The Golden Age of Basketball

In today's training, everything went very smoothly. It can be seen that the Blazers players are in good condition.

The arrival of new teammates gave Gan Guoyang a lot of freshness. Buck Williams, as the third pick in the 1981 draft, played in the league for 7 years. fight.

As a light insider with a height of only 6 feet 8 and a weight of 215 pounds, Buck Williams has energy that cannot be ignored, as well as strong rebounding ability.

This is why he is called "Buck" (buck, buck), his original name is Charles - Williams.

After coming to the Trail Blazers, Buck Williams joked that Gan Guoyang might not be able to win the rebounding champion, because there is an extra rebounder in the team, and he will inevitably be divided.

When practicing against the inside basket, Gan Guoyang and Buck Williams shared the skills and tricks of rebounding.

Since Gan Guoyang entered the league in 1984, except for the 1987 season when he was reimbursed due to injury, he won the league's rebounding title in the other three seasons, but the backcourt rebounds accounted for the majority of his rebounds.

This is not only related to the tactical characteristics of the Trail Blazers, but also related to Gan Guoyang's not very good at grabbing offensive rebounds.

Buck Williams is different. His relatively thin and short stature does not give him an advantage in guarding backboards, but his flexible positioning and strong explosive power have allowed him to maintain his offensive rebounds since he entered the league in 1981. Above 3.9.

In his peak period, he averaged 4.5 offensive rebounds per game. In the entire league, no one can match it except the offensive rebound madman Moses Malone.

In recent years, Buck Williams' state has gradually declined. Born in 1960, he is almost 30 years old. As a small insider who relies on explosiveness and speed, his body is getting weaker and weaker.

Although he could still score 18.3 points and 11.9 rebounds in the Nets last season, of which 11.9 rebounds were a new low since his rookie season, but his entire state is in an unstoppable decline.

In addition, the record of the Nets has not improved, so the Trail Blazers and the Nets, plus New York, made a three-way deal together, bringing Buck Williams to Portland in advance-in history, his arrival will be Wait until 1990.

There are two reasons why the Blazers made this deal. One is that after Sampson and Kenny Carr both left, the team lacked a high-quality and reliable 4th position, which made them suffer in the playoffs against the Lakers in 1988. head.

The second is that Gan Guoyang made suggestions to the management, hoping to trade for Buck Williams or Otis Thorpe.

In fact, Gan Guoyang hoped that Thorpe could come. The relationship between the two was quite good in private, and Thorpe was taller and younger.

But it is a pity that Thorpe was traded by the Houston Rockets first, so the Blazers could only trade for the small Buck Williams.

Gan Guoyang is a person who is good at learning. On the first day of training, he asked Buck Williams a lot about how to grab offensive rebounds.

In the fierce and variable playoffs, Gan Guoyang knew that at the critical moment of the game, sometimes an offensive rebound can completely change the direction of the game.

In addition to Buck Williams, Gan Guoyang's inside helper is "Big Duck" Kevin Duckworth.

Duckworth was originally only a second-round pick selected by the Spurs in the 1986 draft. At that time, the Blazers were suffering from Gan Guoyang's reimbursement for the season without a useful center, and the inside defense was empty after the season started.

So they traded the No. 14 rookie in the first round, power forward Walter Barry, to the Spurs, and traded for the second-round center.

At that time, this deal was criticized by many people, who felt that it was too bad to exchange a 14th-round rookie for a second-round pick.

However, Duckworth quickly became a barrier for the Blazers' inside line. With a height of 7 feet and a weight of 270 pounds, he made the Blazers' inside line look thicker.

After Gan Guoyang came back in the 1988 season, Duckworth became Gan Guoyang's stable substitute, allowing Gan Guoyang to have sufficient rest and rotation time to ensure his health.

At the beginning of last season, that is, a year ago, when the Trail Blazers also held a training camp, Duckworth faced the comeback Gan Guoyang for the first time in training.

The big duck who doesn't know what is good or bad wants to fight Gan Guoyang one-on-one in the confrontation training, but Gan Guoyang pours 10 goals in a row, and comes with a basket of trash talk, and never dares to provoke Gan Guoyang in training again.

For the first training this year, the big duck had to be Gan Guoyang's partner in the confrontation training as usual, but he was a lot more honest, he just did his defensive moves conscientiously, and he didn't have any singles in the offense.

However, Gan Guoyang asked Duckworth to stay after the training, practice hooks with him, and carefully guide the big duck.

Duckworth got the guidance of the league's second hook master, so he naturally studied hard and practiced hard, so the third hook master inside the Blazers will soon be born.

Now, what Gan Guoyang misses the most is the Blazers' second hooker, Sabonis.

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After the training, Gan Guoyang, as the boss of the team, invited the whole team to go to China Town for a drink. Kenny Carr used to do this kind of thing, but now it's Gan Guoyang's turn.

Training is tiring, but it also makes the players feel relaxed. Everyone is drinking happily. Portland beer is very famous in the United States.

Gan Guoyang was the same as usual, just sitting there drinking slowly, while chatting with each teammate from time to time.

This is a bit different from Gan Guoyang three or four years ago. At that time, he seldom came to drink, and occasionally he was pulled over by Kenny Karl, and he just drank silently. This kind of occasion was not his home game.

But now, like a respected godfather, he walks among every teammate with a glass of wine, asks about their health, chats about training, basketball, or anything that anyone is interested in.

This is the experience he learned from Kenny Carr, pay attention to each of your teammates, build a relationship with everyone, or like a friend, or like a brother, the leadership of a person not only comes from his own strength, but also from Support from those around you.

Halfway through the drink, everyone was in the mood, and the wine was hot, but at this moment Gan Guoyang was about to withdraw and let them go high by themselves.

Gan Guoyang put down his wine glass, ready to go to the bathroom for convenience.

As soon as he came out of the box, Gan Guoyang was filled with arms - the army hit his abdomen, and ordinary people couldn't hit Gan Guoyang's arms at all.

"I'm sorry, I stained your clothes." It should be a reckless receptionist, bumping into someone with a drink, and spilling some on Gan Guoyang's clothes.

Gan Guoyang looked at the waitress in front of him. In the dim light, he found that he seemed to be a yellow person by the color of his hair.

This is Chinatown wine, but there are not many waitresses with Asian faces.

"It's okay, but your wine has been spilled." Gan Guoyang said in Chinese, he wanted to see if the girl was Chinese.

The girl was slightly surprised when she heard someone speaking Chinese, but it was normal after a quick thought. This is Chinatown, so she said, "It's okay, I'll get it later, and I'll get it later."

Speaking of which, the girl turned and left in a hurry. She didn't look up at Gan Guoyang from the beginning to the end, looking very reserved.

Gan Guoyang has been to the wine and nightclubs in Chinatown all year round. The waitresses and waitresses here have often seduced him. Every time a waiter comes to deliver wine, someone will stuff him with a small note with a phone number.

When leaving the nightclub, there are always girls in sexy and revealing clothes flirting with Gan Guoyang at the door, but Gan Guoyang has never been interested in them.

On the contrary, this waitress is probably new here and doesn't know anything yet.

Gan Guoyang was also a little curious. Judging from the girl's accent just now, she spoke very authentic Mandarin, unlike the Chinese from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan or Chinese Americans.

Gan Guoyang also knew that in 1988, there were still very few mainlanders who could come to the United States. They were either smuggled immigrants, wealthy people and their children, or foreign students sent by the state.

In terms of smuggling, most of the smugglers on the southeast coast of Fujian go to the southwestern coastal areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and rarely come to places as far north as Portland.

The Chinese who came to Portland in the past were all piglets trafficked by the Americans, but this is no longer the case.

The rich and powerful would naturally not come to this kind of place to work as waiters, and they didn't need to come here to experience life.

The foreign students sent by the government are not like it. Gan Guoyang knows some foreign students sent by the government from China. They are generally older, and their living expenses are supported by the state plus scholarships, so they don’t need to come here to work.

Thinking of the girl's timid look, Gan Guoyang felt pity for no reason. If he wanted to act like her, he would probably be scolded by the foreman.

So, Gan Guoyang walked to the door of the box and said to Feng Peiyu who was drinking outside, "Peiyu, go to the stage to have a look. He said that he accidentally knocked over a waitress's wine just now, and he will pay for the wine."

Feng Peiyu has always been relatively safe in doing things. After Gan Guoyang finished talking to him, he nodded and went to the stage without asking more questions.

After saying this, Gan Guoyang went back to the box, but he still thought about the waitress in his mind, and he always felt that this waitress seemed a little familiar to him.

"Who does he look like?" Gan Guoyang looked at his appearance and had some vague impressions in his heart.