The Golden Age of Basketball

Gan Guoyang and Moses Malone soon arrived at their destination, the University of Portland on the north bank of the Willamette River.

Relying on the Willamette River, the University of Portland, established on an arc-shaped impact ground, is a well-known four-year private Catholic college in Oregon. The gymnasium here is also commonly used by the Portland Trailblazers. training ground.

In summer, the vegetation is lush on the campus, and in a few days, the school will start summer vacation, which is the period of final assessment, so the gymnasium is naturally vacated.

Moreover, based on the results of the University of Portland this season, their basketball team also had a holiday early-the Pilots (the team name of the University of Portland) in the regular season of the West Coast League, ranked no higher than Gan Guoyang and Stowe. Keton's Gonzaga is even lower.

Gan Guoyang took Ma Long to the campus gymnasium in the northwest corner of the school with ease. Since most universities in the United States do not have walls, and the gymnasium happens to be at the very corner of the campus, there is no need for the two conspicuous big men to cross the campus, otherwise they will definitely To cause a little commotion.

After entering the gymnasium, the students who were playing in it still exclaimed when they saw the two giants walking into the field.

Fortunately, this is not the first time these students have seen stars come here to practice. Every summer, NBA players from the Trail Blazers or other teams come here to train or organize small games, and they are not surprised.

However, it seems that Moses Malone really came to this place to play for the first time, and this time is really a bit early, and the finals are not over yet.

"Good afternoon everyone, I hope you don't mind me and Moses using the basket here! Thank you all." Gan Guoyang is also an "old customer" here, and he knows some of the students who play here.

It's just that compared with professional players like Gan Guoyang, their skills are too weak. Playing with them is like playing NBA games with Gan Guoyang—although there were no NBA computer games at that time.

Moses Malone is different. Although in this year's playoffs, Malone's 76ers also fell into the sand in the Eastern Conference Finals, and were also swept out by the Boston Celtics with a score of 1:4, but this year they are just 29 years old. The current Moses Malone is still at the peak of his career.

The reason why Gan Guoyang invited Ma Long to practice together was because he wanted to learn some experience from Ma Long. Even though he only had one afternoon, for Gan Guoyang, who has a strong learning ability, he still believed that he would definitely be able to get some valuable advice.

Soon, the students who were originally playing on the field obediently ran to the edge of the field and formed a circle. They wanted to take a good look at what could be wiped out between the new super center this season and the former league monster. kind of spark.

Gan Guoyang borrowed a ball from the people around him, and then called a student over, asking him to help feed the ball.

Since both of them are insiders, if they are going one-on-one, it is most practical to use the back-up attack and defense on the inside.

"Let me come first, I know you want to learn how to deal with Kareem from me, you can experience my offense." Moses Malone said in a dull voice.

It seems that Moses Malone is not stupid at all. He knows that Gan Guoyang asked him to come over for individual practice. Most of the time, he came to ask for tips on how to deal with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, so he wants to demonstrate to Gan Guoyang how to defend against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. center.

Gan Guoyang nodded. He did have this intention. In the Western Conference Finals, Gan Guoyang tried every means to limit Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring, including some tips that Thurmond gave him, but the effect was not as good as he imagined. good.

"First of all, I want to say that I have watched the video of the game between you and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In fact, in defense, you have done a good job. It is a great achievement to limit him to only 20 points per game. .” Speaking of basketball experience, Moses Malone began to talk.

"But he is already 38 years old, and his shots are very cautious, and once the critical moment comes, he can always hit the key goal, and he can't stop him at all." Gan Guoyang recalled the game a few weeks ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is always the Lakers' first choice whenever the Lakers need to score to stabilize the situation. His hook shot is too stable.

In contrast, Gan Guoyang does not have the sense of stability of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Lakers' strong perimeter defense prevents the Blazers from even passing the ball inside at critical moments.

"You also know that he is 38 years old, so how can you make him have enough physical strength to shoot easily at critical moments! You have to create pressure on him on the offensive end, let's start!" Moses Malone suddenly raised His volume, when he finished speaking, immediately circled from behind Gan Guoyang to the front of him, and suddenly got stuck in the best offensive position under the basket.

"Surprise attack!" Gan Guoyang's thoughts flashed, but a huge force came from Moses' body, which immediately excited Gan Guoyang. He hadn't competed with players of this level of strength in the NBA for a long time.

"Pass the ball, kid!" Malone shouted. The students standing on the field holding the ball did not expect the two guys to start practicing as soon as they were talking, and they were still a little dazed.

Hearing Ma Long's voice, he immediately lobbed the ball to Ma Long who was struggling under the basket. Ma Long held the ball in his arms with one hand, looked up at the basket above his head and Gan Guoyang's raised arm, and the dribble At the same time, push your butt back hard.

Ma Long's ass was before Barkley became a teacher. In the NBA, it should be said that "he was called the second and no one dared to be the first." Take half a step back.

And this retreat gave Malone room to move. Like a crane, he first spread his legs to stabilize the bottom plate, and then suddenly held the ball under the basket to force it.

Ma Long's strong play is different from other players. In Gan Guoyang's impression, when many players hold the ball and make a strong play, they will pay attention to the arms extended by the defensive players and try their best to avoid the interference of the arms. Long arms like Gan Guoyang, Often let the opponent's layup under the basket fail.

But Ma Long didn't care about Gan Guoyang's arm. Not only did he not hide, but he stuck it up desperately, almost leaning on Gan Guoyang's body and jumping up.

"Bang!" The ball hit the board and went into the basket, and Ma Long scored two points first.

"The defense is very good. In such a position, one person cannot guard me." Ma Long shook his head after scoring the goal.

"It's not because of your sneak attack..." Gan Guoyang slandered in his heart.

"Okay, it's your turn, let's play a few more rounds, and I'll tell you some experience." Ma Long threw the ball back to the student, and then said to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang nodded, this time it was his turn to attack.

Gan Guoyang is not as "reckless" as Ma Long, he wants to get the ball in a relatively shallow position. Since entering the NBA, Gan Guoyang's position has become shallower and shallower. This is also to meet the team's tactical requirements and save money. physical strength.

Gan Guoyang's back is facing Malone and the basket. Now he doesn't have to worry about someone coming to pinch him, so he boldly dribbles with his back, and then uses his back to test Malone's defense.

Gan Guoyang has an excellent sense of rhythm, which is one of the reasons why he was able to learn the skyhook. People without a sense of rhythm cannot master such an elegant technique.

And Moses Malone is trying his best to destroy Gan Guoyang's sense of rhythm. Some small movements in his hands are even more unscrupulous without a referee.

"Yeah!" Cheers came from the crowd on the sidelines, but Gan Guoyang still threw a goal with an 8-foot hook with his left hand that turned to the middle.

When Ma Long defended Gan Guoyang, he used exactly the same tricks that Thurmond had taught Gan Guoyang, shifting to the left, blocking the hook of the right hand, and at the same time being able to quickly make up for the other side.

"Your touch is great...come again." Ma Long picked up the ball again and threw it to the students passing the ball on the court.

In this way, the two started a back-and-forth inside fight. At first, Gan Guoyang felt that it was no different from the usual training, except that the partner training was more awesome.

During the practice, Moses Malone became more and more silent, hardly giving any guidance to Gan Guoyang's movements, which made Gan Guoyang start to wonder if Malone was hiding something.

But after practicing, Gan Guoyang finally found something different.

"Huh~huh~" When the score of the two sides became 17:15, Ma Long led Gan Guoyang by two goals, and they had 30 rounds of competition, and Gan Guoyang had already begun to pant heavily.

For Gan Guoyang's physical strength, it is not necessarily tiring to do 50 one-on-one training with Scheffler in usual training, but now he has begun to have the urge to support his knees.

Moses Malone was also out of breath, but he seemed to enjoy it.

"How about Gan, do you understand what I mean?" Ma Long looked at Gan Guoyang's sweaty face and said to him.

Gan Guoyang looked at Ma Long, took a bottle of water from the sidelines and handed it to Ma Long, Ma Long drank the water, wiped his mouth and continued: "Jabbar is 38 years old and is about to be 40 years old. When playing volleyball, it is best to have a net under the basket, and he can hook through the net, so that he can definitely play until he is 50 years old. And you are only in your early twenties, full of energy and unlimited energy, you should not play Volleyball, but to knock down opponents like boxing! Don’t let Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stretch out his hands on the defensive end to guard you, press him, consume his energy, let him foul, let him fall to the ground, so that when he It’s not so easy when you want to use your skyhook offensively.”

After listening to this, Gan Guoyang understood the purpose of Moses Malone's one-on-one training. He just wanted to tell Gan Guoyang that consumption is the best way to deal with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Indeed, technically speaking, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is already in a state of no solution in one-on-one on the field. Whether he advances or not depends on his touch. It is almost impossible for the defensive side to restrict the skyhook technically.

But from the point of view of the whole game, constantly attacking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and exhausting the "old man"'s physical strength on both offensive and defensive ends is the best means of restriction.

In fact, Thurmond has become one of the best players to defend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with tireless hand-to-hand combat in the past. Now, Moses Malone not only consumes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the defensive end, but also uses fierce baskets on the offensive end. The action took a toll on Kareem's physical strength.

"If you are inferior to your opponent in other aspects, then attack the opponent mentally and physically. In these two aspects, God is very fair." Moses Malone said the most reasonable words in his life.

"Okay, I think the training should be over here, if you really want to hone your skills and experience, welcome to Houston in the summer, I will train at the University of Houston. I think Akeem should also be in , This is a good opportunity for you all.” Today, Moses Malone seems to have a lot of words.