The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 91 Distribution
After the press conference, on the day of the Olympic selection training camp assembly, Gan Guoyang and Stockton flew together from Spokane to Indianapolis.

At Indianapolis International Airport, the U.S. Olympic selection coaching staff awaited these young basketball talents who had come from all over the United States.

At this time, they were not basketball stars yet, but just students or young people waiting to enter the NBA league, so no one was late. Everyone had bought their plane tickets in advance and arrived at the airport one by one from morning to afternoon.

Gan Guoyang and Stockton arrived relatively late because Spokane's flight was delayed. When they arrived at the designated location, there were already many people waiting.

With Gan Guoyang and a total of 73 players, the scene was quite spectacular. Indiana University sent four buses to welcome the 74 candidates and one sparring partner.

This sparring partner is this year's NCAA champion, MOP, 1983-1984 Player of the Year, Naismith Award winner, John Wooden Award winner, Associated Press Player of the Year, Sporting News Player of the Year, UPI National Player of the Year, and so on.

It can be said that Gan Guoyang has won almost every individual and team award that American college basketball can win. There are two awards he hasn't won: one is the NIT Most Valuable Player award, but since his team didn't participate in NIT, he naturally couldn't win this award.

Another award was the USBWA National Player of the Year. This award was ultimately voted for by Michael Jordan. The reason it wasn't given to Gan Guoyang was that voters believed Gan Guoyang was not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible to participate in the selection process.

However, not winning the award was clearly not a loss for Gan Guoyang, but a loss for the USBWA award itself.

When Gan Guoyang arrived at the gathering point, the atmosphere became noticeably tense.

Among them were several of Gan Guoyang's defeated opponents, Ewing, Dawkins, and two guys from Duke, Rabbis and Allari. When they saw Gan Guoyang, their expressions were strange, a mixture of tension and fear, and they involuntarily shrank back.

Clearly, the shadow cast by Gan Guoyang during the competition has not completely faded.

Gan Guoyang didn't greet them. There were too many people. He just glanced at them, memorized their faces, and matched them to their names.

A rough voice rang in my ears, "Hey, you're Forrest Gump? Sonny Gump?"

Gan Guoyang glanced over and saw a short, stocky fat man staring up at him. He had a round head and bulging eyes, looking like a fierce Zhang Fei.

"It's me. Do you want my autograph? I didn't bring a pen."

Gan Guoyang's words made everyone laugh. The short, fat man clenched his fist and said, "I heard you're very good. I'll have to test my skills against you when we get to the training camp!"

Gan Guoyang recognized him; the short, fat man was Charles Barkley.

Saying he's short is relative to someone like Gan Guoyang, who is 6 feet 10 inches tall. Barkley is at least 6 feet 5 inches tall, which is definitely not short for an average person.

His physique was incredibly strong; although somewhat round, he exuded power. Coupled with his buzz cut and a slit on the left side, he looked fierce and menacing, enough to make even ghosts and gods give him a wide berth.

Gan Guoyang was not afraid of him at all, and said: "I heard I'm very good? You don't have a TV at home, do you still listen to the radio? 4000 million people are watching the NCAA Finals, don't tell me you didn't watch it."

Barkley certainly watched it, and when he saw Gan Guoyang receive the ball and make the game-winning shot against Houston, he held his head and spun around in the house more than a dozen times, completely incredulous.

Barkley was very honest and said, "I saw it. Your game-winning shot was amazing, but I think you just benefited from playing in the Western Conference, and you didn't face any strong teams in the regular season."

Gonzaga's West Coast Conference is indeed very weak, and the surrounding teams are not strong either.

Throughout the regular season, Gonzaga did not encounter any top-ranked schools in the Midwest and East such as North Carolina, Auburn, Boston, and DePaul, nor did they face off against strong teams from the Big East, the Big Ten, or the ACC.

Gan Guoyang pointed to Ewing, who was standing not far away, and said, "You mean Ewing's Georgetown isn't a strong team?"

Ewing felt embarrassed. How did your bickering involve me?

"The national competition has an element of luck, and a lot of luck at that. In short, I doubt your ability."

Although Barkley's words were not very friendly, Gan Guoyang admired his straightforward attitude and personality.

It's normal for players to dislike each other on the basketball court. Even if you can't win, you shouldn't give up. If you lose your fighting spirit and will to fight, you lose the basic spirit of competition.

"It's okay, I've beaten up a lot of people along the way, so adding you one more won't make a difference." Under everyone's watchful eyes, their banter became a source of amusement later on.

Soon everyone had gathered and it was time to board the bus to Bloomington.

Gan Guoyang got into the same car as Stockton and Barkley. While looking for seats, Gan Guoyang saw Michael Jordan sitting in the back by the window.

Gan Guoyang couldn't spot Jordan in the crowd. Jordan, in his early twenties, was very young, with hair still on his head, a youthful and innocent face, and chewing gum.

Gan Guoyang naturally reached out his hand to Jordan and said, "Any more? Give me one."

Jordan glanced at Gan Guoyang, took a piece of chewing gum out of his pocket, and put it in Gan Guoyang's hand.

"Thank you."

"Gan, what does it feel like to win a championship?" This was the first thing Jordan said to Gan Guoyang.

“You took it too, have you forgotten?” Gan Guoyang replied.

"It's been too long, I've forgotten."

"Me too, it's been a month already."

After saying that, Gan Guoyang and Stockton put down their luggage and sat in the row in front of Jordan.

The two had their first verbal confrontation.

The convoy set off and drove along South Highway 37 for 55 minutes before arriving at the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.

It was 3 p.m., and as planned, the players were taken to the Indiana Memorial Union Building, a student residence building with a 50-year history located in the heart of Indiana University.

However, this castle-like accommodation building is a bit too old, small, and has outdated facilities. It was a bit overwhelming for more than 70 burly men to suddenly flood in.

The coach in charge of organizing the reception had to take 20 of them away and arrange for them to stay at a nearby Holiday Inn to prevent the old building from becoming too inconvenient.

The players' accommodations are arranged in standard rooms, two people per room, paired according to the first letter of their names.

However, as the number of people decreases and is eliminated, the rooms will be rearranged.

There were originally 72 people in total, paired up in twos, making 36 rooms just right.

With Gan Guoyang added as a sparring partner, the coach didn't pair him up with the others in alphabetical order, but instead left him until the end, saying that other arrangements would be made.

Gan Guoyang wondered if he would be given a single room again.
After everyone else had been assigned their rooms and taken their keys and luggage upstairs, Pete Newell, one of the coaching staff members, gave Gan Guoyang a key and said, "This is your room key. You'll be sleeping with Coach Bob Knight tonight."

"What? Sleeping with Coach Knight? I'm a sparring partner, not a sleeping partner."

"Don't joke around, Gan. This is Bob's request. Since he asked you to be his sparring partner, there must be a reason why he needs your information. Bob values ​​you highly, which is very rare. You should cherish this opportunity to communicate with him."

When Coach Newell said that, Gan Guoyang understood that he was being asked to be an advisor.

However, so far, since everyone gathered at the airport and then took a car to the hotel to be assigned rooms, Coach Bob Knight, the main figure of this training camp, has not shown up. Is he absent? Or is there another reason why he is not showing up for the time being?
[During the 1984 Olympic trials, I recruited Gan as a sparring partner and even shared a room with him, which is one of my biggest regrets. Sometimes he made me look like an idiot, though of course, I would never have admitted it at the time.]

—Excerpt from Bob Knight's autobiography, *Knight, My Story*, published in 2002.

(End of this chapter)