The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 555 Now Your Time
The Trail Blazers finished their first Eastern Conference tour of the season on December 10th, but due to heavy snow and flight delays, they were stranded in a VIP box at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, waiting for the weather to improve.

Just a few days ago, the entire Trail Blazers team was playing in the warm and comfortable South, in Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, and Atlanta.

They won three of the four games, with their only loss coming against Atlanta.

After Gan Guoyang scored 81 points at home, the Hawks will play very aggressively when facing the Trail Blazers again, determined to go all out to defeat the Trail Blazers.

While 81 points is undoubtedly a shining honor in NBA history, the Hawks have become the backdrop, meaning they will be repeatedly ridiculed for their failure.

This summer, Avia invited Dominique Wilkins to film an advertisement with Gan Guoyang.

Wilkins refused to come, but eventually he did because the offer was just too much.

In the advertisement, Gan Guoyang bumps into Wilkins at a restaurant, and Wilkins looks helpless, knowing that Gan Guoyang is about to say that number.

Sure enough, when ordering, Gan Guoyang blurted out "81 hamburgers." Wilkins froze for five seconds with a blank expression and asked, "Can you finish 81?"

Gan Guoyang said, "I'll only eat one; the remaining 80 are Barkley's."

It turns out that Gan Guoyang was treating Barkley to dinner. When Barkley showed up, he told the waiter, "Give me another 81 sandwiches!"

This advertisement was to promote the new 1989 Avia-Skyscraper, which entered a new phase of development after the end of its first three-peat.

After filming the advertisement, Avia prepared to change the tagline, as the previous "Center is Center, Gump is Gump" was too long.

And now everyone knows that Forrest Gump is different from a typical center, so there's no need to emphasize that again.

Avia initially wanted to use "It's My Time" as the new slogan.

After reviewing the slogan, Gan Guoyang felt that although it was imposing, it would make consumers feel distant.

To borrow Tang Jianguo's words, consumers should not be persuaded, but rather allowed to see the situation clearly and make their own choices.

Therefore, he suggested changing it to "Now Your Time" to express Forrest Gump's encouragement to teenage fans and those who come after him.

Therefore, Avia added the new slogan "Now Your Time" to the end, which was personally voiced by Gan Guoyang. It became Avia's new slogan and has been used ever since.

Every major sports brand has its own unique advertising slogan.

Adidas, for example, launched its advertising slogan in 1974, "Impossible Is Nothing," a famous quote by Muhammad Ali, to inspire athletes to push their limits.

Nike launched their classic advertising slogan "Just do it" in 1987, telling athletes that when you want to exercise, just do it and don't overthink it.

However, Gan Guoyang mocked the slogan, saying, "Don't overthink it. Don't wear Nike either, wear Avia instead. Just do it."

Starting with the slogan change in 1989, the competition between Nike and Avia intensified, and the conflict deepened.

In the past few years, the two sides cooperated more than competed. Avia needed Nike's marketing experience and overseas channels, while Nike needed to hype up the rivalry between Forrest Gump and Jordan. The two brands targeted different consumer groups, so they got what they needed and coexisted peacefully.

However, as the company grows larger, competition will inevitably arise in the business, just like the competition between Jordan and Gan Guoyang on the basketball court.

In the market, Nike surpassed Avia and gradually wiped out the remnants of Converse, but Avia, with its own strength, gradually grew stronger and began to challenge Nike's position.

On the court, Gan Guoyang surpassed Jordan, gradually sweeping the era of Bird and Magic Johnson into the dustbin of history. However, Jordan was also growing stronger, and the Chicago Bulls were becoming the Trail Blazers' biggest championship threat in the East.

In the VIP suite at the airport, an Avia advertisement was playing on the TV, and at the end of the advertisement, Gan Guoyang's "Now Your Time" was playing again.

The following midnight sports news broadcast the results of tonight's game: the Trail Blazers narrowly defeated the Milwaukee Bucks on the road, with Gan Guoyang scoring 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Jordan led the Bulls to a resounding victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at home, scoring 50 points again, his second 50-point game of the season.

Changes in rules, teammates, and coaches could not change Jordan's ability to score high points in games. He remained as consistent and powerful as ever, and played increasingly as a team player and as intelligently as possible.

After returning to Portland, the Trail Blazers will face the Chicago Bulls' defense, and another "Gan-Jordan showdown" is about to begin between them and Jordan.

Gan Guoyang stared at the TV, watching the replay of the game. He recalled his past games with Jordan. This year, he could finally feel Jordan's threat, like a thorn in his back, as if a fierce tiger was staring at him from behind. Although he couldn't see him, he could feel the hairs on his back and the chill running down his spine.

This feeling is truly exciting.

Gan Guoyang has watched Jordan rise step by step from 1984 to today.

He ran to the top of the mountain early and watched Jordan struggle to climb up, and now he was finally close.

There's nothing more satisfying than defeating an opponent like that.

Winning the championship is certainly wonderful, but if the opponent is too weak, it always lacks a certain flavor.

At the end of Avia's advertisements, every time Gan Guoyang says "Now Your Time," it seems like he's speaking to Jordan.

It was as if he was telling Jordan, "Your time has come. Come on, I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Gan Guoyang was lost in thought when suddenly a crumpled piece of paper rolled over and hit his shoe.

Gan Guoyang glanced down, then looked up and saw that it was Petrovic who had kicked it. Petrovic was looking at Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang kicked the paper ball to Sabonis, who smiled and kicked it to Hornacek next door.

Hornacek then passed the ball to Porter, Porter passed it to Jerome Cauchy, Cauchy passed it to Cliff Robinson…

The whole team kicked it once, and finally the paper ball returned to Petrovic's feet. Petrovic aimed at the trash can, flicked it with his toe, and put the paper ball into the trash can.

A cheer erupted in the VIP room, waking Bellman from his nap.

"***, ****, ****!"

The VIP room fell silent immediately.
-
After being stranded in Milwaukee for about five hours, the snowstorm stopped, the airport was cleared of snow, and the players finally boarded a plane and returned to Portland.

During their week-long road trip, the Trail Blazers achieved an impressive record of 5 wins and 1 loss, bringing their league standings to 19 wins and 2 losses, ranking first in the league.

Their start is one of the best in NBA history.

After returning to Portland, Bellman gave the players a day off until December 12th, when the Trail Blazers hosted the Los Angeles Clippers.

After a humiliating 17-65 season in 1987-1988, the Clippers, a team mired in misery, secured the number one pick in the 1988 NBA draft and selected the prodigy forward Danny Manning. Manning rose to fame early, being a nationally renowned talent even in high school.

He was invited to join the 1984 Olympic selection training camp during high school, where he trained with a group of college stars such as Gan Guoyang and Jordan.

However, after being selected for the U.S. Olympic team in 1988, Manning's performance was less than satisfactory.

In the crucial semi-final match against the Soviet Union, Manning failed to score a single point, resulting in a goalless draw.

As the team's second-leading scorer, failing to score in such an important game demonstrates his lack of both skill and mental fortitude.

Even so, the Clippers still selected him in the draft, but Manning's rookie season was soon over due to a torn ACL.

This series of setbacks and difficulties seemed to foreshadow the bumpy and arduous journey of Manning's basketball career.

After a season of rest and recovery, Manning has returned to the Clippers this season.

After an unsuccessful season and a half, Gene Schoo left the head coach position for good.

His golden age is over; he is no longer the tinker he once was, and his philosophy on basketball is outdated.

Perhaps one day in the future his basketball philosophy will shine again, but now is not his era, not his time.

Replacing Gene Scheu is assistant coach Don Casey, who previously coached in the NCAA and the Italian basketball league.

The Clippers' management simply doesn't have any particularly good coaching options, and good coaches are unwilling to come to the Clippers.

During the players' warm-up before the game, Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor, who had traveled to Portland with the team, sat on the sidelines chatting with his friend Jerry West.

Baylor became the Clippers' general manager in the 1986-1987 season, while his friend West was with the Lakers and the Clippers, respectively.

Unexpectedly, West "defected" to Portland and left Los Angeles, but fortunately this did not affect their close relationship.

Baylor is probably the person who understands West the most in the world. He knows that West often doesn't want to win, but just doesn't want to suffer the pain of losing.

Both pursue the same outcome, but their initial intentions are completely different.

Escaping Los Angeles was escaping pain; he had suffered too much there.

As for Baylor, he is often ridiculed for having the most runner-up finishes in history without ever winning a championship.

But Baylor himself wasn't particularly bothered by it; he took the lack of a championship quite lightly.

On the contrary, West himself was still bothered by the absence of Elgin Baylor when he won the championship in 1972, so much so that he didn't have much of a smile on his face when he won the championship. He was thinking about why Baylor wasn't there.

“You might as well come to Portland. I need a good helper here. Why do you have to work for someone like Donald Sterling?” West said to Baylor.

“Haha, don’t you work for your Donald too?” Baylor replied.

In terms of social reputation, Tang Jianguo is not necessarily much better than Donald Sterling; both are controversial figures.

“I don’t work for Donald, I work for Forrest Gump. We’ve been doing great this year, even better than I expected.”

"You want him to be the next Russell."

"Well... but I won't be the second Reed. He disgusts me."

"Haha, I'm doing great in Los Angeles. I like the Clippers, even though they're terrible. There always has to be a runner-up in basketball, and if I have to be that runner-up... I don't think it's a big deal."

Baylor shrugged, and West looked at Elgin, who had a great attitude, and said, "If only Michael had your attitude."

Baylor looked at West, and the two of them burst into laughter.

I once met Jerry on a plane, and we chatted for a while.

He reached into the magazine in the back pocket of his seat, rolled it up, and said, "Our team is pretty good, El, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"We came close to winning the championship, several times, seven times?"

I nodded: "We can't compete with Russell."

Jerry paused, placed his hand on my arm, and unexpectedly whispered, "You should have a statue."

"what?"

“There should be a statue of you in Los Angeles. Believe me, I’ve contacted the Lakers…” His voice trailed off, “I will continue to apply to them…”

I said nothing, but in my mind I pictured the Staples Center's Star Plaza, where seven life-size bronze statues of Los Angeles sports legends greet visitors.

Wayne Gretzky, De La Hoya, Magic Johnson, Chick Hearn, Luke Robbie Taylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Jerry West.

It was all worth it. They were all Los Angeles heroes. It was really fun. I got here before all of them.

When the Minneapolis Lakers were struggling to survive, owner Bob Short drafted me with the number one pick. He later said that I saved the entire team from bankruptcy and that I was the one who made it possible for him to move the team to Los Angeles.

I jokingly call myself a Laker in the truest sense.

Minnesota, home to 10,000 lakes, has many features, but lakes are not among them.

Jerry, it's okay, I thought to myself, I don't need a statue.

I didn't say anything at the time, but for a moment I imagined myself back on the plane, talking to Jerry West:
“Jerry, I didn’t ask for anything. I never have, and I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve received. Oh, I’ve been through something just like everyone else, but I’m a survivor, and I feel lucky, no, I think I’m blessed.”

But I guess I wouldn't mind the statue.

—Excerpt from Elgin Baylor's autobiography, *Hang Time: My Life in Basketball*, published in 2018.

(End of this chapter)