The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 116 Kill Him

On October 26th, Gan Guoyang got up very early in the morning, made some simple breakfast in the kitchen, ate one portion himself, left one portion on the table, and then wrote a note and placed it on his bedside table.

Wang Fuxi was still fast asleep when sunlight crept in through the gaps in the curtains, and strands of her hair clung to her snow-white face. Gan Guoyang gently kissed her soft, smooth skin, and his nose caught a sweet, cloying fragrance.

His mood improved considerably, easing the tension he felt about starting his first NBA regular season game the next day.

As they spent more time together, their feelings for each other deepened. Gan Guoyang liked the faint, sweet scent on Wang Fuxi's body; it was a natural fragrance.

After Gonzaga College and later when he came to Portland to play basketball, many women of all kinds tried to surround Gan Guoyang, most of whom were white and black girls.

Among them were many women with outstanding looks and excellent figures, but Gan Guoyang had no interest in any of them and politely refused to keep his distance.

One reason is that he is very devoted to his relationship and doesn't want to be distracted, which would prevent him from fully engaging in his normal life and work.

Secondly, the smell of white and black people was really strong, and Gan Guoyang couldn't stand it.

Playing with teammates is fine; we're all men, sweaty and drenched in sweat, and the excitement of the game keeps us focused, so we don't notice these things.

But if you're on a date with a woman, and the atmosphere is ambiguous, but then you get close and there's a certain smell wafting over, who could stand that?

Even if they use strong perfume to cover it up, they will still smell after taking a shower and taking off their clothes.

Chen Xing said he once dated a white girl with a strong body odor. She was very pretty, but in the summer, when she sweated, she smelled like sheep droppings mixed with onions and a little gutter oil, cooked in a pot.

Not to mention that when you get close to a white man, you can see a thick layer of downy hair that can be scraped off with a knife, just like having a full beard.

Putting aside emotional and cultural exchanges, Gan Guoyang simply doesn't like European and American women physiologically. He prefers his own girlfriend, who is smooth, fair, and silky.

On the way to the airport, Gan Guoyang was still thinking about some romantic scenes. It wasn't until he boarded the plane that he snapped out of it and they took a flight to Kansas.

Back in 1984, NBA teams weren't wealthy enough to buy their own planes for team travel; they all used public transportation.

Usually, people travel by plane or bus. Back in the 50s, some even took the train, but a heavy snowstorm blocked the roads, causing them to stop halfway and miss the race.

The biggest problem for players on regular flights is that the seats are too small. If they can get a first-class ticket, that's fine, but most of the time they can only get an economy class ticket.

Tall centers like Gan Guoyang have to hunch over and sit in their chairs, unable to stretch out even if they want to, as their heads will hit the ceiling.

Unless you can sit in the cockpit like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, where there is enough space.

On the plane, Gan Guoyang was recognized by passengers, including the beautiful flight attendants who all asked him for autographs.

Gan Guoyang's fame stems from his record-breaking performance in the NCAA championship and his distinctive Eastern features.

Even from an American perspective, Gan Guoyang is very handsome, and has the dashing male lead face of Hollywood's golden age in the 30s and 40s.

One of the reasons why the NBA is not very popular among the American middle class is that there are too many black people in the league, and the management of players, from their outward appearance to their inner temperament, is not good.

In addition, the live broadcast technology at that time was terrible, and the TV screen showed clumps of color, giving the impression that it was a dark and dirty league, not as simple and clean as baseball.

Almost every few minutes, someone would run up to Gan Guoyang asking for an autograph, and Gan Guoyang would smile and oblige them, signing his name on notebooks, albums, and magazine covers.

After getting off the plane, everyone complained, "We're all here to get Forrest Gump's autograph! He's never even played a single official NBA game! We're all less famous than him combined!"

"Let's just go back and let Forrest Gump compete in Kansas. He alone can surpass all of our combined popularity!"

Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "It's okay. I can just pull four people off the bus and blow the head off the King of Kansas."

These words silenced everyone. They still vividly remembered how he led four rookies to a game-winning shot against the starters on the first day of training camp. This guy might actually be able to do it.

After settling into the hotel, Gan Guoyang will face the Kansas City Kings in his first professional match tomorrow, October 27th.

Jordan's first game in his career is tonight, when the Bulls will host the Washington Bullets.

Because the Bulls' games are not broadcast nationwide, and the number of NBA regular season games broadcast each year is pitifully small, only a few dozen, Gan Guoyang was unable to witness how many points Jordan scored in his first game.

At noon, Gan Guoyang used the hotel phone to call Charles Barkley's pager—the guy bought one with his first paycheck and even gave the number to a friend.

Barkley will be playing in tonight's game, and Gan Guoyang wants to have a chat with him.

He and Barkley still keep in touch quite often, calling each other frequently, but each call is very short.

They chatted briefly, cracked a few jokes, and then hung up—a fleeting, superficial exchange to maintain a sense of connection.

The two agreed to go to each other's cities for a competition and make sure to eat something delicious.

A while later, Barkley called, and Gan Guoyang picked up the receiver.

"Charles, are you eating a hamburger?"

"Bullshit, it's the season now, I've already started dieting!"

"Play Jordan tonight, give it your all and try to crush him."

"Did you two make a bet?"

Barkley knows Jordan and Gan Guoyang very well. These two guys often made bets during training camp, betting on anything, no matter how small.

These two days are Jordan and Gan Guoyang's first game, it would be strange if they didn't gamble.

"That's right, let's bet on who scores higher."

"I want half!"

"We didn't gamble."

"What's the point? Why did you call me? You're interrupting my meal..."

With that, Barkley hung up the phone, but Gan Guoyang had achieved his goal.

He thought that even if Barkley wasn't helping him, he would definitely give it his all in his first NBA game against Jordan. As Gan Guoyang predicted, Barkley played very hard in the first game, facing off against Jordan in front of 13000 spectators at the Chicago Arena.

Jordan gave it his all, scoring 18 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, dishing out 7 assists, and recording a whopping 5 blocks—including two blocks against Barkley.

巴克利砍下了15分6个篮板和3次助攻，华盛顿子弹在客场100:109输给了公牛。

After the game, Gan Guoyang mocked Barkley, saying he didn't get as many rebounds as Jordan. Barkley retorted that he had less playing time!

"You also got blocked by Michael twice."

"I...I will definitely find it back in the future."

18 points is not a particularly big challenge for Gan Guoyang.

But Gan Guoyang knew that his goal in the first game was to help the team win, not to beat Jordan.

The bet between the two was just a small diversion in the otherwise dull game schedule; he wouldn't deliberately try to score more points in order to beat Jordan.

On the evening of October 27th, at Kenpa Arena in Kansas, the opening game of the 1984-1985 season took place.

This rather uniquely shaped stadium attracted more than 14000 spectators tonight, with an attendance rate of over 70%, which was quite good at the time.

After all, the Kansas City Kings have moved around to many cities since the 50s, but they still have difficulty establishing a stable foothold in Kansas, the basketball capital. Most of the basketball fans here are die-hard fans of the Kansas Jays, and no one wants to come to watch the Kings with their poor record.

In an effort to enhance and expand its market influence, the Kings also established a second home stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, but ended up pleasing neither side.

There are hardly any people in Nebraska, who has time to watch basketball?

The attendance tonight was good, thanks in part to the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang even visited Kansas during a road trip when I was in college.

Wearing the Trail Blazers' red and black No. 11 jersey and Avia's red and black sneakers, Gan Guoyang's style on the court is completely different.

In the dimly lit stadium at the time, Gan Guoyang stood out like a beacon of light among the group of black players, drawing everyone's attention.

Ramsey put Gan Guoyang in the starting lineup, with Mitchell Thompson at power forward, Vandeweghe at small forward, Jim Paxson at shooting guard, and Valentine at point guard.

A well-rounded roster with reasonable age and ability, with Drexler sitting on the bench as the sixth man.

If there's any problem with this starting lineup, it's that the forward-guard combination of Vandeweghe and Paxson is too weak defensively.

The two white perimeter players are very offensively potent, but their defensive abilities and attitude are not very good.

If the NBA allowed zone defense, their weaknesses would be greatly reduced, but since the NBA only allows man-to-man defense, problems arise.

Jack Ramsey certainly knows this problem, but he also knows that there is no perfect team, and everyone is playing to their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses.

Gan Guoyang stood at center circle for the jump ball, facing Lars Thompson, a 6-foot-10 center with a very strong build.

A few minutes later, Lars Thompson, like many centers who were facing Gan Guoyang for the first time, exclaimed, "How can this guy be so strong?"

This is similar to the players who faced Jordan for the first time, thinking, "How is this kid so fast?"

The two sides engaged in an offensive battle from the start. Due to the 24-second shot clock, the pace of NBA games is much faster than that of NCAA games.

Starting in the mid-1970s, the average points per game in the NBA rose year by year, eventually fluctuating around 110 points.

Last season, he averaged 110.1 points per game in the league. With very few three-pointers used, he scored 110 points in a single game by shooting two-pointers at a time during multiple fast breaks.

Gan Guoyang ran back and forth with Valentine, Paxson, Vandeweghe and others for several rounds, and had already grabbed several rebounds.

Lars Thompson is a rebounding expert, but when Gan Guoyang firmly guards the basket, he simply can't get the rebound.

With the defensive rebounds secured, the Trail Blazers' offense is worry-free. Vandeweghe and Paxson can confidently charge forward without having to stay inside the free-throw line to fight for defensive rebounds.

In the first five minutes, both teams fired off a barrage of shots. When the Kings called a timeout, the score was only 15-12, with the Trail Blazers leading by 3 points.

The shooting percentages of both teams were really poor, one at 40% and the other at just over 30%. Gan Guoyang had already grabbed 6 rebounds, including 2 offensive rebounds.

"If you guys keep playing like this, I'm going to get 40 rebounds tonight!" Gan Guoyang reminded the team from the bench.

In fact, although the Trail Blazers' offense was fast, it was not rough; on the contrary, their tactics were very well-organized.

Valentine is a very solid playmaker, and Vandeweghe and Paxson, as white players, have excellent tactical awareness.

Thompson played in college for many years and was considered a reliable center by coaches.

Gan Guoyang goes without saying. Despite his constant cursing and fancy tricks during training, when it comes to actual competition, he plays with more discipline than anyone else.

Ramsey praised Gan Guoyang, saying that his screens at the top of the key were textbook examples, solid and perfect screens, better than most centers in the league today.

Unfortunately, his teammates failed to capitalize on the opportunity, missing their shots and failing to widen the score gap.

Ramsey encouraged the players to shoot more boldly and run faster, saying, "Find your offensive rhythm in the first quarter."

At the start of the season, the players' task is not only to win, but also to find their form and get their bodies into the game.

The NBA season is very long, with ups and downs, and a good start can make the rest of the season much smoother.

"Gan, do you want to rest for a while?" Ramsey asked Gan Guoyang, who was drinking water.

"Rest? You're so good to me. If I keep playing under your tutelage, I can play until I'm fifty."

"Stop talking nonsense and get on the field. Their shooting percentage is terrible, can't you do it yourself?"

Ramsey expressed his dissatisfaction with Gan Guoyang for not attacking the ball himself after grabbing two offensive rebounds, but instead passing to his teammates.

Of course, he was just saying it; he knew that Gan Guoyang was trying to help his teammates get back into form.

(End of this chapter)