The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 243 is so far behind

After sending Walter Davis off the court, Gan Guoyang still had to go to the free-throw line to take two free throws.

Gan Guoyang made both free throws, scoring 14 points, and the Trail Blazers led the Suns by 15 points at 30-45 in the second quarter.

However, after Davis left the court, the Suns recovered and gradually regained their offensive rhythm, narrowing the gap to within 10 points before the end of the second quarter.

With Davis out, forward Mike Sanders carried the team's offense, and together with Jay Humphries, the two backcourt players stabilized the Suns' defense.

There was no way around it; the Trail Blazers' frontcourt advantage was too obvious. In the summer, the Suns lost Maurice Lucas, and Larry Nance and Edwards were both sidelined.

McLeod, who fielded a lineup with three tall players last season, has had to start this season with a small lineup, relying solely on veteran Alvan Adams to hold the fort in the paint.

Isn't this going to kill Adams?

When Walter Davis returned to the court in the third quarter, he was only slightly dizzy from the impact in the second quarter and was fine after resting in the locker room for a while.

Davis's return did not bring about a triumphant comeback; on the contrary, the Suns' offense became even worse after he re-entered the game.

He had possession of the ball and took shots, but he couldn't convert them into points efficiently, frequently missing shots under the Trail Blazers' tight defense.

He tried to use his passing to inspire his teammates, but when a scorer is unable to score efficiently, his passing also loses its magic.

In the third quarter, the gap between the two sides widened to more than 15 points again.

Gan Guoyang dominated the paint, his turnaround shots and hook shots after receiving the ball near the three-second zone were unstoppable.

Swift, fast, and precise, the Suns, depleted of key players, simply couldn't defend against them.

The third quarter was Gan Guoyang's time to shine, as he scored 21 points in a row.

They completely crushed the Suns at the end of the third quarter, and by the middle of the fourth quarter, McLeod substituted the starters and surrendered early.

McLeod was the coach who once tried to emulate Doug Mo and implement a two-second pass offense with no fixed tactics.

But he clearly doesn't have the eccentric and wild temperament of Doug Moe. He's a proper, academic coach who was the head coach of the University of Oklahoma before coming to the NBA.

If a person uses a methodology that is incompatible with their personality and values, they will only end up imitating others poorly and achieving less with more effort. Therefore, McLeod had no choice but to revert to his original teaching methods.

He has less and less control over the Suns now. He knows that almost the entire Suns team is using banned substances, but what can he do as the head coach?
Want to have fun with everyone?
Gan Guoyang scored 38 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, blocked 3 shots, and made 2 steals, making him undoubtedly the MVP of the game.

He didn't even have to exert too much effort, after all, the Suns' frontcourt was riddled with injuries and their core players were in poor form.

而这不过是太阳队1986赛季糟糕开局的开始，后面他们遭遇了惨痛的9连败，10月、11月份一共赢了3场球。

The Suns, who were full of ambition to reach the Western Conference Finals in 1984 and determined to achieve further glory in the next two seasons, declined rapidly in just one year.

The competition in the NBA is that brutal. In such a highly competitive environment, past achievements mean nothing, and decline can happen in an instant.

Your past successes and honors will only become memories off the field and topics of conversation among fans, but on the field, they will become targets for opponents to attack you. After all, teams and players who want to succeed are constantly striving for success, and if you don't step on others, others will step on you.

McLeod was frustrated after the game and went to Jack Ramsey to talk about his troubles.

Ramsey knew the Suns were being destroyed by drugs and alcohol, but he was just a coach, not the league commissioner.

Moreover, people inside the NBA know about these things, but they can't expose them for the sake of the league's reputation.

The Suns were certainly aware of these circumstances, but for the sake of ticket sales and team performance, the owner couldn't sell out their star player.

“Perhaps he should give up these habits; his performance tonight was a disaster.” Jack Ramsey shook his head, knowing Davis’s situation.

Davis only made 7 of 21 shots tonight, a shooting percentage of one-third, and failed to perform at his usual high level on both offense and defense.

In fact, Humphries and Sanders are in very good form. If the Suns let them dominate the game, they can definitely make it to the final stages of the fourth quarter.

“It’s tough, really tough…and you know, it’s not just Davis, I…I really envy you, the Trail Blazers look fantastic.”

Last season, the Suns and Trail Blazers faced off six times, with the Suns losing more often than winning. After Gan Guoyang came to Portland, the Suns' interior defense completely lost its advantage.

Ramsey smiled and said, "The season has only just begun, it's going to be... long."

This is Ramsey's eighteenth year as a coach, and he himself is surprised that he has been able to persist until now.

The Trail Blazers are in really good form. Ramsey could tell from the players' condition and atmosphere when he returned to the locker room that everyone was very relaxed.

The large tape recorder that Gan Guoyang brought to the locker room was playing Dire Straits' 85 new song "Money for Nothing," and everyone was nodding and swaying to the guitar music.

Gan Guoyang took off his shirt, revealing his muscular physique, and sat on a stool with his legs crossed, drinking tea. He had brought a pot of Chinese green tea to the locker room, saying it was a gift from a high-ranking leader during his trip to China, and that drinking it would refresh his mind and enhance his focus on the field.

Van der Weevil and Drexler brewed a cup of coffee and savored it slowly. They probably didn't want to go to bed early tonight; they wondered where they were going to have some fun.

Mitchell Thompson and Kenny Carr were discussing fishing. They had a fishing competition when the team went to the Caribbean in the summer, and the two were evenly matched.

Jerome Koch, now a sophomore, finally had a freshman under his wing, Terry Porter, whom he could keep in check. He patted Porter on the shoulder and said he would take him to play golf.

Kossie, the former poor boy, quickly adapted to his new role, and luxury cars and high-class sports were arranged for him early on. He was already a VIP member of the Oswig Lake Hill Park Golf Club.

Walton felt like he was back with the Trail Blazers in 1976 before Jack Ramsey took over as head coach, when Lenny Wilkens was the head coach and his management of players was relatively loose.

One thing that impressed Walton was that after the first half of the game, he leisurely went back to the locker room to rest, but his teammates and staff rushed back to the locker room much earlier. When they opened the locker room door, they found:
They're all inside drinking coffee, black tea, and carbonated drinks; some are even smoking. This is halftime, and the second half of the game is still going on.

Lenny Wilkens was a player-coach at the time. He had a good relationship with everyone, but he lacked authority, and the team atmosphere was too lax. Later, Jack Ramsey arrived, and the team's discipline and style changed dramatically. The Trail Blazers immediately developed excellent chemistry.

Unexpectedly, in less than ten years, everything seems to have returned to normal, but it also seems to be different from the past.

In response to Walton's question, Ramsey replied, "Listening to music and drinking tea is better than doing drugs and drinking alcohol."

That makes sense; it's just about listening to music and drinking tea. Ramsey isn't as harsh on the players as he used to be.

Of course, he couldn't openly approve of the players doing these things. Every time he heard Gan Guoyang playing songs on a tape recorder, he would yell at Gan Guoyang, "Your machine is making noise again. You should get it fixed."

Gan Guoyang didn't care at all; he just did what he liked and played seriously to win the game.

He would occasionally bring over some blues jazz that Ramsey liked, at which point the old man would usually shut up, listen quietly for a while, and then leave.

Defeating the Suns seemed effortless, and then on October 27th, still at home, the Trail Blazers faced the visiting Golden State Warriors.

Warriors center Joe Barry Carroll is back from Italy, having spent a season in Europe before returning to the NBA.

In the summer of 1984, Carroll sought a bigger contract, but just as Frank Mioley and Bernard King had haggled for a long time in 1982 before ultimately letting him go to New York, Mioley couldn't afford to re-sign Carroll. (This included their 1980 trade of the third overall pick and Robert Parish to the Celtics, the fundamental reason being that the team couldn't afford Parish's contract extension fee, and they were forced to sue him under pressure and inducements from Auerbach.)
Miorley was never a big business owner. He acquired the Warriors by chance. After winning a championship in 1975, he had no motivation to expand further. He was content with just breaking even and making a little money.

In the early 80s, the very talented and gifted young Warriors team fell apart because the owner was too poor.

Carroll's agent, Bob Wolfe, is known for his tough stance and never compromises with the team on salary, earning him the reputation of being the team's most hated agent.

Ultimately, no team made an offer for Carroll in the summer of 1984. Carroll did not want to lower his salary demands, nor did he want to waste his form by taking a year off.

So he went to Italy, played a season there, and returned to the United States this summer, where things took a turn for the better.

Milwaukee Bucks owner Jim Fitzgerald is preparing to sell the team, but that doesn't mean he's leaving the NBA game; he just wants to play somewhere else.

So he invested in the Golden State Warriors. Miorley sold some of his shares to alleviate the team's financial crisis, and at the same time, he began to consider exiting the game.

The NBA's business model has become increasingly different from the past. In the early days, owners were part of the game; they bought teams and became players, competing for the market and winning championships.

Managing an NBA team is their main business and the focus of their career. For example, for Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers are his most important asset, so he pays special attention to the players.

As the NBA market grew, especially starting in the 70s, some big names and tycoons entered the market and acquired teams, becoming new players.

These new players already have substantial assets outside of basketball. They come from all walks of life and have various reasons for buying NBA teams, such as out of passion, a desire to enter the sports world, or to promote their own brands.

Whatever their purpose, they are very different from previous owners: firstly, they are very wealthy and can spend lavishly to sign players without having to worry about the team's finances.

Secondly, basketball is not their main profession, and whether the team is profitable is not too important to them. Winning is the most important thing, and they are willing to bear the economic losses and costs for it.

This has led to a situation where owners like Miolli are finding it increasingly difficult to operate, while Jerry Buss has been able to keep going thanks to the Lakers' excellent management, a bit of luck, and the fact that the Los Angeles market is large enough.

Jim Fitzgerald started his career in the oil business, then moved into construction engineering, and after establishing his conglomerate, his businesses expanded into multiple industries, including banking and finance, and television broadcasting, resulting in a massive asset base.

He made an offer to Barry Carroll last year, but Carroll didn't want to go to Milwaukee. Since you don't want to come, I'll just buy your team and welcome you back.

So Carroll returned to California, put on his Warriors jersey again, and in the first game of the new season against the Nuggets, he clocked in with a triple-double of 21 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 turnovers, along with 2 blocks and 3 assists.

Tonight's game between the Warriors and the Trail Blazers seems relatively easy for the Trail Blazers, as the Warriors, like the Suns, are affected by injuries, with their seventh overall pick, Chris Mullin, and Salt both out due to injury.

In their last game, the Warriors were easily defeated by the Nuggets 119-105 at home. They kept the score close in the first three quarters, but the Nuggets went on a rampage in the fourth quarter, taking the game by a score difference of 41-25.

Mullin's absence is not simply a matter of being absent; he missed the team's training camp due to injury, and the Warriors have yet to officially sign him—he's currently a temporary player, which is how poor the Warriors are.

Gan Guoyang was speechless about this. He had trained with Mullin at the Olympic training camp. If he and Jordan were the top two training fanatics, then Mullin was the third.

Especially in shooting practice, Mullin would not stop until he was so tired that he could not lift his arms. Gan Guoyang was able to practice for longer because he had better physical fitness.

Gan Guoyang still remembers when he trained with the Warriors in Oakland. It was a thriving, talented, and loving team.

Altl is a very good coach, and now he is the team's general manager. He has done his best in all his moves, but unfortunately the team is really short of money.

In just a few years, the team has become unrecognizable, consistently failing to make the playoffs and showing little hope.

Before the game started, Barry Carroll shook hands with Gan Guoyang and said he never expected Gan Guoyang to actually make it into the NBA. He felt like it was just yesterday that Gan Guoyang was training with Bernard King and Larry Smith.

"This feeling is truly wonderful."

Gan Guoyang shared the same sentiment, saying that a good team can fall apart so easily.

Carroll said he was looking forward to his first matchup against Gan Guoyang in the NBA.

Gan Guoyang said, "Me too."

That night, Gan Guoyang scored 50 points against Carroll.

The Trail Blazers, playing at home, crushed the Golden State Warriors 89-131, a 42-point margin, securing their second consecutive victory.

After the game, Carroll was somewhat dazed and questioned his existence. He thought to himself, "Is this Forrest Gump? Isn't this just a larger version of Bernard King who can defend and has a hook shot?"

"I've only been out of the NBA for a year, and I'm already this far behind?"

(End of this chapter)