The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 171
When we were younger, Ralph and I had some conflicts. We were both too sensitive and immature back then, and we cared too much about what others thought. Some reporters didn't give athletes enough respect; they didn't really care about or understand us, they were just creating conflicts and topics to attract readers' attention. In fact, Ralph was very hardworking and diligent, and many of the later evaluations of him were unfair, as were those of me.

Of course, the punches we threw at each other during the 1984 Christmas game will inevitably be brought up—it's an indelible stain on our record. But we made up quickly afterward. In fact, we grew even closer after that match, showing more understanding and consideration for each other. We shared our innermost thoughts, and our relationship became even stronger. We then went on a winning streak and our performance improved dramatically.

Incredibly, Forrest Gump played a part in this. After the game, Portland was blanketed in snow, and we couldn't fly back to Houston. Drexler invited Ralph and me to his apartment for Christmas, along with Vandeweghe, Jerome Koch, and Forrest Gump—a group of unmarried bachelors all together. To be honest, the atmosphere was a little strange, given our intense game on the court and my deep hatred for Forrest Gump. He had hurt me deeply in both the NCAA Final Four and this Christmas Day game.

While discussing what to eat for dinner, Clyde said he wanted Chinese food, and I agreed; I've recently become obsessed with Chinese cuisine. However, we didn't know any good Chinese restaurants, so we both looked to Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump said that no Chinese restaurant in Portland knew how to cook Chinese food better than him. We were curious to try Forrest Gump's cooking, and to our surprise, he actually braved the snow, drove home, and brought back a bunch of ingredients, seasonings, and cooking utensils, cooking for two hours at Clyde's house.

He cooked and we ate, one dish at a time, and we all ate a lot, especially Ralph, whose appetite was astonishing. Despite being skinny, he ate more than me. Then Forrest kept making Chinese dishes that we had never seen or eaten before—dishes that looked beautiful and smelled wonderful. To be honest, at first I didn't like the taste, but we were so hungry that we started to think they were absolutely fantastic. Each dish was practically devoured in no time. He also cooked a lot of rice to make Yangzhou fried rice for us. Overall, it was a Christmas Eve that left us feeling very satisfied.

Oh, by the way, Forrest later asked us, 'When I was trying to break up the fight during the game last night, who the hell punched me?!' Ralph and I both shook our heads, indicating we didn't know. I told Forrest it must have been an accidental bump during the shoving, and I told him not to be so sensitive. Forrest didn't believe me. Later, he got tired of cooking and didn't want to talk to us anymore, so he sat alone on the balcony watching the snow. I think he must have been very upset and regretful, wondering why he had to cook for us big eaters. Thinking about it that way, the frustration of losing the game lessened a lot. Ralph and I ate and chatted a lot, and we quickly made up.

—Excerpt from Hakeem Olajuwon's autobiography, *Living The Dream*, published in 1996.

The infighting between the twin towers caused the Rockets to completely collapse in the third quarter. Bill Fitch gave up the struggle and benched Olajuwon and Sampson, not letting them play again for the rest of the game.

It's common for teammates to have conflicts, but it's rare to see players fighting on the field during important matches.

Before the game, the league office gave numerous warnings, expressing concern that the Trail Blazers' Gan Guoyang and the Rockets' Olajuwon might get into a fight.

In the end, these two opponents didn't fight, but the Rockets' twin towers started fighting each other.

Fitch was ashamed of the two players' reckless behavior and angrily turned his back to stand on the sidelines, not wanting to talk to these two childish guys.

He had no interest in coaching the game anymore and just wanted to finish it as soon as possible and go back to Houston for Christmas.

With internal strife among their core players and the coach giving up, Houston lost its will to fight, and the point difference gradually widened to 20 points.

Portland fans had a fun-filled and exciting Christmas Day game, with their team winning and their opponents fighting – two things to see with one ticket, making it incredibly entertaining.

The final score was 93-114, with the Trail Blazers securing a 21-point victory over the Rockets at home and winning the Christmas Day game.

Gan Guoyang only played three quarters, scoring 25 points, grabbing 16 rebounds, and blocking 3 shots. The infighting between the twin towers limited his further performance.

Because of the heavy snow, the Rockets were still stuck in Portland. Fitch went to a bar to drown his sorrows, while the others stayed at the hotel, waiting bored.

Drexler invited Hakeem Olajuwon, Ralph Sampson, Gan Guoyang, Vandeweghe, and Kossi to his apartment not far from Memorial Stadium for Christmas.

Drexler didn't have much of an impact in the first three quarters tonight, but after coming on in the fourth quarter, he racked up fast breaks, dunks, and fingertip layups.

Gan Guoyang didn't want to go at first. He wanted to stay in the gymnasium for extra training since Wang Fuxi wasn't home that night and he had nothing else to do.

But Drexler's enthusiasm was irresistible, and with Van der Weevil and Kessie also going, Gan Guoyang didn't feel awkward being with Olajuwon and Sampson.

Gan Guoyang has always kept his on-field and off-field identities very clear. On the field, he is an enemy and will do everything in his power to defeat his opponent. Off the field, he may use some underhanded tactics, but he doesn't mind if they become friends, and it's perfectly normal if they don't.

Gan Guoyang doesn't have the "seven-foot man syndrome"; he's just an orphan with a father.

However, Gan Guoyang later regretted it. First, he regretted that he shouldn't have gone. Second, he regretted that he shouldn't have boasted that no Chinese restaurant in Portland knew how to cook Chinese food better than him. Third, he regretted that he had already made the boast and then insisted on fulfilling his promise to cook for a bunch of animals.

He used up a whole week's worth of food in his refrigerator, went through all the recipes in his head, and tried all sorts of cooking methods, frying, stir-frying, and boiling, exhausting himself to the point of exhaustion without getting a single bite. In the end, he sat on the balcony, lonely and admiring the snow.

Moreover, he strongly suspected that Hakeem Olajuwon, that blockhead, was the one who punched him in the chaos, but unfortunately he had no evidence, and Olajuwon stubbornly denied it.

When Hakeem Olajuwon first arrived in the United States, he was not interested in Nigerian native African cuisine, but preferred American fast food and Asian dishes. He once ate 100 pieces of fried chicken in one go.

Later, he developed a liking for seafood, especially oysters, which he believed were aphrodisiacs. Olajuwon was a notorious playboy at school, and Drexler envied him, saying that he couldn't change girlfriends as fast as Olajuwon (Sampson, in terms of both appetite and the speed at which he changed girlfriends, was no less than Olajuwon).

Later, Hakeem Olajuwon became interested in Chinese food. After being impressed by Gan Guoyang's culinary skills on Christmas Eve, he was completely captivated by Chinese cuisine and became a loyal fan of Chinese food.

Because Hakeem Olajuwon kept praising Gan Guoyang's cooking, Gan Guoyang was too embarrassed to delve too deeply into the matter of that punch, and the matter was eventually left unresolved, becoming one of the interesting mysteries of the NBA.

The Christmas Day game between the Trail Blazers and the Rockets ended in chaos. The game had a good start, but the twin towers were too young, and Olajuwon overexerted himself, causing the game to collapse too quickly and making quite a fool of himself.

The NBA has noticed a strange phenomenon: wherever Forrest Gump is, trouble is likely to break out; he's an unstable factor.

Fortunately, a more eye-catching news story overshadowed this farce during the Christmas Day game: New York Knicks forward Bernard King scored 60 points against the New Jersey Nets, surpassing Richie Guerin's record in 1957 to set a new Knicks franchise record for highest score.

The entire American basketball media was abuzz as the King of New York was crowned on Christmas Day.

Gan Guoyang was very happy to see that his good friend and half-teacher Jin had achieved such great success in New York, and called Jin the next day to congratulate him.

King was also very excited. After leaving the Warriors in 1983 with a grudge, King finally gained a foothold in his hometown of New York and ushered in the peak of his career.

The two talked on the phone for a long time, discussing their lives in the NBA and exchanging a lot of technical information. After watching Gan Guoyang's game, Jin said that he had nothing more to teach Gan Guoyang.

"You should ask Vandeweghe to teach you the Kiki-Step," Bernard King joked, "What center learns a step-back?" Gan Guoyang, however, seriously stated that King's words made a lot of sense, and this was the direction for his future skill development.

The last time the Trail Blazers played against New York, King missed the game due to injury. The two teams will have a game in February next year.

Both players were very much looking forward to the match.

Besides Jin, Gan Guoyang also spoke with Jordan on the phone.

Since their last earth-shattering battle, the two have consciously avoided contacting each other.

Because if they contact each other before their hostility dissipates, it will only damage their friendship.

Now enough time has passed, and it's Christmas. Jordan saw Olajuwon and Sampson fighting and couldn't help but call Gan Guoyang to ask what was going on.

The two men chatted on the phone, boasting that Jordan's performance had become increasingly outstanding recently, and that the Chicago Bulls would be hosting the Eastern Conference champions, the Boston Celtics, a few days before Christmas.

乔丹全场32分13个篮板8助攻3盖帽，率领公牛队85:110，在芝加哥体育馆狂胜卫冕冠军，拉里-伯德全场13中4只拿到10分。

The Bulls ended their six-game losing streak against the Celtics, a team they had failed to win against last season.

"You should see Bird's grumpy face. Everyone says he's awesome, but I'm not afraid of him at all. He always plays terribly against me."

Bird did indeed perform poorly against the Bulls this season, with Jordan and the Bulls' athletic perimeter players causing him considerable trouble.

Larry Bird scored 14 points in the last game and 10 points in this game. He is very versatile and extremely intelligent, but he also has his weaknesses. His lack of athleticism has always been a problem for him.

Gan Guoyang stated that Magic Johnson's poor shooting is probably on par with Drexler's, and that his turnovers skyrocket under pressure.

"If he puts the same effort into practicing his shooting as he does into finding women, I don't think I'll have much hope of beating the Lakers anytime soon."

The two of them, one after the other, made numerous mistakes in their assessment of the league's two most popular superstars, displaying an air of superiority.

However, as they chatted, they started competing with each other again, this time over the All-Star voting.

In mid-December, the NBA began All-Star voting to determine the East and West rosters for this year's Indiana All-Star Game.

Starting with the 1974-1975 season, fans could vote to select the All-Star starters for the East and West, and the remaining seven All-Star reserves would be chosen by the All-Star coaches.

If a player can be selected as an All-Star starter, it means that he has been recognized for both his ability and popularity, and is a top-tier star in the league.

Jordan bet that Gan Guoyang would never make the All-Star starting lineup because he would definitely lose the vote to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The starting lineup only has one center position, while there are two guard positions, so Jordan has an advantage.

Furthermore, it is generally believed that centers are less popular than guards, which is an inherent disadvantage.

Currently, the two are neck and neck in sneaker sales. If their records were reversed, AJ would definitely surpass Avia.

Of course, Nike also hates Avia and Gan Guoyang to death. If Avia hadn't suddenly signed Gan and quickly released the Skyscraper and immediately put it on the market, Nike wouldn't have had to rush to release the Air Jordan, thus being called a knock-off or alternative to Avia.

According to their original plan, Nike intended to spend half a season promoting and laying the groundwork, creating Jordan's persona, and building anticipation for AJ.

The promotional climax will come at the 1985 All-Star Game, where Jordan will appear in the Slam Dunk Contest wearing Air Jordans, truly showcasing his aerial prowess.

Air Jordans will officially hit the shelves and go on sale then, and with the marketing hype at its peak, they're sure to achieve great sales.

As a result, Avia took the lead, and AJ hurriedly followed suit. Although the sales were quite good later, it was all due to Jordan's popularity and playing style. Moreover, the label of copying and replacing AJ will probably be attached to them for life.

The two were bound to have a showdown at the All-Star Game.

Voting has just begun, and the data will be released periodically.

Gan Guoyang is indeed a bit lower than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but Gan Guoyang doesn't believe that centers will necessarily be less popular than guards in the voting.

Since the person currently ranked first is Moses Malone, and since he can take first place, Gan Guoyang feels that he can too.

"Michael, just you wait, I'll definitely get the Western Conference All-Star starter spot, and then we'll see each other on the court."

"I'm really looking forward to seeing Sonny on the field."

(End of this chapter)