The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 232: The Bottom of the Box

Bernard King wasn't intentionally hiding anything from Gan Guoyang, but rather that this kind of turnaround jump shot technique isn't good for an athlete's knees.

In order to speed up his turnaround shot, in addition to turning on his heels and shooting without hitting the backboard but only looking at the basket, Kim also had a trick of turning while jumping.

He used the twisting force of his knees to exert force towards the baseline, and turned in mid-air at the same time as he jumped, so that the original two actions of "turning and jumping" were combined into one action as quickly as possible.

Such movements put a lot of pressure on the knee ligaments. During his time with the Nets and Warriors, King used this type of turning motion quite often.

Later, when he arrived in New York, he basically stopped using this move and began to rely more on experience and other details to evade the defense.

Even so, he still suffered a serious knee injury, which was undoubtedly related to overuse of his knee when he was young.

Bernard King is not a player who relies on explosive drives to the basket. He plays with agility and speed, and his movements are simple and decisive.

He himself did not expect to suffer such a serious injury as the ACL. When he saw Gan Guoyang, the center, use such a turnaround shot, he shook his head repeatedly: "Gan, don't use this move. Gaining those fractions of a second is meaningless to you. Your knee will not be able to take it."

Gan Guoyang said, "I plan to lose a little weight this year. I think it will put less strain on my knees, and I'm still young."

Bernard King said, "Youth is fleeting, time flies by, and I never paid enough attention to that in the past. Here's what we'll do: I'll teach you better techniques and methods, and you shouldn't use this kind of risky technique anymore."

Gan Guoyang said, "Bernard, you really are still hiding something! I'm going to dig out all the tricks you have up your sleeve!"

“Sonny, what I’m going to give you isn’t skills, but experience. There’s only so much technique, and you’ve already learned what you need to know. With your talent and skill level, you can quickly grasp my experience in another two years.”

As he spoke, Bernard King took out a tactical board and made many dots on it with an oil-based pen.

"Forrest Gump, I can't teach you anything about the area around the three-point line, but I've carefully studied every offensive point inside the three-point line, near the three-second zone. I've meticulously figured out which techniques are most effective at attacking the basket and which positioning choices are most effective at breaking through the opponent's defense, and then practiced them in games. Once you've mastered these experiences, you won't need to overload your skills to score more easily."

Bernard King has revealed his most treasured skills, no longer just simple moves and techniques, but a wealth of experience and choices.

Some players practice their techniques with senior players during the off-season. They can master the moves perfectly in training, but they can't do them in actual games. They are the same as before.

In high-speed, competitive sports, simply knowing the technical moves is not enough; the key is how to apply them and how to make the right choices.

Players often have very little time to make choices, whether to go left or right, pass or shoot, which requires a lot of experience and thinking during training.

As Bernard King said, with Gan Guoyang's talent and training volume, he will one day figure out his own half-court attack point map.

However, if a senior player can share their experience and guide the player to discover the secrets accumulated by predecessors, it will undoubtedly greatly improve the player's skills.

Before his injury, Bernard King was the NBA's leading scorer this season, averaging 32.5 points per game, making him arguably the top offensive player.

After seven years of ups and downs, he reached his peak at the age of 28. But fate likes to play tricks on people, and a serious injury caused him to fall rapidly from the top.

Although Gan Guoyang can average 27 points per game, the difference between 27 points and 32 points per game is not a simple 5-point difference.

Scoring an average of 30 points per game during the long regular season requires players to have extremely consistent performance on the court.

Even if you play well in a game and score 22 points, you would need to score 38 points in a game to reach an average score of 30.

The requirement of 32 points per game is even higher; you need to score 42 points per game.

Bernard King is the only player to average 30 points per game this season, although there is suspicion that he may be padding his stats on weaker teams.

Michael Jordan is second with 29.1 points, just 0.9 points shy of 30, while Larry Bird is third with 28.7 points.

Even on a team as offensively aggressive as the Nuggets, their leading scorer, English, only averages 27 points per game.

For interior players, the pressure of ball possession and defense makes it even more difficult to average over 30 points per game.

The last big man to average 30 points per game was Moses Malone, who relied on his dominant offensive role with the Rockets and the numerous shot attempts generated by his offensive rebounding. Throughout the 70s, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bob McAdoo averaged over 30 points per game (both of whom are still with the Lakers).

Bernard King was prepared to teach Gan Guoyang all of this, and he asked, "Sonny, are you planning to average 30 points per game next season?"

Gan Guoyang said, "I'm doing this for victory, not for the numbers. There's no real difference between 30 points and 29 points. If humans only had eight fingers and we used an octal system, 30 points would be much easier, and then we would raise the difficulty standard to 35 points."

Bernard King shook his head and said, "I don't know what nonsense you're talking about. If you don't average 30 points per game next season, you'll really be letting me down after teaching you all this stuff."

Gan Guoyang said, "You haven't taught me yet, so I don't know if it's any good or not. What if you're lying to me?"

"Fuck you, this is the culmination of my years of experience. But Sonny, you're a real oddball. You're a center, yet you always seem to be learning techniques from small forwards. Seriously, I was stunned when I saw you use the KiKi-move in the playoffs. You actually learned Vandeweghe's step-back move!"

The two had a phone call once, during which Bernard King joked with Gan Guoyang, telling him to learn the Vandeweghe step. Unexpectedly, Gan Guoyang actually learned it and used it in a crucial playoff game-winning moment.

It's important to understand that for professional players, learning an offensive technique is not difficult.

Some role players, if you let them hold the ball and show off their technical moves without any contact, you'll be amazed that this guy is an offensive kaleidoscope, capable of doing everything.

However, during the competition, most of the techniques cannot be displayed. Everyone will rely on muscle memory and use their best techniques to launch attacks.

That's why some players can only play this way even after being studied and targeted, because only by playing this way can they be effective; if they try to play differently, they'll suffer even more.

Gan Guoyang is one of the few players in the league who can freely perform all sorts of technical moves—another notable example is Larry Bird.

His ability to use KiKi-move in game-winning moments during the playoffs demonstrates that he has mastered the technique to an extreme degree, as if it were ingrained in his very being.

Gan Guoyang said, "I just practiced a lot. Besides, this technique isn't difficult. It's just like this, like this, and like this again."

Jin didn't want to listen to his nonsense anymore, so he asked Gan Guoyang if he really wanted to practice. Gan Guoyang nodded repeatedly, of course he wanted to practice.

The main reason he wants to improve his scoring, especially by learning scoring techniques from small forwards, is that his teammates aren't strong enough.

Vandeweghe was very useful in the regular season and his scoring ability in the playoffs was not bad either, but he was not good enough compared to the Lakers' forwards and guards.

Furthermore, Vandeweghe tends to falter in crucial moments, unable to break down the opponent's defense as the primary attacker, and can only serve as a secondary attacker to add icing on the cake.

Since the team lacks a main attacker, Gan Guoyang definitely needs to hone his own main attacker skills. He can't keep thinking about trading for a main attacker to help him.

While the hook shot is a useful and relatively easy skill, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's long basketball career taught us that without a strong ball-handler on the perimeter, he would have had a hard time succeeding, and that player had to be of the caliber of Oscar Robertson or Magic Johnson.

Even a scoring machine like Dantley couldn't be well integrated with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, making it difficult for them to make a breakthrough in the playoffs.

This may be the flaw of the health-preserving fighting style.

Gan Guoyang's signature move, the Moon Hook, is a surprise move that can be surprisingly effective in crucial moments, but it is difficult to make it a stable and high-output scoring method.

And looking across the entire league, who is more consistent and prolific than scoring champion Bernard King?

Gan Guoyang stayed in New York for another week or so until September, when he decided to return to Spokane, Gonzaga and Stockton to reunite.

As he left, Gan Guoyang gave Jin a tight hug and told him, "I'm absolutely certain you can return to your peak. I'll be waiting for you on the NBA court, and we'd better meet in the Finals."

Bernard King was more confident in his recovery, and when he returned home, his wife Taylor told him that Gan Guoyang had settled the bill for the expensive, huge CPM machine, so King wouldn't have to pay any more money.

For Bernard King, who is unsure if he can return to the court and secure a new contract, every penny matters.

On a September morning, Jin saw Aldo and Florence again from the balcony. Two wild ducks were pecking at the glass of the balcony door, quacking loudly.

(End of this chapter)