-basketball means in the game to affect Zack's offense.
This was the brilliance of Stern's balancing act.
Stern simply didn't want to see Zack scoring too easily on the court.
But if Stern didn't give Zack some counter-measures, then even if the league didn't allow other teams to commit flagrant fouls on Zack, there would certainly be petty individuals attempting to violate the GOAT with malicious fouls.
Zack and the Warriors encountered the latest version of the "Zack Rule" in their late November game against the Celtics.
In this game, Alvin Gentry, who replaced "Pig Head" Rivers as the Celtics' head coach this summer, actively sent Al Horford to guard Zack. Unlike other teams, he didn't double-team Zack or force him to pass in the first three quarters.
"We can't let his teammates get easy catch-and-shoot opportunities in the first three quarters," Gentry told the Celtics before the game. "Even if he goes all out, it doesn't matter. We'll change our defensive setup in the fourth quarter."
Additionally, when Horford defended Zack, the Celtics provided ample support to Horford through overall team movement.
This allowed Horford, who initially lacked confidence in guarding Zack, to finally find the courage to stand tall and face Zack in his third professional season.
Although in the game, the GOAT still unstoppable scored 36 points in the first three quarters under Horford's high-intensity defense, in the fourth quarter, as the Celtics suddenly changed their strategy, frequently sending Duncan and Pierce to double-team the GOAT, the Warriors' other players' shooting percentages were noticeably lower than usual when they received passes from the GOAT.
On the court, the Celtics, constantly keeping the score close, battled the Warriors down to the final moments.
With 57 seconds left, the Celtics still led the Warriors by two points and had possession of the ball.
This was a defensive possession that could very well decide the outcome of the game.
Pierce, who was holding the ball on the wing for an isolation play, after faking out Wallace with a dribble, drove into the Warriors' paint like an old car.
But this strangely paced "old car" cleverly passed the ball to Duncan the moment he encountered Zack's help defense.
Fortunately, Zack's reaction speed, honed by his full commitment to defense during this period, successfully helped him block Duncan after a quick turn.
However, this block, which from every angle was not a foul, was called a foul by Joey Crawford, who would later need an eye exam.
Zack could not accept this call, which could very well change the course of the game.
And Joey Crawford?
In fact, the moment he blew his whistle, this Crawford was also annoyed.
Because it was a complete miscall.
Crawford knew very well that Zack's block could only be described as clean.
He had simply forgotten, due to consistently giving Duncan the star whistle earlier in the game, that the player who blocked Duncan on this possession was Zack.
In Crawford's opinion, not only was Zack's block not a foul, but even if it were a foul, as long as it wasn't too obvious, he shouldn't have blown the whistle.
But since the whistle had been blown, Crawford naturally had no choice but to play out his mistaken call.
Ultimately, with this highly controversial call, the Celtics became the first team to defeat the Warriors this season.
"Don't be upset, I know you didn't hit my hand," Duncan actively comforted his junior after the game, seeing Zack still fuming. "Joey's officiating is always so confusing. I don't like games he officiates either."
Hearing this, Zack discontentedly said, "It's one thing for him to allow you guys to play rough defense on me in the game, but how dare he help you steal a victory that was rightfully ours?"
Duncan understood Zack's personality and knew he was in a fit of pique, so he proactively changed the subject, "Speaking of which, it's my first time seeing you so anxious in a game."
Zack said, "If it were you, you'd be anxious too."
"Nah, I can't handle that kind of blow," Duncan shrugged. "Believe me, if it were me, I might just kneel down to Joey."
Zack didn't believe Duncan would kneel to Joey Crawford over a mere mistaken call.
After all, in his memory, even when Joey Crawford called a technical foul on him for smiling on the bench, Duncan had only shown a look of shock.
However, with Duncan saying that, Zack, whose mood immediately improved significantly, laughed, "If you really knelt to Joey, then I think it would become huge news throughout the league."
Duncan nodded, "Do you think people would describe that moment as a 'shocking kneel'?"
Zack nodded without hesitation, "Yes."
Duncan pondered, "Then, if I get the chance, I really want to try it. You know, since my divorce from my ex-wife, I haven't been in the headlines for a long time."
"..."
---
The "Zack Rule" sounds like a fascinating development in the league! It's clear David Stern is trying to keep things competitive, but it also highlights just how dominant Zack has become.
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