The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 682 An Ultimate

In May, Seattle was shrouded in continuous rain.

The Trail Blazers players are already used to this kind of weather.

Portland gets just as much rain as Seattle.

The 1-1 tie with the SuperSonics didn't make the Trail Blazers too nervous.

In their second battle, they rediscovered their methods for dealing with the wolf pack.

Slow down, pass the ball more carefully, reduce unnecessary mistakes, and improve accuracy from mid-to-long range.

If the Trail Blazers play to their usual standard, the SuperSonics will have no chance of defeating them; their core roster is still too young.

The SuperSonics' center position has a major flaw: Benoit Benjamin is talented but lazy and unable to protect the paint in playoff-level competition.

Whether he's matched up against Sabonis or Gan Guoyang, he can only barely complete the basic tasks. Don't even think about having an extraordinary performance to take down the Trail Blazers' twin towers.

In the backcourt, after being closely marked by Payton in the first game, Porter responded in the second game with 28 points and 11 assists.

Payton is only a sophomore. He has talent and fighting spirit, but he lacks too much experience. In the second game, he was completely overwhelmed by the pick-and-roll between Porter and Gan Guoyang.

In the pre-game training session for Game 3, Gan Guoyang, Porter, and Dell Curry practiced Circle-Knockout in the training facility.

Circle-Knockout is a game where three players stand in a circle, each holding a ball, dribbling with one hand and trying to steal the ball from the other player with the other.

While dribbling, each player faces the threat of being intercepted by two other players, so they must protect their own ball while trying to steal it from the others.

Porter trained like this in college and was one of the best players there, often making steals and protecting his own ball.

Later, in the 1984 Olympic training camp, he was able to hold his own against many top athletes from across the United States in this type of training.

Porter remembers that Gan Guoyang, as a center, would also participate in these kinds of training sessions back then, and he was very good at dribbling.

Although Gan Guoyang is often not the winner, he can always persevere for a long time and have a great time playing with those defenders.

Dell Curry is slightly less skilled, but as a shooter, he doesn't require as much dribbling ability.

Seven or eight years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the young people in these three Olympic training camps have all matured.

Porter's dribbling is still outstanding, and Curry's dribbling is equally skillful.

But the most surprising thing is Gan Guoyang, who can now beat both Curry and Porter.

This time, he not only protected his own ball, but also stole the ball from Curry and Porter.

One person holds three balls in his hands, swishing them around his legs in a smooth, juggling motion, like a juggling act.

"How was it? My dribbling skills were pretty good. You two need to work harder!"

After saying that, Gan Guoyang threw the ball back to Curry and Porter, and then ran to the other side of the court to practice shooting.

Porter asked Curry, "Since when did it become that the two of us can't even beat Forrest Gump in Circle-Knockout?"

Curry said, "I remember at the beginning, we could still beat him, back in '87? Then it became difficult. And then, just recently, we started losing."

Porter said, "Why would a center like him need to practice his dribbling so well? Is he going to replace me as point guard?"

"Who says it's not possible? Forrest Gump is constantly improving. I think he sweeps the floor better than the cleaning lady."

The two men burst into laughter. There's a joke within the Trail Blazers team about how hardworking, studious, and competitive Forrest Gump is.

One day, the boss, Tang Jianguo, came to the stadium to observe the training. While praising Agan's skills, he also complimented how clean the stadium was.

The next morning, everyone found Forrest Gump mopping the floor in the training hall. He said that he had mastered the best sweeping skills through hard training.

The mop was stolen from the Black cleaning lady's bathroom; she hadn't even started work yet.

This is obviously a joke, and the reason this joke spread is inseparable from Drexler.

After leaving Portland, Drexler gave interviews in which he shared some interesting anecdotes about the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang.

One of the incidents was when they took a bucket of money and challenged each other to see who could dunk on Mark Eaton. It turned out that the bucket was stolen from the cleaning lady and was confiscated after the competition.

Based on this story, Drexler created a series of anecdotes about Forrest Gump. This "sweeping joke" combines Gump's daily hard work and his theft of his aunt's bucket.

Gan Guoyang was helpless against this. You could teach Drexler a lesson on the court, but you couldn't control his mouth. This guy earned a lot of news traffic by making up jokes about Gan Guoyang.

Jokes aside, every Blazers teammate agrees that Gan Guoyang is the hardest-working, most intelligent, and fastest learner they've ever seen.

He can learn almost any skill or method in no time, and with a little practice, he can use them in matches of average intensity.

Sometimes they can even learn on the spot and use what they've learned immediately, which can greatly damage the opponent's self-esteem.

The Trail Blazers have a relaxed and enjoyable training atmosphere, and the team is in good condition with no injuries.

The third game against the SuperSonics took place at KeyArena.

Back on their home court, the SuperSonics are eager to put up a fight. If they can snatch a victory from the Trail Blazers in Game 3, just like they did in Game 1, they will have the upper hand in the series.

Before the game started, George Karl was fantasizing that he was no longer arrogant in his pre-game speech tonight, and he didn't want Forrest Gump to come knocking on his door.

As Gan Guoyang stood before the jump ball at center circle, he cleared his mind of all distractions. He told himself not to overthink it and to play the usual game. The SuperSonics were no match for the Trail Blazers.

As expected, Gan Guoyang steadily completed his defensive and rebounding duties under the basket, firmly protecting the three-second zone and denying the SuperSonics' forwards and guards any opportunity to attack the basket.

Porter and Reggie Lewis maintained firm control of the game's tempo, minimizing turnovers and denying the SuperSonics opportunities to play fast or get emotional.

Porter used the same tactics against Gary Payton, applying intense pressure and defense from the very first quarter.

Porter, after all, is a veteran with years of experience and his defensive ability is by no means weak, which made Payton quite uncomfortable and forced him to hand over the offensive initiative to Pierce.

Once veteran Paul Pierce received the ball and took the lead in the offense, the Trail Blazers' perimeter players would quickly double-team him—this was the defensive method they used against Michael Jordan in the 1991 NBA Finals.

Gan Guoyang will not come out to help defend; instead, he will protect one three-second zone by himself, while the perimeter will be extended outwards, and Sabonis will also extend outwards to pressure the opponent's perimeter.

Once the opponent attempts to finish the attack with penetrating passes and cuts inside, Gan Guoyang will use his blocks and consistent rebounds to greatly suppress the opponent's offensive efficiency.

In the end, the SuperSonics will find that they can't play fast, they can't penetrate, and they even have difficulty shooting three-pointers. They will only have one option left: pull-up mid-range jumpers.

A mid-range shot can be deadly in crucial moments, but if you rely on such desperate mid-range shots to finish most of your offense throughout the game, your scoring efficiency will be pitifully low.

Unless you have a mid-range master like Jordan, Gan Guoyang, or Karl Malone, whose shooting percentage and volume can support a sufficiently high scoring efficiency.

Teams like the SuperSonics must score through fast breaks, offensive rebounds, and drives to the basket. Once their interior defense is shut down, their offense becomes aimless.

The Wolves' defense gradually crumbled in the face of the Trail Blazers' finesse in half-court offense—the SOS system was mature enough, but their players were not mature enough.

Moreover, they were facing pioneers whose very being was deeply ingrained in the Princeton system.

The score was widened from the first quarter, with the Trail Blazers completely dominating on both ends of the court.

In the second quarter, the Trail Blazers' second unit, led by Petrovic, went on a scoring spree.

The Trail Blazers used an 11-0 run to tell the SuperSonics that even if they play fast, they still can't beat them.

On the sidelines, George Karl could only rage helplessly, yelling at the players, but he couldn't come up with a better solution.

He only had a few cards in his hand, and he played them all in the first round, had a great time, and that was the end of it.

The only bright spot in the game was Glen Rice, who hit consecutive three-pointers in the third quarter, giving the SuperSonics a glimmer of hope for a comeback.

But as the Trail Blazers tightened their defense on him, Rice failed to hit another three-pointer, and the Trail Blazers maintained their lead for the rest of the game.

With a score of 109-94, the Trail Blazers easily secured the victory in Seattle, putting the series firmly in their grasp.

The fourth and fifth games were also without suspense; the Trail Blazers had adapted to the SuperSonics' style of play and knew how to train this young pack of wolves.

If a wolf is trained well, it will quickly turn into a dog, lose its resistance, and become obedient.

Gan Guoyang played fairly well in the last three games, clearly not putting in much effort, averaging 25.4 points per game in the series.

His most outstanding statistic is rebounding; in five games, he averaged 19.4 rebounds per game, setting his own playoff rebounding record.

The reason he was so focused on rebounding was simple: he wanted to stay focused and not let his mind wander.

Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers' other players are offensively potent enough that they don't need him to score many points to secure the victory.

On another court, Michael Jordan faced the formidable Miami Heat, scoring a whopping 56 points in Game 3 to lead his team to victory and gain an advantage.

Despite their excellent defense, the Heat have been unable to overcome the formidable Chicago Bulls this season.

However, Gan Guoyang is not concerned about the East for the time being; he is more focused on another series in the West: Suns vs. Jazz.

The Jazz and Suns were tied 2-2 after the first four games, and the crucial Game 5 was to be played in Salt Lake City.

In this game, Stockton scored a season-high 28 points and dished out 13 assists, helping the Jazz win Game 5 at home, a crucial match point.

Stockton was unusually excited after the victory, embracing his teammates warmly and raising his fist towards the stands in response to the fans' applause.

His excitement stemmed not only from the victory, but also from the fact that he was just one win away from meeting Forrest Gump in the playoffs.

He had been waiting for this moment for a long time. For him, this was something he longed for even more than making it to the finals.

Many people are afraid of Forrest Gump and fear meeting the Trail Blazers in the playoffs.

No, I've always longed to meet Forrest in the playoffs; that's our promise.

For me, defeating Forrest Gump is like defeating myself; it's an ultimate achievement.

—Excerpt from an interview with John Stockton by NBC during the 1997 Western Conference Finals.

(End of this chapter)