The Golden Age of Basketball

()(This chapter is a big trick, and the next chapter will be a small trick, vote more and save more~)

"Hi everyone, I'm Gan. I'm from China. It's a pleasure meeting you all. I hope we can get along happily in the days to come."

On the first day of school, Gan Guoyang came to the new classroom and faced new faces—whites, blacks, and yellows—and made a brief self-introduction on stage.

The students in the audience applauded and welcomed him. Of course, in their view, it was normal for a Chinese transfer student to enter the school.There are many Chinese in Palo Alto High School, and Asian faces are not uncommon here.

The ones who applauded the most were Gan Guoyang's younger brothers Gan Guohui and Chen Xing. Fortunately, the three entered the same class.In this way, the Guns N' Roses basketball team can study together every day.

American schools have very loose schedules. School starts at [-]:[-] am and ends at [-]:[-] pm, and there is a lunch break at noon.After school, students have plenty of time to participate in club activities.

Today, Gan Guoyang's first class is geography, which is a breeze for him.In later Chinese high schools, he was known as the "little prince of geography" in his class.The only difficulty for him in this course is that it is difficult to understand proper nouns, because he is Chinese after all.

The day's class is coming to an end soon, and Gan Guoyang feels unexpectedly relaxed.In the last math class, Gan Guoyang, who had already learned calculus, shocked the math teacher by his ideas and methods when solving problems, thinking that this was not a level that a high school student should have.

Gan Guoyang said in his heart: "This is because your high school math is too simple!"

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the bell rang for the end of get out of class. Gan Guoyang packed his books and prepared to leave with Gan Guohui and Chen Xing.

"Hey, Gan! Wait a minute!" Behind Gan Guoyang came a voice telling him to wait.

Gan Guoyang looked back and found that the person calling him looked familiar.

"Hi, Gan, I'm Peter Dippenbrook from the basketball team." The speaker was a white boy with chestnut hair, about 6 feet 2, polite and shy.

"Hello, what's the matter?" Gan Guoyang recognized him as a player who was training there when he went to the basketball hall that day.However, he didn't laugh at Gan Guoyang, but just stayed there to watch, so Gan Guoyang had a good impression of him.

"Well, our coach, Mr. Bobby Behrman, wants you to go."

Gan Guoyang was stunned for a moment, but then he was overjoyed, thinking that although his performance yesterday was not seen by the coach, it must have been heard by the coach. Now that the coach asked him to go, he must have let him join the team.

"Okay, no problem. Guohui, Chen Xing, you guys go play first, and I will go to the basketball hall with him."

After saying that, Gan Guoyang and Dippenbrock left the classroom of the wooden house and walked towards the basketball court.

Of course Gan Guoyang won the bullfight with the tall black man yesterday, but the match was still a bit suspenseful.

Gan Guoyang found that the players who have undergone systematic basic training are different, and their movements are rigid, standard and powerful.The card position and top man are very solid.

Although Gan Guoyang has been trained by the superstar Thurmond, to be honest, his practice level was too high when he first came up.Some of the skills Gan Guoyang has learned can be used in the professional arena, but he is not very proficient in some very basic skills.

For example, the stability of the lower body, which was often mentioned by Thurmond in training, Gan Guoyang has not been able to solve it well.

Therefore, although Gan Guoyang won, it was not easy. He finally won the bullfight 5:3.

However, winning the bullfight is not the ultimate goal, joining the basketball team is what he wants. Unfortunately, the coach never showed up in the afternoon, so he had to leave first with Gan Guohui.

On the road, there are many people wearing various sportswear, including baseball uniforms, rugby uniforms, and football uniforms. It seems that they are all people who changed their clothes after school to participate in club activities.

"Boom", Gan Guoyang felt a pain in his shoulder, as if he hit something.

"Hey, what are you doing? Don't you have eyes when you walk?"

It turned out that Gan Guoyang was thinking about yesterday's bullfight while walking, and accidentally rubbed his shoulder against someone.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm really sorry." Gan Guoyang apologized politely.

"Excuse me?" The person who was hit took off his helmet. This is a football team man, already fully armed and dressed like a gladiator, ready to go to the field for training.

"If sorry was useful, the world would have been peaceful and stable long ago." The person who was hit was obviously a militant, and he also pushed towards Gan Guoyang.

"Then what do you want?" Gan Guoyang could see that this guy was looking for trouble.

In the two months since he arrived in the United States, most Americans of his age felt good to him, polite and humble, and black people were also very enthusiastic.But the woods are big and there are all kinds of birds. It seems that what I encountered today is not a good stubble.

"Yellow Monkey, you'd better be careful in the future, this is not your territory." The man just threatened, and left with the other football players.

It seems that he has also noticed that Gan Guoyang is tall and strong, so he is not so easy to mess with.

"He's Gary Halleck from the football team, and his father is a racist Palo Alto congressman," Dippenbrock explained as they left.

"It's okay, let's go."

The two soon arrived at the basketball hall, and at the same time many members of the basketball team also arrived together. Everyone looked at Gan Guoyang very strangely.

On the one hand, in their view, this guy is arrogant and arrogant, a Chinese dares to go to the basketball hall and say that he wants to join the team.On the other hand, this person is really very capable, and he was able to defeat the team's main power forward, Joate Davidson, in the bullfight, which was quite unexpected.

Gan Guoyang also felt the complex and strange eyes of the players. He took a deep breath, smiled slightly, and tried to look friendly.However, it seems that the effect is not very good.

Entering the arena, there was already a middle-aged man standing on the court.He was wearing leather shoes, brown overalls, and a green checkered shirt with a white background, and was holding a slate in his hand.This should be the team's coach, Bobby Bellman.

Seeing the players entering the stadium one after another, followed by a Chinese student, he knew that the person he was waiting for was coming.

He stepped forward, looked at Gan Guoyang, and said to him, "You are Gan, come with me."

"Others, start the warm-up training first! Run [-] laps along the court!" Behrman then roared loudly.

Gan Guoyang followed Coach Behrman nervously into the office inside.

"Hello, Gan, please sit down." Coach Behrman and Gan Guoyang sat in the office together.

"I'm Bobby Bellman, head coach of the Palo Alto Vikings. I think you should know why I've brought you here."

"Yeah, I want to ... I want to be on the team, I think I can give the team some help."

"So, you came into the arena yesterday, you went one-on-one with the guys on the team, you beat the power forward, and you think you can replace him on the team?"

Gan Guoyang heard the coach's bad tone, and his one-on-one behavior in the arena yesterday was indeed inappropriate.

"I'm sorry, Coach Behrman, I'm really impatient. Because I just transferred here and I'm in the twelfth grade again. I'm afraid I won't have the chance to join the team again."

"As a team, the most important thing is to be united. And if your behavior allows you to join the team, I can't guarantee whether it will affect the team's unity atmosphere!"

Gan Guoyang's heart turned cold, is he going to reject himself like this?But after thinking about it, I feel that it is wrong. If I want to reject myself, do I need to let myself come here?It's over if you don't hear or ask.So he continued to listen patiently.

"However, you can beat Davidson with your inside skills, which shows that you really have good strength. In addition, a big man wrote me a letter of recommendation, recommending you to join my team."

Hearing the word "but", Gan Guoyang knew there was something going on, and when he heard the "big shot" recommending himself, he had already thought of it, it must be Mr. Nate Thurmond.

"So, I'm going to give you a chance to try out on the team for a week. If you do well, you can stay on my team. Otherwise, Mr. Thurmond's recommendation letter will not work."

"Thank you, Mr. Behrman! I will definitely perform well!" Gan Guoyang stood up excitedly, thanking him hurriedly.

"Mr. Gan, what I mean by good performance is not only the performance on the court, but also off the court. I hope you can get along well with all the players. A united team is more important than a good player." Coach Behrman reminded him.

There was nothing wrong with him doing so. From Thurmond's recommendation to Gan Guoyang's defeat of Davidson, Bellman had already seen that this Chinese boy would be a rare talent in the history of the Palo Alto high school basketball team.But in order to prevent Gan Guoyang from relying on his talents and destroying the unity of the team, he used both kindness and power to make Gan Guoyang understand that the interests of the team are above all else.

And Gan Guoyang is not a stabbing head. Yesterday's behavior was just a spur of the moment, so he agreed without hesitation, and he was confident to do a good job in solidarity work.

"Hey, gentlemen, assemble! Stop running, you're already running like pussies, I can't stand it anymore!

"Today we will have a new member, let's get to know each other! Gan, let me introduce myself." Coach Behrman pulled Gan Guoyang to stand in front of the assembled players and asked him to introduce himself.

"Hi everyone, we met yesterday, but I'm sorry to leave a bad impression on everyone. My name is... sunny?gump!" Gan Guoyang hesitated for a moment, and instead of saying his name was Gan, he called himself "Sunshine idiot"! The pronunciation of gump is very similar to that of Gan, which means a fool.

His name aroused everyone's laughter, and the whole atmosphere became lighter with Gan Guoyang's apology and the funny name.

The subsequent communication was naturally much simpler, and a group of high school students quickly accepted this cute Chinese boy.And they all know that this guy is very strong, even Davidson is not his opponent.

"Okay, ladies, stop chattering like pussies. The training later will make you speechless." Coach Behrman interrupted the noise of the players. Today's training is about to here we go.

After finishing the preparatory activities and the motivational calls, the real training begins.It was only for the first time that Gan Guoyang realized how different and painful a complete basketball team training was from one-on-one guidance.

From [-]:[-] p.m. to [-]:[-] p.m., the team conducted:

[-]. Pass training, including five-corner pass, four-corner pass, half-court two-on-one, half-court three-on-two pass practice;

[-]. Break down tactical exercises, including half-court man-to-man, strong-side three-on-three, weak-side two-on-two, and half-court defensive positioning running exercises;

[-]. Five-on-five full confrontation practice.

Among them, Gan Guoyang did not participate in the five-on-five confrontation. Instead, he was called to the side and coach Behrman accompanied him to do back-to-back strength confrontation.

"Hold on, what are your feet doing! Keep your balance! I don't want you to fall over like a bitch!" Behrman held a big cushion against Gan Guoyang's back while whispering in his ear yell.

"If you-fucking thought you could make it to the team with this ability, I-fucking would have made it to the NBA long ago! Work harder!" Behrman kept torturing Gan Guoyang with words.Gan Guoyang, on the other hand, gritted his teeth and tried hard to do position-blocking exercises.

Passing the ball and breaking down tactical exercises consumed a lot of his physical strength, and he was out of breath at this time.Gan Guoyang did not expect that the training of a high school team would be so professional and hard.

When the practice of back body was finished, Gan Guoyang felt that his back had lost consciousness.

"Hey! Dippenbrook! What the hell are you doing! You're a point guard, protecting the ball is your number one job, and if you can't even do that, you-don't touch basketball!"

Dippen Bullock, the player named Gan Guoyang, is the team's backup point guard.Apparently his performance made Behrman very dissatisfied. This seemingly gentle white coach hurled insults without hesitation.

Gan Guoyang couldn't count how many times he heard Coach Behrman say "fuck" today.

The sky darkened, and the training was drawing to a close. Sure enough, when they assembled again, no one could speak.Today was just the first training session after school started, and everyone didn't quite understand why the always strict coach Behrman would become even stricter.

"Okay, ladies, today's game is over, I hope you have a good time, go back and have a good dream! Go back, see you tomorrow, disband!" As soon as Behrman finished speaking, the players dragged their weary pace to go Change clothes in the locker room and leave the arena.

"Mr. Behrman, I still want to practice for a while." One person did not move, it was Gan Guoyang, and he wanted to practice more.

"You still want to practice more, which means that you are not tired. This is my negligence. However, I have other important things today, so I can't continue to torture you, so practice hard. Also, if you die here , I wouldn't add a dead man to the team roster."

After speaking, Bellman gave Gan Guoyang the keys to the arena and left.This is not only to hope that he locks the door at night, but also to hope that he will be the first to come in the morning.

Gan Guoyang held the ball and prepared to practice a few unskilled technical moves, but found that he was not the only one in the arena, there was another figure.

"Dipenbrook?" Gan Guoyang recognized Dipenbrock.

"Hey, Gan, I also want to practice for a while."

"Okay, I'm too lonely alone, we can just be a companion."

In this way, the two cooperated with each other and helped each other, and practiced for more than an hour, and finally they couldn't take it anymore, so they went to the locker room to take a shower and change clothes.

"Hey, Gan, do you know? I can see that Coach Behrman is very happy and excited. He has never been so passionate like today, so he uttered so many dirty words." Dippenbrook suddenly talked to Gan Guoyang in the shower Said.

"Really? Didn't he look like today?" Gan Guoyang was also impressed by this trash-talking coach.

"Yes, but not like today. I can see that he is very focused, very strict, stricter than in the past. It's all because of you."

"Because of me?" Gan Guoyang was surprised.

"Yes, because you are a genius, and the basketball team in Palo Alto High School has never had a genius."

Gan Guoyang was taken aback by what Dipenbrock said, and he looked at Dipenbrock in surprise.

"Palo Alto High School has always been unknown, and Coach Behrman is actually very ambitious, but he has never had a chance. However, your arrival made him feel that the opportunity has come."

"But...Actually, I'm not that great." Gan Guoyang didn't know how to respond.

"No, you're amazing. Whether you're a genius or not can be seen in just one training session. Why doesn't Coach Behrman let you participate in five-on-five and take you to practice alone? Because he knows that if you play five-on-five, we There was no chance of performance at all.”

Gan Guoyang originally thought that it was because he was a rookie that he could not participate in the full-court confrontation practice.

"However, even if you don't participate in five-on-five practice, I don't have much chance to perform. I think... I really don't have any talent... I don't think I will stay on this team for long." Di Pembu Locke obviously thought of his performance in the afternoon and being scolded by Coach Behrman, and lowered his head deeply in the mist of the shower head.

"Dipenbrook, everyone's existence must have his meaning. So never give up on yourself. If you give up lightly, the game will end early. The same is true for your basketball career."

Dippenbrock raised his head and looked at Gan Guoyang. It was not clear whether it was water or tears flowing on his face.

"never give up."

Gan Guoyang's words deeply encouraged Dippenbrook, allowing this man with no basketball talent to stick to his basketball dream.Decades later, he gave that passage to another point guard, encouraging him not to give up.

Dippenbrook later became the head coach of the Palo Alto High School basketball team, and the guard who was encouraged by him was the later Chinese Light, the inspirational legend of the nba little man, Jeremy Lin who graduated from Palo Alto High School.