The Golden Age of Basketball

On December 1984, 12, at the Summit Arena in Houston, there were 22 minutes before the game between the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers, and the stadium was already full.

Vendors selling popcorn and soft drinks shuttled around the arena, and Houston fans sat in their seats in colorful clothes and waited.

This is Gan Guoyang's first visit to Houston, the aerospace city where he once dreamed of playing.

Of course, Gan Guoyang couldn't forget that he "used" to be a Rockets fan, squatting in front of the TV in the school canteen at noon, watching Rockets games with his classmates.

He was inspired by Yao Ming's every outstanding performance, and also felt sorry for every setback of Yao Ming, which constituted the main content of Gan Guoyang's nearly ten-year fan career.

Therefore, when he first came to the Rockets' home court-even though it was the Rockets more than 20 years ago, there was no reason for him to have a kind feeling-even though the Houston fans were kind to him at all.

The fans from Houston, Texas, are wild and unrestrained like cowboys. Unlike the fans of the Trail Blazers, the fans of the Rockets at home are more scattered, not so high and enthusiastic, and always have a casual style.

Of course, this does not mean that they do not care about the team's victory, nor does it mean that they will let go of Gan Guoyang, the "Houston enemy".

Gan Guoyang's lore in the 1984 N Finals shattered the University of Houston's n championship dream, which also made local fans dislike this Chinese center. [

If it was in Detroit or Philadelphia, Gan Guoyang would probably be greeted by fans all over the time he was warming up on the court.

It's just that in Houston, or in most western cities, most of the people who come to watch the game are middle-class, and parents bring their children to watch the game together, so this situation is quite rare.

But Gan Guoyang is also ready to receive boos from fans

In this game, he vowed to avenge his loss in the last game.

Compared with Gan Guoyang's single-minded pursuit of revenge, Drexler's thoughts are much more complicated.

Drexler was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and his family moved to Houston, where he completed high school and college.

After graduating from college, he participated in the 1983 NBA draft. At that time, the Houston Rockets held the No. [-] pick and the No. [-] pick.

Drexler was promised by Rockets coach Del Harris that the Rockets would sign Drexler with the third pick, so Drexler rejected the requests of many teams.

However, before the start of the draft, Del Harris was fired by the Rockets, and Bill Fitch, who resigned from the Celtics, served as the new head coach of the Rockets.

This time the Rockets' promise to Drexler was naturally empty, and Drexler was also told that the Rockets might not pick him in the draft.

Afterwards, Drexler received a trial call from the Blazers, and in the end he was picked by the Blazers at the No.13 pick without any mental preparation.

This not only shattered Drexler's dream of continuing to play in Houston, but also made him unable to become teammates with his good friend Olajuwon, and the two would even be rivals.

Now, Drexler's good teammate is the enemy of the University of Houston, Gan Guoyang who sent them to the west.

Thinking of this, the complex emotions in Drexler's heart are really indescribable.

After the routine opening ceremony and player introductions, the game was about to start soon, and when J reported Gan Guoyang's name, he heard boos. [

Gan Guoyang is no stranger to this, on the contrary, this kind of booing can arouse his fighting spirit even more.

Drexler still did not get the chance to start, he could only sit on the bench and watch his teammates fight against the Rockets.

"At the beginning of the game, we must show momentum. If our opponent takes the lead in an away game, it will be very difficult for us." Ramsey made the last order before the game. He hoped that the Blazers could change the unstable state before the change. , back on the right track.

The starting lineups of the two sides are the same as in the previous game. The Blazers are still Gan Guoyang, Sampson, Paxson, Vandeweghe and Valentine; while the Rockets continue the top three lineup, with center Akeem Olajuwon , power forward Ralph Sampson, small forward Rodney McGregor, shooting guard Lewis Lloyd and point guard John Lucas.

"Good morning, Akeem." Gan Guoyang looked at Olajuwon on the opposite side and said hello.

"It's night now." Olajuwon glanced at Gan Guoyang and said coldly.

"It's evening in the United States, but morning in China." Gan Guoyang said with a smile.

But Olajuwon obviously didn't think this joke was funny. In his heart, he never let go of the n finals game, and he naturally wouldn't regard Gan Guoyang as a friend.

In a sense, Olajuwon, like Gan Guoyang, is a perfectionist, and they both have tireless pursuit of basketball skills.

After Olajuwon came to the nb, he honed himself day and night. His turnaround jump shot has become more and more proficient and has reached a successful level. What is currently lacking is the test of the playoffs.

His footsteps are more flexible and changeable. Although he has not reached the "dream" state, his quick movements can already make his opponent miserable.

On the defensive end, his blocked shots are still a great deterrent. Although he couldn't "play volleyball" as casually as he did in college in the nb, he averaged 27 blocked shots per game, making him second among rookies in 84 , second only to Gan Guoyang's 29 times.

But he still felt that he was looking at the back of No. 11, trying to catch up.

In the first game against the Trail Blazers, although the Rockets won the victory, Gan Guoyang sent off the Twin Towers alone, and his amazing performance of scoring 33 points clearly overshadowed Olajuwon.

In the last game, Gan Guoyang scored 43 points in a single game in Golden State, setting a new high for a rookie this year, which made Olajuwon even more depressed.

In the game against the Bulls four days ago, Olajuwon scored 24 points and gave the Bulls a loss. Jordan scored only 18 points.

In this way, Olajuwon was very happy, but when he saw the news report of Gan Guoyang's 43 points in a single game, he couldn't be happy again.

As the No. 84 pick in [-], Olajuwon only ranked third in this year's ranking of the best rookies. This put a lot of pressure on Olajuwon, but also a great motivation.

"I will beat you until your father doesn't even know you." Olajuwon responded to Gan Guoyang in this way.

"Then I will beat you until my father knows you!" Gan Guoyang responded unceremoniously when he heard Olajuwon's provocation.

The game has not yet started, and the two are already full of gunpowder.

However, the jump ball player sent by the Rockets was not Gan Guoyang, but the 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson.

In the last game against the Rockets, although Olajuwon played well, Gan Guoyang knew that Sampson was the key player of the Rockets. His agility, which was not commensurate with his height, made the Blazers suffer. .

Sampson, the No. [-] pick of the Blazers——Mitchell Sampson is the worst way to deal with this kind of player. Ramsey had to resort to double-teaming. Many opportunities.

Ralph Sampson and Olajuwon, who have already had a year of nb experience, are obviously more experienced and more difficult to deal with in the game.

So Ramsey has asked before the game to let Gan Guoyang defend Ralph Sampson and hand over Olajuwon to Mitchell.

Ralph Sampson is tall and has long arms, and he can jump very well. In this case, although Gan Guoyang is stronger, he can't take the lead in the scrimmage.

Sampson touched the ball first and turned the ball to his own player.

However, the Trail Blazers point guard Valentine used his flexibility to take the lead in the scramble and took the ball away from the Rockets.

The Trail Blazers could be said to have heard the news. Vandeweghe and Paxson rushed towards the opponent's half, one left and one right. Valentine passed the ball to Paxson, and Paxson dribbled directly to the basket.

The Rockets didn't want to let the Blazers get the first point just like this. Their old point guard John Lucas stuck close to Paxson and kept interfering with him. When Paxson made a layup, he pushed Paxson from below.

As a veteran player who has been in the league for 9 years, John Lucas is naturally experienced. He padded under Paxson, and the position was just right. He didn't foul and made Paxson very uncomfortable.

Paxson was not good at physical fitness, so Lucas made him lose his balance in the air, and a layup that was supposed to be easy and simple was made by him.

The Rockets following behind got the rebound, and the Blazers' quick offense failed, and now it was the Rockets' turn to advance quickly.

The experienced Lucas has good rhythm control. He dribbled ahead of Paxson and Vandeweghe, trying to hit back the Blazers for a fast break.

But seeing that the rest of the Blazers were in a good position, and Paxson and Vandeweghe were also quick to return to defense, they slowed down and prepared to play a positional attack.

The Rockets are a typical twin-tower tactic, with two high players on one side, and pass to whichever side has the opportunity. If you encounter a team with a weak inside, the twin towers can really beat the opponent to death.

However, Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson's positions are not deep, so they gave the inside a lot of opportunities to counter run and cut. Therefore, Gan Guoyang and Mitchell Sampson did not dare to go around the front Defense, if you go around the front, the back will be empty.

John Lucas held the ball at 45 degrees to the left and paused, yearning to feed the ball inside, but Olajuwon on the left had no intention of attacking himself, so Lucas transferred the ball to McGregor on the side.

McGregor was the rookie that the Rockets won with the No. 1983 pick in [-]. He is an all-around small forward who graduated from the University of Louisville.

His performance in all aspects is fairly balanced, and he is a very competent small forward, but obviously there is a big gap between him and the requirements of Tanhua's pick.

He held the ball on the outside, and after turning from left to right, he found that he couldn't pass the ball in. The Blazers were very defensive in the opening game, so at the right corner, he faced Vandeweghe's defense directly. 18-foot jumper.

"Shua!" The ball actually went in.

I have to say that Vandeweghe is not a good single defender. He graduated from ul with outstanding consciousness, but sometimes he really has the heart, so he can only let McGregor make this mid-range shot.

A ball is nothing, the Blazers serve to organize the offense.

The biggest feature of the Blazers' offense is "fastness". Their speed is not only reflected in fast breaks and fast counterattacks, but their offense is also very fast in positional warfare.

In Ramsey's words, if you don't make a shot in the first 10 seconds, why do you think you can throw the ball in the next 14 seconds?

Ramsey's offensive thinking is actually very advanced, because the longer the offensive side delays, the worse the offensive feeling of the offensive side will actually be, and the defensive side will be more defensive, especially if they delay the shot at the end. Often misses shots.

Instead of this, it is better to quickly complete the attack in front, or even rush to shoot. Sometimes such a shot seems unreasonable, but combined with the whole game, such a shot is often more efficient.

The Blazers' offense started very quickly. After one or two small cooperations, the players could shoot directly. This time, Ramsey took the lead in arranging Sampson to play in the low post.

The Blazers' formation quickly opened up and gave Sampson a good singles position in the low post on the right. Valentine passed the ball directly to Mitchell Sampson.

This is a duel between the two No. [-] picks, Sampson. The old Sampson's position is very deep, so he was very close to the basket as soon as he got the ball. When he turned around and hit hard, the basket was close at hand.

If any other player were to defend, Mitchell Sampson would have easily put in the ball, but it was Ralph Sampson, a little Sampson who was 5 inches taller than him, defending him.

Ralph Sampson didn't jump up to block the shot. He knew that the result of jumping up and blocking the block in this position was to be fouled by the opponent.

Relying on his height and wingspan advantages, he stood upright under the basket, using himself as a dam to resist the opponent's offense.

Mitchell Sampson was indeed affected. He used too much force when laying up and shot directly across the bridge.

McGregor got the rebound, then turned around and threw the ball directly to the frontcourt, and Olajuwon had already rushed to the Blazers basket.

After Olajuwon received the ball, he didn't pass the ball to others, but dribbled the ball straight to the basket. Gan Guoyang had already blocked Olajuwon in front of him, trying to stop his fast break.

At this time, Olajuwon has not yet reached the point of dribbling like a guard. He dribbled and rushed a few times before he dared not rush again. He stopped and threw a shot 13 feet away from the basket.

Gan Guoyang didn't step forward to block the shot, but turned around to guard the basket, ready to catch the rebound.

Sure enough, Olajuwon shot the ball too anxiously, hitting the neck of the basket and failing to score. Gan Guoyang withstood Ralph Sampson who followed from behind and Royd on the side, and firmly grabbed the ball. This rebound.

"Beautiful rebound! Score one steadily!" Ramsey applauded the rebound from the sidelines.

Gan Guoyang's fast break defense should be said to be quite calm. He did not choose to pounce on Olajuwon, but let him go forward and protect the basket by himself. You have to shoot with you outside.

When Olajuwon made a shot, he did not rush forward to interfere, but first protected the rebound to prevent the Rockets from following up with a second attack. This is actually the easiest opportunity for the opponent to score points in the fast break.

After winning the ball, the Blazers slowed down a little. They had to score one first, and Ramsey gave the Blazers an order: the first goal must be scored inside!