The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 90 Sparring
Outside of training, I was usually Knight's straight man, the target of his scathing jokes, which the reporters listened to with rave reviews, like hungry dogs. One day he said, "Making Charles lose weight to 215 pounds is like getting Raquel Welch (a famous sex symbol from the 60s) to have plastic surgery."

Someone told me this, thinking I would be furious, but I just smiled. I thought it was a funny remark, and I wouldn't get angry over it.

But then Knight said something that angered me. He said, "Gan gets a lot more rebounds than you." I was very unconvinced because I've always been very proud of my rebounding ability.

Ever since then, I've been competing with Gan, trying to grab more rebounds than him. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to achieve this goal yet, but I'm still not satisfied.

—Excerpt from Charles Buckley's 1992 autobiography, *Outrageous!*

(Raquel-Vege)

Gan Guoyang recalled that when he first came to Spokane, he had filled in two mailing addresses.

One was the Stockton family home, and the other was his own dormitory—the dormitory's mailing address was mainly used to receive letters from family members and Wang Fuxi.

The mailing address found in the archives was the Stockton family home, which explains why the letter was sent there.

What puzzled Gan Guoyang was why the U.S. Olympic Selection Committee would send him a letter.

Gan Guoyang has been in the United States for three years, but he still holds Chinese citizenship and has no plans to become an American citizen. He even hopes to represent China in the Olympics in the future.

"Hey Gan, the Olympic trials have invited me to the Olympic basketball team tryouts camp at Indiana University! It's in two weeks! What about you? You got invited too?"

Gan Guoyang read the letter and found that the U.S. Olympic Selection Committee had also invited him to participate in the Olympic basketball team selection training camp, but the wording was different, using "observation and experience".

Gan Guoyang thought to himself, "Isn't it just that they want me to be their sparring partner?"
"The Olympic selection committee wants me to be your sparring partner, which is a good opportunity to play ball."

"So you've decided to go?"

"Of course we're going! I'm so bored at school. We have a break in two weeks, let's get ready and go together!"

The two were very excited. Stockton knew that being able to participate in the Olympic selection training camp meant that his strength had been recognized by the American basketball community.

Although they won the NCAA championship this year, being an NCAA champion does not guarantee a place in the NBA. In fact, many championship team players never even make it to the sights of professional teams.

Professional teams value talent and potential. NCAA championships are just icing on the cake. Without talent and potential, you still can't enter the professional basketball world.

As a small white guard, Stockton has never been a good draft pick in the NBA, so he has always been worried about his future basketball career.

Now that he's been selected by the U.S. Olympic Selection Committee, his NBA draft prospects are definitely not in doubt.

Gan Guoyang was excited because he could finally play properly. After returning home, he called Fleischer to tell him about the invitation he had received.

Unexpectedly, Fleischer already knew, because it was Fleischer who arranged this whole thing.

“This is the selection process for the US national team. As a foreigner, you wouldn’t normally have had a chance to participate. But I approached Knight and explained the situation to him. He knows you and really wants you to join so you can test the abilities of the other players. So, this is a great opportunity for you to improve.”

Gan Guoyang asked who else was there besides the two of them.

Fleischer rattled off a long list of names, all of whom were promising young talents in American college basketball at the time: Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Terry Porter Jr., Joe Dumars, Dell Curry, A.C. Green, Audis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, Johnny Dawkins, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, and Michael Jordan, among others.

More than 70 people were selected to participate in this training camp, and most of them were eliminated in the end, leaving only 12 people to represent the United States at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Gan Guoyang felt familiar with these names. Some of them were his defeated opponents, such as Johnny Dawkins, Ewing, and A.C. Green, while others he had never encountered in the game.

"Anyway, I won't make the final roster, but that means I can stay until the end, right?"

"Theoretically, that's how it is; you're a sparring partner. But it depends on Coach Bob Knight's arrangements. If he's not happy with you, he might kick you out of training camp on the first day. He's not a nice guy; he's got a short temper."

Bob Knight is known in American basketball for his volatile temper, and not just any temper.

In 1979, when he led the team to the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, he clashed with local police and was ordered to be arrested by the authorities. He later refused to appear in court. He once threw a chair onto the field during a match, but as for swearing and mocking others, those were minor incidents.

"It's okay, I have some experience in dealing with people with bad tempers."

Gan Guoyang thought of Bobby Bellman. When he first met him, he was a grumpy, foul-mouthed drunkard, but he eventually became obedient to him.
Gan Guoyang has encountered many people with bad tempers since childhood. Apart from a small number of people who have physiological hypermasculine personalities, most of them are driven by fear of disorder and irritability.

These types of people generally have an extremely strong desire for control. Anything or anyone that makes them feel out of control will make them angry. They crave to control everything, but they just can't control their emotions.

Many basketball coaches from the 50s to the 80s had bad tempers. This was not only related to the basketball philosophy at that time (coach-team-centric) and the nature of the job (coaches don't have good tempers), but also because many basketball coaches at that time had military service experience.

They either fought in World War II or experienced the Vietnam War; military and war experiences greatly reshape a person's character.

Single-parent families, large families lacking care, and impoverished childhoods can all lead to uncontrollable emotions in adulthood.

Afterwards, Gan Guoyang and Fleischer discussed the press conference. He had to decide whether to participate in the 1984 NBA Draft before May 5th; otherwise, his decision would be invalid.

So, on May 4th, Fleischer traveled to Spokane and held a press conference for Gan Guoyang at the Kennedy Center at Gonzaga University. Many reporters from New York, Boston, and Los Angeles came to witness the moment when Gan Guoyang officially announced his participation in the 1984 NBA draft.

To Gan Guoyang's surprise, there were two Chinese journalists present at the press conference. Fleischer explained that they were foreign correspondents he had specially invited from New York; they were not professional sports journalists but rather international news reporters.

Fleischer said that a Chinese person who has achieved such great success in basketball in the United States and is about to be drafted into the NBA must be reported in China.

One of the reporters was named Tang Yizhou. Gan Guoyang specially set aside an hour and a half for him for an exclusive interview, and invited him to Jack and Dan's Bar for a meal and a chat.

Tang Yizhou was very interested in Gan Guoyang's basketball experience in the United States. He had only been in the United States for two months, and the NCAA finals a month earlier had greatly impressed him.

"However, there is very, very little news about you in China right now. China's news and entertainment sectors are still too closed off and too backward."

Tang Yizhou sat in the bar, holding a pen and paper, and sighed.

The Chinese who came to the United States in the 80s experienced a great spiritual shock and upheaval.

Therefore, many Chinese people who come here are unwilling to go back; the gap is indeed too big.

"Everything will be alright. China will become more and more open, and its understanding of the world will become more and more profound. This will take time." Gan Guoyang remained calm about these gaps.

Would you consider playing for the Chinese national team in the future?

"Of course, it has always been my ideal."

"But once you become a professional player, you won't have that chance."

"There will be a day when things are relaxed; nothing is set in stone."

"Have you considered becoming a U.S. citizen? After all, you will be living and working in the United States for a long time."

"No, I haven't considered it."

"why?"

"I need to know who I am. Without figuring that out, one cannot move forward with determination."

Gan Guoyang's answer made Tang Yizhou thoughtful. He scribbled in his notebook and began to conceive a long feature article about Gan Guoyang in his mind.

He even considered switching careers to become a sports journalist, but he immediately dismissed the idea.

Is there really any future in sports?

(End of this chapter)