The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 144 Don't Hit People
The Portland Trail Blazers' November 1984 "Eastern Expedition" sent shivers down the spines of teams in New York and the Great Lakes region. It wasn't because the Blazers were on a winning streak—in fact, they had lost several games—but because Forrest Gump frequently charged at opponents, his football-like strength and impact terrifying. The playing style of the 1980s wasn't as violent as in the 1970s, and Kermit Washington's punch served as a wake-up call for the entire league. Those cunning big men were better at using dirty tricks and subtle, dirty defensive moves to gain an advantage, but Forrest Gump knocked them to pieces.

The reason, it's said, was that before the game, Mitchell Thompson told him that the Eastern Conference played a very tough style of basketball and warned him to be careful. Forrest Gump replied, "I might as well just run them over." Just like in the 1984 NCAA National Championship game between Gonzaga and Duke, when Forrest learned that Duke played dirty, he decided that regardless of how dirty they played, they would get dirty first. This preemptive action logic permeated his basketball career.

—Excerpt from "Forrest Gump," a biography of Gan Guoyang written by Wu Zhixiong and published in 2025.

David Stern flipped through the newspaper in his hand:
The New York Post, sports section headline: "Forrest Gump's game in New Jersey drew 20149 spectators—the first 100% attendance since the 1982-1983 season."

The report's subheading read: "Although he knocked Gominski away, it wasn't intentional, and fans' love for him remains undiminished."

The report described the conflict that occurred during the match, in which Gominski repeatedly used dirty tricks to interfere with Gan Guoyang during defense.

During one of his attempts to draw an offensive foul, he was knocked out of bounds by the powerful impact of Gan Guoyang, and stumbled, hitting his mouth and losing a tooth.

Gan Guoyang was not ejected, which the referee considered an accident, but still called an offensive foul on him.

Stern knew this. There were a lot of Chinese and Asian people in New York and New Jersey. When Gan Guoyang came to compete, almost the entire city of yellow-skinned and black-haired people came out, which was more than enough to fill a stadium with 20000 people.

The same thing happened two days later at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks, and the stadium was packed again. This was the only game where Gan Guoyang didn't cause any collisions.

His good friend Bernard King was absent due to injury and watched the game from the sidelines. The Trail Blazers won, and the two sides played very harmoniously.

In a post-game interview with New York Today, Bernard King praised Forrest Gump, saying, "He's the best player who combines entertainment and practicality. Fans love watching him play and don't get bored just because he's a center, because he learned his offensive skills from me."

The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 24, sports section, headline: "Moses Malone draws blood, thanks to Forrest Gump, his aggression has surpassed Bruce Lee's."

However, in its specific reporting, the Inquiry Daily did not criticize Gan Guoyang extensively. His confrontation with Ma Long was full of sparks, and the atmosphere on the court was completely stirred up.

The bloodshed and conflict brought the confrontation to its climax, and the photo of Gan Guoyang picking up Chix and throwing him onto the technical table became the front page of the day—the Inquiry Daily saw a surge in sales that day.

Afterwards, Ma Long examined the wound and found that it was just a broken skin and no bone was injured. With a little treatment, he could continue to participate in training and competitions.

Of course, the Trail Blazers lost the game, but the Philadelphia fans felt they had watched a good show and won, so they were quite satisfied.

Newsweek provided follow-up coverage of the match, and Moses Malone praised Gan Guoyang's bravery in the game.

Ma Long, who is usually very quiet and reserved in front of the media, specifically told reporters, "He earned respect through his actions, the respect of the players."

The report also said that after the game, many players called Gan to express their admiration and appreciation for his courage in confronting Moses.

The report delves further into the "inner world" and "outer world" of the NBA at the end. The inner world is the world of the players, while the outer world is the world seen and described by the media and fans.

The author says that some players may be very successful in the real world, but they may not get real respect in the underworld. The rules in the underworld are purer, more barbaric, and more animalistic.

The Detroit Free Press reported on November 26th, yesterday, that the game between the Trail Blazers and the Pistons made the front page of the entire newspaper.

The headline photo shows Gan Guoyang lunging forward and slamming Bill Lambiel, leaving Lambiel dazed and unable to get up for a long time.

The Liberty Times' headline was also concise and powerful: "No Violence!"
This is the only newspaper Stern has seen so far that criticizes Gan Guoyang's violent behavior.

But for some reason, Stern found it somewhat amusing that the Detroiters were making that sound.

It was this conflict that brought Gan Guoyang's "violent behavior" to the forefront, requiring Stern to take action.

Pistons owner Bill Davidson personally called to address Forrest Gump's on-court wrestling behavior.

However, judging from the previous public opinion, there was no unified condemnation of Gan Guoyang's violent behavior; some even praised it. Larry Fleischer tapped the table and said, "Put down the Detroit newspapers and see how Chicago and Cleveland are reporting it, how much they're looking forward to the Trail Blazers playing. Suspension? Do you know that tickets for the Chicago Bulls vs. Portland Trail Blazers game have been scalped for $200 each? That's Chicago. You've been to the Forum Arena, right? It's huge and dirty. Who the hell wants to watch a game there? But if the players are Jordan and Forrest Gump, nobody would object."

Stern then looked through the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Chicago Tribune that Fleischer had brought. They were overjoyed by Gan Guoyang's act of throwing Lambiel, which fully demonstrated the humanitarian spirit of helping those in need.

The Plain Dealer’s headline was very honest: “Lambille’s funeral was held at the Silver Dome Centre, presided over by Sonny Gan, with 32127 people in attendance.”

The Pistons' home arena, the Silver Dome, is a converted multi-purpose stadium with a maximum capacity of 60,000 people, and up to 30,000 people attend basketball games.

When playing against strong opponents like the Celtics or 76ers at home, the number of players can reach more than 30,000. If it is just an ordinary opponent, the number is usually 15,000, and for weak teams with no gimmicks, the number is less than 10,000.

The presence of Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers, along with previous promotional efforts, brought the home attendance to a season high for this game.

"Boston and Philadelphia only draw around 30,000 people when they come to Detroit for games, but the Trail Blazers can get 32,000 people in attendance. That's double the box office appeal of Jordan!"

"But as far as I know, people in Detroit hate Asians, and many of them buy tickets to come in just to hurl insults."

"Of course I know, because of the Toyota thing, but Forrest Gump's mother is Chinese!"

In June 1982, two unemployed Detroit auto workers mistook Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, for a Japanese man and took their anger at losing their jobs at him, beating him to death with baseball bats.

However, the two perpetrators received lenient sentences, with the appeals court rejecting their 25-year prison terms. This angered Chinese communities, who launched large-scale protests, but to little avail due to their limited influence.

Two years later, the negative impact of this incident on the Chinese community has not disappeared. Detroit residents continue to hold grudges because the Japanese cars' market entry led to the decline of the Motor City's status.

The conflict then erupted on the court. After being booed and hurled at Detroit fans all game, and after Bill Laimbeer constantly harassed him with dirty tricks and bad defense, Gan Guoyang seized an opportunity and decisively took a shot, using a standard takedown to slam Laimbeer to the ground near the baseline.

Once captured and thrown to the ground, Lambiel had no chance to resist or struggle; everything happened quickly and suddenly.

After the slam, no one on the Pistons side dared to stand up for Laimbeer, because everyone was worried that Laimbeer might be dead.

He lay motionless on the ground, his eyes rolled back. The team doctor came to check on him, and Lambiel slowly woke up, but couldn't get up.

Gan Guoyang shouted from the side, "You fucking didn't die, did you? I have a hand to show you how many times I hit your neck, and the floor is soft!"

Even under these circumstances, no Pistons player dared to go up and do anything.

If two people are pulling each other's clothes and throwing punches, others might step in to help or pretend to pull them apart.

They lifted a 6-foot-11-inch man into the air and slammed him down. The scene was so shocking that no one wanted to do it a second time.

Gan Guoyang was ejected from the game for this action, but none of the fans in the stadium dared to throw anything at him or yell at him; this guy really knows his stuff.

The Trail Blazers lost the game as a result, and Bill Laimbeer was examined after the game and found to be fine.

Just as Gan Guoyang said, he knew what he was doing, and the floor was soft; he was just stunned by the fall.

After the game, Gan Guoyang refused to apologize to Lambiel, saying that the entire city of Detroit should apologize to the Chinese people for mistaking them for Japanese.

When Lambiel regained consciousness and was interviewed, he only said one sentence: "Don't hit people."

(End of this chapter)