The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 340 Trip to Italy

Throughout Kobe's career, he always placed great emphasis on studying game footage, a task typically undertaken by assistant coaches.

After becoming an NBA player, Kobe would spend several hours every day meticulously analyzing his own and his opponents' performances, putting in far more effort than other players.

When he was in Italy, he would freeze the scene and then use the slow-motion function to replay it scene by scene, with his father often pointing out the key points.

When Joe wasn't around, Kobe would study on his own. He would memorize a whole series of shots, especially those that revealed the players' tendencies in their movements.

By the age of nine, he had already edited his first scouting video, providing a detailed analysis of the relatively unknown Hawks guard John Bartley.

Those years were when NBA stars began to shine, the league entered its golden age, and Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan delivered spectacular performances on the court.

But of all the players, his favorite was Portland Giant Forrest Gump, whose position was completely different from his own, and who began his dominance of the league in 1986.
“I wanted to see Forrest Gump play,” he recalled. “I just wanted to see his passion for basketball. You could tell he simply loved playing. His hook shot and incredible power were mesmerizing. I even considered switching to center to train my low-post footwork.”

Kobe would play Forrest Gump's game highlights on his TV at home over and over again, and later commentators understood why Kobe had such beautiful low-post footwork.

Although Joe also found his son some old game footage from his younger days, Kobe didn't need it.

With the real person right in front of him, he could easily take to the field himself. When he had time, Qiao would play a few rounds with him.

However, the Italian team's daily training time was too long, and the father, being only human, couldn't accompany him until he was completely satisfied, so he could only give it a try.

So Kobe practiced alone, imagining himself competing against himself.

"Shadow basketball," he called the training back then, "a battle between myself and my shadow."

However, in the summer of 1986, Forrest visited Italy, specifically in northern Italy, near Trieste, Slovenia.

Kobe received the news from his father that Joe Bryant had decided to take his son to Trieste before returning to the United States for vacation.

He also wanted to see how Michael Jordan played.

—Excerpt from "The Real Kobe," a Kobe biography by Roland Lazambi, published in 2017.

In early July, Gan Guoyang and Wang Fuxi, along with Gan Guohui and Quentin Stephenson, arrived in Italy, Europe, to begin his second overseas trip.

Also accompanying him were Larry Fleischer and his son, Tim Haney, Avia's marketing director, and a group of Avia staff.

Compared to last summer's grand tour of China, this trip to Italy was much smaller in scale, with only Gan Guoyang as the player.

The reason he was the only one to participate was mainly due to considerations of cost-effectiveness and market development.

The 1985 trip to China was a comprehensive pioneering effort to completely open up the virgin territory of the Chinese basketball market.

That's why Fleischer went to such great lengths and made such a big show of it, completing a sensational, large-scale event.

The European basketball market has been cultivated for many years, and Italy has long been an important overseas market for the NBA. In 1946, when the NBA was first established, an Italian player was selected in the draft and played six games for the Toronto Huskies.

His name was Henry Biazzadi, and he played in the first game in NBA history, the BAA opening game, the Huskies vs. the Knicks.

Many American players now play in Italy; in the 1985-1986 season, there were 27 American players in the Italian league.

Many players who are selected in the NBA draft but don't get playing time or good opportunities will go to Europe to play for a while to maintain their form.

For example, Bill Laimbeer, Mike D'Antoni, Joe Bryant, Joe Barry Carroll, and so on.

American players are very popular in Italy, where they are treated like royalty by fans. Italy's warm and pleasant Mediterranean climate, along with the passion of Southern Europeans for basketball, also greatly attracts American players.

Italians' enthusiasm for the NBA is certainly inseparable from the promotion of exciting games. Before 1981, Italian fans could not be said to be completely unaware of the existence of the NBA, but they knew very little about it.

In January 1981, the Celtics, featuring Larry Bird, faced off against the Lakers, who had Magic Johnson. The two teams engaged in a thrilling match, marking the first appearance of the Celtics' Big Three versus the Lakers' show-time.

The Celtics defeated the Lakers 98-96. The live broadcast of the game was recorded and sent to Italy on January 31, Milan time—it was sent from Manhattan when Jimmy Carter was still in the White House, and it was sent to Italy after Reagan had taken office.

This marked the first time the NBA had sent their game footage overseas for time-lapse broadcasts, and throughout the early 80s, this became the NBA's primary weapon for global expansion.

Later, a sports journalist named Gandolf contacted CBS, which owned the NBA video rights, through David Stern and Larry Fleischer, and brought a large number of game videos back to Italy for screening in theaters of all sizes.

This caused a sensation in many parts of Italy, especially in small towns lacking television coverage. People even smashed cinema windows to get into the theaters to watch American basketball games because there were so many people queuing up to squeeze in.

When Dr. J Kyrie Irving dunks on the big screen, some fans run to the screen and scream—Gan Guoyang's game footage has elicited the same effect.

Subsequently, Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi bought the NBA broadcasting rights from CBS and connected the live stream to his Canale 5 television station for broadcast throughout Italy.

By 1984, the NBA had gained a huge influence in Italy, and that summer the league sent the New Jersey Nets and Phoenix Suns to various parts of Italy for preseason exhibition games.

On the plane to his destination, Larry Fleischer told Gan Guoyang that he was very popular in Italy, second only to Maradona in popularity.

"Moreover, Maradona's market is mainly in southern Italy, in Naples. In northern Italy, Maradona is a villain."

Maradona led Argentina to the World Cup title last month, but his "Hand of God" goal in the match has been highly controversial.

In the world of Italian football, he is a combination of angel and devil. The more the people of Naples in the south love him, the more the fans of the powerhouses in the north hate him.

Upon hearing Fleischer's assessment of Maradona, Gan Guoyang retorted, "I don't want to be an angel, I want to be a devil."

Fleischer said, "You've done something truly monstrous, wiping out the Celts in just two years. Auerbach is going crazy." "Is that so? I have Dr. Ogilvy's phone number here. He's quite skilled at treating mental illness. Give it to Redhead; it might be useful."

"Don't be so harsh on Sonny."

"He deserves it."

Auerbach was an outstanding basketball coach and manager. Many of his theories and practices were groundbreaking, and he was a remarkable master in team building and player development.

However, some of his actions are not appreciated by his opponents. Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers players were tormented during the Finals, which was most likely at Auerbach's behest.

After a 16-hour flight, crossing the entire United States and the Atlantic Ocean, as well as parts of Europe, the group finally arrived at their destination, Trieste.

This is the first stop on Gan Guoyang's trip to Italy. It is a very important port city in northern Italy, the end point of the Maritime Silk Road, and can be said to have close ties with China.

After checking into the designated hotel and adjusting to the time difference, Gan Guoyang took Wang Fuxi, Gan Guohui, and others to stroll around the streets of Trieste the next day.

This place is indeed very different from American cities, full of the unique charm of the European Mediterranean. The weather in June is excellent, crisp and dry, with blue sea and sky. No wonder it attracts so many American players to stay and play here for extended periods.

However, Gan Guoyang soon discovered that Fleischer was right; he was very popular in Italy.

His tall stature made him quickly recognized by passersby, and people immediately came over to ask for his autograph, while tourists with cameras asked him to take photos with them.

As more and more people gathered, Gan Guoyang and his group could no longer enjoy their sightseeing and eventually had to return to the hotel under the escort of Quentin and Aiva's security personnel.

The following day, on the day of the event, Gan Guoyang met Michael Jordan at the Paratriest Arena, marking their first meeting since the NBA Finals.

"Hey, Michael!" Gan Guoyang excitedly went over to greet Jordan upon seeing him.

Jordan seemed somewhat reluctant, turning his head away and replying with a curt "Hi."

"You're so cold, Michael. Why haven't I been able to reach you lately? Is your phone broken?"

"I don't have a telephone at home."

"Really? You don't have a telephone at home, so you don't even have a TV?"

"Yes, I forgot to pay the bill. What's wrong?"

"Then I'm happy to inform you that I've won the NBA championship."

"Oh, okay, congratulations, congratulations!"

Jordan knew, of course, that Gan Guoyang had won the championship, which is why he had kept quiet and didn't want to contact the guy.

Little did they know that no matter how much they tried to hide, they couldn't escape it; the two of them would be participating in a brand promotion event together in Italy.

This summer, Nike organized a European tour for Jordan to promote his new Air Jordan 2 shoes.

Just like last year, Avia leveraged Nike's resources in Europe to bring in Gan Guoyang to promote Skyscraper.

Both sides were exploiting each other; Avia used Nike's extensive resources, while Nike used Gan Guoyang's enormous reputation.

With last year's successful collaboration, this year's collaboration seemed like a natural progression, except that Jordan wasn't too happy.

Gan Guoyang's championship win gave Jordan a huge boost and a great deal of motivation to achieve something in the new season.

Due to the simultaneous appearance of two rising stars, today's event attracted a huge number of spectators, with many unable to get in and forced to watch from the outside.

Jordan represented the local Trieste team, while Gan Guoyang wore the white jersey of the away team, Juventus Caserta.

Before the game started, Gan Guoyang told his temporary teammates, "Jordan is very good, but don't worry, as long as I'm here, his team can't beat us."

Although it was an exhibition match, it was the first time Gan Guoyang and Jordan had faced off in a year, and both were very excited, so the match was extremely intense.

The two players were clearly far superior to the others in terms of individual ability, and the competition quickly became a personal showcase for them.

During the game, the basketball hoop in the arena was not strong enough and was broken by Gan Guoyang and Jordan respectively, with glass shards scattered all over the ground!
This crazy match drove the fans in the stadium into a frenzy, with screams and shouts filling the entire arena.

Jordan shattered the rim at the beginning, and when a new rim was installed, the game switched sides in the second half. When Gan Guoyang shattered the new rim as well, the entire stadium rushed onto the court and surrounded the two players.

The result of the game is no longer that important; fans just want to get up close and personal with these two basketball idols.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the security personnel on site, the two were finally able to escape the crowd and return to the changing room, where they would wait for the crowd to cool down before going back in.

"I've already messed up one dunk. You're so strong, can't you even control yourself?" In the locker room, Jordan scolded Gan Guoyang for not knowing how to control his strength.

"I didn't even use any force! Think about it, you managed to dunk it and break it, how could I possibly use any force? It's just that the rim is of very poor quality," Gan Guoyang complained.

Just then, Larry Fleischer came to the locker room and knocked on the door, saying, "A little fan wants to meet you two, take a picture and get an autograph. Please do me a favor."

"Who is it that could get Larry to give you special treatment?" Gan Guoyang asked.

"Joe Bryant's son, I think his name is Kobe."

(End of this chapter)