The Golden Age of Basketball

The trade deadline was closed at the end of February in 1986, and there was not much action by each branch. In fact, since the Buffalo Braves traded their mvp Bob McAdoo to New York in 2, the entire league has There hasn't been a big mid-season trade in 1976 years.

At that time, the NBA team was still in a relatively stable state. The strong team naturally maintained its lineup, and the weak team did not have the pressure to relegation. In the situation where the Western Conference was dominated by one player and the Eastern Conference took turns, no team was willing to give it a go. This big deal blinds everyone's eyes.

Without a deal, it means that the teams will basically compete for the playoffs with the current lineup. After all, there are really no useful players in the free market.

The Portland Trail Blazers finally returned to the home court after the end of the Eastern Expedition. More importantly, after the back-to-back ends this time, they will only have two back-to-backs in March and April, once a month. Still take it easy.

In the first game in March, the Trail Blazers ushered in the Houston Rockets at home. At present, the two teams have been ranked first in the West, and one is ranked third in the West. As long as the Trail Blazers do not fall to the second place in the West, or Houston If they don't fall to fourth in the Western Conference, then in the playoffs, the two teams will not meet before the Western Conference Finals.

The current state of the two teams is not the same. After losing to the 76ers, the Blazers have won 5 consecutive victories. Gan Guoyang has raised his average rebounds to 16.5. This season's rebounding leader is already his stuff in the bag.

The Rockets blew up the western storm in January. They only lost two games in a month. One was a 3-point loss to their old enemy Utah Jazz, and the other was a poor state and a disastrous loss to the Mavericks. Their performance last month was also hot enough, once threatening the Lakers' second place in the Western Conference.

But in February, the situation changed. In mid-February, their main center Olajuwon began to suffer from injuries. He missed seven consecutive games and the Rockets began to lose.

Until this game, Olajuwon still did not appear on the Rockets' roster. The official news released by the Rockets is that Olajuwon will still miss the game for two weeks.

This greatly reduces the suspense of this game. If Olajuwon can still compete head-on with Gan Guoyang, then Ralph Sampson has never played at the level of a superstar in the game against the Trail Blazers.

This mainly depends on Sampson's style of play. He is thin and light, not to mention Gan Guoyang. He has difficulty against Sampson in the low post. This is why he is facing the Jazz with a thick inside. At that time, one of the reasons why the Rockets often suffer, the 7-foot-4 Sampson is not a traditional medium inside, but a small forward with the size of a center.

Therefore, after less than three quarters of the game, the Rockets disarmed and surrendered. Drexler came back in this game and played extremely well, with 24 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists, and another triple-double. This time Gan Guoyang cannot win His "triple-double turnover" came to mock him.

After this game, the Trail Blazers' schedule can be described as relaxed and enjoyable. The consecutive home games are sure to die, and the opponents are not too strong. Like the Indiana Pacers, they lost their hope of entering the playoffs early, so they went to the Memorial Stadium for a cutscene , and was beaten up by the Blazers.

The Dallas Mavericks did not cause too much trouble for the Blazers. They lacked your inside advantage and fell under the strong firepower of Gan Guoyang. In an offensive battle, the Blazers won the game 125:117 without any risk .

On March 3, Women's Day, the Trail Blazers faced the Jazz. Gan Guoyang gave rookie Karl Malone a major blow in the game.

After Malone came to the Jazz, he quickly occupied the starting position. This powerful power forward should be said to have subverted the traditional concept of the power forward position in the past. It is to do a good job of auxiliary work, such as rebounding, blocking, supplementary defense and other basic tasks that are not obvious and not revealing, are the work of power forwards.

From the establishment of the nba to 1986, except for the very early Bob Pettit, there are only a handful of teams in the nba with power forwards as the core. Among them, Bob McAdoo and Elvin Hayes, They are all players between power forwards and centers, and they often act as centers in the team.

But Karl Malone is different. He is not between power forward and center, but between power forward and small forward. It's completely different. The shot of him dribbling all the way to the fast break after receiving the pass is also like a running back getting the ball for a touchdown.

Of course, his style was not favored by the league at the time, and his skills were really too rough, and his scoring relied too much on fast breaks and second offenses after rebounding.

But I have to say that it is really effective in many cases, especially when the inside line of the current league has not been filled with muscles, small tanks like Malone are really powerful.

And Gan Guoyang just likes to deal with this kind of jumper who is physically good and rough, even if he is Karl Malone-he is just a rookie at this time.

In the game, Malone received a pass from Stockton at the beginning of the game, and staged an iconic dunk on Gan Guoyang's head with his left hand on his head and his right hand dunking, as a response to Gan Guoyang's shooting in the same posture in the last game.

Gan Guoyang, who was provoked, taught Ma Long a lesson. In the following games, he began to defend Ma Long and handed over Eaton, who had no ability to attack independently, to Sampson, so Ma Long's offense was tragic.

Facing Gan Guoyang, who is taller, heavier, faster than himself, has longer arms than him, and can move laterally no slower than him, Ma Long, who has rough skills, has become a complete useless offensive end except for occasionally picking up a leak. .

At the same time, Gan Guoyang is very familiar with Stockton's pass after the pick-and-roll. After intercepting Stockton's pass to Malone twice, Gan Guoyang's old partner never dared to try again.

Malone's other scoring weapon, the second attack after rushing to grab the offensive rebound, also lost his edge in front of the rebounding king. He also grabbed 4 offensive rebounds in the last game, but he missed one in this game.

In the end, Gan Guoyang abused the young Karl Malone one-on-one and only allowed him to score 6 points. The Blazers also defeated the Utah Jazz at home and won eight consecutive victories, continuing to consolidate their No. [-] position in the Western Conference.

After playing this game, the Blazers got a four-day rest. They will not have the next game until March 3. The team also decided to take a two-day holiday to let the team who was finally freed from the devil's schedule Players, relax. In January and February, the Blazers also suffered from injuries. Almost no one kept full attendance, and the starting point guard was even reimbursed.

During the rare two-day vacation, Gan Guoyang also went to Spokane by car to visit Wang Fuxi at Gonzaga University. After the All-Star Game, Gan Guoyang was busy with competitions and training, and the two never had much time together.

Spring is the most beautiful season for Gonzaga University. The climate here is marine. Although the winter is cold and humid, the plants are lush in spring, and Gonzaga University is in full bloom.

In Spokane, the most beautiful and plentiful flower is the lilac here. Gan Guoyang finally had the opportunity to walk hand in hand with Wang Fuxi by the school's artificial lake, reminiscing about the school days.

The quiet and peaceful environment here, and the beauties beside him, have cooled Gan Guoyang's boiling blood on the field and slowed down his surging heartbeat. In the increasingly fierce league competition, it is necessary to relax like this

Although only staying here for two semesters, an ncaa championship trophy is enough to make Gan Guoyang a legend here, so the two of them don't spend much time together quietly, and fans will come to Gan Guoyang from time to time. film.

When the two walked near the school playground, there were more people around.

"Is there a game today?" Gan Guoyang pressed the peaked cap on his head and asked Wang Fuxi beside him.

"It seems to be, but it's just a football game. Gonzaga's football is better than basketball."

"Tch, if I was still in school, what kind of football would everyone watch?"

"If only you were still in school, then I don't have to miss you every day."

The most difficult thing to bear is the beauty's kindness. Gan Guoyang was afraid that he would make Wang Fuxi sad when he talked, so he proposed to go to the stadium to watch the game.

Gan Guoyang has never had a good impression of rugby. In the United States, the NFL overwhelmed the NBA. Not to mention, Gan Guoyang helped the school's rugby team win a game in high school, but the group of strong men came to stack him up and gave his back to him. Injured, even now with a back injury, he would harass Gan Guoyang from time to time.

Gan Guoyang really didn't appreciate this kind of more brutal sport, but in his school's stadium, watching such a game was really full of passion, because the football team also used the name Bulldog, and the basketball team Same.

Amidst the loud cheers from the home fans, Gan Guoyang and Wang Fuxi soon became one of them. Everyone was very high. No one could tell that the giant next to him was the basketball hero of Gonzaga University.

The Bulldogs have always been dominant in the game, and there is basically no problem taking the lead all the way to win the game.

But just as the game was about to end, a small accident happened.

Gan Guoyang and Wang Fuxi sat at the front of the stand, and at the corner, Gan Guoyang felt that it was not easy to be seen by too many people.

During an attack by the Bulldogs, the quarterback threw the ball directly to the corner after receiving the ball, but the catch was not stable, the ball fell to the ground, and the opponent's defensive players swarmed up to grab the ball. I don't know whose foot is cheap. He even kicked the ball with one kick, and the ball flew straight into the stands like this.

Because it is a university stadium, it does not have high stands like the NFL, and the fans are very close to the sidelines. As a result, the ball flew towards Wang Fuxi.

In fact, the speed of the ball was not fast, but Gan Guoyang, who was next to Wang Fuxi, was professionally sensitive, or he was simply cheap, so he slapped the ball and slapped the ball back into the field.

Wang Fuxi was still patting his chest in shock, but when he turned his head, he saw Gan Guoyang pinching the triceps of his right arm with his left hand, and he also bowed his head.

"What's the matter, Gan?" Wang Fuxi asked hastily.

"I'm never fucking close to rugby anymore... My arm seems to be strained..."