The Golden Age of Basketball

For Gan Guoyang, the All-Star Game on February 2 should be the happiest game he has played this season.

The game started at [-]:[-] pm. Before the game started, Stern arranged for all the All-Star players to go to the best barbecue restaurant in Dallas - Bryan's BBQ restaurant to have a rich Texas barbecue meal, and served Just like the previous time, all married players brought their family members to gather together.

This time, Wang Fuxi also came to Dallas with Gan Guoyang, and participated in the dinner as Gan Guoyang's fiancée. As a female fan, she was quite excited, after all, she was still with so many stars who had only seen it on TV and in the stands. Having dinner with their family members was something she never even dared to think about before.

However, Wang Fuxi, who was wearing an evening dress, was indeed very beautiful, no less than the spouses of the stars, which also gave her enough confidence to behave well at the banquet, and gave Gan Guoyang a lot of face.

At the point of the game, Gan Guoyang and others went to the locker room of the western team. Since the western team is playing at home this time, they can change clothes in the locker room of the home team.

Among the 12 Western Conference All-Stars, Gan Guoyang is still the youngest player just like last year. The rookies in the Western Conference this year are not good enough, and no one has entered the All-Star team.

In contrast, the Eastern Conference team has a new face——Patrick Ewing. Unfortunately, Ewing suffered an injury before the All-Star Game, which was not particularly serious, but the Knicks still banned Ewing just to be on the safe side. To participate in the game, you can only sit on the bench as a spectator.

Ewing was originally a taciturn guy. After the start of the new season, the always tricky and difficult New York media discovered that the new No. [-] pick was like a stone in a toilet. The consistent tradition of players, from Russell to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Moses Malone, from Moses Malone to Wharton, from Wharton to Olajuwon, these giants are all lonely and withdrawn masters. Well, if the media wants to have a good relationship with them, it is even more difficult than keeping the magician from picking up girls.

Ewing has undoubtedly inherited this glorious tradition, but compared with Ewing, Gan Guoyang is not like this. Although Gan Guoyang doesn't like those media and paparazzi very much, Gan Guoyang will use another method to deal with those cunning text vampires .

In the interview before the game, facing some tricky questions from reporters, Gan Guoyang tactfully used "Chinese" to answer. You must know that because Gan Guoyang stayed in the United States for a very long time, when he entered the NBA, his English was already comparable to that of ordinary Americans. There is no difference, so there is no need for English translation in the team.

At that time, the NBA did not open up the Chinese market. There were no professional Chinese translators among the reporters or the NBA staff. talk.

In an instant, the reporters felt that the interview could not go on. Gan Guoyang could speak a few words with a rural Virginia accent like Moses Malone, but he couldn't understand a word in Chinese.

The key point is that Gan Guoyang is serious, he answers every question well in Chinese, his expression is very serious, and he communicates with the reporter with his eyes from time to time, which makes the reporter feel very embarrassed.

Especially when Gan Guoyang was interviewed by the reporter of CBS TV station, the reporter of CBS TV station also received the same treatment. This interview was also broadcast on TV by CBS TV station, and basketball fans all over the United States saw and heard it.

Some fans criticized Gan Guoyang's behavior, thinking that he was disrespectful to reporters, audiences, and fans, but more people were interested in "what did Gan Guoyang say?" There was no Internet at that time , there is no subtitle group, and there are not many people who understand Chinese in the United States. Apart from waiting for the official translation version of the TV station, others can only ask the Chinese fans around them.

This also set off a small Chinese craze among the fans. Although it subsided very quickly, and people's focus shifted after the All-Star Game, Gan Guoyang's behavior also won the praise of the Chinese American organization. Accepting interviews in Chinese has greatly enhanced the presence of Chinese in American society and enhanced the cultural identity of Chinese. Gan Guoyang was also given the title of "Light of the Chinese".

Gan Guoyang really didn't expect this. His only purpose of doing this was to not want to answer those boring questions and deal with annoying reporters.

When the game was about to start and everyone was warming up on the field, no reporters came up to harass Gan Guoyang. The reporters were still more willing to interview the magician or Dr. J.

So Gan Guoyang had enough time to start a hook contest with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the court.

The two have known each other since the summer of 1982, and became direct competitors after entering the NBA, but they have maintained a good relationship. Tiangou himself has always been the object of Gan Guoyang's learning and catching up, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is very interested in this season. I don't care about the starting center position. I have been in the league for 17 years, and I have already looked away from everything except Victory Kareem.

The two started to hook each other from the basket, and whoever scored a goal could move to a farther position until the three-point line.

So before the game, the audience and other players enjoyed a wonderful hook fight. The two of you were one and the other. The first few shots were all hits in one serve, without touching the basket. When they reached the position of about 17 feet, That is to say, outside the three-second zone, at the horn position, Gan Guoyang missed the first shot, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still stable and made a steady hit.

But Gan Guoyang came from behind, because Kareem Abdul-Jabbar missed three consecutive hooks from beyond the three-point line, while Gan Guoyang scored two goals in a row and also came outside the three-point line.

Then, outside the three-point line, Gan Guoyang adjusted his breathing, and under the watchful eyes of the audience, he made a super long hook at a position of 45 degrees, and the ball hit the board and went into the basket!

The whole reunion gymnasium burst into enthusiastic cheers, and Gan Guoyang, who won the hook fight, also embraced Kareem Abdul-Jabbar warmly, as if completing a kind of inheritance between the two greatest hook centers.

No one would have thought that after these two people, the skill of Skyhook would disappear from the NBA arena.

But this time the cheers received by Gan Guoyang were the most cheers received by Gan Guoyang tonight. When it came to the All-Star game, Gan Guoyang obviously did not become the focus of the audience, nor did he have much interest in becoming the focus. Like last year, Gan Guoyang His goal is to have his share of all technical statistics.

Among all the technical statistics, Gan Guoyang did not expect that the first task to be completed was a foul.

After the opening, the Western All-Star scored first. Magic Johnson made a high-throw pass from beyond the three-point line. Last season's All-Star mvp Ralph Sampson jumped high and dunked the ball with both hands. Opened the curtain for the All-Star Game.

Afterwards, the Eastern All-Star starting point guard Isiah Thomas took the ball straight from the middle to the basket. His dazzling crotch dribble was very rare in the NBA back then, and was often criticized by some academics as Doesn't work, but his dribbling in the All-Star Game was certainly entertaining.

His breakthrough was as sharp and fast as his dribbling, but Gan Guoyang habitually put on a delay, but the referee's whistle blew, and the referee called Gan Guoyang a defensive foul.

In the All-Star Game, the referee is basically a decoration, a little whistle is enough, the real performance is still left to the players, and Gan Guoyang looked at the referee who whistled, and found that it turned out to be an old acquaintance, the famous bald referee Joe Crow Ford!

At this time, Crawford was not as famous as later. After all, he was still a rookie referee at that time. He entered the nba as the referee in 1977, and this year is the eighth season. He is also the vice referee in this game. It is the more experienced old referee Jack Madden.

In the future, Joe Crawford called Duncan a technical foul because he was sitting on the bench laughing, called 10 technical fouls in 4 minutes, and Haslem threw braces at him, etc., Gan Guoyang still "remembers" , although none of these things have happened yet.

Now Crawford's qualifications are not old enough. As a young referee, he is relatively restrained on the court, not as strong as he was later.

From the point of view of the rules, there is nothing wrong with whistleblowing this time. Gan Guoyang did commit a foul, but it is not obvious, so he can blow it or not.

Gan Guoyang didn't expect his first technical statistic to be a foul. Looking at Crawford's shiny bald head, he thought of teasing the referee.

Soon, the Eastern All-Stars served again. Thomas received the ball and passed it to Dr. J Irving. Irving caught the ball and made a jump shot near the free throw line.

The rebounding king Gan Guoyang took off the backcourt rebound, but he ignored the magician's reach for the ball. Instead, he started dribbling all the way through the half court. Anyway, this is the All-Star game, and no one minds Gan Guoyang.

At this time, Crawford also started to run from the sideline to the other side. Gan Guoyang looked at Crawford's chunky back and suddenly dribbled towards him.

Generally speaking, referees run outside the sideline, but Crawford didn't care too much, and ran close to the sideline on the field. After all, few players dribbled to the sideline near the midfield.

But Gan Guoyang rushed to the sideline diagonally like this, and when he was about to hit Crawford, he turned around with the ball and "passed" Crawford, then continued to move forward with the dribble, and Passed the ball back to the Magician.

Crawford only felt a gust of wind blowing beside him, and a shadow flashed past, and then saw Gan Guoyang running in front of him, and he didn't know what happened.

But the fans at the scene laughed together. At that time, the players were not very entertaining. Most of the players were more rigorous and old-fashioned. Like Gan Guoyang, who was interviewed in Chinese before the game and turned around the referee during the game, the fans were really the first. See you next time.

"No matter what the result of the game is, I think the mvp of this All-Star Game should be given to Gan Guoyang because of his entertainment." CBS commentator Stockton said.