The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 111 Curing the Coach's Low Blood Pressure

On July 28, 1984, the 23rd Olympic Games officially opened at Memorial Stadium in Los Angeles.

Gan Guoyang missed the opening ceremony because he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers, but the advanced sports broadcasting technology allowed him to watch the Chinese team's appearance at the Olympics on television.

Basketball player Wang Libin appeared at the stadium holding the national flag, marking the official debut of Chinese athletes in a major international competition.

American track and field star Larry Johnson lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony, and Gan Guoyang also flew from Portland to Los Angeles to watch the Olympic Games with Wang Fuxi.

On the morning of July 29, Gan Guoyang witnessed Xu Haifeng win China's first-ever Olympic gold medal at the shooting range, achieving a breakthrough for China in winning its first Olympic gold medal.

That same evening, the game that Gan Guoyang cared about most was the USA Men's Basketball Team vs. the China Men's Basketball Team. He knew that the China Men's Basketball Team was bound to lose, but he still gritted his teeth and went to watch the game with Wang Fuxi.

As expected, the US team crushed China 106-48, a massive 58-point victory. Jordan scored 21 points in the first game, leaving the Chinese guards with no chance to fight back.

After the game, the American players all looked for Gan Guoyang, but Gan Guoyang was too ashamed to face them, so he grabbed his girlfriend and left.

Fortunately, there were no cell phones in this era, otherwise Gan Guoyang would definitely have been bombarded with messages from the American team members.

After the game, China's head coach Qian Chenghai lamented the huge gap in strength between China and the United States. Unexpectedly, the US head coach Bob Knight took the initiative to come over and greet him, saying, "You should have recruited Forrest Gump into the national team. If you had done that, you would have lost by a little less."

The team's translator relayed Knight's words to Coach Qian. After listening, Coach Qian asked who Forrest Gump was. The translator then brought out various newspapers featuring Gan Guoyang and read them to Coach Qian.

When Qian Chenghai found out, he was very surprised and said, "So our country has such basketball talent. Why doesn't anyone in the country know about it?"

Tang Yizhou's previous feature article on Gan Guoyang didn't make much of a splash in China; it was condensed into a short news item, and most people didn't even know what the NCAA was.

The exchanges between high-level officials in China and the United States did not reach the outside world. Ultimately, basketball does not hold a high place in the hearts of Chinese people; it is just a sports game. In the process of opening up the country, people are more concerned about the food, clothing, and daily necessities of the capitalist world, as well as high technology.

After watching the match video provided by the translator, Qian Chenghai was shocked by Gan Guoyang's performance. He wanted to meet Gan Guoyang, but the translator told him that Gan Guoyang was now a professional player and could no longer represent the national team.

Despite feeling regretful, Coach Qian still kept this in mind. He managed to find the ambassador to the United States and left a domestic contact address, hoping to give it to Gan Guoyang in the future so that he could contact the national team.

In the following days, Gan Guoyang watched the games in Los Angeles and enjoyed a leisurely trip in the city with Wang Fuxi, relaxing well before the start of the new season.

The Americans won the Olympic men's basketball championship without any suspense. They won by an average of more than 30 points per game, and every game was a crushing victory.

The Chinese men's basketball team ultimately finished tenth, while the Chinese Olympic delegation won 15 gold medals, beginning China's decades-long journey to win Olympic gold medals.

On August 12, the Olympic Games officially closed. This Games, which was not favored beforehand, achieved unprecedented success. The role of live television broadcasts played an indispensable role in this success.

Starting with this edition, the Olympics, which loses money but gains publicity, became a coveted prize for countries around the world, with everyone vying to host it. This was because it not only brought prestige but also boosted the economy, promoted infrastructure development, and stimulated consumption.

After the Olympics, Gan Guoyang and Wang Fuxi left Los Angeles and returned to Portland, where he rented an apartment in Oswick Lake Hill Park.

Many of the Trail Blazers' veteran players live here because it's close to the team's training facility—the basketball arena at Portland Community College.

While the rest of the team was still on vacation, Gan Guoyang came to Portland first to adapt to life there, and Wang Fuxi accompanied him to buy furniture, appliances and various daily necessities.

Gan Youwei originally wanted to come to Portland with Gan Guoyang to take care of him, but the Gan family restaurant really couldn't do without him. Gan Guoyang also didn't want his father to come to Portland, a place he didn't know, and that he would have a hard time living alone.

Just a few days after settling in, Gan Youwei sent a large pile of dried fruit and candied fruit, all of which he had personally dried and soaked. On the phone, Gan Youwei said that he was worried that Gan Guoyang's training work was too hard, and if he missed home and his father, he could eat one of them to sweeten his heart.

Once you leave school and the university team, you'll have to take care of everything yourself, including food, accommodation, and transportation. Professional teams only care about your playing and training, and they pay your salary; they won't concern themselves with anything else.

Gan Guoyang reassured his father that he would take good care of himself. He and Wang Fuxi finally felt at home in Portland, which made them very excited. They spent time exploring downtown Portland and bought a lot of things. Gan Guoyang planned to buy property in downtown Portland in the future so that it would be convenient for him to play basketball at Memorial Stadium.

Gan Guoyang quickly built his own social network in Portland. Inman, Dr. Ogilvy and the management and coaching staff, Avia's sales director and a large group of sales managers and designers—if he wanted, he could be invited out to eat, drink and have fun almost every day, play golf and bowling, and participate in countless events and celebrations, all for a fee.

But Gan Guoyang still focused more on spending time with his girlfriend and training. On his first day back in Portland, he began physical training, running hard and long distances amidst the beautiful scenery of lakes and mountains. He loved the feeling of running.

He would go to Dr. Ogilvy's office three times a week to receive the doctor's "visual training," a set of spiritual training methods that mainly consisted of meditation and guided speech. It was similar to what Berman had done with the team, but Dr. Ogilvy was more professional and meticulous, and the video recordings made it even more effective.

After three weeks of this visualization training, Gan Guoyang felt his hook shot ability had improved further, mainly manifested in his ability to easily make a hook shot from about 20 feet, a distance that other players typically use for mid-range or long-range shots. Dr. Ogilvy was quite excited; he hadn't expected the visualization training to be so effective—but he would soon find that such rapid results were only seen in Gan Guoyang.

Of course, neither of them knew how much Gan Guoyang's improved Move Hook would drive Jack Ramsey crazy.

Because he was playing for the Olympic team and the All-Star team, Gan Guoyang missed the Trail Blazers' Summer League. However, in September, the Trail Blazers opened a rookie training camp at the Portland Community Gymnasium to provide training and competition resources for the rookies who joined the Trail Blazers this year.

The participants in the training camp include Gan Guoyang, Bernard Thompson (19th overall pick in the first round), Jerome Cauchy (22nd overall pick in the second round), Steve Colter (33rd overall pick in the second round), and Tom Schaeffler (117th overall pick in the seventh round).

In addition to the five of them, students from the Portland Community College, the University of Portland, and the Portland State University basketball teams also practiced with them.

The head coach of the training camp was assistant coach Rick Adelman, a coach who looked like a certain German leader and had a hoarse voice like a broken gong. He played for the Trail Blazers during his playing days and knew everything about the team.

Like Jack Ramsey, Adelman had some prejudice against Gan Guoyang before, but after only a few days of training camp, Adelman knew that Gan Guoyang was not on the same level as the others at all.

That makes sense. This guy has been dominating the US national team and NBA All-Star team. How could you rookies and college kids possibly be on the same level as him?

What surprised Adelman even more was that Gan Guoyang was very popular in the training camp. He became a core leader of the training camp in just one day, and he even demanded strict discipline from his teammates like a coach during training.

The premise is that Gan Guoyang sets even higher standards for himself.

Every day after training, Gan Guoyang would do extra training until the training hall closed at night.

His energy was astonishing, and his love for basketball impressed Adelman.

For some players, especially professional players, playing basketball is just a job. As time goes by, playing basketball gradually becomes tiring and painful.

Gan Guoyang remained in high spirits throughout the training camp. The longer he fought, the more excited he became, and when the battle became intense, he was practically radiant.

On the last day of training camp, after practice ended in the afternoon, Adelman announced the camp was closed and the next training camp would be in October, when the Trail Blazers would begin their preseason.

As a result, Cortés, Kossi, and others did not leave, but stayed to train with Gan Guoyang. It was the first time Adelman had ever seen such an inspiring player.

The two were worlds apart in comparison. Although Drexler was exceptionally talented, he was a slacker in training and was never late.

Gan Guoyang is always the first to arrive and the last to leave. He is always happy during training and can motivate others to participate as well.

Adelman reported these circumstances to head coach Jack Ramsey, who, upon learning of them, did not comment, only saying, "Let's see when training camp starts."

The Trail Blazers' management's main task in September was to re-sign star player Jim Paxson.

Gan Guoyang's rookie contract of $600,000 a year, totaling $4 million, makes it difficult for the Trail Blazers to renew his contract, because Paxson's contract last year was only $125,000.

With a rookie earning four million, Paxson naturally wanted a big contract; he was seeking a deal that would last at least five years and pay him five hundred thousand a year.

Because of Gan Guoyang's contract, the Trail Blazers' total salary has already exceeded the salary cap, leaving no room for further salary increases.

However, the Celtics faced a similar situation this summer when they re-signed Larry Bird, which forced the league to introduce the Bird Rule, allowing teams to re-sign veterans on the cap.

Paxson has played for the Trail Blazers for five years and is eligible for the Bird exception. Whether he can re-sign after the cap depends entirely on the Trail Blazers' willingness.

The two sides remained deadlocked until the start of the preseason training camp in early October, when no agreement was reached, and Paxson refused to participate in the preseason training camp.

On the first day of training camp, Ramsey arrived at the Portland Community College gymnasium early in the morning and saw Gan Guoyang already sweating profusely on the court.

It seems Adelman was right; this kid is not only never late, but he arrives early and trains very hard.

However, when Ramsey saw the training exercises Gan Guoyang was doing on the field, his blood pressure spiked.

What are you practicing, kid? You're seriously trying to do a hook shot from the three-point line!
I'm adding an extra chapter and asking for monthly votes! I don't think I've ever asked for monthly votes before. Enough rambling, the 1984-1985 season is about to officially begin.

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(End of this chapter)