The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 112 Beating
The last person to make such an easy hook shot from the three-point line like Gan Guoyang, and even have a video recording of it, was Wilt Chamberlain.

To demonstrate his amazing upper body strength, he performed a long-distance hook hand gesture in front of the camera.

Of course, Chamberlain only used this tactic in training; he couldn't use it in a real game.

If he had that ability during the game, his free throw percentage wouldn't have been so low; he could have just hooked the ball directly from the free throw line.

Gan Guoyang practices his three-point hook shot not so that he can use it in games, but to improve the stability and feel of his hook shot.

In intense games, there's basically no time to aim or think before shooting or hooking; it all relies on muscle memory built up over time.

As per Dr. Ogilvy's instructions, Gan Guoyang was to conduct visual training while simultaneously reinforcing muscle memory during the training.

The close-range hook shot from the McCann training method was no longer enough for Gan Guoyang to improve his feel for the ball; he wanted to expand the range and develop better distance control.

When Gan Guoyang made a long-range hook shot, Jack Ramsey, seeing this, was so angry that his blood pressure soared, and he couldn't help but yell, "Gan, what are you doing!"

Gan Guoyang ran to the basket, picked up the ball, and said, "I was training the coach. You're here really early, only two hours later than me."

Today is the first day of training camp, and Ramsey arrived early enough. He didn't expect that Gan Guoyang had already been training for two hours.

Ramsey felt both angry and helpless. He felt quite pleased with his own child getting up at five o'clock to read, but then he saw that the child was reading "100,000 Whys".

"Excessive training is not necessarily a good thing. Rest is just as important as training. And it has to be reasonable and scientific training, not just haphazard training!" Ramsey said seriously.

"This is a training program that I developed in collaboration with Dr. Ogilvy. It can effectively improve my control over the hook and expand my sweet spot."

As he spoke, Gan Guoyang ran to the three-point line with the ball and this time used a left-handed hook shot. The ball drew a high arc and hit the rim but did not go in.

"My left hand is still not good enough," Gan Guoyang muttered to himself.

Ramsey didn't know what to say. At that distance, to be able to hook the ball so easily and with such good accuracy is extremely difficult.

For most players, let alone making a shot, being able to throw the ball near the basket with a standard hook shot is considered a sign of strong upper body strength and good body coordination.

Gan Guoyang displayed remarkable ease and grace; the ball seemed small and light in his hands, and the basket appeared closer.

But Ramsey was already unhappy when the player shot a three-pointer, a hook shot from beyond the three-point line? Ramsey didn't know how to criticize him for a moment.

"Never mind, I'll give him a nudge when he makes a mistake during training."

Ramsey decided to take the opportunity to give Gan Guoyang a talking-to when training officially started, and to correct his "bad habits".

Ramsey still has high expectations for Gan Guoyang and the new season, and Gan Guoyang's defense is what Ramsey is most satisfied with.

On the offensive end, Ramsey felt that Gan Guoyang played too "fancy," using too many techniques in a scattered manner, and that his playmaking and passing abilities needed further improvement.

Compared to Drexler, Gan Guoyang's excellent shooting satisfied Ramsey, but Ramsey also believed that Gan Guoyang's excellent shooting ability could easily lead to "reckless shots".

After watching Gan Guoyang's game footage from his college and high school days, Ramsey believes that Gan Guoyang takes too many sudden shots from long range. Although his shooting percentage is good, it is detrimental to the team's offense.

Playing against the same opponents repeatedly in college or high school is fine, but in the NBA, it's easy to be targeted.

However, Ramsey did not consider how lacking in offensive power Gan Guoyang's high school and college teams, Waterbell and Bulldog, were, and how much pressure Gan Guoyang was under from ball possession, sometimes leaving him no choice but to "take reckless shots".

When playing against NBA All-Stars and the US Olympic team, Gan Guoyang's scoring pressure dropped significantly, and he reduced his long-range shots, focusing most of his energy on defense and support.

Around nine o'clock in the morning, the Trail Blazers coaching staff, personnel, and players arrived one after another at the Portland Community College gymnasium, officially starting the team's 1984-1985 season.

When Ramsey began blowing the whistle to line up the players, address them, and assign the day's training tasks, Drexler arrived late, carrying his sports bag, and went to the locker room to change into his training clothes.

"Hurry up, Clyde! It's the first day of training, and I don't want to yell at you!" Ramsey yelled into the locker room, though he didn't look like he didn't want to be angry.

Five minutes later, Drexler came onto the field, where the players were already warming up under the direction of Ramsey and Adelman.

“Add fifty shuttle runs,” Ramsey told Drexler as punishment for his lateness.

Drexler didn't care; fifty shuttle runs were a piece of cake for him.

While everyone else finished warming up and started tactical training, Drexler was still doing shuttle runs on the sidelines.

This year, the Trail Blazers welcomed many new players. They not only had five rookies (out of 12 draft picks, they kept 5), but also completed a shocking trade before the June draft.

The Trail Blazers traded Fat Lever, Wayne Cooper, and Calvin Knight to the Nuggets in exchange for star forward Kiki Vandeweghe.

Last season, Vandeweghe averaged 29.4 points per game for the Nuggets, making him one of the league's best scorers.

Of course, the Nuggets' defense was notoriously poor; they practically abandoned defense, focusing entirely on offense, averaging 123 points per game, the highest in the league. In the 1981 season, the Nuggets averaged 126 points per game, setting an NBA record for the highest team average points per game, a record that remained unbroken for decades to come.

On December 4, 1983, in a game between the Nuggets and the Pistons, both teams went all out to score. After three overtimes, the score was tied at 186-184, with a combined total of 370 points, setting a new single-game scoring record.

These statistics suggest that Vandeweghe's 29.4 points may be inflated. His effectiveness within the Portland Trail Blazers' system will depend on Ramsey's deployment and his own adaptation.

As an old-school college coach, Jack Ramsey places particular emphasis on tactical fundamentals, with basic tactical coordination being the main focus of training on the first morning of the training camp.

He conducted group drills on pick-and-roll, positioning, passing, switching, screens, high and low post passing, and so on, assessing the players' tactical awareness while training.

Throughout the training session, Ramsey maintained a high level of energy, constantly blowing his whistle, yelling at the players, and correcting their mistakes.

College basketball differs significantly from professional basketball. Colleges allow zone defense, which limits offensive options.

Although Bellman had Stockton and Gan Guoyang memorize hundreds of tactical routines in Gonzaga, they could only actually use about a dozen of them in the game.

Because there's no other way to break a zone defense, you just have to keep moving the ball around, looking for open shots on the perimeter, and then fighting hard for the rebound under the basket.

The NBA does not allow zone defense and early double-teaming because it does not want the game to become too similar and monotonous. The mandatory one-on-one defense gives the offensive team more possibilities, allowing various tactical combinations to be used and enabling players to bring out their individual scoring abilities.

Ramsey divided the rookies into a group and began to instruct them on some of the Trail Blazers' unique tactical plays, and told them tactical codes, such as "duck in" and "pin down." When Ramsey called out these codes, the players had to follow the instructions to complete the movement and play.

Kossie, Cort, and others practiced for more than ten minutes, but they were completely confused. These positioning maneuvers were much more complicated than what they had practiced in college.

"Don't rush, there are more than two hundred sets of such tactics in the manual. You can take your time to look at them when you get back after training." Ramsey's words made Kossie and the others feel overwhelmed.

Gan Guoyang remained calm. He had been practicing these tactics repeatedly with Bellman since high school, and even more so in college. Many of them were variations of the same set of tactics.

After mastering the basics, the so-called two hundred tactics were probably only a dozen or so in his mind. The rest were just a dozen or so variations. The situation on the field is ever-changing, and there are variations within variations.

While the other newcomers were still confused and extremely nervous, Gan Guoyang was already running wherever Ramsey instructed, and could also direct his teammates.

"Jerome, go to the bottom corner!"

"Cort, get to the top of the arc, that's where I'm standing."

"Bernard, move! You've rebelled! You've rebelled!"

Under Gan Guoyang's command, everyone stumbled through Ramsey's training program.

As time went on, everyone became more and more skilled, and Ramsey grew increasingly anxious: Why doesn't this kid make any mistakes!

Ramsey had no chance to train Gan Guoyang at all; his tactical positioning and understanding were quite perfect, and he could even make changes based on his understanding.

After the group tactical training session, Gan Guoyang joked with Ramsey, "Dr. Jack, I should get a third of your coaching salary. I've contributed!"

During a break in training, while everyone was resting, Adelman chatted with Ramsey, saying, "How about it? Isn't Forrest Gump great? His tactical skills are very high."

Ramsey snorted but didn't say anything, saying, "Let's talk about it after the team scrimmage this afternoon."

At noon, everyone went to find a place to eat, and Gan Guoyang treated the other four newlyweds to a meal at a nearby restaurant.

During the previous new recruit training camp, he covered all the food expenses for everyone, which shows how generous he is.

Gan Guoyang quickly became the leader of this group of newcomers, and at the dinner table, everyone discussed Ramsey's complex tactics.

Jerome Koch is worried about his future, saying, "I probably won't play many games under Dr. Jack. I didn't play this complicatedly in college."

Gan Guoyang reassured everyone not to worry, and said that as long as you grasp some basic principles of tactical positioning, you can still execute tactics even without having a tactical map in your mind.

"Have you seen that on the Discovery Channel? There are huge schools of small fish in the ocean. When they gather together, they almost act as a single entity, effectively avoiding attacks from larger fish. How do you think they do it? Do they communicate tactically beforehand? Of course not. They just focus on the fish around them. If the fish around them make a move, they follow suit. Basketball tactics are similar. Sometimes, don't overthink it. Just watch your teammates and opponents nearby. If I run towards the inside, you'll definitely have to go to the corner. If I pull out, someone will have to go towards the basket. Stay focused, follow instructions, and you won't make any big mistakes."

Koch, Cortés, and others nodded in agreement, finding Gan Guoyang's words very insightful.

In the afternoon, Jack Ramsey had the players change into different colored training uniforms so he could conduct intra-squad scrimmages.

Stu Inman and owner Larry Weinberg also arrived at the training ground. Inman frowned when he saw the group assignments: "Jack, putting five rookies against Vandeweghe, Thompson, and Drexler? Isn't that... too unbalanced?"

Ramsey said, "So what? The US national team is made up of college students, and they still play against the NBA All-Star team and win so many games."

Inman knew that Ramsey probably wanted to test Gan Guoyang's abilities and give him a warning, so he didn't say anything more, only saying: "At three o'clock, the media will come to interview for the new season, and there will also be a ceremony to launch Gan and Qiqi's new jerseys. Please leave some time, Dr. Jack."

"That depends on how well they play and when they'll finish."

(End of this chapter)