The Golden Age of Basketball

() After Gan Guoyang went back to the past and came to the United States, the most powerful center he encountered on the basketball court was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In the confrontation with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gan Guoyang experienced what it means to be "powerless to resist". He was repeatedly grassed by this 7-foot-2 soft big man, and he was fucked from 17 feet to the basket. There was basically nothing he could do. .

Until later, Gan Guoyang finally found some tricks, and he was able to fight Kareem Abdul-Jabbar one or two. At least the death was not so ugly, and he was also appreciated by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is, after all, a Uranus superstar who has played in the NBA for 11 years. Gan Guoyang, who has just graduated from high school and entered university, is naturally no opponent at all.

And in his street, high school and college basketball career, he has never met a true matchup center.

"Cancer team" long legs - not worth mentioning; McCloud High's Antonio - he's a power forward; Skyline High's Greg Foster - he made Gan Guoyang a bit uncomfortable, that's all; ucla Gray—had already been beaten out of shit by Gan Guoyang.

The rest of the centers were all run over by Gan Guoyang one by one, and basically had no resistance. After all, Gan Guoyang's strength was indeed too dominant, and his hook was really unstoppable in college games.

But on March 1984, 3, in the Great Western Forum Arena Gan Guoyang is familiar with, he will meet the strongest opponent in his basketball career so far, the center from Georgetown University, Patrick Ewing.

"Gan, are you afraid?" Anderson asked suddenly.

At this time, the two were doing warm-up training on the court. After scoring a goal, Anderson walked up to Gan Guoyang and asked.

"Why do you ask me this?" Gan Guoyang continued to shoot the basket expressionlessly.

"You used to talk and laugh when you were warming up, but today you are very serious, which is different from usual." Anderson said, he is used to Gan Guoyang who usually likes to make jokes.

"Oh, maybe I'm a little nervous. This is the Great Western Forum. I used to watch the finals here. Now... I feel like I'm playing in the NBA." Gan Guoyang replied.

The sixteen-to-eight match is already very important, and both sides are full of highlights, so there is still half an hour before the match, and the arena is basically full of seats.

That vibe and feeling, as if an NBA playoffs is about to start.

"Hey look, the big guy on the opposite side, number 33, Patrick Ewing, looks like a gorilla. He will be handed over to you tonight, but don't worry, I won't let you fight alone." Anderson smiled Said.

Gan Guoyang listened, and looked not far away, the tall and conspicuous black giant tower with a protruding mouth, like a silverback orangutan with infinite strength.

At this time, Ewing's face was relaxed, chatting and laughing with his teammates, as if he didn't take his opponent seriously. In contrast, Gonzaga, from the player to the coach, had a serious face.

"Don't be like Anderson, I used to say these words, but now you are encouraging me." Gan Guoyang felt a little uncomfortable hearing Anderson's words, and he had always acted as the speaker in the past.

"Gan, you know, you are the only hope for the team to win. The rest of us are inferior to the opponent's players. As long as you can fight, we will keep fighting." Anderson said, after finishing the warm-up training, everyone returned Go to the locker room and prepare for the entrance ceremony.

On the way back to the locker room, Gan Guoyang recalled Anderson's words. He suddenly felt that he had such a heavy burden on his shoulders.

Anderson said that this is not to evade responsibility and throw the burden of the game on Gan Guoyang, but he knows that he and other players have limited abilities. Only when Gan Guoyang exerts his full strength, their efforts will be meaningful and can bring victory.

The two sides are about to enter the arena, and the Bulldogs are huddled in the player channel, shouting slogans before the game, and doing the final encouragement.

Gan Guoyang stood shoulder to shoulder with all the team members. He lowered his head and looked around all the teammates. Everyone was so serious, even a little nervous.

"In this world, there is only one bulldog, win or go home, there is no choice! go-bulldogs!" Gan Guoyang shouted.

"go-bulldogs!"

The mascots of the Georgetown University and Gonzaga University basketball teams are both bulldogs, representing fearless courage and tenacity to never give up.

It's just that Gonzaga University is called the Bulldogs, while Georgetown University's team is called the Hoyas.

Gan Guoyang just saw this noun for a long time, but he couldn't figure out what it was, and he couldn't think of what it meant.

Later he learned that hoyas is not an English word, but a slogan called hoya-saxs formed by separating and merging two words in Greek and Latin by a linguistics student at Georgetown University.

Translated into English, it means "what-rocks". To put it bluntly, it refers to "stonewall", which refers to obstruction and delay. This also reflects Georgetown's basketball style-tough, iron-blooded, and focused on defense.

As a result, hoyas, an ancient and meaningful slogan, became the team name of Georgetown University, which is also the most unique team name in the ncaa.

When he ran to the court facing the lights and shouts at the entrance of the players' tunnel, Gan Guoyang felt like a gladiator in ancient Rome, fighting to the death with the opponent on the big stage leading to the Colosseum.

The [-]-to-[-] match was really different from the previous two rounds, and the players in the Great Western Forum were also different from the Salt Palace Arena. As soon as he ran out of the tunnel, Gan Guoyang felt as if he had been washed away by the sound waves, and the spotlight here was also like a scorching sun. , illuminating every corner of the battlefield.

Before the game, the entire venue played and sang the American national anthem, but there were two people in the audience who did not open their mouths. One was Gan Guoyang, who is still a Chinese, and he is on a student visa in the United States; the other was Ewing, because he is a Jamaican. , although he has become an American citizen, he is unwilling to sing the American national anthem.

Afterwards, the starting players were introduced. Everything was like an official NBA game, which also made the atmosphere before the game more and more tense.

When Gan Guoyang stood in the middle circle and faced Patrick Ewing, his heartbeat reached the fastest. He has not experienced this kind of tension for a long time. The last time he was like this was against McGraw in the first warm-up match When Germany was in high school—that was three years ago.

"Hey Gan, come on, we're here." Stockton seemed to see something at this moment, stepped forward and patted Gan Guoyang's buttocks and said relaxedly.

"No problem, wait and see the good show." Gan Guoyang was told by Stockton, and immediately took a deep breath to calm himself down. At the same time, he was also thinking that it would not be good to know too much about the future.

Because in 1984 in history, Georgetown will finally win the ncaa championship, and now, if Gan Guoyang leads Gonzaga to beat Georgetown, it means that he will completely change the historical event - at least Great event in basketball history.

If he loses, he is just a pebble under the wheel of history. He thought he could turn the car over, but he just bumped the car a little bit.

In addition, this time he was facing Ewing, Gan Guoyang knew that Ewing would be one of the top four centers and superstars in the future, so how could he not be afraid.

These two things invisibly aggravated Gan Guoyang's worries, making him a little worried, and naturally he felt nervous.

Stockton's comfort immediately made him feel better, and he thought of what Anderson said to him. Gan Guoyang had decided to fight to the death in the three-second zone like a real center forward.

"Are you all ready?" the referee asked.

"Yes!" "Yes!" Ewing and Gan Guoyang replied at the same time, and looked at each other.

"Beep beep!" With the referee's whistle, the 1984ncaa national competition in the western region of the [-]-to-[-] competition officially began!

The contest between Gan Guoyang and Ewing took the lead in starting from the middle circle.

Gan Guoyang understands that in order to lead Gonzaga to win, he must have an advantage in momentum from the very beginning, and must be the first to win.

Judging from this year's national university rankings, Bellman's pre-match analysis, and Georgetown's game video, Gan Guoyang understands that Gonzaga's overall team strength is obviously a level behind Georgetown's.

If you can't overwhelm the opponent in terms of momentum, then the game is likely to enter the opponent's control from the beginning, and it will be difficult to fight.

Therefore, starting from the scrimmage, Gan Guoyang will fight for every inch of land!

Gan Guoyang does not have an advantage in height, he is 6 feet 10, while Ewing is 7 feet; although Gan Guoyang's wingspan is very outstanding, Ewing's wingspan is not bad, and Ewing also has an advantage in weight, He is nearly 10 pounds heavier than Gan Guoyang.

The first touch between the two in the air sparked sparks. Gan Guoyang could clearly feel the huge force from the other party pressing towards him, but he couldn't exert force in the air.

But Gan Guoyang's take-off was very sufficient, and at the same time he almost stretched his arms to reach the ball with all his strength.

The two touched the basketball in the air at the same time, and the ball was hit by two forces, but it didn't go either way, and it was still within the center of the middle circle.

At this time, both Gan Guoyang and Ewing had already landed, but Gan Guoyang was shorter but more flexible, and took less time to prepare for jumping. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he jumped up again immediately, flicking the ball in the air back, ahead of the jump. Ewing pushed the ball into the hands of his teammates in one step.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs get the offense!

"i-win (I won)." Gan Guoyang said to Ewing beside him as he ran across the middle circle.

Ewing was obviously taken aback. In his opinion, winning or losing the scrum doesn't really matter. Anyway, it's just a formality, and the right to serve will be exchanged in the second half.

He didn't expect that the yellow-skinned boy who was often seen in various newspapers and magazines on the opposite side would care about winning or losing the scrum. He always thought that Gan Guoyang was valued by the media only because he was a Chinese, full of gimmicks, and a little bit of strength. But it's still far from the top of the NCAA.

Ewing's thinking is also the opinion of most American basketball players. Although Gan Guoyang's statistics are very beautiful, he averaged 26 points and 15 rebounds per game in the regular season plus two rounds of the NCAA National Championship.

In comparison, Ewing only scored 16 points and 10 rebounds.

But Gonzaga University, where Gan Guoyang is located, plays in the West Coast League—a minor league, while Georgetown, where Ewing is located, is in the powerful Big East League.

What's more, Gonzaga faced Princeton University with mediocre talent and poor defense in the first game. When he faced the Texas El Paso Miners in the second round, Gan Guoyang's score immediately dropped to 12 points.

In fact, these basketball people don't even look at how low the score between the two sides was in the second game against the Texas El Paso Miners.

Before this game, some media predicted that Gan Guoyang could not score more than [-] points.

The reason they made this prediction is not only because of Georgetown's super defense, but also because Georgetown has a super center, Ewing.His block average is 3.65 times.

"What boy did you win? Scrimmage? Then I tell you that I will win the game." Ewing came to the three-second zone and followed Gan Guoyang. He was ready to teach this yellow boy a lesson.

"We'll see." At this moment, Gan Guoyang had no intention of arguing with Ewing, and the two had already started a hand-to-hand fight inside.

The moment he came into contact with Ewing, Gan Guoyang felt that this guy was difficult to deal with.

Not to mention Ewing's outstanding physical fitness, his agility and fierce defensive moves made Gan Guoyang feel different from the opponents he had encountered in the past.

In order to compete for a deeper position, Gan Guoyang desperately opened up an open space on the edge of the three-second zone on the right, and stuck Ewing tightly behind him.

In order to completely block Ewing behind him, Gan Guoyang kept making small movements with his hands, so that Ewing could not push him away.

Ewing did not expect that this yellow-skinned No. 11, who looked thinner and shorter than himself, would have such great strength and such good positioning skills.

He has been trying very hard to prevent Gan Guoyang from getting a position, and if he tries harder, he will foul and push him down, but he still can't invade Gan Guoyang's receiving space.

But Stockton saw that Gan Guoyang had occupied the territory from the outside, hung the ball into Gan Guoyang's hands, and then immediately slipped to the bottom line and took the defense away.

Everyone else also pulled away, and the first goal in the opening game was a duel between the centers of the two sides!

Bellman's pre-match arrangement is not so much a tactical arrangement, but a death mobilization, because Bellman knows that it is very difficult to defeat Georgetown purely relying on tactics, and must rely on the team's morale and perseverance to win against the opponent. Momentum, and then tactics can work.

Behrman's instruction to Gan Guoyang was, "Play recklessly inside and seize every opportunity to score."

So at the beginning of the game, Gonzaga gave the ball to Gan Guoyang. They needed Gan Guoyang's goal to accumulate the momentum to compete with a strong enemy.

After receiving the ball steadily, Gan Guoyang tested the defense behind him and felt quite a lot of pressure.

Because it consumes too much power when getting stuck, and the defender behind is very tight, if you hook your hand at this time, it is difficult to complete the movement.

In addition, the opponent showed signs of double-teaming, Gan Guoyang immediately passed the ball to Matthews on the outside, and he himself made a slight adjustment and arched inward again.

When the center forward feels that it is not easy to play singles, he will choose to pass the ball to the outside, adjust himself, and then continue to feed the ball from the outside.

The double-teaming by the Georgetown players was obviously for show, and they believed that Ewing alone could handle Gan Guoyang.

But this time, Gan Guoyang went deeper after a slight adjustment, and at the same time his left foot moved closer to the baseline and stuck a little backward.

After Gan Guoyang passed the ball, Ewing felt the opponent's body push back. Ewing let out his strength and moved back half a point.

This looseness was immediately felt by Gan Guoyang. The moment he caught the ball again, he turned around with his back on the heel of his left foot, and turned directly to the basket as if oiling the soles of his feet!

Ewing's reaction was also extremely fast. Seeing something bad, he immediately blocked Gan Guoyang to the basket, squeezing Gan Guoyang's room for movement.

Georgetown's power forward on the left also immediately came back to make up defense, trying to pinch Gan Guoyang under the basket.

How could Gan Guoyang let the opponent pinch him? After turning around, he took off on one foot without adjusting his body.

This kind of take-off is not enough because of lack of preparation. If he lays up directly, Ewing who sticks up will slap the ball away with a slap.

However, Gan Guoyang used his long arms to make a layup before the opponent's power forward's palm was sealed.

Go in!

Like a loach, Gan Guoyang smeared the ball into the basket under the attack of the opponent's two big men inside!

In the opening 20 seconds, Gan Guoyang used a beautiful turn and layup to open the scoring for Gonzaga.

"I said, I will win." After the goal, Gan Guoyang looked at Ewing and said something, then ran back to defend.

The war has begun.