The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 788 Duel
The game against the Philadelphia 76ers marks the start of a short Eastern Conference road trip for the Trail Blazers.

They then visited Washington and Charlotte, winning both away games.

Gan Guoyang demonstrated exceptional defensive dominance in all three matches.

In Washington, he nearly shut out the Bullets' power forward Rasheed Wallace.

Until the very end of the game, when the outcome was no longer in doubt, Wallace managed to score 4 points, avoiding the embarrassment of not scoring a single point.

When facing the Hornets, Larry Johnson was so frustrated by Gan Guoyang that he threw his towel. After squeezing out Alonzo Mourning, he couldn't hold up the Hornets' interior defense on his own.

The once-mighty twin towers in the paint fell apart due to disunity, and Larry Johnson's time with the Hornets was also difficult, with his departure from Charlotte imminent.

New teams like the Hornets and Magic haven't fully developed their team culture yet, and if they lack an authoritative leader, they can easily fall into internal strife.

The Hornets losing Mourning and the Magic losing O'Neal are both painful lessons for their respective teams.

Gan Guoyang's defeat of Johnson was merely the last straw; the biggest problem was the lack of unity.

After finishing their Eastern Conference journey with three wins, the Trail Blazers returned to Portland for a period of rest.

The team has some injury problems. Van Exel bruised his finger during the game, Riddle sprained his leg, and PJ Brown has some back issues.

According to the Trail Blazers' medical response protocol, they missed several games after returning to Portland and several away games before the All-Star break.

Injuries have affected the team's completeness and rotation, forcing Larry Bird to continue adjusting the starting lineup and making changes at certain tactical junctures.

Fortunately, young players like Kobe and Jermaine O'Neal can shoulder a significant portion of the playing time, making the absence of veterans less of a problem.

Kobe's performance on the court, in particular, sometimes served as a warning to Van Exel and Riddell: if you continue to be absent or don't perform well, this kid will soon replace you.

Off the court, Kobe never hid his intention to replace Van Exel and Riddell.

Whenever he had the chance, he would have one-on-one duels with Van Exel and Riddell during training breaks.

Van Exel and Riddell are guards with different styles. Van Exel is agile, fast, has ghost-like footwork, and is quite accurate with his outside shooting.

Riddle is physically strong, has excellent back-to-the-basket skills, and excels at low-post play and fadeaway jump shots. Kobe needs to use different techniques and strategies when facing them on both ends of the court.

Moreover, both of them have short tempers and often get carried away during training, starting to trash talk each other and even physically assault each other, creating a very tense atmosphere.

But Kobe was not intimidated at all. He always dared to challenge his two seniors. When they cursed at him, he would sometimes remain silent and sometimes talk back.

Kobe's actions undoubtedly further angered veterans like Van Exel and Riddell, making them more attentive and hardworking in training and games.

They didn't want to be overtaken by Kobe, that guy who liked to talk big, especially Van Exel, who didn't want to become a substitute and have Kobe start while he was the backup rotation.

Therefore, Van Exel is working very hard in training. He used to dislike extra training, but now he takes every opportunity to train with Kobe.

He will spend a lot of time honing his three-point shooting skills and making his ghostly footwork more agile and unpredictable.

At this time, Kobe would observe from the sidelines, and sometimes challenge Van Exel. Van Exel would refuse, fearing that Kobe would learn too much.

But he couldn't resist Kobe's persistent pleading. Kobe even resorted to clumsy reverse psychology, saying that Van Exel was afraid of being surpassed by him, so he didn't dare to challenge him one-on-one.

Van Exel was also straightforward. If you say that, I'll tell you I'm not afraid. Let's have a one-on-one match. So, they practiced together more and more often.

At the beginning, Van Exel had the upper hand. Kobe simply couldn't defend against Van Exel's agile and unpredictable footwork. His footwork was so strange that Kobe couldn't find a pattern to it.

It took Kobe more than a week to figure out some patterns and accumulate some experience, but it was still very difficult to defend against him.

The matchup against Van Exel provided some help in defending Iverson, but not much; Kobe couldn't guard Iverson one-on-one.

Van Exel initially resisted playing against Kobe, but later began to actively seek him out for practice.

He realized that instead of worrying about Kobe surpassing him, he should boldly embrace the challenge and practice with Kobe to improve.

Kobe is a very smart and quick learner young player, and Van Exel is also improving while he is being mentored.

To survive in this alliance, it's not possible to rely on hoarding knowledge; you must constantly communicate and learn.

There are no secrets to any techniques or tactics here; you can learn them if you want to. The key is how much effort you are willing to put in.

Compared to Van Exel, Riddell had a worse attitude towards Kobe; he disliked Kobe from the start of the season.

Of course, there weren't many people on the team who liked Kobe. At most, they didn't dislike him, but they couldn't really say they liked him that much.

Because this guy is so arrogant, always holding his head high and looking smug, acting like he's something special, which is naturally annoying to look at.

As an 18-year-old rookie, he never acted like a junior on the team, but rather had an attitude of "I will definitely be the boss in the future, it's just a matter of time," which made him even less likable over time.

Moreover, as a Black player, Kobe was not Black at all. His upbringing and family environment determined that he and most Black players who were born into poverty and had many siblings were from two different worlds.

In terms of "not being like a black person," he is even more obvious than Michael Jordan, who was born into a middle-class family and came from a traditional black cultural background.

Kobe was different. He grew up in Italy, and in addition to basketball, he also loved playing soccer. He was fluent in Italian and spoke several other languages. His behavior was more like that of a European, quite different from that of a Black North American.

So, setting aside skin color, Kobe was more like a European player in the NBA, naturally making him stand out from the Black community.

Riddell is a typical black player from a poor background; he is from Oakland and grew up in dirty and chaotic neighborhoods.

During his time with the Trail Blazers, he was suppressed by Gan Guoyang and Bird. Being able to train on time every day was the most disciplined year of his life.

In his competition with Kobe, he was able to control his temper at the beginning.

Young people are naturally energetic and it's normal for them to be a little arrogant and conceited.

Later, his dissatisfaction with Kobe grew, because the young man was just too damn arrogant.

Of course, behind the scenes, the anxiety of being chased by Kobe, and even possibly replaced, was also spurring Riddell on.

The two clashed more and more during training, and the intensity of the clashes increased.

On February 4th, in their last game before the All-Star break, the Trail Blazers faced the Chicago Bulls on the road.

This game is the Bulls' revenge against the game they lost to in the previous game, and it's also a prelude to Gan Guoyang and Jordan's All-Star competition.

The Trail Blazers practiced at the Chicago Arena in the morning because they were going to play the Bulls and Jordan that evening, and Kobe was very excited.

Van Exel, who had a decisive performance in the last game against the Bulls, will miss this game due to an elbow injury.

Bird told Kobe that he would get more playing time in this game, and that he would be playing as a point guard.

Terry Porter has shown signs of aging on both ends of the court this season, and Bird would prefer to use fresh talent against a strong opponent like the Bulls.

Kobe had no problem with it; he was eager to try. During practice, he told Riddell, "When I'm on the court, let me go up against Jordan, and you go up against point guard."

In the previous home game against the Bulls, Kobe assigned Riddle to guard Pippen while he would deal with Jordan, and Riddle readily accepted.

Because defending Jordan was a tough job, nobody wanted to match up against him for the entire game, and anyone willing to take on the role naturally agreed. But now the situation had changed, and when Ridley heard Kobe give him these instructions, his anger flared up instantly.

You're a rookie, and you're already giving me orders and instructions? You're here to guard Jordan, and you want me to play point guard? Are you looking down on me?
Riddell snorted and said, "When did you become a coach, Kobe? Just do your own job. Last time I asked you to guard Jordan, people who didn't know any better would have thought you managed to do it."

Riddle's words provoked Kobe, but Kobe didn't argue. He said with a straight face, "I'll defend you because I'm better at defense than you. It's that simple."

"Fuck you, I can easily beat you, don't tell me your defense is better than mine."

"Forget it, you don't play defense at all. You have no attitude towards defense and you don't know how to defend. You're a softie and don't deserve to guard Jordan."

Kobe didn't back down and spoke without restraint, which immediately angered Riddell.

Riddle rushed forward and grabbed Kobe by the collar, and the two began to wrestle on the sidelines.

Riddle, a street urchin, was physically strong and struck first, grabbing Kobe and throwing him to the ground.

Although Kobe was tall and had a long wingspan, he was too skinny from a fighting perspective, and he only knew how to play basketball and didn't have any fighting skills.

Kobe was pinned to the ground by Riddle and took two punches to the face. His teammates rushed over and pulled the two apart.

Enraged, Kobe got up and charged at Riddle, swinging his fist in an attempt to get revenge, but was stopped by his teammates and missed.

Bird kept blowing his whistle to stop the two, he severely reprimanded Riddle and Kobe, and decided to strip Kobe and Riddle of their chance to play that night.

Kobe looked unconvinced, but he didn't dare to argue with Bird. Although Bird took good care of Kobe, he was also very strict and disciplined.

Even Gan Guoyang would follow Bird's instructions and abide by the team rules in important moments, and would never abuse his privileges.

As a result, Kobe and Riddell were both excluded from the rotation for this game, leaving the Trail Blazers with even fewer players available.

Seeing that Kobe and Riddell were both holding their breath, Gan Guoyang suggested to Bird, "Larry, let's settle this with basketball. Same rules, one-on-one."

Bird thought about it and agreed that it made sense. Rather than letting them hold their anger in, it would be better to take this opportunity to resolve the issue once and for all.

The fight between the two was not just due to a verbal disagreement today, but rather the result of a lot of accumulated conflicts from the past.

Kobe, as a rookie, was arrogant and conceited, with low emotional intelligence, which angered the veteran players.

Riddell wasn't much better. He lacked team spirit, was undisciplined, and didn't take training and matches seriously enough, so he didn't earn the respect of younger players.

Basketball is all about skill. Since there's a conflict, let's settle it with a one-on-one match, vent our anger, and make sure no one retaliates against us again.

Using this method appropriately to release team pressure can resolve conflicts and eliminate disunity, preventing it from escalating into a major disaster.

So, after practice, Bird told everyone else to leave, leaving Kobe and Riddell half the court, giving them a chance to resolve their conflict through basketball.

"Same rules as always, one-on-one duel, 10 balls. Win or lose, neither of you can fight each other in private. You don't have to be friends, you can even hate each other, no problem. But remember, for now you are still teammates, still fighting side by side. That's the bare minimum. Do you dare accept the challenge?"

Kobe wasn't afraid at all; having just been beaten, he was eager for a chance to get revenge on the court.

So Kobe immediately stepped forward, came onto the court, and said he would accept the one-on-one challenge.

Riddell hesitated for a moment, but when he saw Kobe step forward, how could he back down?

Riddle agreed, and a major battle between him and Kobe was about to begin.

The Trail Blazers' players, coaches, trainers, and staff all prepared snacks and stools, eager to watch the fateful duel between the two.

Bird blew the whistle, his teammates watched, and the two began their duel.

Kobe was much thinner than Riddell, but after half a season of training, his physique and muscles have improved.

Moreover, his crossover dribbling skills have improved significantly, making him very useful in one-on-one situations.

He quickly used his agility to score consecutive layups and take the lead.

Riddle seemed a bit rusty, failing to score twice with his back to the basket, prompting Kobe to shake his head and say, "You're not good enough."

Enraged, Riddell increased the range of his movements and the skill with his hands, managing to defend twice and then using his back to the basket to tie the score.

The two sides were tied from 3-3 to 8-8, making it a very close and evenly matched contest.

Riddell was amazed. In their earlier one-on-one practice sessions, Kobe had been completely outmatched.

In just half a season, Kobe has made great progress in all aspects.

Although Riddell disliked Kobe, he had to admit that the guy truly loved basketball.

Kobe acted as a catalyst, motivating the Trail Blazers' backcourt players to work harder than ever before.

The two battled until 9-9, with the final ball deciding the outcome.

Kobe drove hard past Riddle, aiming for a layup to seal the victory, but Riddle caught up and blocked his shot from behind.

Kobe gestured to Bird that Riddell had hit his hand, but Bird did not blow the whistle, indicating that the game should continue.

So, on the next shot, Riddell backed down Kobe and squeezed in, then hit a fadeaway jumper.

9:10, Riddell still relied on his physical strength and experience to defeat the rookie Kobe.

Kobe even argued with Bird, saying that Riddell must have fouled on the last play, otherwise he would have won.

Bird ignored Kobe's grievances and signaled that the challenge was over, and everyone should go about their business and prepare for the game that night.

Kobe was very dissatisfied. He sat alone on the sidelines with tears in his eyes. Jermaine O'Neal came over to comfort him and said, "You have already performed very well. Riddell is no match for you."

"But I still lost. I could have won. I didn't want to lose to him at all. He even punched me twice. That piece of shit."

Jermaine O'Neal didn't say much, he just stayed with Kobe.

Seeing that Kobe was staying there and refused to leave, Gan Guoyang told everyone else to go take a shower and get ready.

Gan Guoyang said, "How about I play a few balls with you? If I beat you, you can stop throwing a tantrum here."

Kobe looked up at Forrest Gump, blinked, got up, and left with Jermaine O'Neal.

Forget it, I'd probably lose 0-10 to Forrest Gump, so I'd better not humiliate myself.

More importantly, seeing Gan Guoyang reminded Kobe that this was his true goal.

Riddle is just a pebble on the road ahead; there's no need to pay him too much attention.

Sooner or later, not too late, I will kick the pebble away without leaving a trace.

(End of this chapter)