The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 415 An Unexpected Opponent

The Trail Blazers swept the Golden State Warriors 3-0, marking their third consecutive year sweeping their opponent in the first round.

This shows that the Trail Blazers are a very stable and solid team that rarely loses to weaker opponents.

During the regular season, some seemingly strong teams often emerge, achieving good results and rankings after a season.

However, once they enter the playoffs, they become stepping stones, easily upset by teams with much worse records, and often play very poorly against teams with much worse records.

Yes, I'm talking about the Portland Trail Blazers without Gan Guoyang. In 84, they finished second in the Western Conference but were eliminated in the first round, watching the Suns advance to the Western Conference Finals.

In 1981, they finished fourth in the Western Conference. In the first round, they faced the fifth-ranked Kansas City Kings, who were six games behind them, and were upset, watching the Kings advance to the Western Conference Finals.

Before acquiring Gan Guoyang in 1984, the Trail Blazers were known in the West for their lackluster regular season performance and their easy playoff run, failing to make a significant impact.

Gan Guoyang's arrival has completely changed the face of the Trail Blazers. They used to struggle in the first round, but now they always get through the first round with thunderous force and decisiveness, leaving no room for their opponents to have any imagination.

After winning the third game and advancing to the next round, Gan Guoyang asked the team for leave the next day to go back to Tian Delong to see his father, Gan Youwei, and his uncle's family.

During this period, Gan Guohui was not with Gan Guoyang, nor did he stay in the Bay Area. He went to Phoenix with Larry Fleischer to assist in handling the Suns' drug-related case.

Gan Guoyang's uncle's family and Gan Youwei moved into the house that Gan Guoyang bought in Pacific Heights. In addition to this house, Gan Guoyang also bought a shop and an apartment nearby.

Gan Youwei asked Gan Guoyang what he wanted to do with the store and whether he wanted to open a restaurant. Gan Guoyang replied that he wanted to open a funeral home, which almost earned him a beating from Gan Youwei.

After learning about the various operational procedures and industry secrets of funeral homes through Knight, Gan Guoyang discovered that cremating people was much more profitable and easier than cooking.

Running a restaurant is really tough. Profit margins are low, competition is fierce, and you have to constantly innovate, improve, and expand your customer base. It's really not easy to make a long-term business.

The funeral industry is different. It has a monopolistic nature, is a one-time service, and doesn't need to consider repeat customers or do much innovation. It doesn't really need to attract new customers.

Gan Guoyang believes that the promising funeral industry, which also serves those who are grieving, is a great act of merit.

In the future, many celebrities will invest in restaurants after they become rich and famous, using their fame to attract popularity and monetize their businesses. However, Gan Guoyang took a different approach and started his funeral business in a niche market.

In the human world, he mourns the dead; on the basketball court, he mourns the defeated teams.

Gan Guoyang only stayed at home for noon, had a meal, and then met with Professor Karp and Thurmond for coffee in the afternoon.

Before heading to the airport that evening, Gan Guoyang asked Quentin to take him to the Golden Gate Park cemetery. He laid a bouquet of flowers at Raymond's grave, then bid farewell to Golden State and continued his playoff journey.

The Trail Blazers easily advanced to the second round, and the results of other matchups in the Western Conference have also been determined.

Like the Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Lakers easily defeated the Denver Nuggets 3-0 without any suspense.

With Knight injured and Cooper in decline, the Nuggets were no match for the Lakers. The Lakers' dominance in the first round was even more brutal than that of the Trail Blazers.

The Warriors fought back in Game 3 and almost defeated the Trail Blazers.

The Nuggets had no chance to fight back, with point differentials of 33, 12, and 37 points in the three games.

The Lakers demonstrated their extreme hunger for victory and the championship, scoring more points in each of the three games than in the previous one, averaging 135 points per game, more than ten points higher than their regular season average.

Like the Trail Blazers, their sights are set on the championship; the first round is just a formality.

What excites the Lakers even more is that their opponent in the second round will be the Houston Rockets.

Despite missing Ralph Sampson, Mitchell Wiggins, and Lloyd, the Rockets, relying on Hakeem Olajuwon's outstanding performance and Maxwell's remaining form, rallied from a first-set loss to win three straight games, defeating the Utah Jazz 3-1 and advancing to the semifinals.

During the series, the hot-tempered Hakeem Olajuwon clashed with Karl Malone, but Malone didn't dare to fight back. In the ensuing chaos, both players were ejected from the game.

In 1987, stadium clashes and violence permeated every round of the series, and no one was spared.

David Stern and the league office are preoccupied with the Suns' drug scandal and have no time to deal with minor matters like fighting.

The conflict did not affect the outcome of the series; the Rockets eliminated the Jazz and will face the Lakers again in the semifinals.

But the situation is vastly different from last year's playoffs. The Rockets' twin towers have declined, and the Lakers are driven by a strong desire for revenge, making the Rockets' chances of winning slim. In the East, the Boston Celtics, plagued by injuries throughout the season, still easily eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs.

With a score of 3-0, the Celtics sent Dr. J Kyrie Irving to the end of his basketball career.

The third game was played at Spectrum Stadium, and the outcome was decided early on. The Celtics showed no mercy and took an early lead by a large margin.

But none of the Philadelphia home fans left early; they knew this would be Irving's last professional game.

When KC Jones was substituted, he stood up and joined the Celtics players in applauding Dr. J Kyrie Irving, who was also substituted at the same time.

Larry Bird and Kyrie Irving embraced tightly after the game, marking Irving's official retirement.

The era of Kyrie Irving's afro, thigh-high socks, and soaring dunks has come to an end.

Although Kyrie Irving only won one NBA championship in his career, his contribution to the sport cannot be described by a single title.

He ushered in an era of individual heroism in the basketball world, influencing the playing style and tactics of a generation of backcourt players in the 80s and 90s.

Basketball, starting with Kyrie Irving, transformed from a two-dimensional strategy game into a three-dimensional action game. He showed later basketball operators just how much commercial power a remarkable and highly entertaining player could have.

He also ushered in the commercial era of basketball.

The trend of the times has been set, and a new generation is emerging. He can now retire with honor and enjoy life outside of basketball.

Michael Jordan, one of the rising stars, led the Bulls to a Game 5 against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

With no one optimistic about Jordan and the Bulls, Jordan exploded in Game 5 in Atlanta, scoring 41 points and hitting the game-winning shot in the final moments, defeating the Hawks as the seventh seed and successfully advancing to the semifinals!

The Hawks were labeled as a pseudo-powerhouse, as they were defeated by Michael Jordan alone.

After the game, Gan Guoyang called to congratulate Jordan: "You scored more than half of my points in Atlanta!"

In the semifinals, Michael Jordan will face his early career nightmare for the first time: the over-powered Detroit Pistons.

Besides the Atlanta Hawks, the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference are also labeled as pseudo-strong teams.

After defeating the Warriors, the Trail Blazers all believed that their second-round opponent would be the Mavericks, and they were making full preparations for the game.

The Mavericks also won their first game in Dallas with great fanfare, scoring a whopping 151 points to defeat the Seattle SuperSonics by a massive 22-point margin.

After winning this game, the Dallas team believed that the semifinals were in the bag and that the SuperSonics were no match for them.

Little did they know that the Mavericks would then face a blow from the avenging god, Dale Ellis. In the second game, Ellis scored 32 points, and the SuperSonics narrowly defeated the Mavericks by 2 points, tying the score.

Winning a game by a large margin has the same effect as winning by just one point, resulting in a 1-1 score.

Back in Seattle, the SuperSonics don't even have a proper home arena to play games.

Because they didn't expect the team to make the playoffs, both their home arena, KeyArena, and their previous home arena, Kingdom Stadium, were rented out in advance.

Unfortunately, the game had to be held at the University of Washington's home arena, Alaska Airlines Arena—where Gan Guoyang had played many times during his time in Gonzaga.

Despite playing in a different arena, the SuperSonics unleashed tremendous energy. Dale Ellis, who had been abandoned by the Mavericks, scored 43 points in Game 3, helping the SuperSonics crush their former team, the Mavericks, and take a 3-1 lead in the series.

In Game 4, the Mavericks, who had lost their morale and become disoriented, were brutally beaten by the SuperSonics at the AirAsia Arena, trailing by 12 points in the first quarter.

Ultimately, they suffered a crushing defeat to their opponent, losing 98-124. The second-ranked team in the West was eliminated, suffering a upset by the SuperSonics.

Both the Eastern and Western Conferences saw a seventh seed emerge victorious, leading to the Mavericks and Hawks being labeled as pseudo-strong teams.

Meanwhile, the SuperSonics, brimming with X-factors, made it to the semifinals to challenge their old rivals from the Northwest region, the Trail Blazers.

This is truly an unexpected opponent for the Trail Blazers.

(End of this chapter)