The Golden Age of Basketball

The InterContinental Hotel in New York is located near the famous Times Square, which is the most central location of Manhattan Island and is also known as "the crossroads of the world".

Although the Intercontinental Hotel is only a four-star hotel, the service concept and measures here are quite advanced, especially the employees here have foreign language skills, so NB officials prefer to arrange foreign visiting players in this hotel.

At this time, in the welcome hall on the first floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, Gan Guoyang was sitting on a chair quietly waiting for the arrival of the Chinese national team.

Some time ago, after confirming the news of the Chinese team’s visit in Muscatine, Gan Guoyang couldn’t sit still. He didn’t want to wait until the last stop of the Chinese men’s basketball team’s visit before returning to Portland, but hurriedly bid farewell to Stockton With Hansen, flew directly to Boston by plane to meet David Stern.

On June 1985, 6, Game 9 of the Finals was held at Boston Garden Plaza. The Los Angeles Lakers, with a 3:2 lead, had a chance to win the O'Brien Cup in Boston.

The last time the Lakers had such an opportunity was in 1969, which was the last year of Bill Russell. The Lakers also led 3:2 in the first five games, and the sixth game was also in Boston, but they lost That game dragged the finals into Game [-].

The seventh game was played on the Lakers' home court. At that time, the team's owners had already prepared the balloons for the Lakers to win the championship, and they would release them together when the Lakers won the championship.

However, the Celtics, who were almost exhausted, burst out the last sliver of energy. Relying on Don Nelson's key shot, they won the championship tie-break 108:106 thrillingly. The Celtics 13 Winning the championship for the 11th time this year, Russell retired with a ring in his hand.

This bad memory is engraved in the soul of every player of the Lakers. The head coach of the Lakers, Riley, used the Celtics' history of "bullying" the Lakers to stimulate his players from time to time. [

For the Lakers this year, the sixth game is the best opportunity, because if it drags to the seventh game, the venue for the battle will still be in Boston, which is very bad for the Lakers.

Of course, Celtics fans still firmly believe that their Green Corps will tie the score at home. In their view, "There are several possibilities in this world, but it is impossible for the Lakers to beat us."

However, not everyone has a green belief. Gan Guoyang, who sat in the front row with Stern, did not believe that the Celtics could equalize, not only because of history, but also because of Gan Guoyang's perspective from a professional player Looking at it, he can feel that the Lakers have a stronger belief in winning the championship, starting from Palm Springs.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang and Stern witnessed the historic moment when the Lakers hoisted the O'Brien Cup at the Boston Garden Plaza. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was already 38 years old and almost lost his hair, picked up the Finals MVP trophy .

Now, the finals have been settled, and Gan Guoyang is still sitting next to Stern, waiting for the arrival of the protagonists of the welcome banquet in the evening.

"Gan, they're here." At this moment, Stern turned his head and said to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang nodded after hearing this. He didn't know why he was so nervous. Logically speaking, according to the level of basketball, he had already surpassed the men's basketball players by a few blocks, and there were no Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi in the current men's basketball lineup. Maybe Gan Guoyang didn't know any of them at all.

"Maybe it's a bit of 'closer to the hometown and more timid'..." Gan Guoyang thought in his heart, although he did not return to China this time, but there were people from the same industry from the motherland, which was enough to make Gan Guoyang excited.

For any Chinese, the plot of "hometown" will never be erased.

Even though he comes from the future time and space, Gan Guoyang still believes that his soul still haunts the country on the other side.

Although Gan Guoyang has already achieved fame in the United States, he always feels that he is a person without roots in basketball. Of course, this has a lot to do with his special "talent value". His potential is almost overnight.

In the United States, the experience of playing for Palo Alto High School and Gonzaga respectively did not bring Gan Guoyang a strong sense of belonging.

No matter how great success he has achieved and what unprecedented honors he has brought to the two schools, his name will inevitably be engraved on the school's honor roll in the future. Gan Guoyang understands that he is still a foreigner after all, an American athlete. The rarest yellow race in the circle.

Gan Guoyang has been in the United States for so many years, but he has never changed his nationality. He has always worked hard in the nb as a foreign player.

Now, with the arrival of Chinese players, Gan Guoyang undoubtedly has a strong sense of identity, even if he doesn't know any of them. [

But when the door of the welcome hall opened and the first Chinese player walked in under the leadership of the hotel staff, Gan Guoyang found that this person's face was very familiar to him.

"This guy... so familiar... Is he the former head coach of Bayi, Wang Fei!" Gan Guoyang looked at the handsome and handsome player walking in front, and the more he looked at him, the more he felt that he was the head coach of the Bayi team.

Gan Guoyang guessed right, Wang Fei was the first one to walk. After Wang Fei retired and became a coach, his body has been maintained very well, and he basically didn’t gain weight. Therefore, the difference between his appearance in his 40s and his 20s is really different. not big.

In addition, when Gan Guoyang was watching B at that time, Wang Fei, as the head coach of the super strong Bayi team, often appeared on TV cameras, so he was very impressed with Wang Fei.

"Welcome, friends from China!" Just as Gan Guoyang was in a daze, Stern had already stepped forward to shake hands with Qian Chenghai, the coach of the Chinese team in a suit and red tie.

At the same time, the band in the hall also played soft blues music, and the whole hall suddenly became lively.

Gan Guoyang also hurried up to greet him and shook hands with Director Qian Chenghai.

"Hello...Qian, Coach Qian..." Gan Guoyang and Ramsay were not so nervous when speaking, but stuttered facing the legendary coach from China.

For Gan Guoyang, the name Qian Chenghai is really old, but it is still very popular. Anyone who has a certain understanding of Chinese basketball should know how much this old coach has made to the development of Chinese basketball. Great contribution , How many outstanding talents have been trained for the Chinese basketball world.

In 1985, Qian Chenghai was not as white-haired as he was later. He looked full of energy in his prime, with sharp eyes. He stared at Gan Guoyang who came forward to shake hands with him for a while, and held Gan Guoyang's hand tightly. hand, and said: "Hello, I have heard about you for a long time, Comrade Gan Guoyang!"

Since the last time he met a Chinese delegation in Muscatine, this was the second time Gan Guoyang heard someone call him "Comrade Gan Guoyang" in pure Chinese, and a kind feeling came to his heart again.

Hearing Qian Chenghai's guiding voice, Gan Guoyang felt a little embarrassed and couldn't help scratching his head.

At this time, other players of the Chinese team were also looking at this "first Chinese player to play in the American professional league".

"It feels similar to us, and we don't have three heads and six arms!" Lu Jinqing thought in his heart.

And most of the other Chinese players also have the same idea. They are all young men in their early twenties, and they are also top domestic basketball players. Seeing Gan Guoyang's height is not too outstanding, and his body shape seems to be relatively ordinary. Naturally, you will feel unconvinced.

After exchanging pleasantries with Qian Chenghai, Gan Guoyang shook hands with the men's basketball players and translators one by one.

This time, there are 15 men's basketball team, one head coach, one assistant coach, one translator, and the other 12 are players.

During the greeting, the players all introduced themselves. Gan Guoyang found that apart from Wang Fei, he only knew Min Lulei, Sun Fengwu and Song Tao. Gan Guoyang had never even heard of the names of the others.

Afterwards, everyone took their seats, and Stern began to give a welcome speech for the men's basketball team. He introduced the visiting Chinese team to the guests present, and hoped that this visit would promote exchanges in basketball between China and the United States.

Of course, in the commercial alliance of nb, everything is linked to the economy. Even the naming rights for this visit were sold by the businessman Stern and given to Klber beer, so the visit of the men's basketball team to the United States is also very important. Known as the "klber tour.

Although the activities in the United States are full of commercial flavor, compared with the large-scale political activities in China, his advantages are simple, clear and extremely efficient, so Stern did not chatter on stage, and made some After the simple welcome speech, it entered the free time for everyone.

Like the NB All-Star Game, Stern arranged a buffet this time. This kind of dining situation is more free and conducive to communication between people. It is really good for young and energetic players up.

At this time, China is still in the stage of reform and opening up, and the living standards of the people have not been improved qualitatively. Correspondingly, although the food of the male basketball players is very good, it cannot be compared with the developed United States.

The rich dishes here quickly attracted the men's basketball boys who had been hungry all afternoon, and they began to eat like monkeys entering a peach garden.

Only Mr. Qian Chenghai still focused his attention on Gan Guoyang. After a brief exchange, Qian Chenghai found that Gan Guoyang was different from most Chinese athletes. Vigorous, with a little more calm atmosphere.

During the conversation, after learning that Gan Guoyang had studied at a university in the United States before entering nb, coach Qian Chenghai also nodded as if suddenly enlightened. You must know that China was a professional sports school system at that time, and many athletes did not pay attention to their cultural courses.

The welcome party lasted more than two hours before it ended. Stern also invited a famous local band to perform for the Chinese team. It's called the "sound of decadence" of capitalism.

At the welcome meeting, due to the long time of running around, the team of the national team went back to the room early to rest.

"Hey old Qian, how about that Gan Guoyang?" On the way back, the team's assistant coach Lu Changxin asked.

"I don't know, I still have to go to the arena to see, but his hands are big and his arms are very long, he must be a good seed, a good seed..." At this time, Qian Chenghai couldn't help but think of a person in his mind. It was a moan.