The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 127 The Touchstone

The fourth quarter was not garbage time; the home team, in order to live up to the fans' expectations, often launched a fierce counterattack in the final quarter.

Coach McLeod is quite flexible in his tactical adjustments. He knew in the first three quarters that he couldn't compete in the paint and couldn't get into physical battles, so he made good use of Messi and Humphries in the fourth quarter.

The Suns launched a counterattack, closing the gap again, with the difference once reduced to 4 points. Jack Ramsey called a timeout and angrily criticized the team's perimeter defense as a pile of crap.

Actually, if it weren't for Gan Guoyang, Ramsey wouldn't have complained that the perimeter defense was a pile of crap. It's just that with Gan Guoyang as a comparison, the perimeter defense really did look terrible.

The imbalance between inside and outside defense put Gan Guoyang under considerable defensive pressure in the paint. Fortunately, he had been used to it since high school and did not feel that his teammates were too bad.

He's coached even the worst teachers.

What he wants is the final victory in the game.

In crucial moments, Vandeweghe proved that although his defense is poor, his offense is reliable.

After the timeout, he received the ball on the outside, executed a clean and elegant "KiKi step," and hit a mid-range jump shot.

Offense is sometimes a mysterious thing; after a wave of attacks, what may follow is a series of missed shots.

This is related to the players' physical condition and changes in their shooting touch. The Suns were too far behind in the early game, and the aftereffects of being suppressed at the beginning of the game became apparent in the fourth quarter.

They fought desperately to launch a counter-attack, exhausting their energy and touch, but still fell behind. After the timeout, the opponent scored, and they were unable to score again.

If the inside players were tall enough, two offensive rebounds could have saved the day or even turned the tide, but Gan Guoyang's presence thwarted all attempts to grab offensive rebounds.

After securing consecutive defensive rebounds, Gan Guoyang assisted Paxson in a layup from the high post, followed by Vandeweghe's layup with a left-handed drive.

With a solid lead built up earlier, the players were more relaxed and at ease when it came to crucial moments, and the psychological pressure on them was much less.

As time went by, the Suns, without Walter Davis, lacked scoring explosiveness and failed to score in the final stages. Finally, with 2 minutes left, they trailed by 12 points and gave up the game.

Fans at Arizona Veterans Memorial Stadium began to leave, and the game slowly dragged on until the final minutes were up. Gan Guoyang was substituted by Scheffler.

He scored 33 points, grabbed 22 rebounds, and blocked 8 shots. In his first three games of his rookie season, he scored a total of 93 points, more than many other rookie stars such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Klay Thompson, and Chuck Hayes.

The only player taller than Gan Guoyang is Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 120 points in his first three games of his rookie season, beginning his career as a scoring machine.

After the game, in the Trail Blazers' locker room, Gan Guoyang was drenched in sweat. He took off his shirt and sat there to be interviewed by reporters.

Although he performed exceptionally well tonight, even stunning Phoenix, there was only one reporter and one photographer present; any more would have earned him a bonus.

A reporter from the Arizona Republic asked Gan Guoyang what his thoughts were on achieving such statistics and winning the game.

Gan Guoyang looked up at the pale white light on the ceiling and said, "It's nothing, the sun will rise as usual tomorrow."

"You've played three games in the NBA now, how does it feel?"

"Feelings? I feel a little lonely."

"Haven't made any friends? Is your professional life too boring?"

"No, it's just that we haven't found an opponent yet."

The reporter was writing furiously in his notebook, scribbling down materials, all of them!

After finishing the interview and taking a shower, the players boarded the bus and returned to the hotel, where they immediately went to sleep.

According to the league's traffic rules, a team must take the first flight the following morning to its next destination after playing an away game.

As for why, Gan Guoyang didn't know. Maybe capitalists just like to exploit workers, which leads to players often being sleep-deprived.

Gan Guoyang played for nearly 40 minutes tonight, which was very physically demanding. He only had four or five hours of sleep before he had to get up early to catch his flight and catch up on sleep at his next destination.

If you encounter a grueling schedule like back-to-back away games, you basically won't have a chance to rest after a good night's sleep, and you'll have to warm up and prepare for the game that night.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to maintain peak performance throughout the entire regular season and play outstandingly in every game.

When people are sleep-deprived, they are prone to feeling bad and even suicidal.

When Gan Guoyang boarded the plane in a daze on the morning of the 2nd, he really missed the days of playing basketball in college.

The competition schedule wasn't this intensive in college; we spent most of our time on campus, and everyone was very close.

The atmosphere within the Trail Blazers team is also very good. Although there is some open and covert competition, it has nothing to do with Gan Guoyang.

But colleagues are still colleagues; we play together for work and for the sake of the contract.

Today we're teammates fighting side by side, but tomorrow we might be traded to different teams and end up fighting each other.

Like Maurice Lucas, who was once a key contributor to the Trail Blazers' championship victory, after the game he hugged and shook hands with Coach Ramsey and Gan Guoyang, and patted Gan Guoyang's shoulder hard, which still hurts a little now.

But last season he defeated his former team, breaking through the Trail Blazers' interior defense and eliminating the second seed in the Western Conference in the first round.

Gan Guoyang's teammates could turn into opponents in the blink of an eye; no one knows what the future holds.

The plane landed in Los Angeles, and Gan Guoyang couldn't even remember how many times he had been to the City of Angels.

No one was in the mood to appreciate the scenery of California; once back at the hotel, everyone closed their room doors and went to sleep.

Gan Guoyang slept soundly until dinner time, fully recovered. He felt no soreness, had even worked up a sweat, took a shower, and felt incredibly refreshed.

Gan Guoyang is known as a bio-engineered human. His physical abilities and health are far beyond those of ordinary people. However, if there is any drawback, it is that he eats and sleeps a lot.

After all, it still has to conform to the laws of physics. His energy and recovery don't just appear out of thin air; they come from eating and sleeping.

Especially sleep; a full, high-quality sleep can help him recover quickly from fatigue.

However, if you don't sleep well, your condition will easily suffer.

I got up and went to dinner with Kossie, where we ran into Coach Ramsey and Rick Adelman.

Ramsey said he would treat Gan Guoyang to a nice dinner that night, so they went to a famous French restaurant in Inglewood.

Don't let this stubborn old man's temper fool you; he's quite stylish in his clothes, and I wonder how many outfits he packed in his suitcase for his away trip.

Tonight he wore a navy blue suit, a blue and pink open-collar shirt underneath, khaki plaid trousers, and brown pointed-toe calfskin shoes, a very 70s style.

Rick Adelman, on the other hand, was dressed in a lot of 80s style, a blue and white tracksuit and sneakers, which Ramsey criticized as being unstylish.

They didn't talk much about basketball at the dinner table; Ramsey and Adelman kept talking about accommodation, meals, dry cleaning of jerseys, and reimbursement.

Back then, the team had few staff members, and the coach had a lot to manage, essentially acting as a half-team leader, responsible for the players' food, clothing, accommodation, and various expenses along the way.

Ramsey joked, "I only act like a coach during training camp and the playoffs. During the regular season, I'm just a team leader and babysitter, responsible for feeding and drinking you guys and playing some games on the side."

Gan Guoyang took a bite of his steak and said, "That's true, you didn't really give much direction in yesterday's match."

"I made thorough preparations before the competition."

"I didn't hear you."

Gan Guoyang didn't listen much; he had his own strategy for the game.

The coach's instructions were more of a reference for him, and sometimes he felt that some of Ramsey's ideas were outdated.

Drexler and Vandeweghe share the same idea; they are both key players on the team.

No one would openly oppose Ramsey, after all, the old coach is highly respected and is indeed very good at managing training.

In actual competition, everyone has room to improvise and adjust according to the situation on the field; as the saying goes, "a general in the field may disobey the emperor's orders."

Last season, only Drexler did this; he often played freely during matches, which angered Ramsey and led to him being benched.

Now even talented players like Gan Guoyang and Vandeweghe are showing this trend, which makes Ramsey quite helpless.

Kexi ate his meal silently, not daring to utter a single extra word.

Ramsey did not refute Gan Guoyang; in fact, he did not coach much in these three games.

He still focused on observation, and he was more patient than in the 83 and 84 seasons.

Ramsey took a sip of red wine and asked, "Gan, if I build the system around you, are you confident you can shoulder that responsibility?"

Gan Guoyang frowned and said, "Jack, didn't you ever think about building a system around me? You should go and see Dr. Ogilvy."

"I've already seen it."

"..."

“What I mean is, I acknowledge your ability, but being a core member requires more than just ability; you also need to be able to keep others in check. You need to be a true leader, and you’re only 20 years old.”

Ramsey is right. In the NBA, skill is one aspect, but experience is also very important.

Many teams trade away their core stars in order to develop new stars.

Just like a pride of lions, a new lion king must be born, and the old lion king must be killed.

However, the Trail Blazers, as the second seed in the West, were fortunate to get the second overall pick. They will not enter a rebuilding phase, and Gan Guoyang is more like an reinforcement.

But as Ramsey continued mending, he realized that the patch was too big and it would be a complete waste not to use it to make a set of clothes.

Gan Guoyang thought for a moment and said, "The performance in the game will prove who the real leader is. Let's talk about this after we finish playing the Lakers."

Ramsey nodded, agreeing with Gan Guoyang's statement. He also didn't want to disrupt the good atmosphere within the Trail Blazers team for the sake of fighting for the core position.

Let's resolve basketball issues with basketball. If Gan Guoyang truly has the ability to overpower everyone, then everyone will support him.

Gan Guoyang now enjoys considerable prestige within the Trail Blazers, with veterans like Vandeweghe and Thompson showing him great respect.

In terms of game statistics alone, Vandeweghe is no worse than Gan Guoyang, with equally explosive performances of 47 points, 22 points, and 24 points.

In crucial moments, Vandeweghe's isolation plays are the Trail Blazers' most reliable scoring method.

Scoring is still the most important statistic on the basketball court.

Therefore, the game against the Lakers the day after tomorrow will be the best test to see who is the new king of Portland.

(End of this chapter)