The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 179 Business
Before their Eastern Conference road trip begins next week, the Trail Blazers will host two visiting Eastern Conference teams, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Indiana Pacers.

During his last road trip to the East, Gan Guoyang caused a ruckus on the East Coast, elbowing Moses Malone in Philadelphia and leaving the league's most popular center with a cut above his eyebrow.

Looking across the entire league, there are very few players who dare to elbow Moses Malone in the head until he bleeds. This seemingly taciturn, short center is one of the toughest players in the league.

Since he started playing basketball, Gan Guoyang has always been associated with the name "Moses Malone." In high school, he constantly grabbed offensive rebounds and blocked opponents' shots, winning many rebounds in a game and easily dominating his opponents. Some people compared him to Moses Malone.

Even after entering the NBA, Gan Guoyang's energetic playing style, 6-foot-10 height, and strong physique gave people the feeling of a younger version of Moses.

Gan Guoyang did indeed watch a lot of Moses Malone's game footage, learning his techniques for grabbing offensive rebounds and how to hide his height disadvantage in the low post and use his strength advantage to attack the basket directly.

His scissor kick turnaround drive to the basket was even more skillful and outstanding than Hakeem Olajuwon, Malone's protégé.

Furthermore, Moses Malone has a significant connection with the Trail Blazers. When the NBA and ABA merged in 1976, Malone's ABA team disbanded, and he was drafted by the Trail Blazers, becoming a member of the team.

At that time, the Trail Blazers already had Bill Walton in the frontcourt, and during the dissolution of the ABA, they acquired Maurice Lucas. With Moses Malone, this frontcourt lineup was incredibly strong in terms of both immediate impact and potential.

Initially, Ramsey believed during training that Malone, who had not attended college, lacked tactical awareness and could not perform well in tasks such as setting screens and high-post playmaking, and was not the ideal inside player in his system.

When the preseason began, Malone's energy, offensive rebounding ability, and unparalleled basketball instincts under the basket impressed Ramsey. He believed that Malone was an excellent player and, even if he did not fit into the team's system, he was worth keeping as a potential asset.

However, team owner Larry Weinberg's main purpose in acquiring Malone was to obtain trade assets to acquire other needed players or cash resources, because Malone's salary was too high. He brought the $30 contract he signed in the ABA to the NBA, and Weinberg was not willing to pay such a high salary to a high school player, especially since the team already had Walton and Lucas.

Therefore, Larry Weinberg and San Diego discussed the matter and reached a verbal agreement to trade Moses Malone in exchange for other players and draft picks.

After learning of this from Stu Inman, Jack Ramsey asked Inman to stop the deal and keep Moses Malone, but Inman failed to do so.

Ramsey was extremely frustrated, and the Trail Blazers players were also disappointed; they really liked Moses Malone.

Before the start of the 1976-1977 season, Malone was traded to San Diego, and then to the Rockets, where he began his reign as NBA MVP, winning three MVP awards.

Although the Trail Blazers won the championship in 1977, if they had kept Moses Malone on the roster, they would have had an excellent backup plan after Walton's injury in 1978, and they would have remained a championship contender throughout the late 70s and early 80s. After all, Moses Malone was the only center who could contain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the time.

From this incident onward, Ramsey sensed that Stu Inman, as a general manager, possessed extensive knowledge, a wide network of contacts, and an excellent team-building philosophy, but lacked intuition and unwavering conviction.

Losing Moses Malone, losing Bill Walton, and even the fact that without Forrest Gump, he would have drafted Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan against his friend Knight's advice in the draft all indicate that Inman is missing something.

In contrast, Lakers general manager Jerry West would not compromise so easily. When Jerry Buss wanted to listen to Magic Johnson's advice and trade James Worthy for Magic's close friend Mark Aguirre, West immediately called Buss upon hearing the news and roared that he would resign if he dared to complete the trade, forcing Buss, who had already reached a verbal agreement, to back out.

This is a loss of face for NBA owners, but West dared to follow his intuition and implement his ideas with a firm and strong will and attitude.

Inman lacked that ability; his luck lay in picking Forrest Gump.

On the afternoon of January 8th, the Trail Blazers and the 76ers went to Memorial Stadium for a warm-up training session.

At this point, Gan Guoyang had completely surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the All-Star voting and secured the starting center position in the Western Conference All-Star game.

Currently, in the league-wide player vote, only Moses Malone has received more votes than Gan Guoyang in the center position.

Therefore, the NBA officially brought Malone and Gan Guoyang together in the media room before the game to take several photos as promotional photos for the All-Star Game.

Also filming was Julius Erving, who is 35 years old but still extremely popular in the league; his dunks are always a fan favorite.

Because of the previous conflict between Gan Guoyang and Moses Malone, coupled with Malone's taciturn personality, the atmosphere in the media room was somewhat tense.

The photographer was so careful, not daring to speak loudly, as if the two might start fighting at any moment. After taking a few quick shots, the shoot ended. Owen then took a few more photos with Gan Guoyang, and the atmosphere became much more friendly and harmonious; the two chatted and laughed on the photography table.

Kyrie Irving is known for his gentle and mild-mannered personality and his gentlemanly and elegant playing style in the NBA.

In the previous game, when Gan Guoyang and Moses Malone had a conflict, Irving stepped in to prevent the two from escalating their altercation.

Moreover, Irving told Gan Guoyang that he had been to China, and that the NBA had maintained contact with China, a huge potential market, ever since the Washington Bullets visited China in the 1980s.

In the summer of 1982, Kyrie Irving, along with six other NBA players including ML Karl and Meliweather, made a friendly visit to China. They went to Beijing to climb the Great Wall, to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors, and to Guangzhou to enjoy local delicacies.

In Beijing, he stayed in the same hotel room where Nixon stayed during his visit to China, met and dined with many high-ranking leaders, and ate a lot of duck butts.

While in Guangzhou, he learned that Daryl Dawkins had been traded. At the time, Celtics' ML Karl was overjoyed, thinking the 76ers were doomed.

At that time, there was a lack of international long-distance calls in China, so Irving could not call back to get the exact news. He was very frustrated and thought that the 76ers had no hope of winning the championship again next season.

Unexpectedly, news soon came that the 76ers had signed Moses Malone. Karl was stunned when he heard the news and said, "You guys just won the championship."

This scene left a deep impression on Irving, so when he mentioned this little story to Gan Guoyang in the photography studio, his imitation of Carl's tone when saying that sentence was remarkably lifelike.

Gan Guoyang was surprised to learn that Irving had already been to China. When talking about his impression of China, he thought it was very simple and pure, but also had some very backward areas.

“I really like that place. The people there also love basketball and are passionate about sports. Converse did some events and held competitions in Nanjing a few years ago. The stadium was packed with people who were eager to see great games. I think if you went back to your country, it would cause a frenzy.”

After taking the photos, Irving continued chatting with Gan Guoyang on his way to the court to warm up.

"I'm really looking forward to this day, but our country is still developing, and we are still very isolated from the outside world. Many people are still struggling to make ends meet, and sports are more of a luxury."

"No, no, no, Forrest Gump, I disagree with you. Sports should not be a luxury; on the contrary, they are a source of strength and guidance for many poor people to find hope in life."

Irving has a point. In the United States, many children from slums rely on sports to get ahead and escape the mire of life.

However, China's national conditions are different, and it cannot be explained in just a few words. Gan Guoyang did not argue with Owen and nodded in agreement with his statement.

Kyrie Irving's extensive conversation with Gan Guoyang wasn't solely due to his admiration for Gan. As Converse's star player, Irving was the first NBA player to sign a contract with the shoe brand in 1975 and would become a minority shareholder in Converse. He hoped to establish connections with one of the league's most popular players at the time.

Kyrie Irving no longer has much ambition to win a championship. Although the 76ers have a good roster and have a good successor after drafting Sam Perkins, Irving has been given a good one.

But Perkins is still young, and Irving's knees are already heavy. They will have a hard time beating the Celtics in the East. The 35-year-old Irving has begun to think about his post-retirement career.

One of his major development directions is sports brands. Converse used to be the king of sneakers, but this year Avia and Nike have stolen Converse's thunder.

With its strong marketing capabilities and Jordan's ability to attract fans, Nike has shown signs of surpassing Converse to become the number one shoe manufacturer in the United States in just six months.

Avia, on the other hand, lacked a strong foundation. Despite having the big name of Gan Guoyang and being the first to release a skyscraper, it always fell short in terms of publicity.

Both Kyrie Irving and Converse value the Chinese market, so they established a good relationship with Gan Guoyang early on, and they might be able to team up with him to compete with Nike in the future.

They even started planning a visit to China in the summer of 1985.

The NBA is both a game and a business, and it will increasingly resemble a business.

(End of this chapter)