The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 152 The Best Basketball Game
At the end of the third quarter, both Gan Guoyang and Jordan rested on the bench to recover their energy and prepare for the final push in the fourth quarter.

The Trail Blazers' key players were quite fatigued; players like Vandeweghe, Paxson, and Thompson could feel their legs getting heavy.

Vandeweghe's two step-back shots were both too short, which is a sign of insufficient stamina. Paxson's cuts and movement were not as active as in the first half.

Ramsey understood the players' situation, and at the start of the fourth quarter, he kept Drexler, Korsey, and Cort on the court, pairing them with Gan Guoyang and Kenny Carr in the paint.

When Raheem saw Gan Guoyang come on, he naturally substituted Jordan in as well. The young man had plenty of energy and should play as much as possible. Moreover, the Bulls were behind and couldn't afford to be without Jordan on the court.

These two are destined to play the entire fourth quarter; there won't be a single minute of rest for them.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Gan Guoyang received the ball, turned and shot, but missed. Jordan grabbed the rebound and launched a counterattack.

Jordan no longer used the rhythm of the game to direct and drive the team's offense like he did in the second and third quarters.

He took the ball and drove straight in from the outside, outmaneuvering Drexler. After dodging Gan Guoyang's help defense in mid-air, he shot and made the layup!

After releasing the ball, Jordan was almost tilted in the air, showing obvious hang time, dodging Gan Guoyang's blocking hand, and threw the ball towards the basket.

Not only did the ball go in, but Jordan also landed steadily, only using his hands to brace himself on the ground before turning and running back to the backcourt.

"Damn it..." Gan Guoyang cursed inwardly as he went to serve from the baseline.

He had his eye on Jordan from the start, and his positioning and rebounding were flawless.

Other players would either get blocked or miss their shots, but Jordan could stay in the air for a moment, dodge, and then shoot again.

It went in.

Gan Guoyang called for the ball in the low post, and he firmly marked the defender, Kaulzin.

Cort passed the ball to Gan Guoyang, who received it and immediately turned outwards.

A fake shot fooled Jordan, who came over to help defend.

Gan Guoyang gathered the ball, dribbled along the baseline, and then dunked it in!

"I won't make the same mistake twice, Mike!"

After scoring, Gan Guoyang shouted at Jordan, having already noticed Jordan sneaking towards him.

Gan Guoyang's back-to-the-basket offense is very distinctive; he doesn't like to position himself to receive the ball and then dribble inside.

Such an attack is not only clumsy, but once you gather the ball and make a shooting motion, your follow-up is blocked.

You can no longer dribble; once you're double-teamed, you can only pass the ball or force a shot.

He likes to establish a strong position, and after receiving the ball, he immediately turns and attacks without hesitation.

If he is double-teamed, receives help defense, or if the opponent's defense makes a bigger mistake, he can still get the ball and make subsequent attacking moves.

Jordan and Gan Guoyang are exactly the same in this respect. As long as they receive the ball with their backs to the basket when they are close enough to the basket, they rarely make any extra movements to dribble and squeeze in.

The purpose of dribbling and squeezing in is to get closer to the basket, so why go to unnecessary trouble?

Jordan immediately called for the ball in the low post, received the pass from his teammate, and turned to shoot.

As soon as he turned around, Gan Guoyang's big hand reached out again. At this time, Jordan was not yet good at using the fadeaway shot.

He paused in mid-air again, dodged, and finally pushed the ball towards the basket with one hand, scoring off the backboard.

The atmosphere at Chicago Stadium was incredibly intense, both physically and mentally.

Jordan's dodge shot only added fuel to the fire; he not only made the shot but also drew a defensive foul from Drexler.

He managed to score on two consecutive shots that were almost blocked thanks to his physical abilities, not only dodging the defense but also managing to score.

The moment the referee blew the whistle, the fans in the stadium erupted like oil poured into a pan, with many holding their heads in disbelief.

Drexler was frustrated and wanted to argue with the referee, but Gan Guoyang pulled him back and said, "Play the game well, Clyde."

Seeing Gan Guoyang's gaze and recalling his own embarrassment facing Jordan that night, Drexler gave up arguing with the referee.

Jordan made the free throw and completed a three-point play, bringing the Bulls even closer to the score.

Jordan did not respond to Gan Guoyang's taunts earlier, and he did not argue with Gan Guoyang this time either.

His eyes and gaze were firm; his heart and body were fully focused on the competition.

Gan Guoyang also began to calm down. He gradually stopped focusing on Jordan and stopped keeping his eyes on Jordan when defending.

Jordan was just a part of the Bulls; the team he needed to defeat wasn't Jordan, but the Bulls.

Defeating the Bulls would essentially mean defeating Jordan.

Jordan thought so too.

The two young men began to throw themselves into the final duel with the utmost passion and fervor.

Although they have a deeper understanding of the game than their peers, they also possess excellent insight and strategy.

But they were only 20 years old, young men who could eat a whole cow in one meal and plow three acres of land in one night.

Their playing styles are still in their early stages. When they get to the point where they're really fighting, they all bring out their most original, pure, and impactful methods, influencing the game on both offense and defense.

Tonight's game wasn't broadcast nationally, but the long tables on both sides of the Chicago Stadium were filled with radio and television commentators, as well as reporters from various newspapers.

They used their on-site commentary and their pens to depict this amazing duel.

Jim Durham began providing live commentary for the Chicago Bulls in 1973, transmitting his observations of the games to sports fans across Illinois via radio waves.

Back then, the Chicago Bulls' head coach was Dick Motta, the core players were Bob Love and Jerry Sloan, and there was also a relatively unknown point guard named Rick Adelman.

With Jordan joining the Bulls, Durham's commentary became increasingly passionate, reaching its peak in the fourth quarter of the game.

"Michael's breakthrough! He drove into the Trail Blazers' basket, dodged two defenders in mid-air, and made the layup! Wow! No one can stop him! Michael, Michael Jordan!"

"But the Bulls can't afford to be careless. Portland's counterattack came quickly... God, Sonny Gan is like a tiger. He received a pass from Drexler, smashed through two defenders, and made a layup, drawing a foul and getting to the free-throw line... This guy is like a truck, who can stop him?" "Gan missed the free throw, but he rushed to the basket, grabbed the offensive rebound, passed it to Drexler, and Drexler soared up for a dunk! Four points in one possession, the Chicago Bulls are in trouble."

"It still has to be Michael. Michael accelerated his breakthrough, and Gan blocked his shot... No... Wow... It still went in..."

Radio listeners were puzzled: was the ball blocked or scored?
Everything happened so fast that Durham didn't even realize what was going on. Jordan's layup attempt was indeed blocked by Gan Guoyang.

But the ball didn't leave his hands; Jordan threw it out again before it hit the ground. The ball grazed the backboard and bounced into the basket.

The fans at the stadium had lost count of how many times Jordan had done this in the fourth quarter: dodging, pausing, and pulling up in the air, even after being blocked, he could still shoot the ball and make it.

It was only then that people truly understood why Jordan's shoes were called Air Jordan, because he really was an aerial man.

But can a superhuman fly over skyscrapers?
Jordan put on a superhuman performance, but when you look at the score, it's 115-109, still a difference of 6 points, unchanged from the start of the fourth quarter.

Gan Guoyang's offensive rebounds, much like Jordan's hovering in the air, always give him another chance to attack.

Jones, Cauldin, and Steve Johnson felt like they were about to be crushed by Gan Guoyang. His judgment of the ball's landing point, his fierce attacks, and his rapid speed made the Bulls' interior defense look like a group of demented patients.

Jordan personally went into the fight to protect the backcourt rebound, but was knocked away by Gan Guoyang and fell heavily to the ground.

The referee didn't blow the whistle. Gan Guoyang received the ball and drove to the basket, scoring a layup against two Bulls players. Both players avoided him, not daring to go up and defend him.

After getting up, Jordan didn't complain to the referee, but instead yelled at his teammates, "Why didn't you defend? Why didn't you block him? Just let him drive to the basket like that?"

Jones said helplessly, "If we go up to defend, we'll only commit another foul; he's too strong."

Jordan shook his head helplessly. Jones was right. Gan Guoyang was an unstoppable finishing machine under the basket.

As a center, he didn't compete with Jordan in ball-handling and offense, but instead created opportunities to attack the basket through cooperation with his teammates.

Pick and roll, fast break, receiving the ball and attacking the paint, and grabbing an offensive rebound and attacking the basket directly.

Gan Guoyang had better teammates. He didn't need to control the ball or worry about having no one to handle it. All he had to do was finish the ball. Drexler finally came to his senses in the final stages, constantly supporting Gan Guoyang with passes.

In the final moments, Gan Guoyang clearly possessed a skillful hook shot and a swift turnaround jumper, but he didn't use them. Instead, like a savage Mount Tai, he led the game into a bloody slaughterhouse.

Apart from Michael Jordan, no one else could adapt to this high-speed, high-intensity, and high-impact game, and the Bulls' interior players were complaining bitterly.

They discovered that the best way to deal with Gan Guoyang was to foul him; this yellow-skinned number 11 had a magical power that made people deeply frustrated and drawn into his life.

With each of his attacks, you are knocked away again and again. You thought you were one of the strongest people in the world, but in the face of his force, you feel as powerless as a patient.

What's even more frustrating is that you don't know when it will end; his energy and noise are endless, and the competition has entered a suffocatingly heated atmosphere.

You might think: This isn't how the game should be. I fucking don't want this to go on. I'm going to bring him down.

Jones only felt this way when facing Moses Malone; he was extremely frustrated and could only vent his frustration by committing fouls.

Moses is averaging 11 free throw attempts per game this season, compared to 523 of his 727 free throw attempts last season.

In contrast, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar averaged only 4.9 free throw attempts per game, and he never made more than 8 free throw attempts after joining the Lakers.

Jones knew that if Forrest continued playing like this, surpassing Moses would be a piece of cake, given his free throw percentage.

Jones was no longer willing to contribute to Gan Guoyang's free throws; by the end of the fourth quarter, he had already committed five fouls and was about to be ejected.

But when Gan Guoyang grabbed the offensive rebound over Jones' head for the seventh time, Jones finally couldn't take it anymore; he didn't want to continue like this.

He pushed Gan Guoyang as he was going for a layup, but Gan Guoyang was not knocked down. He just staggered and managed to put the ball into the basket.

The referee's sharp whistle rang out again in the Chicago stadium, and the fans in the arena covered their heads and complained. At that moment, they were all thinking, why don't we have a superstar center to stop this number 11?

"This is Sonny Gan's twelfth offensive rebound of the game, and his twenty-sixth overall. He has shattered the Bulls' interior defense, and Michael is working hard to piece those pieces back together to create a complete team."

When Gan Guoyang made a three-pointer, the score was 120-113, with the Trail Blazers still maintaining a 7-point advantage.

This was a fatal offensive rebound, and a fatal blow.

With less than a minute left in the game, Jordan's efforts to score 21 points in the fourth quarter and a total of 53 points were destined to be in vain.

Jordan was already exhausted, but in the fourth quarter he was like a fearless warrior, using incredible aerial maneuvers to help the Bulls catch up and try to turn the tide.

But Gan Guoyang's 18 points in the fourth quarter, 50 points in total, 12 offensive rebounds, and 27 rebounds in total left Jordan's brilliant performance with only regret.

Jordan didn't give up in the final moments, but he was really tired. He tried a three-pointer from the outside, but the ball didn't even touch the rim.

Gan Guoyang intercepted the ball, but did not launch a counterattack. He passed the ball to Valentine, who dribbled the ball across half-court and completed the 24-second mark.

Sweat soaked through Gan Guoyang's jersey and shorts. For the first time, he felt a bit tired from playing the game. It wasn't physical fatigue, but rather the weariness that came from suddenly relaxing after a period of intense mental concentration.

Gan Guoyang and Jordan stood with their hands on their hips a short distance apart, waiting for the final whistle to blow.

Chicago fans did not leave the stadium; instead, they stood up and applauded the two players after the game ended.

They delivered a spectacular performance, a battle of will and skill, which many people said years later was the most exciting basketball show they had ever seen.

The two walked to the middle of the field and gave each other a light high-five, but said nothing, did not hug each other, and did not even look at each other. Instead, they turned their heads and left, heading towards the locker room.

Gan Guoyang returned to the locker room and plopped down on a stool. He paid no attention to the crowd of reporters outside the locker room. He covered his face with a cold towel, and a wisp of steam rose from it.

The game is over, and I've won. It's an indescribable feeling—not just exhilaration or satisfaction, but a sense of happiness, a happiness that transcends victory, a joy of meeting a worthy opponent.

At the same time, there was also a faint sense of emptiness.

Meanwhile, in the Bulls' locker room, Jordan sat on a bench and covered his face with a towel, not wanting anyone to see his tears streaming down his face.

He can accept defeat; no basketball player is immune to loss. But tonight he was very sad, extremely sad—a sadness that could only be described with tears.

Gan Guoyang scored 50 points, 27 rebounds, 5 assists, 8 blocks and 2 steals; Jordan scored 53 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks.

"Tonight we witnessed an indescribable spectacle, a matchup between two newcomers that was the most remarkable of my commentary career. I've been sitting here watching games for 13 years, and I'm certain that none of them can compare to this. Not the 1977 playoff battle between Gilmore and Bill Walton, not the 1980 game between Thurs and Gilmore against the Celtics, not any of them. But perhaps we'll see even more spectacular matchups in the future, because they're both so young, only 20 years old, my listeners, 20 years old, that's our good fortune to be in the same era as them."

"Tonight, I can sleep peacefully, and even die peacefully, because I've seen the best basketball game ever." — Jim Durham

(End of this chapter)