The Golden Age of Basketball

() After experiencing the spiritual ups and downs in life on the weekend, Gan Guoyang, Gan Guohui and Chen Xing took the intercity bus early on Monday to go back to Palo Alto High School for class.

The current high school course is extremely easy for Gan Guoyang.Not to mention mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc., his knowledge has long been beyond the outline.Biology is a little more difficult, and it is not a problem for Gan Guoyang to spend some time.As for English literature, in Gan Guohui's words: "Big cousin is already half a troubadour."

The only thing that is more troublesome is the history class.The history of the United States is only a short two to three hundred years, but the history lessons in the United States are really not sloppy at all.Because of the short history, his knowledge is very detailed and serious, which made Gan Guoyang, a student from China with a long history, dizzy.

"In the history of the United States, there have been a total of 40 presidents so far, among which there are many great presidents, but so far there has not been a president of a person of color."

The history teacher is going to talk about race in the United States today, and he started with the topic of the president of the United States.This topic has always been the top priority of American history courses, and it is also a focal issue of American society.

"One day there will be..." Gan Guoyang said while sitting below, resting his cheeks.He was thinking about the team training in the afternoon, and when he vaguely heard the teacher talk about the issue of a colored person being president, he blurted out.

"Student Gan, why do you think there will always be a colored person to be president?" the history teacher asked after hearing Gan Guoyang's words.

"Ah?" Gan Guoyang regretted the words as soon as he uttered them, what should he say?Said that he came from later generations. In 2008, Obama was elected president of the United States and became the first president of a se-race in American history?

Gan Guoyang was stunned for a moment, racking his brains to search all the information about the racial issue in the United States and the presidential election, and came up with an explanation.And boldly predicted that there will be the birth of the first black president in the early 21st century.

"Yes, Mr. Gan, your explanation is very unique. It seems that you have absorbed a lot of wisdom from the long history of your country."

In this way, Gan Guoyang bluffed through.And the one-day course ended soon, and Gan Guoyang couldn't wait to go to the basketball hall for training.After two days of no training, he felt itchy all over his body.

"Hey, Gan, I heard that there will be a warm-up match in a few days." It was Dippenbrook who was talking, and he and Gan Guoyang were changing clothes in the locker now, and then went to training together.

"Really? When? With which school?" Gan Guoyang was very excited when he heard the news, and he could finally play the game.

"I don't know. Coach Behrman will tell us about training today. Let's go." The two changed their clothes and prepared to go to the arena for training.

"Look, look, who is this? He's wearing the uniform of the basketball team? You really look like a dog, yellow-skinned monkey." The two hadn't walked out of the teaching building, but they met in another locker. To "old acquaintance," Gary Halleck of the football team.

"Hello, Halleck, don't you think you look like a gorilla in your football uniform?" Gan Guoyang shot back without hesitation.Rugby has two large shoulder pads, so it really feels like a gorilla when worn on the body.

"Hey, brat, you know I don't like you. One, you are a yellow-skinned monkey. Two, the basketball team is trash. I advise you to walk slowly in the future, and be careful not to fall out of your teeth. Sunshine idiot."

Halleck posted it and looked up at Gan Guoyang and said.Although he is a big man of 6 feet 3, but now Gan Guoyang is 6 feet 7, and Halleck has to be a head shorter in front of Gan Guoyang.

"Thank you for your kindness, but you should take care of your own business first. When I win the state championship, I will invite you to the basketball team to celebrate together."

"Whoa! Oh my god, are you really an idiot? State champion? Did I hear you wrong? Are you sure you're going to make it to the state championship? Hahahaha!"

"Hey! Hey! Listen, everyone, this yellow monkey said he was going to take the Vikings to the state championship! State championship? Sunshine idiots, if the Buccaneers can win the state championship, then I'm Gary Haller Ke just crawled around the playground at Palo Alto High School!"

Halleck said aloud, in front of many people.

"However, if you can't win the state championship, then please hang a sign saying 'Yellow people are all pigs' on your body for a day!" At this moment, Halleck's racism was clearly exposed.

"No problem, I advise you to practice your crawling skills well, and remember to wear knee pads on your knees, don't let people think you're kneeling on the bed and get raped." After several months of English practice, with the help of With his already sharp language ability, Gan Guoyang's mouth can be said to be poisonous to a certain level.

A trash talk made Halleck so angry that he wanted to go up and beat him up, but Gan Guoyang, who took advantage of it, didn't bother to talk to him, and left with Dippenbrock without looking at him.

"Hey Gan, is that okay? As much as that guy Halleck is, it's not easy to win a state championship. And the Vikings haven't made a state championship in years."

"No problem, the big deal is to write Chinese on the sign. Anyway, few people can understand it." Gan Guoyang has no idea, but he has an alternative plan.

Soon the two arrived at the basketball hall, and Coach Behrman was already waiting inside.

"Hey, ladies! Please hurry up, how long do you have to wait? Do you want to wait until dark to start training?" Bellman roared loudly, but it was actually only past three o'clock.

A total of 15 members of the Vikings team gathered in the middle of the basketball court, and Coach Behrman began a routine lecture.

"A new week has begun. I don't know if the two days on the weekend have given you enough rest. Because this week we will be really busy."

"The first thing is the warm-up game. I think some people have heard some news. Yes, we will play a warm-up game against McCrawmond High School on Friday, and it will be at their home court."

"Wow, McCloud High School?" "They're pretty good." "They've won the state championship!" The players below began to whisper, and it seemed that he was no stranger to McCloud High School.

"Okay ladies, shut your mouths! Although we won't meet McCloud High School in the state game, but because of this, we have such a good opportunity to meet this strong team and practice. Come on you bitches."

McCloud High School belongs to the school in Oakland, California, and Palo Alto is in the Central Coast area, and the two are not in the same level, and they will not meet in official competitions.

"Okay ladies! Next, I think it's time to torture you! If you are still chattering after training, it will be my resignation."

Amid Bellman's yelling, the half-disappeared warm-up before training began.For ordinary people, it takes half an hour to warm up, which is simply fatal.For basketball players, it's just a drizzle.

Gan Guoyang ran around with the team while listening to Behrman's chatter.Everyone on the Vikings team has long been used to Behrman's loud noises. If one day he doesn't scold in their ears, the players will be very uncomfortable with training.

The main training content of the team today is tactical drills to prepare for Friday's warm-up match.

"Hey Virgis! Watch your position, time time! No three seconds!"

"Run, run! Don't force me to go up and beat you with a whip!"

"Pay attention to the conduction ball, pay attention to the conduction ball, don't stop casually, it's you Dippenbrook."

"Very good, this running position is good and in place."

…………

"Okay, Gan, don't be so excited, give them a chance to perform. You can't score goals like this. Timeout! Substitution, Gan, you come down, Bromos, you go up."

Bellman replaced Gan Guoyang from the field, not because he was not performing well, but because when he was on the field, other people, especially the opponents, couldn't play at all.His strong control of the rebound and wide-ranging oppressive defense make it extremely difficult for the opponent to score a goal.

His style of play comes from his mentor, Nate Thurmond, who is known for his fierce and domineering playing.

"Gan, you seem very excited? You are playing more aggressively than usual, and your teammates have no chance at all."

"Yes, there's a game on Friday and I hope to be in the best shape possible."

"But I think maybe you are a little too nervous, and I think my arrangement can calm you down a little."

"What, Coach?"

"I will let you be a substitute. You will not get a chance to play in the first half, and it will be the time for you to show your skills in the second half."

"Substitute?" Gan Guoyang didn't expect the coach to do this, but after thinking about it, he decided to respect the coach's choice.

"Okay, Coach Behrman. I hope my teammates don't fall behind too much in the first half."

"You idiot, don't be too confident, training and competition are different. Well, you can go to strength training, immediately, now, immediately!"

Under Bellman's urging, Gan Guoyang had no choice but to leave the bench and go to the gymnasium for strength training.

…………

The four days passed quickly, and another Friday came, and tomorrow is the weekend again.But for the players of the Palo Alto Vikings, it's not the time to think about where to go for the weekend.

Today, they will drive to McCloud High School to participate in the first warm-up match of the new season.

Gan Guoyang felt quite relaxed. McCleod High School is in Oakland, which means he can go back to San Francisco directly after the game. It was a perfect itinerary.

The team with 16 coaches, plus the school doctor and a teacher, a total of 18 people, drove towards Auckland in a car.

The group arrived at the basketball gymnasium of McCloud High School at one o'clock in the afternoon.In Gan Guoyang's eyes, this basketball hall is not so much a court as a library.Because judging from its boxy shape and three large floor-to-ceiling glass, it is full of academic atmosphere.

And when they entered the gymnasium, the group found that the inside had become a sea of ​​orange.

The main color of McCloud's high school team uniform is orange, and many students knew that there was a warm-up match today, so they wore orange clothes early to occupy seats in the gymnasium, waiting for the start of the game.

"Damn it, the first game is an away game, and it's still an orange army." At this time, Gan Guoyang began to understand what Coach Behrman said, "Training and competition are different."

Seeing so many uniform home fans, and the state championship flags (1980, 1976) hanging in the arena, he couldn't help but feel drums in his heart, his calves were still shaking a little, and he seemed to have trouble walking.

"Everyone! Go to the locker room to change clothes, and then gather at the stadium to prepare for warm-up activities."

When I arrived at the locker room of the visiting team in the gymnasium, it was really narrow and small. It seems that the tradition of the NBA's visiting team's locker room being extremely badly built has been carried forward in various basketball fields.

"Hey Gan, I'm a little nervous." Dippenbrock said as he changed his clothes.

"It's not your first time playing a game, why are you nervous?"

"But I used to be the third substitute. Either I didn't have a chance to play at all, or it was already garbage time when I played. Now I am the second substitute, and I will play a lot of time."

"It's better to play more time! In this way, you will have a chance to perform well."

"But... aren't you nervous, Gan?"

"Me? Me... Anyway, I'm not a starter, so I'm not nervous!" In fact, Gan Guoyang's calves were weak, obviously he was very nervous.

When he really set foot on the field and felt the fiery atmosphere around him, Gan Guoyang finally realized what the real field is.And this was just a high school basketball warm-up match. Gan Guoyang didn't know if he would pee his pants in fright when he got to the real NBA arena.

"Start warming up, exercise your muscles and bones! Take it easy for me, don't flash your waist."

After shooting a few shots and trotting on the field for a while, Gan Guoyang felt much better.The heartbeat is also normal, and the feet on the floor are also solid.

The game is about to start, and Coach Behrman called all the players together to make the final arrangement before the game.

"Remember, the opponent is stronger than us, so we must disrupt their rhythm. Rely on a strong defense and disrupt their offense. Don't value your physical strength. You can stay in bed all day on weekends. Attack the inside more , Virgis, pay attention to rebounding. Stanley, pay attention to defending the opponent's No. 9, that center is very good."

"Okay lads, come on, don't be afraid! Kick their asses hard!" This time Behrman didn't call the players "ladies," but encouraged the lads.

The first half began as the referee tossed the ball into the air.And Gan Guoyang was pressed on the bench, watching his teammates struggle on the court.

The McCloud Warriors wearing orange jerseys (the high school team is also called the Warriors) won the ball first, and the center for the ball was the No. 9 player that Bellman said.

The Warriors point guard pushed quickly as soon as he got the ball, and other players settled down very quickly.It can be seen that the training is well-trained, and the rhythm of the entire team should also be fast.

But the Vikings carried out the coach's intentions and began to stalk each other.Especially the center Stanley, desperately going around the front to defend, not giving No. 9 a chance to catch the ball.

The opposing point guard dribbled the ball for a few laps and found that there was still no chance. Suddenly, he accelerated, passed the Vikings point guard, rushed to the free throw line, made an emergency stop jumper, and the ball scored! 2:0.

No one on the Viking side even reacted to disturb him.

"It's fucking unlucky." Behrman shook his head. In his opinion, the team's defense is fine, and the opposing point guard's success was purely blind.

In the transition between offense and defense, the point guard of the Vikings was obviously worse than that of the opposing team. They passed the ball in a hurry under pressure. Fortunately, Wiggis got the ball.After pushing the defender away, he successfully hit the jumper near the three-second zone. 2:2.

In this round, neither side played any tactics, relying on the personal ability of the players to score a goal each.

Behrman felt that the opening of the game should be in his hands.Because he could see that the Vikings spared no effort to defend, which disrupted the Warriors' tactical layout, and some of the opponents did not play well.And the disorganization of the offense also interfered with their defense.

Soon, the Vikings led 8:4, and the Warriors called a timeout.

"Very good, keep this defensive rhythm, don't give the opponent any chance! Even if you don't score, you will never allow the opponent to score!"

But then, everything was out of Bellman's control.

The Warriors on the opposite side replaced a No. 33 power forward, who was 6 feet 8 tall.This player, Bellman, and other players in the team have never seen it before, and it should be a rookie this year.

And after he came on the court, it had an immediate effect, and he began to continuously hit the Vikings' backcourt rebounds.Wiggis and Stanley on the inside couldn't withstand the impact of No. 9 and No. 33, and they were still unable to protect the backcourt rebounds.The Warriors relied on the second consecutive score to catch up and overtake. 12:8.

Once the defense is weak, the Vikings' offense also has some problems.The team's top singles point, Wiggis, faced the defense of No. 33 and did nothing.The others, on the other hand, did not have the ability to carry the banner of attack alone, so they could only fight piecemeal.

10 minutes passed, the score became 18:10, the Vikings' offense and defense stagnated, and Bellman immediately called a timeout.

"Stanley, Wiggis, focus on dealing with No. 33, No. 9 can be released first. Be sure to protect the backboard! Also, don't attack the inside again, pay more attention to the transmission from the outside, try to find Chance. And Diepenbrock, warm up and get ready to play!"

"Huh?" Dippenbrook was taken aback. He didn't expect the coach to play at such a time.

"Don't be in a daze! Get ready! I want you to play and straighten out the team's offense!"

Dippenbrook scrambled and ran to the sidelines to warm up, while Gan Guoyang was still sitting on the bench, carefully observing the situation on the field and the coach's deployment, while quietly waiting for the coming opportunity to play.