The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 892 Canadian Flying Man

From 1999 to 2000, although it was just a cumulative change in numbers in the human calendar, the actual time was not affected at all; it simply flowed relentlessly forward.

But the counting of time has undoubtedly profoundly affected the operation of human society. The arrival of the first century in the 20s made everyone in this century feel that the times had taken a big step forward.

In the early hours of December 31, people in many places welcomed the arrival of the new millennium, and many young people gathered in squares in major cities around the world to celebrate the arrival of the new era.

Of course, many more people stayed home and slept, spending this special yet ordinary day.

Gan Guoyang, however, was to fly to New York, where the FBI scheduled a hearing for him on January 1st.

As a result, he will not only miss the New Year's Eve fan event on the 31st, but also the game between the Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers on the evening of January 1st.

The back-and-forth hearings and investigations not only drained Gan Guoyang's energy, causing him to miss the competition, but also wasted a lot of his travel expenses.

Gan Guoyang travels to New York by his own private jet, which is a considerable expense.

In the early hours of the morning, the plane still hadn't taken off. Gan Guoyang sat in his seat, looking at his watch, the time ticking closer to 12:00.

Finally, the hour, minute, and second hands aligned, 1999 passed, and the timeline moved to 2000.

Gan Guoyang said, "It's the year 2000, we should be able to take off by now, right? I'm so sleepy... What Y2K bug? Turns out it's just a problem with time recording..."

Bodyguard Quentin came over and said, "The crew said there are no problems with the adjustments, and we can take off in a bit."

The reason why the plane stayed at the airport until 2000 was before preparing to take off was because of the so-called "Y2K bug" problem.

Because many early computer devices used two-digit years for their timers, such as 1999 being recorded as 99 and 1985 as 85.

This recording method worked fine before, but in 2000, 99 would be converted to 00, becoming 1900.

Although it is just a simple time record, it has a crucial impact on many networked computer devices.

For example, in banking, telecommunications, taxation, insurance, and medical fields, any disruption to the time stamp can affect the normal operation of the equipment.

Unfortunately, many large banks, insurance companies, and telecommunications companies use mainframe computers built in earlier years. In order to save memory, they use double-digit timers. Therefore, if this timing bug were to occur on a large scale, it could lead to chaos in the operation of the entire society, resulting in incalculable economic losses and social unrest.

This problem was raised by computer experts many years ago, and after being widely disseminated, it became known to the public as the "Y2K bug".

In response to this problem, a large-scale global repair operation was subsequently launched, with countries investing a total of approximately $3080 billion to fix the timing bug.

The airport's communication and navigation equipment was also under repair. To ensure 100% safety and prevent communication and navigation problems during the flight from 1999 to 2000, Gan Guoyang's private jet crew set the departure time for 2000.

Gan Guoyang waited on the plane for more than ten minutes, thus completing a leap across time.

"So the Y2K bug was a timing bug. I thought it was a bug in my computer."

As the plane took off, Gan Guoyang muttered to himself, only now understanding what the Y2K bug was all about.

As the year 2000 approached, many strange and unusual legends circulated in Chinese society. Gan Guoyang remembered the two most clearly: one was the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world in 1999, and the other was the Y2K virus outbreak that would paralyze the world.

In his previous life, Gan Guoyang was still young. Hearing these mysterious rumors, he felt that the world was going to be destroyed and society was going to be in chaos. He thought he had to be prepared to survive in the chaos.

So he began to secretly store food, hiding the uneaten bread and steamed buns so he could eat them later.

It is said that a boss at the time heard that the Y2K bug was going to break out and that computers would be attacked, so he disconnected all the computers in the company from the network and locked them in a warehouse to prevent the bug from invading.

After some time, Gan Guoyang discovered that nothing had happened. The world was still fine. There was no apocalypse or a viral outbreak. The bread and steamed buns he had hidden were either moldy or eaten by rats and insects. They would be useless if something really happened. He was somewhat disappointed.

By this time, Gan Guoyang finally understood what the Y2K bug was; it turned out to be just a timing bug in a computer.

Think about those people who work in news propaganda; they really love to sensationalize things. What can you do? People like to hear it, they like a little excitement in their mundane lives.

Now, Gan Guoyang has become a representative of "alarmism," and since the spy case began, public opinion has become polarized.

Those who don't believe it no longer take this matter seriously. You've been investigating for so long, and you still haven't gotten anything out of it or found any key evidence. What's the point?

Gan Guoyang continued to compete as usual and delivered amazing performances. Everything was returning to normal, except for the monthly hearings and investigations, which were quite annoying.

These people make up the majority, but American society always has a group of people with unique thought processes, amazing ways of thinking, or extraordinary intelligence.

There is a group of people who firmly believe that Gan Guoyang is indeed a spy, but he is not a simple spy. Rather, he is a devil's messenger sent to the United States to disrupt the entire society. He is an apostle of Satan, the son of the devil who was born more than two thousand years after Jesus. His arrival is closely related to the 1999 apocalypse, and his existence will be the key to the destruction of the world.

Then this group split into two parts. One part believed that they should resolutely eliminate this son of evil and save the earth.

Others, however, believe that he should be embraced as a new faith, and that only by believing in Forrest Gump can one survive the end of the world.

This second part naturally represents a minority within a minority, the most problematic children of all. They shout, "Forrest Gump is a spy!" while simultaneously crying out, "We must believe in Forrest Gump and escape divine punishment!"

The group's activities reached a climax on New Year's Eve, when they gathered in the New York area, holding torches and plotting to storm City Hall on the 1st to rescue Forrest Gump.

Of course, two hours later, due to the leak of the operation, the group was arrested by the New York Police Department and detained in the police station for three days for disturbing the peace.

However, a small number of people escaped the police pursuit and held up signs in front of New York City Hall on the afternoon of the 1st to protest, demanding an end to the "persecution" of Forrest Gump.

After another long and tedious hearing, Gan Guoyang came out of the city hall and was quite moved to see the people holding up signs in support of him. They must all be his fans.

He wanted to shake hands and sign autographs with these people, but Quentin quickly stopped him, telling him, "These aren't your fans, they're your followers."

"What? Believers? The group that calls me Gan Zu?"

"No, it's people who... who see you as the son of Satan, who think you've come to destroy Christ."

"Bullshit! This is utterly alarmist! How could I, a yellow man, be the son of Satan... or is my father Satan?"

Quentin realized that his boss seemed to have missed the point. Sometimes he had an abnormal thought process when it came to these things, which Quentin found very strange.

Without giving it much thought, Quentin's duty as a bodyguard was to immediately take Gan Guoyang away from the dangerous place and get away from those people.

To ensure safety, Gan Guoyang left New York overnight and flew directly to Toronto. After the Trail Blazers played the Lakers on the 1st, they will face the Toronto Raptors on the 3rd. This is also a major game.

Without Gan Guoyang, the Trail Blazers lost to the Lakers at home.

Without Gan Guoyang guarding the paint, Shaquille O'Neal ran rampant in the paint.

This season, O'Neal has had the best performance of his career, averaging 30 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game so far.

It can be said that he delivered a dominant performance on both offense and defense. Just looking at the data, he has reached 80% of Gan Guoyang's level, which is quite high.

In the game in Portland, O'Neal exploded for 41 points, destroying the powerful interior lineup of Sabonis, Wallace and Jermaine O'Neal.

Sure enough, without Gan Guoyang as the backbone, and lacking double-teaming and harassment from the small forward position, relying solely on interior defense was not enough to stop O'Neal.

With this loss, the Trail Blazers' record slipped to third in the Western Conference, while the Los Angeles Lakers remained in first place, tied with the Celtics in the East.

The regular season loss is not a big deal for the Trail Blazers right now; the key is to find the problems and find ways to solve them.

Bird attempted to make some trades before the All-Star break to adjust the current roster, ideally making the team's age structure more balanced.

However, Gan Guoyang suggests that it is best not to make any deals. Maintaining a stable team from start to finish is more important than constantly changing teams.

Since Gan Guoyang joined the Trail Blazers, the team has almost never made any mid-season trades, always sticking to the same roster from start to finish.

Back in their rookie years, when the Trail Blazers wanted to trade Vandeweghe, Gan Guoyang advised against it, even though it seemed like a great deal—trading Vandeweghe for Marquez Johnson.

However, Gan Guoyang values ​​the stability and unity of the team more. In terms of hard skills, Gan Guoyang can make up for it himself. If all else fails, he can just endure hardship.

A positive and uplifting team locker room requires everyone's effort to maintain; the saying "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" has never happened with the Trail Blazers.

"Our roster isn't the problem. The playoffs aren't just about roster; they're also about willpower and teamwork... These days, teams tend to overlook these things, always thinking about bringing in players with better stats and stronger abilities, and creating better rosters, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best team. You should reconsider, Larry. I hope everyone who joins the Trail Blazers can win a ring this season. A real ring, won on the Finals stage."

Gan Guoyang's words persuaded Bird, who knew that Gan Guoyang did not want to touch veteran players like Terry Porter and Sabonis.

In fact, they will most likely retire after this season, because they really can't play anymore. Once they retire, the Trail Blazers will lose a lot of assets for nothing.

In theory, while they are still in good condition, some transactions could be made to optimize their age structure and secure assets for the future, preparing for the post-Gan Guoyang era.

Indeed, some teams called Bird to request a trade, with teams like the Spurs and Timberwolves showing a strong interest in acquiring a veteran point guard as experienced as Porter.

Teams like the Heat and Warriors are also keen to acquire Sabonis to strengthen their center position; Sabonis still has plenty left in the tank.

But after much deliberation and listening to Forrest Gump's advice, Bird decided to abandon the idea of ​​trading for the sake of a three-peat, and for what might be the last championship of the Forrest Gump era.

Gan Guoyang arrived in Toronto in the early hours of the 2nd. He joined the team that arrived in the afternoon and had a shooting practice on the morning of the 3rd in preparation for the game against the Raptors on the evening of the 3rd.

During the pre-game warm-up, Raptors general manager Isaiah Thomas came over to greet Gan Guoyang, shaking hands and hugging him.

These two former rivals on the field now have a pretty good relationship off the field, chatting and laughing together, much better than when they were at each other's throats during the game.

Gan Guoyang once nearly killed Thomas with an elbow on the field, causing Thomas's facial bone to cave in. Later, due to Stockton and the 92 Olympics, the two were very unhappy, so their relationship was naturally not good.

But after Thomas, Laimbeer, and their contemporaries retired, as everyone got older, their relationships gradually improved.

During the 1996 All-Star Game, Bill Laimbeer encountered Gan Guoyang in an elevator and humbly asked Gan Guoyang to take care of the packaging factory's business.

Lambir himself didn't take it too seriously at first, but unexpectedly, Gan Guoyang actually helped Lambir get an order from a domestic building materials packaging company. At that time, China's infrastructure was developing rapidly, and the demand for various packaging materials was huge. This order solved the urgent problem for Lambir's factory.

Meanwhile, Thomas's expansion into printing in Michigan also brought him a large number of orders, saving a company from the brink of bankruptcy.

Today, Thomas's printing company is thriving and has expanded its business all over the world. Even if Thomas were not the Raptors' manager, he would still be a capitalist in high society.

With such deep-seated interests at stake, past grudges and rivalries on the field become insignificant.

In 1998, Thomas had a heated conflict with other Raptors executives and found that they had major disagreements about the future development of the team, bringing Thomas to the brink of resignation.

At the time, Raptors' star point guard Damon Stoudemire wanted to leave Toronto and play for another team, believing that there was no future in playing in Canada.

Thomas specifically sought out Gan Guoyang, hoping he could help resolve the Raptors' predicament, as he also wanted to stay in Toronto.

At the time, the Trail Blazers were on a winning streak with a 77-win season and were the NBA champions, while the Raptors, as a new team, were mired in financial troubles and player scandals.

The two secretly made some kind of deal, and Gan Guoyang stepped in to help Thomas. He remembered the old story of how the Trail Blazers helped the Indiana Pacers, and traded Spoelstra to the Pacers, where he served as general manager for half a season and solved a series of problems for the Pacers.

So Gan Guoyang suggested to the team that they trade the retired Buckwalt to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for a second-round pick from 2000.

Buckwalt, a highly regarded figure, first stabilized the team after being sent to the Raptors by rejecting trades involving Camby and Stoudemire, believing they were talents and the future and shouldn't be given away casually.

Meanwhile, Buckwalt is very optimistic about Vince Carter, the rookie drafted by the Raptors, and believes that he must be nurtured and the roster should be built around him.

"He will change this team and this city."

In addition, Buckwalt also built new sales channels for the Raptors and developed new advertising and ticketing strategies, all of which were based on the Trail Blazers' experience.

When the 1998-1999 season started, the Toronto Raptors' home attendance soared and their viewership skyrocketed, allowing the Raptors to establish a firm foothold in Toronto.

Buckwalt retired after a successful season, leaving Toronto to return to Portland to enjoy his retirement.

Isaiah Thomas was able to stay with the Raptors as general manager, and they are succeeding.

Thomas didn't want someone else to steal his thunder.

Of course, neither Buckwalt nor Thomas were the direct or primary reasons for the surge in attendance.

The one who truly brought about this change was "Air Canada," Vince Carter, the Trail Blazers' opponent tonight against Kobe.

(End of this chapter)