The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 95 Turning enemies into friends

() The training in the morning was spent in Ramsey's constant calls to stop, correct, guide, stop, correct, and guide.

This is a fragmented training process, because in Ramsey's eyes, these rookies have problems with almost every movement, and there are loopholes in every movement and position. Even Drexler is not immune.

This is also inevitable for rookies after entering the NBA, not to mention that the rookies of the Trail Blazers met a stubborn old academic coach.

Gan Guoyang felt that the training in the morning had benefited him a lot. He knew the correct posture for running, how to improve his shooting, and how to pay attention to the angle of standing and hand movements when blocking people. How to occupy a favorable position when defending fast breaks, you can use one defense and two defenses.

Of course, Gan Guoyang didn't understand all these things, such as the positioning skills when defending fast breaks, which requires a lot of accumulation of game experience, but at least Gan Guoyang has started to get started.

And Ramsey also found that this Chinese No. [-] pick has amazing learning ability. After only one morning of training, he has already started to improve. Some guidance from Ramsey can always have immediate results.

Therefore, some of Ramsey's previous worries about Gan Guoyang are slowly dispelling.

Gan Guoyang only studied in college for two years. In the first year, he did not play an official game because he transferred to another school. That is to say, Gan Guoyang only had one year of NCAA experience. This made Ramsay worry that Gan Guoyang's basic skills and basketball IQ were not enough.

Gan Guoyang spent a morning to dispel Ramsay's doubts.

Then, what made Ramsey even more troublesome was that he found that Gan Guoyang was actually the same type as Drexler. Choice, though the end result isn't necessarily bad.

One Drexler is enough to make Ramsey uncomfortable, and Gan Guoyang is here again, and now Ramsey is the first two big.

Ramsey originally wanted to find such a player: he had been taught by a famous coach in college, and he had rich experience in the NCAA competition for four years. He was a selfless team player on the field, familiar with every detail of the coach's tactics, and at the same time He also has strong personal abilities and can dominate both offense and defense when necessary.

Bill Walton undoubtedly meets every requirement of Ramsey. During his four years at UCLA, he was taught by the famous coach John Wooden and won two NCAA championships. The undisputed core of the team, able to resolutely implement the coach's tactics, while his defense and his offense can always save the team from fire and water.

Of course, Bill Wharton never makes people feel at ease off the court. He likes to dress like a hippie when he has nothing to do. He wears a hair band to go to the street to demonstrate. As his coach, he doesn't know when he will be called by the police. Called to the bureau to lead people; during the offseason, he also likes mountaineering and camping, without any scruples about the physical damage caused by it.

But as long as he is on the court, Walton is Ramsey's pinnacle.

Look at Gan Guoyang again, this 6-foot-10 talented player is still a Chinese-in the past, Ramsey's only impression of Chinese was Bruce Lee.

Gan Guoyang graduated from Gonzaga in Spokane. Although it is not far from Portland, Ramsey has never heard of this poor school. It is said that this year is the first time they entered the NCAA National Championships, and then won When it comes to the championship, it is indeed remarkable.

Gan Guoyang's coach is said to be his high school coach, an unknown young coach. It is said that he has two brushes on defense, but on offense, it seems that his best tactic is "give the ball to Gan!"

Ramsey found that Gan Guoyang's basic passing skills were not solid during the conduction practice. Although his long passes across the court were shocking, some of his simple points and conductions were not beautiful.

And Ramsey also noticed that Gan Guoyang likes to solve problems by himself on the court.When running tactics, he often makes some unimaginable choices, such as a sudden pass behind his head, which catches his teammates by surprise.

For example, when doing high-post support, a 17-foot hook suddenly came, which made people dumbfounded.

In other words, this guy Gan Guoyang is good at playing "fairy ball".

This is unbearable for Ramsey, who emphasizes stability, emphasizes tactics first, and requires rigorous and reasonable play.

Of course, Gan Guoyang didn't know this. He didn't expect Ramsay, an old man, to have so many thoughts in his mind, and he almost analyzed all the characteristics of Gan Guoyang in just one morning.

On the contrary, he feels very happy because he has learned a lot, and he thinks these rookie teammates are very good, especially Drexler, which makes him extremely excited.

"Beep beep!" The assistant coach blew the whistle for the end of training in the morning. From 8:11 am to 3:6 am, a total of [-] hours of training did not seem to be long, but it gave the six rookies a preliminary understanding of professional basketball. experience.

"Gentlemen, I think the 3 hours of training should give you a taste of the fun of the NBA. You have done a good job. Although I can't say it is perfect, I can see your progress. As a reward for our use of the venue, in the afternoon we I will conduct some confrontation training with the players from the University of Portland, and I hope you can apply what you have learned in the morning to the field." Ramsey made a brief summary of the training in the morning and made a summary of the content in the afternoon arrange.

"Sure enough, we're going to play against the guys from the University of Portland!" Gan Guoyang couldn't help but feel a little excited when he thought of this. It wasn't because the players from the University of Portland were so good;

Gan Guoyang simply wanted to play a game. Since the end of the NCAA finals, he hadn't played even the most common 5-on-5 match for four or five months.

After deciding to participate in the draft, Falk suggested that he had better not go to the street to play, and not to participate in various invitational tournaments casually. Once injured, it is no joke.

For this reason, Gan Guoyang has endured for a long time.

But before that, we must first solve the problem of eating.

The University of Portland, like many American schools, has no walls and is integrated with the surrounding residential areas. As soon as you come out of the school's training hall, you will be on a public street, and there is no place to eat.

In the NBA, the players have to solve their own food problems during training and games. The team only gives dietary advice and meal subsidies, and is not responsible for recruiting a chef to cook for the players.

Of the five rookies, except Gan Guoyang, the other four lived in apartments provided by the Blazers, and only the No. 5 pick was eligible to live in Du Li's house.

And Drexler lives in a du li apartment in Portland Mountain Park, which is thousands of miles away from the University of Portland, but very close to the Blazers' own training hall.

"Hey, Clyde, go to my house for dinner." Gan Guoyang suggested to Drexler as he watched the other four go back to his residence to solve the meal problem.

Drexler was worrying about where to eat, but he didn't expect this Chinese boy to take the initiative to invite him to eat at home.

Although the two sparked when they met for the first time, and if you deducted one from me, I will return it to you, but that was just a young man's sudden onslaught.

During a morning's training, Drexler not only didn't dislike this big Chinese man, but on the contrary, he had a good impression of him.

Especially when Gan Guoyang confronted Ramsey silently on the field and shook the old man's head angrily, Drexler felt that he and Gan Guoyang were in the same hatred.

In fact, this is just an illusion of Drexler. Gan Guoyang did not fight against Ramsey. He is just used to playing according to his own thinking, and this way of playing is quite effective, which makes Ramsey helpless.

From this point of view, Drexler and Gan Guoyang are indeed the same type of players, no wonder Drexler appreciates Gan Guoyang.

Now Gan Guoyang invited Drexler to eat at home. In the United States, only very good friends would be invited to eat at home, and Drexler readily agreed.

"No problem, but what can I eat at your house? Can I call for a McDonald's?" Drexler asked

"Don't worry, my dad has already prepared a meal and is waiting for me at home." With Gan Youwei around, Gan Guoyang didn't have to worry about what to eat at all.

So Gan Guoyang drove to Gan Guoyang's residence in a blue Ford Mustang owned by Drexler.

In a country on wheels like the United States, it is very common to have a car. Drexler's Mustang is also an old style from the 70s. It was once all the rage, but now it has been retired.

According to Drexler's first-year contract salary and commercial endorsements, buying such a used car is a piece of cake.

After arriving at home, Gan Youwei had already cooked meals and waited for his son to come back, but he didn't expect another one to come.

Two basketball players who are more than two meters tall naturally have a huge appetite, so Gan Youwei cooked another large pot of rice and fried a few more dishes at the same time.

Gan Youwei, who has lived in Portland for a while, already knows how to drive himself to a supermarket to buy groceries.

This meal made Drexler very addicted. He usually eats some nutritious and tasteless Western food, but when he suddenly tasted the authentic Huaiyang cuisine prepared by Gan Youwei, he wanted to eat the whole plate. go down.

Moreover, Drexler quickly learned to use chopsticks, which made Gan Youwei greatly appreciated.

After the meal, Gan Guoyang had a chance to have a good chat with Drexler, a senior, about the NBA.

After coming to the United States, Gan Guoyang met quite a few NBA superstars, and some people who will become famous in the future have also become Gan Guoyang's opponents.

Now he is able to get along with and even compete with these future basketball idols with a normal mentality, because he knows that he is also one of them.

Drexler talked about a lot of interesting things about the NBA that Gan Guoyang didn't know, and also talked about the difficulties he encountered in his rookie season, and of course he also complained about Coach Ramsey.

After listening to Drexler's words, Gan Guoyang also began to understand that maybe his own way of playing is also not liked by Ramsey.

"Whatever he is, as long as he can win, it doesn't matter how much the coach doesn't like it, right? And I think Mr. Ramsey is a great guy, and I can learn a lot from him." Gan Guoyang said.

"Yes, Ramsey is indeed a great coach, but maybe he is not suitable for me. I still miss Coach Lewis more." Drexler has a headache when he thinks about coaching. be traded.

Speaking of Lewis, Gan Guoyang remembered the big nose and big face standing on the opponent's bench in the NCAA finals, like a Slavic head coach.

By the way, Gan Guoyang also thought of Bobby Bellman, his mentor and godfather.

The reason why Drexler and Gan Guoyang formed the current playing habits has a lot to do with the teaching methods of these two coaches. <", that is, an open offense, which fully develops the scoring ability and creativity of the team's outside players, and also makes Drexler accustomed to making offensive choices based on the situation on the court.

Coach Bellman gave Gan Guoyang sufficient power on the offensive end. When necessary, Gonzaga University's offensive options were in the hands of Gan Guoyang instead of Stockton.This also exercised Gan Guoyang's ability to solve problems alone, because Bellman's offensive routines are really few and pitiful.

Although the two players in different positions but with similar basketball styles chatted together, Gan Guoyang found that although Drexler was passionate on the court, he spoke well and behaved like a gentleman off the court.

Even complaining sounds more like advice.

Drexler also felt that although Gan Guoyang was a foreigner, his words were humorous and witty, and his views on many issues were even beyond his understanding, which made him wonder whether this guy was a basketball player or a newspaper commentator.

This pleasant experience of dining and talking completely broke the gap and discord between the two when they met, and they quickly became a pair of very good friends.

After a while, the two arrived at the University of Portland in a car together. The two chatted happily along the way and looked like close friends who had been dating for many years.

The training in the afternoon was just like what Ramsey said, it was a game against University of Portland players. In addition to college players, there were also some undrafted NBA picks here to try their luck.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang saw Hawkins, Portland's number one player, on the field, and Hawkins could only smile wryly when he saw him.

In the previous West Coast League game, Hawkins had already been tortured badly by Gan Guoyang. I thought that this guy went to the NBA, and I could breathe a sigh of relief, but I didn't expect him to come to Portland!

The two sides made some warm-up preparations, and quickly divided into groups, ready to start a simple 5-on-5 confrontation match.

Coach Ramsey did not make specific arrangements for the six rookies, but only said that he hoped that the players could use what they learned in the morning to the game.

There was no suspense in the game process. The Portland rookie team with Gan Guoyang and Drexler beat the University of Portland Pilots to nowhere. They didn't need tactics at all.

After the fight, Gan Guoyang and Drexler began to give up their offense and kept passing the ball back and forth on the field. They didn't play basketball, but table tennis.

No one wants to attack when they get the ball, they always have to pass the ball to others, and there are all kinds of no-look-pass, passing the ball behind the head, and Drexler even made a few crotch passes.

Ramsey, who was standing aside watching the two perform like monkeys, couldn't take it anymore and yelled at the field: "You two bloody guys throw me that ball around indiscriminately , I will throw you out of the arena and into the trash can!"

The people on the field were stunned, because Coach Ramsey is a strict but rigorous old-school coach, and trash talk never exists in his basketball dictionary.

Obviously, the performance of these two guys was about to drive the old man crazy. Gan Guoyang, who was also stunned, still had the ball in his hand and was about to pass it back to Drexler on the outside.

Hearing Ramsey's roar, Gan Guoyang made a big hook from 12 feet, "Whoa!" The ball was scored on Hawkins' head.

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