The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 45 Double 41
Gan Guoyang had a wonderful Christmas at Thurmond's place. The warm and friendly atmosphere, along with the basketball experience he gained, made him feel satisfied.

Before the Christmas break ended, the Waterbell players returned to school to resume training, preparing to finish the remaining regular season games in January and make a run for the playoffs.

Behrman went to New Jersey to see his daughter for Christmas and also met with his ex-wife to discuss their relationship. Judging from his radiant appearance, things seemed to have progressed well.

Xu Xun was busy at the store all Christmas. Unlike Gan Guoyang, who is a basketball star, he still had to help out in his spare time. Incidentally, he had a big bump on his forehead, which was obviously from a mistake while playing nunchaku.

Franklin didn't rest either. He, who didn't usually train for strength, spent his vacation sweating profusely in the dilapidated iron gym at Hunter's Point, hoping to restore his physical condition to its best as soon as possible. He gave all the money he received from the school subsidy to his mother to take care of his three younger siblings.

Chen Xing took a trip to Los Angeles during his vacation, but not to watch the Los Angeles Lakers game. Instead, he wanted to buy Nintendo's newly released handheld game console and game cartridges, which were only available in certain stores in Los Angeles, California.

He also got a new pair of sports glasses, the same style as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's, the previous pair of which had been cracked during a game against Washington High School.

Gan Guohui found his spring in the winter; he fell in love with a ninth-grade girl from Beiqiao Middle School.

Since joining the basketball team, Gan Guohui has had very limited playing time, but his hard training has helped him lose weight. At the same time, the aura of his cousin Gan Guoyang has shone on him, instantly captivating an innocent young girl who fell into his arms.

Of course, Gan Guohui is a very good person. Not long after he started dating the girl, he took her home for dinner after Christmas and told her directly that she was his girlfriend.

Gan Youwei was shocked, thinking to himself, "My child is already dating while he's still in high school?"

Gan Youtang and Gan Bingguang were not surprised at all; dating between boys and girls in high schools in big American cities was perfectly normal.

Moreover, Gan Youtang was always worried that his son, who was mediocre in his studies and didn't do anything productive, would not be able to find a wife in the future.

This at least proves that he is capable of dating and is not a bachelor no one wants.

They treated the girl warmly and instructed Gan Guohui to be responsible for her and not to start something and then abandon her.

That evening, Gan Youwei quietly asked Gan Guoyang if he was in a relationship. Gan Guoyang replied frankly, "I'm not very interested in women right now."

Gan Youwei was relieved but also worried about Gan Guoyang's answer. Was his son's behavior normal or not?

Gan Guoyang's mind was entirely focused on basketball. For him, there were too many aspects of basketball skills to study and too many areas of training to improve. He couldn't afford any other distractions.

But precisely because of this, more and more girls wrote to Gan Guoyang. The more famous he was, the better he was at playing basketball, and the more aloof and difficult to pursue he was, the more those girls wanted to get close to him and win him over.

This led to the exposure of the Water Bell team's training location at the Fisherman's Wharf underground ice rink, which was discovered by two girls who were secretly following Gan Guoyang.

Reporters, agents, university admissions officers, and sports equipment company personnel began loitering around the training ground again, and there was nothing Bellman could do about it.

Fortunately, after the incident at the University of San Francisco, these people became much more restrained and dared not give gifts or money anymore; they just wanted to get closer to them.

The Water Clock team was able to resume normal training. Berman incorporated a 20-minute visualization training method into each session to improve the players' tactical awareness and spatial imagination on the field.

The team's progress was evident to the naked eye. Their spirit, physical fitness, and tactics reached their peak at the end of 1981. In 1982, they were clearly going to do something big.
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The time has come to 1982.

In the remaining three games of the regular season, the Waterbell team went on to defeat Marshall High School, Lowell High School, and Galileo High School—schools in the San Francisco area are particularly fond of being named after famous people.

Gan Guoyang led the Water Clock team to defeat the president, the Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall), and renowned scientists. His performance in high school competitions became increasingly effortless, making him stand out from the crowd.

The San Francisco Conference regular season has now concluded, with the Water Bells finishing with a 9-1 record, tied for first place with Washington High School.

Because they lost to Washington in the head-to-head matchup, they finished second and entered the playoffs as the second seed.

There are four teams in the playoffs. The Waterbell and the third-ranked Lincoln High School will meet in the first round. The Waterbell narrowly defeated Lincoln High School in overtime.

The two sides were evenly matched in overall strength, with Lincoln even having a slight edge. However, Gan Guoyang was too dominant, and his performance determined the final outcome of the game.

The game was held at the Keiza Arena, where Gan Guoyang grabbed an astonishing 41 rebounds in a single game. Learning from the lesson of making too many mistakes in the previous game against Lincoln, he hardly took the initiative to attack in this game, but instead kept rushing to grab offensive rebounds under the basket.

Lincoln High School's interior defense is weaker than Washington's, but their perimeter defense is stronger and they are taller.

But no one could withstand Gan Guoyang's second attack.

The rest of the Shui Zhong team took more shots, knowing that if they missed, Gan Guoyang would grab the rebound.

This kind of single-elimination tournament requires some irrational tactics.

The Lincoln High School coach never expected that Gan Guoyang, who had previously reduced his offensive rebounding and prioritized getting back on defense, would channel Moses Malone again and dominate Lincoln High School's interior defense.

With 40 minutes played in both halves and 20 offensive rebounds, Gan Guoyang scored 41 points and grabbed 41 rebounds in a single game, setting a new statistical record in the San Francisco League.

Lincoln High School was defeated 66-78. They actually shot very well tonight with a high shooting percentage, but they were completely outmatched on the boards.

After the match, the audience rushed onto the field, crowding around to shake hands with Gan Guoyang. He was escorted back to the locker room by his teammates. "Gan, you didn't play according to the pre-match plan," Berman said gently, offering his reprimand.

Before the match, Berman's strategy was conservative, requiring Gan Guoyang to retreat to defense more and receive the ball in the high position, while letting Franklin be the main attacker.

Gan Guoyang wiped his sweat and said, "Things are unpredictable."

Bellman didn't have much to say; things had gotten this bad, what else could he say?

When players find opportunities on the field, their ideas should be respected, especially those of key players.

Gan Guoyang capitalized on Lincoln Middle School's eagerness for revenge, and they launched numerous fast breaks in their previous game against the Water Bell team.

In this game, they wanted to repeat their old tricks and were eager to launch fast breaks. However, they didn't have enough players protecting the rebounds in the backcourt, and both guards and forwards were rushing to the frontcourt.

As a result, when Gan Guoyang got into a rhythm for grabbing offensive rebounds, they were unable to stop him.

Gan Guoyang had thoroughly studied all the strange and unpredictable shooting errors of the Water Bell team players.

The San Francisco Chronicle once again dedicated a page of its sports section to the game, using the headline "Double41" to showcase the cyborg's dominant performance on the San Francisco high school court.

Besides being called a "cyborg," the nickname "Sun King" appeared in the media for the first time.

However, Gan Guoyang still needs a final victory to truly win the San Francisco high school league title.

On January 30, the sixth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the final match between Washington High School and North China High School was held at the War Memorial Stadium at the University of San Francisco.

The University of San Francisco men's basketball team, embroiled in scandal, has suspended all games and activities and is under investigation by the disciplinary committee.

A week earlier, on New Year's Eve, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in the 1982 NFL Super Bowl to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

San Francisco's passion for football has reached its peak, which also means the football season has come to an end.

MLB is currently in its offseason, while the Golden State Warriors in Oakland have just embarked on an away game.

The entire San Francisco sports community was focused on this final match.

The pre-game event at the War Memorial Stadium was a replica of Bill Russell's debut at the Keiza Arena in December 1953.

Nearly 6000 spectators arrived at the venue, filling the stadium with only 5000 seats. Outside the stadium, thousands of people were queuing and watching.

Tickets were resold for as much as $200 that day, while the highest ticket price for the Lakers, the most popular NBA team, at the Great Western Forum was $60.

Most of these high-priced tickets were snapped up by Chinese businessmen who came specifically to see the game. In the Bay Area Chinese community, basketball and Gan Guoyang's games were trendy topics of conversation, and anyone who could see his game was someone to brag about in their circle.

His double 4-1 performance in the last game has further raised people's expectations for the match.

The more attention you receive, the greater the pressure becomes. Many talented young people often cannot withstand such pressure, collapsing in an important competition and never recovering, or taking a very long time to emerge from the shadow of adversity.

Even a prodigy like Wilt Chamberlain, in the 1957 NCAA Championship game, lost to North Carolina by one point in triple overtime, and from then on, he was burdened with the stigma of being a "loser" for a full 10 years until 1967.

Bellman also worried that such attention would put too much pressure on Gan Guoyang.

Before the game, in the locker room, he squatted down in front of Gan Guoyang and said carefully, "Gan, a lot of people are watching the game tonight, but it's just a league final."

Gan Guoyang scratched his face and asked, "Coach, are you nervous?"

"Me? No, no, no, I'm not nervous. Why would I be nervous?"

"If the team wins the championship, will your ex-wife remarry you?"

"Who the hell said that? Who's spreading these ridiculous rumors and gossip? Fuck, there's absolutely no basis for it!"

"You said it yourself after you've been drinking."

"..."

"Don't worry, we'll definitely win this game. Washington is no match for us."

Gan Guoyang said calmly, but the flames of revenge had already ignited in his heart.

(End of this chapter)