The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 124 High Lineup

Victory and defeat are common occurrences in war, but if you can win, why lose?

Someone has to win eventually, why can't it be me?

In this league, some players are destined to win and some to lose, but nobody likes to lose.

However, a dense and demanding schedule of competitions can easily lead to a habit of failure, which is very dangerous.

After the opening match on the 30th, Gan Guoyang got up early on the 31st and went to the airport with Gan Youwei.

After watching his son's home game opening match, Gan Youwei was going to return to San Francisco with Guo Hui and the others.

Gan Guoyang wanted his father to stay in Portland for a couple of days, but Gan Youwei said, "You're not even in Portland, what am I supposed to do here?"

Gan Guoyang couldn't refute this, because of the schedule, they had to play three away games in a row and wouldn't be able to return to Portland until the 5th of next month.

After saying goodbye and boarding different flights, Gan Guoyang and his teammates headed to Phoenix to prepare for their third game of the season.

That's the difficulty of professional sports. In order to play enough games and collect enough ticket revenue, the NBA has played more than 80 games a season since the 60s.

Later, it was fixed that each team would play 82 regular season games, which would take about 170 days to complete, averaging one game every two days.

Furthermore, due to transportation and home/away issues, back-to-back matches, three matches in four days, or four matches in five days are common scheduling arrangements.

In comparison, the schedule is much more relaxed in college, with regular season games usually played twice a week, in order to balance students' studies.

Occasionally, there are smaller tournaments with more intensive schedules, but they are all very short, lasting only two or three days.

Moreover, university games are divided into two halves, each lasting only 40 minutes, with no time limit for offense, so the physical exertion is much less.

An NBA game is 48 minutes long, and the 24-second shot clock forces players to run at full speed every game, resulting in physical exertion and wear and tear several times greater than during their college years.

NBA games are becoming more brutal, with more intense physical contact, especially among Eastern Conference teams. Gan Guoyang had not yet been treated roughly in the first two games.

However, as his reputation soared, his 41-point performance in the second home game, which caused a sensation in the NBA media across the United States, suggests that such treatment is not far off.

A series of away games is a huge test of the players' physical strength and willpower, especially since there are no chartered planes and they have to catch regular flights, sometimes they can't buy tickets and have to take red-eye flights.

In the 60s, Black players had to endure the pain of racial segregation. After playing away games, they could only rush to their next destination overnight. Their cars sped through the darkness, and no shop along the way was willing to provide food or lodging.

Conditions are much better now, but away games accommodations are definitely not as good as staying at home when playing at home. Gan Guoyang experienced this firsthand during his university years.

The plane arrived in Phoenix at noon. The game is tomorrow night. The hotel is in worse condition than in Kansas; there's no water to take a shower tonight.

Arizona is hotter and drier than Portland, and it feels very uncomfortable not having water to shower.

Hotels in the 80s didn't have fitness equipment. Fitness was just starting out, and aerobics programs broadcast on TV every day were just beginning to become popular.

The lack of a gym and showers made Gan Guoyang give up the idea of ​​exercising. Instead, he would do some stretching and yoga in his room to maintain his flexibility and muscle elasticity.

Gan Guoyang's flexibility is second to none among basketball players, which allows him to learn techniques faster and often makes moves that ordinary centers cannot make in games.

This was something Bellman suggested he do. He said that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar always did yoga, which is why his hook shot was so fluid and unstoppable, and it allowed him to stay in good shape throughout the long season.

The next day, during pre-game practice, Ramsey held a meeting to emphasize some key points regarding the game against the Suns.

He spoke for a while, and then Gan Guoyang asked, "Is there no videotape we can watch? The Suns' game tapes?"

Ramsey shook his head and said, "Sorry, the away games won't provide you with video recording equipment. I'll take it with me wherever I go when someone invents something more portable."

At home, teams have video screening rooms where they can watch footage of their opponents' games to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Being given a court to warm up on when playing away is already a good thing. Although there was no video recording, Ramsey emphasized many things during the game against the Suns, repeatedly writing them on the whiteboard to remind the players to play defense and stay focused.

"Our only good news is that Walter Davis is out injured, but we can't let that make us complacent. It's been months, and I still have a headache from getting angry about it," Ramsey emphasized at the end of the meeting.

Gan Guoyang didn't quite understand, so he asked Drexler, "Clyde, why is Jack talking so much today? Why is he so angry that he has a headache?"

Drexler looked at Gan Guoyang with a look of utter disbelief and said, "Don't you know that we lost to the Suns in the first round of last year's playoffs?"

Gan Guoyang was shocked and said, "We made the playoffs last year? We were a playoff team? Then how did we get the second overall pick?"

Drexler was speechless. "You don't care about your team's past at all?" he said. "Our second pick was obtained through a previous trade. Last season we were second in the West! But because of the division rules, we were third, and ended up losing 2-3 to the Suns in the first round."

"So that means I've joined a team that was second in the West last year. Doesn't that mean we can contend for the championship this season?"

Drexler rolled his eyes at Gan Guoyang, thinking to himself that this guy's blind confidence was even stronger than his own.

Don't you watch the NBA?

"Where can I watch it? Is there a live stream?"

Drexler had nothing to say; last year, the Trail Blazers didn't have a single game that was broadcast nationally.

Gan Guoyang studies and plays basketball in Spokane, so he rarely comes to Portland. Even if he did come, he couldn't get a ticket.

In fact, Drexler himself had never watched a Trail Blazers game when he was studying and playing basketball in Houston.

Back then, the NBA wasn't very popular, and television broadcasts were not very developed. It was common for a player to be selected for a team but know nothing about the team's history.

On the evening of November 1st, the Phoenix Suns' home arena, the Arizona Veterans Memorial Arena, was packed with over 14000 spectators, with an extremely high attendance rate, almost full.

In contrast to Kansas's indifference towards the Kings, Phoenix, like Portland, deeply loves their city's team.

The Suns have a glorious history here, reaching the NBA Finals and maintaining playoff competitiveness in the West since the 70s.

They have made the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons and reached the Western Conference Finals last season, only to fall short against the Lakers, whose roster was considered weak. They were just one step away from the NBA Finals.

After a wonderful and surprising season (they finished only sixth in the Western Conference last season), the Suns, while keeping their original roster, drafted Jay Humphries from the University of Colorado—the same USTC team that gave the Bulldogs their only loss on their long road trip to Gonzaga, and Humphries dominated Stockton in the game.

Gan Guoyang stepped onto the court and looked at the Suns' roster. He then understood why they were able to defeat the Trail Blazers; they were simply too tall.

中锋7尺1的爱德华兹，二中锋6尺9的阿尔万-亚当斯，大前锋6尺10的拉里-南斯，小前锋6尺7的阿尔文-斯科特，控球后卫6尺4的迈克尔-霍尔顿。

With their starting shooting guard Walter Davis out due to injury, the Suns' coach fielded a three-tall lineup without a shooting guard.

So it's no wonder that Stu Inman went to great lengths to draft a center, rejecting a host of talented perimeter players, including Jordan, and other gifted forwards.

The reason was that the lesson of losing to the Suns in the first round of the 84 playoffs was too painful. Lacking interior height, they were defeated in their first home game. Edwards went 10-for-14 in the first game, dominating in the paint, which put the Trail Blazers on the back foot for the entire series and ultimately led to an upset.

Before he went on the court, Jack Ramsey pulled Gan Guoyang aside and said, "Gan, you scored 41 points in the last game, which was great, but you're going to have some trouble tonight. The Suns are very tall, and the away environment isn't good either. You need to adjust your mindset. Offense, defense, rhythm—every game is different. You need to gradually understand it. This is your real opportunity to grow, not just running around all the time, understand?"

When Ramsey wasn't red-hot, he was a very kind and patient coach, and Gan Guoyang felt his care, just like Gan Youwei did last night.

He was afraid that facing a team like the Suns with their strong inside presence would dampen Gan Guoyang's confidence.

Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "Don't worry, Dr. Jack, I love playing against such high-caliber lineups. I'm confident."

(End of this chapter)