The Golden Age of Basketball

On October 10, the Trail Blazers will usher in their first preseason game at the Memorial Stadium. They will face their old rivals in the same district, the Phoenix Suns.

In the morning, Gan Guoyang went to the West District to find Sabonis as usual, and the two ran to the training hall together.

Along the way, Sabonis seemed a little excited, and for the first time he talked more than Gan Guoyang.

He has a good command of English, but after the "chattering" by Adelman and Gan Guoyang, plus watching more TV and listening to the news at home, his English level has improved by leaps and bounds.

Now he has been able to use some slang that he didn't understand before, and finally he is no longer confused by Gan Guoyang's fancy trash talk, and sometimes he can even respond with a sentence or two, which often makes Gan Guoyang laugh out loud.

Sabonis has been asking Gan Guoyang what kind of team the Phoenix Suns are, what are their characteristics, and what is their inside level.

Gan Guoyang originally wanted to tell him that it was just a preseason game, so there was no need to bother, but thinking that this was his first official appearance, he still said: "Phoenix Suns, they mainly focus on offense. Don't worry, their inside line is Pure soft persimmon (pushover), you can pinch it however you want! Don't worry."

"Pushover?" Sabonis didn't quite understand the meaning of the word. Gan Guoyang made a crushing movement with his hand, and Sabonis nodded.

Having said that, this is for Gan Guoyang. In fact, for Gan Guoyang, except for a few teams in the entire league, the inside lines of other teams are all soft persimmons. The team on the outside line.

The content of the Blazers' training today is mainly tactical joint training. Unlike Ramsey, Adelman is a coach who is more open in tactics and is often willing to give players a large degree of freedom on the court.

But basic tactics still need to be practiced. Players need this kind of tactical practice to develop good tactical literacy and tacit cooperation. Otherwise, the result of free play on the court will be a random fight.

"Pay attention to your first pass! The first pass is very important, don't be too sure, here you can let go, in this case, you can directly pass a long pass to Drexler, or according to their running position, Cauchy is the second choice, Porter is the third choice, if you want stability, give the ball to Cauchy and strive for better offensive and defensive transition opportunities."

In the fast break training, Adelman reminded Sabonis that Sabonis's first pass was indeed very, very beautiful, with top-notch technique and precision.

But after all, Sabonis has never really played in the Trail Blazers. He is still more accustomed to the fast break style of play in Europe. Once an attack fails, he will pass the ball to the point guard organization.

For this ball, he underestimated Drexler's speed and ability to get rid of it. At the same time, he did not notice Cauchy's running position, and passed the ball to Porter who was standing not far away to respond.

If it was Gan Guoyang, the ball must have been passed directly to Drexler with a super long pass.

"It would be great if Kiki was still there. Kiki and Paxson must like passers like Sabonis very much when they are on the court." Gan Guoyang said while watching them do fast break training.

When Vandeweghe was still there, he and Paxson formed a fast-down combination that was best at stretching the baseline. In this case, Sabonis passed the ball to the point guard, and the point guard then passed the ball to the side. A common counterattack routine used by the old pioneers.

Now, the sharp knife composed of Drexler and Cauchy is better at direct impact or long pass penetration, and is more aggressive, but relatively lacks changes.

"Okay Gan, as far as I can see, Sabonis's passing skills will sooner or later become the No. Fall below one?" said the assistant coaches Behrman and Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang was also taken aback when he heard that. Last season, his average assists per game was 1.7, which is already a record high, but it is still pitifully small.

At the same time, Olajuwon's assists rose to 2.1. Although he was still at the same level as Gan Guoyang, he had begun to slowly surpass Gan Guoyang.

Because with Ralph Sampson's continuous injuries, Olajuwon has become the only core point of the Rockets' inside line. It is imperative to improve the ability to transfer the ball.

But for Gan Guoyang, Adelman doesn't need Gan Guoyang's assists, he only needs to score, rebound and block shots.

"No, Mr. Behrman, I believe that my assists will increase this season, and we will definitely play the best basketball." Gan Guoyang looked at Behrman and said.

Behrman just wanted to laugh at him, but he swallowed the words again because he suddenly remembered that Gan Guoyang told him more than a year ago that he wanted to increase his average steals to more than 2 per game.

Behrman, who has been with Gan Guoyang for the longest time, feels that Gan Guoyang's idea is a bit fanciful. After all, there are not many guards with an average of 2 steals per game.

But in the 1988 season, Gan Guoyang tied for fifth place in the season's steals rankings with teammate Drexler with an astonishing average of 2.5 steals per game.

From then on, Bellman understood that he still underestimated his most proud disciple.

The reason why Gan Guoyang wants to improve his steals is actually very simple. In the summer training with Olajuwon that year, under the witness of Drexler, Olajuwon made a bet with him, who will win the new season? If the number of steals is low, whoever will treat the opponent to eat ice cream for a month.

87年奥拉朱旺场均抢断有1.9个，到了88年涨到了2.1个，哪里想得到甘国阳能场均抢断2.5个。

The consequences of the bet are of course very simple. Olajuwon invited Gan Guoyang to eat ice cream every day in Houston in July, until Gan Guoyang felt like vomiting.

However, this also shows Gan Guoyang's determination to work hard at all costs to achieve his goal. At that time, in order to improve his steals, he added a lot of guard training to his training, while the center training did not decrease at all.

Therefore, Bellman also believed at this moment that Gan Guoyang would definitely do what he said.

………………

After [-] o'clock in the evening, there were unexpectedly many spectators in the Memorial Stadium. There are rarely so many spectators in the general preseason games. Obviously, everyone came to see the newcomer of the Trail Blazers, Sabonis.

"This guy is really huge. I think our team has another Mark Eaton." Some fans on the sidelines saw Sabonis warming up on the court and said.

"I think he is more flexible than Eaton. I don't know how many blocks he can give opponents per game in the new season."

"I bet four, oh no, three, he probably won't get that much playing time."

"I guess it's 2. Gan can give the opponent 3 by himself. If there are 3 more, others don't have to shoot inside us."

So far, most fans still regard Sabonis as an inside defensive gate like Mark Eaton, and they never thought of what changes he would bring to the Blazers on the offensive end.

But at this time, on the court, Gan Guoyang was busy reminiscing with his old friends.

"Rookie, what should we drink after the game?"

"No, I don't drink. When did you become an alcoholic? It's not like you. Don't tell me that you've got those smoking and drinking habits now..."

"Oh my god, can you put away your preaching look, you look like your Secretary of State Schultz, let me tell you, even if I drink a bottle of brandy now, I can still blow you all up."

After Gan Guoyang finished speaking, he took the ball and walked near the three-point line. An ultra-long-range three-pointer, the ball went into the net, which attracted a burst of amazement from the fans on the sidelines.

The person chatting with Gan Guoyang was Gan Guoyang's opponent in high school, the point guard Kevin Johnson of Sacramento High School.

Although he and Gan Guoyang entered the university together, Kevin Johnson chose to complete four years of university to get a degree, and then participated in the 1987 draft.

The Cleveland Cavaliers selected the No. 7 player with the seventh overall pick in the first round, but Johnson's life in the Cavaliers was not satisfactory, because the Cavaliers already had an excellent starting point guard, Mark Price, so Johnson, the No. [-] rookie, can only play as a substitute for Price.

Therefore, before the trade deadline, the Cavaliers and the Suns made a multi-man deal, sending Johnson to Phoenix, and the "Purple Lightning" became a swift rattlesnake in the Arizona desert.

After coming to the Suns, Kevin Johnson's playing time increased, and his statistics also increased, from an average of 7 points and 3 assists per game to the standard starting point guard level of 12 points and 8 assists.

However, the Suns still finished ninth in the Western Conference and unfortunately missed the playoffs.

This summer, the Suns caught big fish in the free market and directly signed supersonic power forward Tom Chambers.

In this way, the Suns dominated by Adams and Larry Nance have become a thing of the past, and an internal and external Iron Triangle lineup with Tom Chambers, Jeff Hornacek, and Kevin Johnson as the core has been formed. Eddie Johnson and Almon Gilliam, a new sun rises in the Western Conference.

………………

After chatting with his old friend, Gan Guoyang returned to the sidelines, took off his clothes, and started preparing for this preseason game.

In his eyes, Kevin Johnson is no longer enough for his opponent. At least within three years, the sun is bound to rise, but it will not threaten the Blazers.

After a simple entrance ceremony, Gan Guoyang once again stood in the center of the court. Although it is not an official regular season, the journey of the new season will start from here.

Gan Guoyang had never felt so fully prepared, and he couldn't wait.