The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 128 No Longer Lonely
During his meal with Jack Ramsey, Gan Guoyang was recognized by several people who came up to shake hands, chat, and give him their business cards.

Although Gan Guoyang didn't know them at all, out of politeness, he responded to each of them, listening to them introduce themselves, what they did, and how they knew Gan.

Ramsey, Adelman, and Kersey were all surprised by Gan Guoyang's fame in Los Angeles. In those days, there weren't many NBA players who were famous nationwide. You had to be a top-tier superstar, frequently appearing on magazine covers, with posters and advertisements everywhere.

Even a renowned coach like Ramsey only became a familiar face in Portland. When people saw Ramsey having dinner with someone, they would ask, "Who is that guy having dinner with Jack?"

Today, Los Angeles residents are probably wondering who that flashy old man and the two bodyguards in tracksuits who were having dinner with Forrest Gump are.

When asked why he was so famous in Los Angeles, Gan Guoyang simply said, "Because I've won enough here."

The three of them thought to themselves, "Wow, you're awesome."

Gan Guoyang did win a lot of games in Los Angeles, including the CIF Finals, the UCLA warm-up games, and the NCAA Western Conference games.

Basketball fans in Los Angeles, who were initially resistant and disliked Gan Guoyang, were gradually won over by his performance, and naturally, many people came to know him.

Also, thanks to television media, the CIF finals and the NCAA finals, the live television broadcasts allowed more people to see Gan Guoyang's face.

He has graced the cover of Sports Illustrated multiple times, and his unique and handsome Chinese features make him highly recognizable.

When the group was leaving after their meal, Ramsey was told that the bill had already been paid and that the other party had left a note that read: Welcome to Los Angeles.

The sign reads "Donald Sterling," and his phone number is next to it.

"Sterling? That name sounds familiar."

"It's the Clippers owner, that jerk. Is he having dinner here tonight too? He actually paid the bill, unbelievable..."

Ramsey looked annoyed when Sterling was mentioned, suggesting that the Clippers owner wasn't very popular.

The Trail Blazers' opponent tomorrow is the Clippers. I wonder if they want Gan Guoyang to go easy on them because he's been treated like a guest.

Ramsey crumpled up the note Sterling had left and threw it in the trash; he didn't want his players to have any connection with that guy.

"He's ruined Bill. Don't have anything to do with him. That guy's a jinx," Ramsey warned, fearing Gan Guoyang might feel indebted to him.

Gan Guoyang thought to himself, "You also contributed a lot to ruining Beal." However, in Gan Guoyang's memory, Sterling's reputation was indeed not very good, and the Clippers had always been the worst team among the worst teams.

On the evening of November 3, the Trail Blazers played the Los Angeles Clippers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The visits of the Trail Blazers and Forrest Gump certainly fueled the enthusiasm of Los Angeles fans to attend the games in person.

Normally, the attendance here is only seven or eight thousand people, but tonight it exceeded ten thousand.

Actually, the Clippers have a pretty good roster. They have MVP Bill Walton at center, championship guard Norm Nixon in the backcourt, rising shooting guard Derrick Smith this year, and former All-NBA First Team star Marquese Johnson on the wing. Walton's frontcourt partner is the 7-foot-2 James Donaldson.

Logically speaking, this lineup should be able to easily make it to the playoffs, or at least attract a lot of attention.

However, since the team moved to Los Angeles, it has failed to make any breakthroughs in its performance, the playoffs have remained a distant dream, and its popularity has faded.

The Clippers' problems aren't on the court, but more off the court, stemming from their unfortunate owner, Donald Sterling.

After Sterling bought the Clippers, he moved the team to Los Angeles, which was a brilliant move from a business perspective, as the large Los Angeles market provided a safety net for the team.

But Sterling's mind is on making money and marketing, not on properly managing the team's roster, and Sterling is an extremely stingy owner.

To save money, he arranged for the team's training facility to be located at a military base in Los Angeles, at 7:00 AM instead of the usual 9:00 AM.

Because the 7 o'clock time slot is very cheap or even free, but the changing rooms and showers are unavailable during this time; you can only change clothes in the toilet.

When a team flies to an away game, such as to Portland or Seattle, they could fly directly north and arrive quickly.

The Clippers' flights are different; they first fly to Kansas in the Midwest, and then transfer from Kansas to Portland or Seattle, making a huge detour.

The team has free coupons from the airline, even though this flight at least doubles the players' travel time.

Even after saving that money, Sterling was still not satisfied. He cut the team's entire budget to a very low level or even canceled it completely, including bills for medical care, travel, laundry, and all other types of expenses, delaying payment whenever possible and refusing to pay.

Then Sterling hired a legal team to fight these suppliers who owed him wages. Everyone knows how complicated the legal process is in the United States. He just dragged it out until these small suppliers couldn't take it anymore and decided to accept a lower settlement price. As a result, Sterling saved a lot of money.

This applies to both external and internal matters. Sterling is just as stingy when it comes to contracting players and staff. He drags his feet every time he talks to players about contracts, and in order to stir up conflict among players, he deliberately leaks specific details of the contract to players and staff, allowing them to exchange, discuss, and even argue privately.

In order to secure contracts, some players and staff had to deliberately curry favor with the boss, which gave Sterling control over the lives and deaths of players, coaches, and staff, allowing him to manipulate everyone at will.

Sterling made a fortune every year through these means, but doing so was devastating to the team's cohesion and fighting spirit. The Clippers were a selfish and terrible team from top to bottom. No one really cared about winning and had no shame in losing.

After the team achieved a record of 30 wins and 52 losses last season, the team's marketing team actually printed the number "30 wins" on cheap white T-shirts as team promotional items and souvenirs, distributing them to fans and players to wear during games and team events.

Sterling even used the T-shirt as a holiday gift for the team—while ordinary Chinese companies give out zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and mooncakes for holidays, the Clippers give out T-shirts with the great achievement of "30 wins" printed on them.

Any team with a modicum of sense and a modicum of concern for results would not produce such outrageous promotional souvenirs, and no fan would wear such a ridiculous T-shirt.

Gan Guoyang heard all of this from Bill Walton later in the future. The two became friends during the summer Olympics vs. All-Star game. This somewhat eccentric giant greatly admired Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang also liked this red-haired monster who loved music and had a free and open-minded personality.

Walton admires many players and has a keen eye for talent. He recommended Jordan to UCLA and strongly recommended Bird to the Trail Blazers, even if it meant waiting a year. While traveling and teaching in Europe, he also took a liking to 19-year-old Sabonis and tried his best to bring him to the NBA.

There might be an attraction between superstars of the same kind, but unfortunately neither UCLA nor the Trail Blazers listened to Walton's advice, otherwise the fate of both teams would have been different.

Sabonis did not come to the United States due to the political environment, but Walton's recommendation made the Trail Blazers take notice of this Lithuanian talent.

The Trail Blazers-Clippers game last night was lackluster. The Clippers have talent, and their players' abilities and experience are not in question, but they lacked the fighting spirit and cohesion to win on the court. Gan Guoyang could clearly feel the Clippers players' lack of desire to win when playing against them; their play was like clocking in for work, with normal offense and defense, and no real ups and downs.

Some of their plays and goals were quite exquisite, and some of their defense was also very good, but whenever it came down to the heat, the Clippers just couldn't keep up.

So the Clippers were able to keep pace with the Trail Blazers in the first and third quarters, but once they changed the rhythm and turned the tide in the second and fourth quarters, they were overwhelmed by the Trail Blazers' offensive surge and fell behind. They also lacked the will to catch up. Even if individual players had the will, the team couldn't form a cohesive unit, and it was all in vain against the united Trail Blazers.

Gan Guoyang performed as expected in this game, with 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks, playing only 27 minutes. Ramsey is reducing Gan Guoyang's playing time because they have a back-to-back game against the Lakers tomorrow.

The final score was 131-115, with the Trail Blazers easily defeating the Clippers by 16 points. The fans who couldn't come to the game were really wise.

At the end of the game, Walton and Gan Guoyang shook hands and hugged. Walton said he wanted to treat Gan Guoyang to dinner that night, and Gan Guoyang agreed.

And asked him, "Would you like to invite Dr. Jack along? Let him pay the bill."

Walton hesitated for a moment, then said, "No, we haven't really made up yet. I need some time."

Gan Guoyang understands Wharton's perspective. He said, "Yesterday I had dinner with Dr. Jack, and Sterling paid for it. Dr. Jack was very unhappy about it."

When Donald Sterling was mentioned, Bill Walton opened up and told Gan Guoyang about all the bad things this eccentric boss had done.

He also reminded Gan Guoyang: "Never play for Sterling again, unless he offers you a hundred million, then you can consider it."

Gan Guoyang thought to himself, "It's not that hard to get a hundred million in the future. Even if he gave me a billion, I wouldn't go."

The complaints about the boss actually brought the two closer, and Gan Guoyang could tell that Wharton had had enough of being there.

He suddenly wondered if this giant would ever want to return to Portland.
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During dinner, Wharton told Gan Guoyang a lot about Sterling's stinginess, which broadened Gan Guoyang's horizons.

In his mind, the Clippers were a perennial bad team; no matter what promising rookies or established stars went there, they would never make a name for themselves.

I initially thought it was because the team had a bad name or bad feng shui, but it turns out the team has such an unlucky owner.

According to Walton, ever since Sterling forcibly moved the Clippers to Los Angeles without the league's consent in 1981, the league has been trying to get rid of the owner, but has never succeeded.

Walton also deeply regretted not being able to keep the Clippers in his hometown of San Diego, thus letting down the expectations of his hometown fans.

It's clear that Walton is a very sentimental player.

He was full of resentment when talking about Sterling, but when he mentioned the Trail Blazers, he had nothing but good things to say.

He said Larry Weinberger was a good boss and Stu Inman was a very insightful general manager—though he seems to have changed a lot in the last two years.

When talking about Trail Blazers fans, Walton said they are the best and most passionate fans in the country.

He recalled many interesting things from the Trail Blazers' championship run, such as the fans flooding into the arena at the end of the game.

However, CBS, the television network responsible for the live broadcast, took its equipment and left the stadium to broadcast golf at a nearby golf course.

So many fans turned on their TVs expecting to see the Trail Blazers' championship celebration, only to be met with a static golf match, infuriating many TV subscribers who called CBS to complain.

After hearing this, Gan Guoyang thought to himself, "So American TV stations do this too." He recalled that a basketball game on a domestic TV station was playing perfectly fine, but before the game was over, the live broadcast signal changed to dragon boat races and marathons.

Wharton talked a lot, and Gan Guoyang was a very good listener. He was exceptionally patient, never interrupting or cutting in, and only occasionally asking questions.

Gan Guoyang understood a principle when he was very young: if you want others to listen to you, you must first learn to listen to others.

When he was the leader of the children at the orphanage, the children would talk to him about anything because he listened more patiently than the aunties.

Walton didn't speak to Tiramchi at all. The two greeted each other and shook hands at the end of the game, indicating that their relationship was improving, but it wasn't time for them to completely let go of their grudges.

Gan Guoyang didn't mention Dr. Jack, but instead asked Walton how he should defend against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Upon hearing this question, Walton frowned and shook his head, saying, "Difficult, extremely difficult, almost an impossible task."

In 1977, Walton led the Trail Blazers to a 4-0 sweep of the Lakers, but that was a team victory, not Walton's individual victory over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“A few years ago, I could use a 3/4 back-to-the-back move to force him to turn to the right and prevent him from turning to the left to hook with his right hand. But in the last two years, this move has become less effective. His right-turn attack is now almost the same as his left-turn attack.”

Walton mentioned a common tactic used to defend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: forcing him to turn right. When Abdul-Jabbar turns right, he can only use his left hand or a turnaround jump shot, which are relatively inefficient offensive methods for him.

Once Kareem Abdul-Jabbar turns to the left and unleashes a right-handed skyhook, whether it goes in or not depends on his touch.

But as Walton said, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn't waste his years; he has been constantly improving himself.

After suffering setbacks against Walton and Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar focused on improving his right-hand turnaround offense, and it is no longer a weakness for him.

"Perhaps you should learn from Thurmond. Defending against Jabbar is a systematic project, a battle of both mind and body. You have to completely overwhelm him in terms of momentum, otherwise you will be destroyed by him."

Gan Guoyang recalled Thurmond's guidance to him; he had indeed mentioned that the confrontation with Jabbar was a war.

This unparalleled genius at the center position has been a formidable obstacle for all interior players since he entered the league in 1969.

Although he is 37 years old this year, he is still the Lakers' most reliable scorer and the most difficult giant to defend in the league.

"How are you feeling? Tomorrow we're facing the Lakers and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Are you nervous?" Walton asked, noticing Gan Guoyang's somewhat absent-minded expression. He assumed Gan was nervous about the upcoming high-profile game.

Gan Guoyang shook his head and said, "No, I'm not nervous. On the contrary, I'm very excited because I shouldn't be lonely tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)