The Golden Age of Basketball

On October 10, after narrowly beating the Los Angeles Clippers in an away game, the Portland Trail Blazers returned to Portland by plane and began to prepare for the next game.

On the return plane, the Trail Blazers players were unexpectedly silent. It seemed that this hard-won victory did not bring much joy to everyone.

Of course, Gan Guoyang still remembers the way the Blazers bench boiled after he made that deadly long-range hook, and the warm hugs from his teammates rushing up to him.

But all this cooled down quickly, and the team seemed to be shrouded in a veil. Everyone could see each other, but they couldn't see clearly.

Gan Guoyang had a private chat with Kenny Carr after the game. According to Carl, there should be no conflicts among the Blazers players. Zhong's behavior of ignoring Gan Guoyang made him a little upset.

Paxson should have returned to his normal state, and he began to play his sixth man position with peace of mind; Sampson was as dedicated as ever, and he put more energy into defense, because Gan Guoyang wanted to jump to the outside and the basket needed Sampson's guard.

Valentine is still very stable. He averaged 13 points and 6 assists in the first three games, and he is the team's best offensive organization point.

Colter is still terrible. In the game against the Clippers, he didn't even get a second of playing time. It seems that he has completely lost Ramsey's trust.

Porter replaced Colter. Compared with Colter, Porter is stronger, has better shooting skills, and most importantly, his competitive state is much better than the drug-addicted Colter. [

Others, such as Cauchy, are still playing and training very hard, and there is nothing wrong with it.

What makes Gan Guoyang feel abnormal most is Ramsey. This old man has become very moody recently. He usually trains and competes, and he is no longer as passionate and focused as last season.

Instead, he is often distracted and has a so-called attitude towards some details.

Sometimes he suddenly became angry and scolded the players. For example, during the halftime break of the game against the Clippers, Gan Guoyang felt that Ramsey was not motivating the players, but belittling them.

Gan Guoyang looked at Ramsey who was sitting in the front row of the plane seat. At this time, the old man was holding a newspaper in a daze. Gan Guoyang remembered that Ramsey would take the time to study the team's tactics on the plane, or look at other balls. The team's battle report will never sit there and read the newspaper or even be in a daze.

After arriving in Portland, the Blazers have two days to rest, and their next game will not be played until November 11, against the Utah Jazz.

Gan Guoyang thought that in the new season, he could concentrate on the game and break the monopoly of the Lakers in the West with the Blazers. Who knew that although the start was very good, the team had a sign of crisis.

As soon as they flew to Portland, Gan Guoyang and Behrman went home. Gan Guoyang ignored the invitation of Kenny Karl, an old alcoholic, and he needed to go back and communicate with Behrman.

For Bellman, being able to come to the Trail Blazers as an assistant coach is a realization of his half-life dream, and he has also devoted himself to this hard-won job.

Bellman also made a full estimate of the difficulties, and it turned out that he did a good job, but the complexity of coaching a team was beyond his imagination—even if it was just an assistant coach.

In addition to trivial matters at work, Bellman also came into contact with the inevitable internal struggles and contradictions of the nb team as a group.

Therefore, when Gan Guoyang asked about Ramsey, Behrman didn't think for long, and gave the answer he had already had in his heart: "I think Mr. Ramsey's time in the Blazers will not Too long, the end of the season at the latest."

This answer surprised Gan Guoyang. In Gan Guoyang's view, Ramsey is really a good coach. Although he has many shortcomings, who can have no shortcomings?

The most important thing is that last season, the Trail Blazers performed well enough to reach the Western Conference Finals. This season, the players have also grown further, and their strength should be even stronger. It was Ramsey who led the team to the championship. good time.

At this time, the team has to change coaches, no matter how you look at it, it is incredible. [

"I can't believe that Ramsey is a good coach. He has been in the Trail Blazers for almost ten years. Our results were so good last year. I can't find a reason for the team to replace him." Sitting at home On the sofa, Gan Guoyang vomited his doubts to Bellman.

"I don't really understand...but I know that Mr. Ramsey and the general manager Mr. Inman had several...controversies, including the team's personnel structure, the salary level, etc., etc. Anyway, they were very unhappy, and of course I just came to the Blazers, and I don’t know many things, so I can only do my own thing well. Gan, why don’t you know anything about it?” Bellman said to Gan Guoyang. The team's number one star, it feels a little strange not to know the internal affairs of the team.

In fact, it's normal to think about it. Gan Guoyang's feelings towards basketball are still very simple. He used to be so simple that he thought that as long as he yelled, all his teammates would work hard for him to fight for the championship.

Of course he doesn't think so now, but his main energy is still on basketball, and he doesn't want to and doesn't have the energy to care about those things of the team management.

Nor does he feel entitled to influence team decisions. ,

After listening to Behrman's words, Gan Guoyang still felt a little unbelievable. Inman still supported Ramsey last season. How come this season, when everything has just begun, he wants to change the head coach and disturb the morale of the army?

Gan Guoyang communicated with Bellman for a while, and found that Bellman was not clear about many things, and he had only just joined the team.

After a night's rest, Team No. 31 started all-weather training in the training hall. Today, Gan Guoyang discovered that Colter simply missed the team's training and never showed his face in the locker room.

Without Colter, the Blazers continued to train as usual. Ramsey's training intensity has always been at a normal level among nb coaches, neither too easy nor devil hell.

In response to some problems that occurred when facing the Clippers in the last game, Ramsey also did some targeted exercises, asking Bellman to set aside an hour for one-on-one defensive exercises.

Defensive training is a chore. Unlike the fast and agile offensive training, defensive training is often boring and pays great attention to details, requiring a lot of repetitive and monotonous movements.

In the past, Ramsey seldom did defensive exercises in training. He believed that these things should be learned in college, and there was no need to go to nb to make up lessons.

However, Bellman is an expert among them. He is very good at training defense-whether it is defensive system or defensive technology.

The one-hour time made the Blazers players a little bit tired. After the end, most of the players went to have lunch and take a break. Gan Guoyang stayed to do 300-ball mid-range shooting practice as usual.

"Kk! Don't you want to practice shooting together?" Gan Guoyang shouted to Vandeweghe who was about to leave.

"No, we should practice shooting again at night. Let's forget it at noon. The defensive training just now was quite tiring. I want to take a rest." Vandeweghe is not as energetic as Gan Guoyang.

"Wait a minute kk, I want to talk to you about something." Gan Guoyang said after seeing that the others had almost left.

"What's the matter, Gan?" Vandeweghe stopped and asked Gan Guoyang.

"Uh... I don't know what to say, but I think there seems to be some problems in the team. I heard that Mr. Ramsey may have to leave." Gan Guoyang looked at Vandeweghe's expression after finishing speaking, Vandeweghe was found to be very calm, which shows that the rumors that Ramsey has conflicts with the team and is leaving may be true.

"Gan, a lot of things are not as simple as you think. It's like basketball is just a game where we score goals and don't let them score goals. We can make it so complicated." Vandeweghe said with a look on his face dignified.

Gan Guoyang didn't speak, just looked at Vandeweghe quietly.

Vandeweghe continued: "I'm telling the truth, without beating around the bush. Mr. Ramsey does have some conflicts with the team. I'm not very clear about the specific situation, but it should be that there is a disagreement with the management on the idea of ​​​​building the team. Ramsey Wanted to build a team that fit his style, and the front office didn't think so. So in the summer, the team changed assistant coaches and hired your teacher, Mr. Behrman. I knew it when Mr. Behrman came. Inman's one-step good flag kills two birds with one stone, which not only suppresses Ramsey and weakens his tactical dominance, but also stabilizes your emotions, allowing you to play in the Trail Blazers with peace of mind."

Gan Guoyang heard that it was related to himself, so he couldn't help asking, "What does this mean?"

Vandeweghe continued: "It's very simple. Mr. Behrman's style is incompatible with Mr. Ramsey. Of course, after playing three games, I admit that Mr. Behrman is indeed very thoughtful in defense, which is beyond my expectations. It may also be beyond Inman's expectation, he just wanted to make Ramsay feel uncomfortable and deprive him of his right to make tactical decisions. Then... to please you."

"Please me? Why please me? Although I asked Mr. Behrman to come here, I was purely thinking about the team's record. By the way, I hope Mr. Behrman's talent can be brought into play!" Gan Guoyang felt a little bit uncomfortable with Vandeweghe's rhetoric .

"Did you know, Gan!" Vandeweghe's voice suddenly became louder, "The Trail Blazers didn't renew my contract in the summer, you know, now that the league has a salary cap, the renewal amount has begun to be limited, and I only The Blazers played a year and didn't qualify for the 'Bird Clause' and this was the last year of my last contract. I'm playing in my senior year and I need a big deal to secure my career, but The Blazers can't give me a big contract, why? Because you are the future of the Blazers, they need enough space to give you a big contract! And I'm not in the Blazers' plan, so, I Need to get my due for my next contract..."

"Sorry Gan, we are still good friends, but some things are not that simple." Vandeweghe said helplessly.