The Golden Age of Basketball

() In the United States, a developed capitalist country, sports have become an indispensable part of people's lives, and highly developed professional sports have brought countless fun and passion to people's spare time.

Among the 50 states in the United States, except for two overseas states, each of the remaining 48 states has its own representative sports team, including rugby, baseball, ice hockey and basketball.

Some states have extremely developed professional sports, such as California, where there are three NBA professional teams, two NFL teams and five MLB teams, and they have won countless championships in various leagues.

Like the famous Los Angeles Lakers here, as of 1984 they have won 7 NBA championships, and they will win more in the future.

Another example is Indiana. Although there are not as many professional teams as in California, and the history of the team is not particularly brilliant, the sports atmosphere there is indeed the best in the United States.

Therefore, Indiana is known as "the state of basketball" and "the state of racing".

Ohio, which is also located in the central part of the United States, also has its own pride in the field of professional sports.

In football, they have the Cleveland Browns, the Browns have won the nfl championship four times - although that was before the Super Bowl was established.

In baseball, they have the Cleveland Indians, who formed the team in 1901 and won two world championships in 1920 and 1948.

Only in basketball does Ohio truly have a "championship desert."

Neither of the two teams here, the Cincinnati Royals and Cleveland Cavaliers, has ever won an NBA championship -- or even made it to the Finals.

And at this time of year in 1984, the entire Ohio State had not won any professional sports league championship for nearly 30 years.

The Cincinnati Royals, who have been here for 27 years, will also move out of this land next season and go to the sports hot spot, California.

Ohio people's hopes for the basketball championship can only be pinned on Ohio University and Ling Yizhi's only team-the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Since joining the NBA in 1970, the entire team, like all new teams in history, started from scratch, started from scratch, and started from bad.

For a full 1984 years until 14, the Cavaliers showed no sign of becoming a powerful player in the league. Famous stars such as Lei Ze, but they are either lacking in ability or have reached the twilight of their careers, so it is difficult for them to make great achievements.

To make matters worse, in 1978, the Cavaliers ushered in the "legendary" boss-Ted Stepien, who "I call the second worst and no one dares to call the first".

In 1980, Stepien acquired a 37% stake in the Cavaliers and became the team's largest investor and real decision maker.

In the three years from then until 1983, the Cavaliers' record was only 66 wins and 180 losses, barely exceeding 30.00%, ranking the bottom of the league.

In three years, the team lost 1500 million US dollars. At that time, Stepien bought the Cavaliers shares for only 200 million US dollars.

In three years, he changed 6 head coaches for the team, including 1981 coaches in the 1982-4 season alone. Frequent personnel changes made the team only win 15 games that season.

In three years, he traded all the Cavaliers' first-round picks for the next two consecutive years-1981 and 1982, resulting in the team having no first-round picks for several consecutive years.

One of the most famous cases is that he exchanged the 1982 first-round pick to the Lakers. As a result, the Cavaliers, who have always had a good face in the lottery, won the No. [-] pick, which allowed the defending champion Lakers to get the No. [-] pick.

This is the only example in the history of the NBA that the defending champion won the No. [-] pick. The Lakers used this pick to acquire James Worthy, which directly allowed the Zijin Army to complete the alternation of the old and the new on the front line.

The Cavaliers paid a heavy price for this, and the entire team's reconstruction plan went bankrupt.

The NBA couldn't bear to see his self-interested and self-interested behavior. At the end of 1983, he was forced to transfer the management rights of the team to the local tycoon Gordon Gund for 2000 million U.S. dollars.

At the same time, the league tailored a "Stepien" rule for him, prohibiting the team from trading out his first-round picks for two consecutive years, so as to prevent second-year bosses like Stepien from learning from Lei Feng.

In the 1984 season, the Cavaliers who got rid of Stepien's clutches still had no success. They set a team record of 16 consecutive away games and only won 5 away games throughout the season.

Ranked fourth in the central region with 28 wins and 54 losses, even so, this is the team's best result since the 78-79 season.

Their home attendance averaged 5075 -- less than a third of that of the Blazers.However, it was still a 30% increase over the previous year.

In the 1985 season, at the end of 1984, the Cavaliers' record still did not seem to have any signs of improvement. They suffered a wave of 9-game losing streak at the beginning of the season. So far, they have only won 14 games after 2 games. The entire East is at the bottom.

Facing such a thousand-year-old bad team and the Cavaliers with the bottom record, the Blazers, who are currently in the limelight, naturally can't raise their spirits.

Before the game, Gan Guoyang looked at the sparse fans in the Ridgefield Stadium, and couldn't help but think of the huge contrast between the Clippers' home court and the Lakers' home court when they played in Los Angeles.

At that time, the various facilities of the nba arena were relatively old, especially some old stadiums built in the 60s and [-]s. If there were fewer spectators, the entire stadium would look particularly dilapidated.

Looking at such an environment, Gan Guoyang always felt that he was not playing the highest level basketball game in the world, but a friendly fundraising match in a poor area.

If there is any surprise in this game, one is the few fans in the stands wearing Trail Blazers jerseys. They are wearing No. 11 jerseys, obviously to support Gan Guoyang, and many of them are Chinese.

Gan Guoyang has undoubtedly become the pride of the Chinese in the United States. No matter where he plays, there will be Chinese fans, even Asian fans.

The other is that Gan Guoyang saw an acquaintance in the Cavaliers' starting lineup, the shorter one of the University of Kansas "twin-fools", Melvin Turpin.

This 6-foot-11, 240-pound big center who formed the Kansas Twin Towers with Sam Bowie, because of Gan Guoyang, their fate has changed.

In the original history, his University of Kansas also fell in the semi-finals, but they lost to Ewing's Georgetown.

In the subsequent draft, he was selected by the Washington Wizards and then traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But now, they died at the hands of Gan Guoyang in the ncaa game, and the death was ugly.

Because of this, his draft ranking fell to 12th, and he was directly selected by Cleveland, but it was the same goal by different routes.

His teammate Sam Bowie was selected by Washington to replace him, and Gan Guoyang replaced Bowie to the Trail Blazers.

Gan Guoyang quickly became the starter and the main force after coming to the Blazers, and Turpin also became the starting center of the Cavaliers. Their other center, Mark West, is a 6-foot-10 big man.

It's just that the records of the two teams are really different. One only lost two games, and the other only won two games.

"Hi, Turpin, long time no see." Gan Guoyang looked at Turping in the Cavaliers uniform and said expressionlessly.

"Hi...Gan." Turpin responded with a trace of fear, it seems that the shadow of being teased in the semi-finals has not been erased from Turpin's heart.

In addition to the poor record of the Cavaliers and the prosperity of the Blazers, Turping was a little apprehensive when he saw Gan Guoyang.

However, the current Gan Guoyang is no longer the Gan Guoyang of the university, and the Blazers are not the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Gan Guoyang is no longer the first choice, so the thing that Turpin was most worried about after the opening did not happen.

Gan Guoyang is mainly supporting his teammates on the outside, doing basic tasks of blocking and blocking people, and he is also conscientious in filling up positions in defense, a blue-collar style.

Before the start of the game, Ramsey communicated with Gan Guoyang privately, saying that he would let Sampson be the main attack point in this game and asked Gan Guoyang to complete other tasks.

Although Gan Guoyang was reluctant in his heart, he still listened to Ramsay's words, so he also made concessions and did not raise any objections.

It's just that when the first quarter was more than halfway through, the Blazers trailed the Cavaliers by three points 20:17.

Ramsey had to call a timeout. He thought the team had dispersed after Thanksgiving, and they played like this in the first quarter.

"I don't know what you are doing? Do you think the Cavaliers are Thanksgiving turkeys, roasted and put on the table for you to eat? Bring out our strength! I can't see your oppressiveness in offense, Where did your speed go!" Ramsey yelled angrily on the bench.

The entire Blazers were not in good shape. Vandeweghe and Paxson were no longer as hot as they were against the Bulls, and Sampson was even worse, missing all four shots in the first quarter.

Gan Guoyang didn't play much offensively. He only tried a mid-range shot, but he didn't make it.

In defense, Gan Guoyang felt that he didn't have much passion, and the Blazers' defensive flaws at the forward position were exposed again. The Cavaliers' shooting guard Ward Flynn scored eight points on all four shots.

Gan Guoyang met Ward Flynn when he watched the NBA preseason game for the first time. He was still in the Golden State Warriors at that time.

When Gan Guoyang was watching the game in Oakland, he and Bernard King formed a strong front and defense line, but the Warriors with poor performance finally traded him.

In this game, his breakthrough jump shot made Paxson hard to defend, and Gan Guoyang, who was guarding the inside, naturally had no choice.

"Clyde, you go on the field and improve your offensive rhythm; Gan, you come down and rest, and Carl, you go on the field." Ramsey made personnel adjustments.

Gan Guoyang took the towel handed by the staff, wiped the sweat from his head, sat down on the bench, and watched his teammates continue to play.

"What's the matter Gan, you don't seem very excited, do you mind if I assign the shooting right to Sampson?" Ramsey sat down and said while watching the game on the field.

"No, I just feel that there are too few audiences, so I don't have the desire to perform." Gan Guoyang said after taking a sip of water.

"I hope you can understand the responsibilities of the coach, Gan." After Ramsey finished speaking, he glanced at Gan Guoyang, then stood up again, and continued to watch the game from the sidelines.

Gan Guoyang remembered what Ramsey said to him. A coach should not only design good tactics, but more importantly, adjust the relationship between players in the team so that everyone can perform their duties and let the stars can be satisfied.

Only in this way can the team move forward smoothly, otherwise internal conflicts will stop the team without competing with other teams.

Thinking of this, Gan Guoyang also lamented that even in the United States, in a place like the NBA team, where strength speaks the most, interpersonal relationships are extremely important.

Gan Guoyang didn't know whether Sampson complained to Ramsey, or who Ramsey valued more, but as a rookie, he still chose to back down and follow Ramsey's arrangement.

The team's inside offensive power is given more to Sampson, while Gan Guoyang focuses on defense and support.

When necessary, Ramsey will arrange tactics for Gan Guoyang and let him use offense to solve the problem. As for when it is necessary, Gan Guoyang doesn't know.

"I absolutely think that now is the time." Gan Guoyang couldn't help but said while watching the game on the court.

After the timeout, the Blazers' offense improved. Drexler's sharp breakthrough and brilliant scoring easily tore through the already weak Cavaliers' defense and led the Blazers to continuously increase their points.

But on the defensive end, Sampson couldn't limit Turpin.

Sampson is very experienced in dealing with old fritters like Gominsky, because he is also an old fritters himself.

However, he seems to be a bit out of reach for a vigorous young center like Turpin.

Although Teping was teased by Gan Guoyang in the NCAA, he is also a high-quality center who has trained in a prestigious university for four years. He has solid basic skills, good talent, and outstanding physical fitness.

Anyone who can enter the NBA and play in the game, there is no one who does not have two brushes, no matter how bad the player is, there will be a big explosion, not to mention that Turpin is still a first-round pick.

Turpin, who has an advantage in height and weight, took off consecutive offensive rebounds in the Blazers' three-second zone and successfully played hard.

Without the Blazers who are guaranteed by backcourt rebounds, they can't fight back quickly, and without the Blazers who can counterattack quickly, they can't open the score.

At the end of the first quarter, the two sides were evenly matched and tied at 32:32. This also made the Cavaliers fans on the scene very excited and gave a standing ovation for the Cavaliers to be able to compete with the No. [-] in the West.

"I think it's time for me to play. Let me deal with that guy Turpin. I'm not afraid of him at all." Gan Guoyang said to Ramsey.

"No, don't worry, follow my command." Ramsay said coldly with his back to Gan Guoyang.