The Golden Age of Basketball

() "Dear viewers and friends, good evening, after nearly 4 months of waiting, the new NBA season has once again kicked off. There will be 6 games today, and abc TV will bring you The Kansas Kings are playing against the Portland Trail Blazers."

"I am your good friend,"

"The most eye-catching thing in this game is the Chinese rookie of the Portland Trail Blazers, this year's No. [-] pick, sunny-gump. In the previous preseason games, he did not appear in Portland's roster , but was placed on the injury watch list. According to the Portland Trail Blazers, his waist had problems in training, so he missed the preseason."

"However, he will get a chance to play in this game. He appeared on the Trail Blazers' roster, and he is the starting center."

……

Half an hour before the start of the game, the front reporter of ABC TV station sent a live report at the Portland Memorial Arena, and behind him, the Trail Blazers players could be seen doing warm-up exercises on the field.

"How is it, Gan, no problem?" Drexler asked Gan Guoyang beside him.

"Yes, no problem, I think I can kill a cow now." Gan Guoyang replied with a smile.

After being injured two days before the preseason game, the Trail Blazers canceled Gan Guoyang's plan to participate in the preseason game just to be on the safe side, and let Shui Miao take charge of Gan Guoyang's recovery.

Because another main player in the team, Jim Paxson, was also hit by injuries, which made the Blazers' managers have to doubt whether the team's team doctor was really incompetent as Gan Guoyang said.

But no matter what, under Shui Miao's rehabilitation treatment, Gan Guoyang's minor injuries quickly disappeared, which allowed him to catch up with the first game of the new season, Gan Guoyang's NBA debut.

Gan Guoyang still clearly remembers that in 2002, Yao Ming made his debut against the Indiana Pacers, and he came off the bench without scoring a point.

Although Yao Ming slapped those critics in the face with his outstanding performance, it is a pity that he did not perform well in the first game.

At this time, Gan Guoyang has a very big advantage over the later Yao Ming, that is, he has long been accustomed to the playing environment in the United States.

When he entered the Portland Memorial Stadium, he did not have the slightest sense of strangeness and tension. Before that, he had been to many NBA arenas, in San Francisco, in Los Angeles, in Seattle, in Salt Lake City, that is, in I've seen the game inside and played on the court.

So he didn't feel nervous standing on this field, not to mention that the arena in the 80s was a bit broken in Gan Guoyang's eyes. There was only a large electronic scoreboard on the central ceiling of the stadium, unlike later generations with huge quadrangular or octagonal screens.

There were no mascots on the field, no audience interaction, no half-time activities, and even the home team logo on the floor looked very old-fashioned.

The NBA game still looks more like an old-fashioned drama than the kaleidoscope entertainment that came later.

Of course, that's all going to change this season with the arrival of Stern and a bunch of talent.

"Okay, go back, the introduction will start soon." Drexler reminded Gan Guoyang.

"Oh my god, why make it look like no one knows us."

What Gan Guoyang hates the most is the lengthy player introductions. Although the introductions in this era are much simpler than the later ones that turned off the lights, played music, and sprinkled chalk, Gan Guoyang still couldn't bear this grinding ceremony.

Especially before the players were introduced, the American national anthem had to be played and sung, which made Gan Guoyang, a Chinese, always in a state of doing nothing.

However, when the live dj announced Gan Guoyang's English name "sunny-gump", the audience reported his warm applause and cheers, Gan Guoyang was still excited.

This is the second time he has been welcomed by Portland fans. Before the official start of the regular season, the Trail Blazers had an event where the whole team and Portland citizens met, just outside the Memorial Stadium.

That meeting made Gan Guoyang experience the enthusiasm and madness of Portland fans for the first time, which not only gave him great motivation, but also brought him a lot of pressure.

Gan Guoyang knows that without him, Portland fans in history will suffer many disappointments, and these disappointments come from centers and injuries.

"I want to bring the best era here!" This is the strongest thought in Gan Guoyang's mind.

When everything was ready and players from both sides stepped onto the playing field in the sports vests and shorts unique to that era, the game was about to begin. This would be Gan Guoyang's first NBA game in his life.

"The two sides are ready to jump the ball. The Blazers start with center sunny-gump, power forward Mitchell Sampson, small forward Kiki Vandeweghe, shooting guard Clyde Drexler , who started in place of the injured Jim Paxson and point guard Darnell Valentine. Rookie Gan started Game [-] and was in the middle circle with Kansas Kings center Russell Sampson jump ball!"

Portland TV's play-to-play commentator will broadcast the situation in real time, so that broadcasters can listen to the game.

At that time, the nba's operating conditions were not good. Some games were recorded and broadcast on some TV stations but not broadcast live, so commentators were needed to transmit the live conditions to all parts of the United States.

Gan Guoyang started the game in the first game, which can be said to have exceeded the expectations of many media. Jack Ramsey also suffered a lot of pressure for this, not only from outside, but also from within the team.

"Gump won the ball! Oh, his reaction speed is really sensitive, like a buck bouncing around, the Blazers will take the lead in attacking!"

Gan Guoyang was a little nervous when he was standing in the middle circle, but when he won the ball with another Sampson, the opponent's center, he suddenly entered the state.

Small victories like scrimmage can energize Gan.

"Go and cover the boy, the inside line is not your place!"

Just when Gan Guoyang was about to go to the three-second zone, the starting power forward Mitchell Sampson said to Gan Guoyang, signaling Gan Guoyang to go to the high position to cover for his teammates, and he himself came to the waist.

Mitchell Sampson was the No. 1978 pick in 6. He was 10 feet [-] tall like Gan Guoyang. At that time, Walton had been traded, but he still played for Lucas as a substitute for one year, and he did not become a player until the second year. starter.

And now Gan Guoyang grabbed his starting position in the first game. Although Sampson is also on the starting list, he has been squeezed into the power forward position.

This also made Sampson quite unhappy. Gan Guoyang is the second place in the list, and he is not as good as the No. [-] pick. Why do you let him start as a center?

In the NBA at that time, the center was the most important position in the team, and the power forward was the standard coolie position. Ramsey let the 6-foot-10 Sampson play the power forward and Gan Guoyang played the center. Sampson meant to lay hands on Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang didn't care about what Sampson said. Anyway, Ramsey's arrangement before the game was to let him cover more outside lines. The Blazers mainly played Vandeweghe and Valentine at the beginning of the game.

Valentine, a guard who graduated from the University of Kansas, is a pretty good point guard, a typical pass first score second.

In the 1983 Christmas game against the Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson, he sent 13 assists, which is also on the list in the history of the Christmas game.

When Gan Guoyang trained with Valentine, he had the feeling of playing with Stockton.

After setting a high position for Valentine to block, Gan Guoyang began to roll down to the right corner, while Valentine cut in from the left.

Obviously, this is not all tactics. At this time, Vandeweghe has already circled from the bottom line to the outside, and just used Gan Guoyang's body to throw away the defender who was following him.

Valentine passed the ball to Vandeweghe, and Vandeweghe caught the ball and made a jumper on the right side of the top of the arc, and the goal was scored!

The Blazers took the lead in scoring two points in the opening 10 seconds, and the Kansas Kings' defense was full of holes just because of Gan Guoyang's two screens.

This made Gan Guoyang a little surprised, is this an NBA game?

If such a ball is switched to ncaa to face Georgetown, there will never be such an easy shot.

"Go back to the defense boy! Stay for a while and it's time for us to attack!" Mitchell Sampson's voice passed by Gan Guoyang's ears again.

Sure enough, the Kansas Kings player was dribbling straight upfield.

"Larry Drew, the point guard for the Kansas Kings, dribbled the ball across half court. His speed was pretty fast. He gave the ball to small forward Eddie Johnson. Johnson broke through the middle for a layup! Speed So fast! Portland's defense wasn't even ready!"

The king's counterattack was so fast that Gan Guoyang hadn't had time to run back to the three-second zone.

What puzzled Gan Guoyang was, why didn't his teammates make a delay?Reduce the speed of the opposing point guard's advancement, and Johnson's layup is too easy, and no one even tries to block him.

However, Gan Guoyang didn't have time to question his teammates. Now he dared not criticize his teammates for not doing well like he did in college, and the Blazers' offensive speed was not slower than the Kings at all.

"Run, run! Gan, don't block the offensive line!" Valentine reminded Gan Guoyang.

At this point Drexler has rushed to the bottom line.

Valentine handed the ball to Sampson who was squeezed into the three-second zone, but Sampson did not force the inside line, but as an excessive, handed the ball to Drexler on the baseline.

With the help of Sampson's screen, Drexler hit the inside line directly from the side.

His first step is so quick, his speed is so quick, and when he gets inside, a follower and a cover fall behind.

Facing Kansas center Sampson who was squatting in the three-second zone, Drexler, with his head down, stepped up directly, facing Sampson's block, and smashed the ball into the basket!

"Clyde~~Dray~~Kexler! A beautiful dunk, over the head of Russell Sampson! This is the first dunk at home in Portland this season, from Drake Schiller, I'm sure he's going to give a lot more of his usual good performances in this year's game."

Drexler's dunk was quite beautiful, showing his excellent first step and strong aerial confrontation ability. This dunk also ignited the enthusiasm of the audience in the Memorial Stadium, and the atmosphere of the game began to gradually heat up.

It's just that Gan Guoyang was a little dissatisfied, because the pace of the game between the two sides was really too fast, and this pace was different from the pace that he trained with the Lakers in Palm Springs that day. It was a pace of not defending but only attacking.

Gan Guoyang feels like he is running back and forth on the court. One of his main functions is to run, the other is to cover for his teammates, catch the ball and transition, and the third is to pick up a few rebounds for nothing.

After half a quarter of the game, Gan Guoyang felt that he didn't touch the ball a few times, and just ran behind the buttocks of the smaller players on both sides.

"This is the fucking NBA?" This is the sentence that Gan Guoyang thinks about the most.

The pace of the game between the two sides was quite fast, and almost every attack ended in about 13 seconds, and some were direct storms without any cooperation after halftime.

This also makes Gan Guoyang, who is used to playing tactics one by one in the NCAA, uncomfortable, especially when defending. Since the NBA does not allow the use of zone defense, the monotonous man-to-man marking makes Gan Guoyang fade out of the basket.

The opponent's center, Russell Sampson, is purely a blue-collar center, who is mainly responsible for defense and rebounding. The main role in the offense is to cover for his teammates, and occasionally pick up a miss and score two or three points.

"Forrest Gump is a bit at a loss. It seems that he is still not used to BA being two worlds, and it's only the first quarter, so it's still early." Another assistant coach Buck Buckwater said.

The Blazers' offense in the first quarter was quite smooth. Vandeweghe, the new aid, integrated quite well and gave full play to his abilities. He could get anything he wanted in front of the weak King. He played for 7 minutes in the first quarter. Already scored 10 points.

Mitchell Sampson, the main insider of the Blazers, also relied on his solid inside skills, seized the opportunity to hit the inside successfully several times, and scored 7 points in 8 minutes.

Drexler didn't get much scoring opportunity other than that dunk, but he contributed 3 rebounds and 1 steal.

In 7 minutes, the Blazers have scored 30 points. This score is the full-court score of the Texas El Paso Miners against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the 32-for-16 game. The Bulldogs also scored in that game. Just got 35 points.

Now, the Blazers did it in 7 minutes.

But the Blazers did not open the score, because their opponents were also sharp offensively, relying on their leading scorer, small forward Eddie Johnson.

Johnson's state is as good as his opponent Vandeweghe. No one can stop him, or no one wants to stop him, except Gan Guoyang.

However, Gan Guoyang, who lacked the help of his teammates, faced the impact of Fang Feng's line directly, and he could only suffer.

"Beep!" After Johnson used a pick-and-roll to go inside and hit the basket directly, Gan Guoyang faced Johnson and wanted to block him in the three-second zone.

Unexpectedly, Johnson was very cunning. He flinched and hit Gan Guoyang's arms. He threw the ball casually into the air, and then fell to the ground.

The referee naturally blew the whistle. This was Gan Guoyang's second foul in the first quarter. He also committed the last foul on Johnson.

"Goodbye, fish." (Goodbye, rookie.) After getting up from the ground, Johnson said to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang left the field with his head drooping, knowing that he would be replaced for two fouls in the first quarter.

Sure enough, Ramsey replaced Gan Guoyang and replaced Tom Scheffler.

"Don't be discouraged, you did a good job and created many opportunities for your teammates." Ramsey, who was standing on the sidelines, patted Gan Guoyang and said to him.

Gan Guoyang just nodded and didn't speak, obviously he was very dissatisfied with his performance.

Sitting on the bench, Gan Guoyang watched the game on the field and began to seriously think about what was wrong.Is this what his long-awaited first nba game looks like?

"It seems that our Chinese No. 2 pick is in a little trouble. He has 1 rebounds, [-] fouls, [-] assist, and no points. This is his current data. Let us wish him good luck."