The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 42 Old Friend

Losing in the regular season isn't a major setback for the Waterbell team; on the contrary, it helps them identify problems and find solutions.

From mid-November to late December, the Water Bell team played a total of 7 games, achieving a record of 6 wins and 1 loss.

Apart from losing to the Washington Hawks, no other school in San Francisco can match the Water Clock.

Gan Guoyang's stats declined in the last four games, with fewer offensive rebounds.

In order to deal with well-trained opponents, Gan Guoyang reduced his offensive rebounding and focused more on defensive play.

Maintaining the stability of the joint defense and reducing the opponent's counterattacks are Gan Guoyang's top priorities.

On the offensive end, Gan Guoyang was double-teamed more often, and in order to avoid mistakes, he reduced his low-post attacks.

Franklin took on more offensive duties, relieving Gan Guoyang's scoring pressure and making it harder for the opponent's defense to cope.

While most schools rely on team offenses, the Water Bell team adopted a professional-style dual-core system early on.

Although he was touted as a dual-core player, Gan Guoyang far surpassed Franklin in terms of influence and popularity.

As he played more games, his reputation grew in the Bay Area and throughout California.

Playing in an away stadium or the Kayzal Stadium would be a huge waste of Gan Guoyang's reputation.

Starting with the fourth game, thanks to Huang Shaohua's efforts, the team's games were able to be held at the War Memorial Stadium at the University of San Francisco.

With additional seating, this venue can accommodate 5000 spectators, and ticket sales generate a considerable income.

People came from all over to watch the game, not just locals from San Francisco.

Some came from Sacramento, some from Los Angeles, and some even from neighboring Nevada.

I'd be willing to drive for three and a half hours.

Many of them are Chinese living in the United States who came to San Francisco to see this Eastern bio-warrior in person.

Gan Guoyang did not disappoint the fans who had traveled from afar. With his focused and dominant performance, he won the victory for the team and earned cheers for himself.

In San Francisco, he didn't encounter a single center who could match him one-on-one—California isn't known for producing centers.

It is said that there are young big men with the same talent as Gan Guoyang in Houston, Boston, and Pennsylvania, but they have not yet met on the court.

In addition to selling tickets, the school also sells baseball caps, T-shirts and posters signed by Gan Guoyang. A Wilson basketball signed by him sold for $500 before a game.

Before the game, students would set up stalls outside the stadium to sell Chinese food and snacks to raise funds to support the team's training expenses and equipment purchases.

The remaining funds were partly deposited into the China Endeavour Foundation as funds for the activities and rights of Chinese communities, and partly distributed as subsidies to the players of the Water Bell team.

Gan Guoyang was entitled to take more, and it could be said that all this money was earned because of him.

He didn't stand on ceremony or practice egalitarianism, but after receiving the money, he gave half to Gan Youwei and used the other half to treat people to meals, spending it all cleanly.

The school has also made plans for future competitions, and it would be best if they could qualify for the CIF State Championship.

If they fail to qualify for the state championship, they can still participate in other invitational tournaments next semester, competing in other states such as Ohio, Indiana, or even Florida.

In short, in the United States, where the basketball market is developed, if you have a good team and a famous star player, you won't have to worry about not having games to play or making money. There are plenty of people willing to spend money to watch the games.

At that time, the NBA was not the entirety of American basketball, not even the majority; it was just a small part with some influence.

In December, NBA Commissioner Larry O'Brien held a press conference and announced, "We have just signed the largest television broadcasting contract in the history of the league," ending the embarrassing situation of having no television broadcasts for more than a month after the start of the NBA season.

O'Brien was not lying. This politician, who is remembered in history for Watergate, knows better than anyone the devastating consequences of lying.

But not lying doesn't mean he accurately reflected the situation. The NBA's new broadcasting contract is $88 million for four years, and the network stated during negotiations that it was impossible to offer more than $100 million.

The contract price of $2200 million per year is the same as the price in the last year of the previous contract, with no increase whatsoever.

Considering the high inflation in the US economy at the time, the contract was actually reduced in value.

Moreover, the NBA's term lasted only four years, ending in the 1984-1985 season, which shows that the TV station was not very optimistic about the future development of the NBA.

In contrast, MLB, which just ended its strike, secured a $1.84 million contract.

The NCAA college football league has a contract worth $2.6 million.

Contract amounts in NCAA college basketball leagues are also rising, not standing still.

Not to mention the NFL, which has already secured the top spot among the four major leagues, with a new broadcasting contract worth $21 billion. The NBA's contract is less than a fraction of the NFL's.

Given this context and comparison, it's clear to anyone with eyes to see how much exaggeration O'Brien's claim of being the "greatest in history" is.

In the new broadcasting contract, CBS's regular season broadcasts have been reduced from 41 games to 28.

Fans can only watch 28 NBA games a year on television. The official explanation from the NBA is: Less is more.

They will offer fans the best games, not boring or uninteresting ones, in order to maintain the league's good image among fans.

How much of this theory is self-deception is something only NBA executives can answer.

The reduction in television broadcasts has also made it difficult for Gan Guoyang to watch live NBA games in his spare time.

Until December 25th, Christmas Day, the traditional NBA Christmas Day game, the Nets vs. Knicks game was broadcast on television.

With school on holiday, Gan Guoyang can watch the live broadcast of the game at home.

The match was held at the famous Madison Square Garden, but the attendance for this highly anticipated New York derby was only 50%.

The television cameras showed that many seats were empty because neither team had any popular stars.

The game was scheduled for the afternoon Eastern Time, but when Gan Guoyang watched it, it was noon Pacific Time.

After finishing his work in the kitchen, Gan Youwei found Gan Guoyang, who was watching TV, and said, "Guoyang, I have something here. Could you take it back for me?"

Gan Guoyang asked curiously, "Things? What things?"

Gan Youwei took out a large iron box and handed it to Gan Guoyang. When Gan Guoyang opened it, he found a stack of discount coupons for high-end restaurants, many supermarket shopping cards, three watches, two rolls of high-end ties, and a Montblanc gold pen set.

"Dad, what are all these things? Did you buy them?"

"No, it was given to me by someone from the University of San Francisco."

"University of San Francisco? Why would they send you all this?"

"Of course it's not for me, it's for you. You never accept things from others, so you passed them on to your uncle, and then to me. I'm keeping them all, and you can return them to the rightful owners when you have time."

Since Gan Guoyang became famous, countless people have wanted to give him gifts.

Reporters, agents, scouts, and college basketball recruiters all try to build relationships by giving gifts.

However, Gan Guoyang knew that as long as he played basketball well, he would not lack money in the future and would not need to take anything from others to give them a reason to criticize him.

When it comes to gift-giving, Americans and Chinese are the same: if the recipient refuses to accept the gift, they'll take a roundabout approach and go through relatives.

Gan Guoyang's closest relative is of course his father, Gan Youwei, but Gan Youwei is also an honest and straightforward person.

Gan Family Restaurant gained fame through Gan Guoyang, who earns money and attracts customers through his culinary skills; he makes a living through his abilities.

Accepting gifts from others changes the nature of the transaction. Gan Youwei knew this would cause trouble for his son, so he resolutely refused to accept them.

So some people went through a roundabout way and found Gan Youtang, asking him to pass it on to Gan Youwei, and so the item ended up in his hands.

Gan Youwei certainly wouldn't use it, and fearing that talking to his son every day would disturb his playing ball and studying, he simply packed everything away.

When the Christmas holiday came, they gave everything to Gan Guoyang to deal with.

After understanding the cause and effect, Gan Guoyang agreed with his father's actions, but to whom should he return these things?
After thinking for a while, Gan Guoyang thought of Mr. Cap LaVine. He called Cap LaVine and arranged to meet at the Rochambeau Stadium that afternoon.

The Knicks vs. Nets game is still going on, but Gan Guoyang has lost interest in watching it; there's really nothing interesting about it.

As he was leaving, he suddenly remembered something and said to Gan Youwei, "Dad, I won't be back for dinner tonight."

"You're not coming home tonight? Do you have a date?"

"No, an old friend of mine invited me to dinner."

"Alright, be careful and don't mess around."

Watching his son leave, Gan Youwei muttered to himself, "Old friend, you've only been in America for a short time, and you already have old friends?"

He didn't know that the "old friend" Gan Guoyang was talking about was indeed an "old" friend.

(End of this chapter)