The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 636 Li Gui
With the end of the Gulf War, the clock struck March 1991.

In early March, a trivial incident occurred on I-210 freeway in Los Angeles, California.

A Black man named Rodney King was pulled over by police for drunk driving and was about to be penalized.

Drunk driving happens every day in the United States, a country on wheels, and it's not currently a time of prohibition.

Generally speaking, the police will arrest the driver, take him to the police station for a few days of detention, give him a punishment and education, confiscate his driver's license, and that's it—it's just the standard procedure.

But in Los Angeles, where racial discrimination has resurfaced, white police officers beat Rodney King, a Black man, leaving him bruised and battered.

Actually, this is not a big deal. Although the racial environment in the United States has become much more equal and moderate on the surface after nearly 30 years of the Black Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, 70s and 80s, differential treatment has always existed in the background. Moreover, with economic development and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, it has intensified in the 90s.

Let alone white police officers beating drunk black drivers, countless black drivers are shot and killed by white police officers every year.

Even NBA star Charles Barkley has clashed with police; he carries a gun in his car in case of emergency.

So, Rodney King getting beaten up by the police isn't a big deal; it probably won't even make the news.

However, the problem arose with an ordinary citizen named George Holliday, who witnessed the brawl from his balcony and filmed it with a home video camera.

Afterwards, the ordinary citizen handed the videotape to the local television station. After being reported by the television station and then reprinted by major media outlets, the matter began to escalate.

However, when the incident first occurred and was exposed in early March 1991, no one expected it to have such a huge impact and cause such a commotion.

Gan Guoyang saw the news in his room at the Marriott Summit Ski Resort in Salt Lake City, but he didn't pay much attention to it because he was watching TV and chatting with John Stockton on the phone.

The Trail Blazers recently embarked on a road trip, one of which was against the Utah Jazz.

The two had originally planned to have dinner together tonight, but the Trail Blazers' plane had to circle over Salt Lake City for two hours due to weather conditions, causing them to miss their chance to meet.

With the season nearing its end, the Trail Blazers' schedule is becoming increasingly difficult towards the end, with more away games and strong opponents.

Therefore, it will be slightly more difficult for the Trail Blazers to maintain their position as the top team in the Western Conference or even the league this year compared to last year.

The team has recently experienced some injury problems, with Reggie Lewis' back pain worsening, and the team doctor suspecting it may be related to his heart.

Therefore, Lewis was not on the roster tonight. Playing in a high-altitude city like Salt Lake City would put extra strain on his heart.

Compared to Lewis, John Stockton has a healthy and energetic heart. This is Stockton's seventh season in the league, just like Forrest Gump.

So far, Stockton has only missed four games, all during the 1989-1990 season, due to minor injuries.

He has played every game in five of the seven seasons, and so far this season he has played every game. If there are no surprises, it will be another season with perfect attendance.

In this respect, Stockton, like Gan Guoyang, is someone who is hard to get injured.

The two talked on the phone about Gonzaga University, which is not doing well this year.

Since Bobby Bellman's "defection," Dan Fitzgerald has returned to coaching, and this year they only have a 14-14 record in the regular season.

The reason for this is that they can't recruit good, suitable players; Gonzaga's appeal to top players across the United States is still too small.

"I think it's necessary to donate another large basketball fund to the school so that it has enough funds to recruit outstanding students."

Gan Guoyang discussed with Stockton over the phone that Gan Guoyang had been donating money to the school every year, and the school used the money to support the team's development and provide basketball scholarships to the players.

However, the results so far are not very good. Gan Guoyang thinks that the price should be increased, as the asking price of NCAA basketball talents is getting higher and higher.

“It’s not about money, Sonny. It’s about the school’s admissions policy. We’re too strict about grades, beliefs, character, and… skin color.”

Stockton grew up in Spokane, so he knows Gonzaga University better and is clear about where the school's problems lie.

As a Catholic school, Gonzaga is naturally unfriendly to many players from street backgrounds, as the majority of its players are white.

The current state of American basketball is that Black players dominate, and dominant white talents like Larry Bird have disappeared from the NCAA and NBA.

Today's most talented white players are from Eastern Europe, and there are fewer and fewer star players produced by native-born white Americans.

As for Asian geniuses like Gan Guoyang, they are one in a million, and there is simply no second one like him.

In this situation, Gonzaga University not only discriminates based on skin color, but also on academic performance, and is unwilling to accept those with poor grades—how many of those black basketball players have good grades?

They missed out on Gary Payton, watching the talented guard shine at Oregon State University, even though he had planned to follow in Forrest Gump's footsteps at Gonzaga.

"There's nothing I can do about that, the school has its reasons... But I think things will get better. How's your son doing lately...?"

They chatted for a while about school and basketball, then exchanged pleasantries before saying goodnight and hanging up.

Gan Guoyang was filled with emotion. Stockton had finally settled down in Salt Lake City, a quiet and quiet city. To be honest, it suited him very well.

Stockton preferred a simple, frugal, and low-key life. Gan Guoyang still remembers that there are still no posters or portraits of Stockton in the bar that Stockton's father owned in Spokane—because Stockton didn't allow his father, Jack, to use his name to promote the bar; he didn't like that.

So Jack's father simply hung up Gan Guoyang's poster, which actually had a greater impact and made his business even better.

The following night, the Trail Blazers faced the Jazz on the road, and Stockton appeared wearing his white shorts.

As the 90s approached, players' jerseys were changing, and the mini shorts of the 80s were gradually becoming a thing of the past.

People like Gan Guoyang and Jordan don't like wearing traditional shorts. They would ask for the shorts to be made longer, closer to the knee, and then wear a pair of tight pants underneath.

Gan Guoyang used this style of dressing in his rookie season, and as time went on, his influence in the league grew, with many young players imitating his style.

He wore tight pants and extra-long shorts underneath, with useless but stylish arm and leg braces strapped to his arms and legs. He was chewing gum with gusto, giving the impression that he was a very skilled ball player.

Jordan, on the other hand, was leading the way in hairstyles for Black players. As Jordan shaved his head completely bald, Black players found that shaving their heads was a good option.

Black people's hair is already difficult to manage, and if they encounter hair loss problems as they get older, they might as well just shave it all off.

However, Stockton was a staunch traditionalist; in the 1991 season, his shorts were exactly the same length as when he first entered the NBA in 1984.

"Hey John, when are you going to alter the length of your shorts? Do you really have to show off those white legs of yours? Who are you trying to impress with all that hair?"

Before the match, Gan Guoyang joked with Stockton.

Stockton shook his head firmly and said, "No, absolutely not."

Stockton is that kind of conservative yet steadfast; he firmly believes in what he believes in and resolutely and persistently pursues it. A similar example is the tactics Jerry Sloan implemented with the Utah Jazz, their UCLA system.

To be honest, the key reason why this system is used by the Utah Jazz is that they lack some talent.

Stockton and Malone have become the core of the Jazz team, but both of them have some fatal flaws.

Stockton's problem lies in his dynamic physical attributes and his ability to score with the ball in crucial moments.

Ma Long's problem lies in his static physical attributes and his ability to maintain stability in high-intensity, high-pressure matches.

Both of these factors determine their potential in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the weaknesses of these two players caused the Jazz to falter in the playoffs.

They have been unexpectedly eliminated in the first round multiple times, and have always been overturned by their opponents at crucial moments in key matches.

The Jazz are a small club located in a remote area. It's already quite an achievement that they've managed to stay in Salt Lake City and have a fan base. A few years ago, they almost moved to Las Vegas.

Trying to attract big-name stars with high salaries is basically a pipe dream; no big-name free agent would be so foolish as to come here to play.

Using trades to dodge and maneuver to acquire your ideal superstar is also highly unlikely, for the same reason: they simply don't want to come.

Therefore, we should make good use of the few resources we have. Since they have shortcomings, we should wait for them to make up for them and at the same time put them in a suitable system to maintain the team's competitiveness.

Sloan's so-called "UCLA system" is actually the same as the Princeton system used by the Trail Blazers. Both are based on the original college tactical system and modified for the NBA. Otherwise, simply copying it directly would not work properly in the NBA.

The core of the Jazz's system is a basic offensive tactical approach called Flex offense.

Contrary to popular belief, the Flex offense was not invented by UCLA coach John Wooden. The inventor was actually René Errelias, a coach at UCLA's rival, UC Berkeley.

Rene Erellias invented this tactic primarily to counter Lou Alcindor, the invincible giant of UCLA at the time, who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

At that time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was such a threat under the basket. Standing at 2.18 meters tall in the paint, any low-post offense or drive to the basket would be particularly ineffective.

With no dominant center to counter Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Errelias devised a flexible offense, a very simple offensive strategy consisting of constant pick-and-rolls and drives.

There are only a few repetitive patterns, so after it was invented, some coaches dismissed it, thinking it was too easy to predict and lacked any wisdom, and they had no intention of studying it.

Some coaches, however, saw a treasure trove in this, recognizing countless possibilities within flexible offense—because the simpler the core, the more complex the variations that can emerge.

Therefore, Jerry Sloan took the core of "flexible offense" and wrapped it in the complex and diverse skin of the UCLA system to ensure that this system would not restrict players too much in the NBA, where man-to-man defense is the main focus and star ability plays a decisive role.

This is a very clever move. In fact, many coaches in the NBA who later successfully used the system adopted this "simple core with a complex outer shell" approach to ensure the system's compatibility in the NBA.

Of course, while the core is simple, if you want to create all sorts of variations, you'll need daily practice and years of accumulated experience.

After years of working together, Karl Malone and John Stockton have shed their naivety and become increasingly mature.

Especially Malone, in his rookie season he was a country boy with a free throw percentage of less than 50%, who stumbled around in games all day and cried afterward.

He is now one of the most feared scorers in the league, averaging 30 points per game, making him the only interior player in the league besides Forrest Gump to score over 30 points.

His free throw percentage improved from 48% in his rookie season to 77%, a remarkable improvement.

Every summer he would work out in the gym, sweating profusely to hone his physical fitness, hoping to one day be able to compete with Forrest Gump in a game.

By 1991, Karl Malone's biceps were already comparable to Forrest Gump's.

Of course, in terms of body thickness, width, and overall strength, Malone is still slightly inferior to Forrest Gump.

Before the game, the two stood together, and Malone was obviously a size smaller than Forrest Gump. So every time he played against the Trail Blazers, Malone would question himself: Am I not working hard enough? Otherwise, why can't I keep up with Forrest Gump?
Once the match begins, Ma Long will realize that the difference between the two is not only in physical ability, but also in the finesse of their technique.

Malone's offensive skills are almost like a poor man's version of Forrest Gump: mid-range shot, face-up drive, baseline shot, and pick-and-roll finish.

The reason it's called the "poor man's version" is that Malone's mid-range shot wasn't as consistent as Forrest Gump's. Malone relied heavily on rhythm, and once that rhythm was disrupted, his shots became unreliable.

Forrest Gump doesn't rely on rhythm; he can fire anytime, anywhere, making it impossible for opponents to find a defensive opportunity.

Secondly, Ma Long's style of play lacks variety; it's straightforward, his footwork is simple, and he relies purely on explosive power to drive forward.

Forrest Gump would add variety; when the interior defense is tight, he would change speed, change direction, and switch to a floater or a pull-up jumper.

As for the difference in hook shots and turnaround jump shots, that's a completely different world. Malone's hook shot is something he does occasionally, and while it's good, it's not a killer weapon.

When it comes to turnaround jump shots, Malone is relatively slow, and because of his height, he has to add a fadeaway jumper, so he often faces defenders who are taller than him.

Forrest Gump's quick turnaround and leaning-forward shot is almost unique in the league, and his ability to draw fouls is also top-notch and unmatched.

And then there's the three-point shot. Malone didn't have it, but Forrest Gump was one of the best three-point shooters in the league—almost the best.

So in this match, it was a case of a fake meeting the real deal; Malone and Forrest Gump were going head-to-head one-on-one, and Malone couldn't gain any advantage at all.

Elbow strike? He wouldn't dare to elbow him. Does he even want to play basketball in good health?

Stockton also had a poor performance tonight, being completely dominated by Terry Porter.

This is entirely a hardware issue; the Jazz's two core players are significantly inferior to the Trail Blazers' players in terms of physical attributes.

Jerry Sloan's system is not yet perfect enough to bridge this gap, and the Jazz suffered a crushing defeat at home with a 13-point deficit.

When the game ended, Gan Guoyang pulled Stockton aside and asked, "Will we meet in the playoffs this year?"

Stockton looked hesitant. To be honest, he wasn't confident. Even if they met, what could happen? They'd just be feeding kills.

The Jazz are currently ranked fifth in the Western Conference. If the Trail Blazers remain in first place, they are likely to meet in the semifinals.

But which of the Lakers, Suns, and Spurs can the Jazz defeat to advance to the next round?

“I don’t know, Sonny. I’ll do my best,” Stockton said.

Gan Guoyang patted Stockton on the shoulder and said, "I have enough patience, and I hope you do too."

For the Jazz, they still have a long way to go.

(End of this chapter)