The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 124 - 27: Not the Worst Class

Ramsay split the players into two teams, the Rookie Team and the Starter Team.

Gan Guoyang, Kolter, Kossie, Bernard-Thompson, and Scheffler composed the Rookie Team, these five rookies happened to cover all five positions.

As for the Starter Team, it was Mychal Thompson, Vandeweghe, Drexler, Daniel-Valentine, and Kenny-Carl.

If Jim Paxson had been there, the shooting guard position would have gone to Parkson, and Drexler would have played small forward.

With Parkson absent, the lineup of the Starter Team looked even more reasonable, with Vandeweghe at small forward and Kenny-Carl in the power forward spot.

The difference in strength between the two sides was obviously huge, not just in experience, but in talent alone, the Rookie Team only had Gan Guoyang, the first-round second pick, while the others were second-round or even seventh-round picks.

On the Starter Team, Mychal Thompson was the first overall pick, Vandeweghe was taken 11th in the first round, Drexler 14th in the first round, Valentine 16th in the first round, and Kenny-Carl was the sixth pick in the first round.

In the NBA, the draft pick order is like the ancient Chinese imperial examinations, where your pick determines your background, development, and status.

Although future achievements are not absolutely linked to draft positions, with countless high-pick busts and low-pick risers, overall, a player’s career development is highly correlated with their draft position.

Kossie, as a second-round pick, was ordered to carry Thompson’s bags on the first day of training camp, only to learn later it was a joke, but no one told him, and he ended up carrying them for several weeks.

Whereas first-rounders like Gan Guoyang and Drexler wouldn’t be asked to carry bags, with Gan Guoyang’s personality, if you asked him to, he’d toss yours directly into the trash can.

But such disparities were completely irrelevant in Guoyang’s eyes. Before the scrimmage began, Gan Guoyang gathered the rookies together and said, "Don’t worry with me here, you’re not the worst batch I have led, we can win this."

During the rookie camp, Kolter and others had already witnessed Gan Guoyang’s strength.

Players from Portland State University who trained with them said that playing against Ah Gan was an immense pain.

Portland State University and Gonzaga were both in the West Coast Conference, and they were crushed by Ah Gan in the ’84 regular season, only a few months ago.

Moreover, Gan Guoyang had a history of leading less talented teams to victory, not just once or twice, but consistently, and he knew how to motivate and guide underdog teams to overcome more favored ones.

At Adelman’s whistle, the game began.

At the jump ball, Gan Guoyang went all out and managed to outjump Thompson to gain possession.

Kolter received the ball and crossed half-court while Gan Guoyang quickly called for the ball in the low post.

Mychal Thompson tried to hold his ground against Gan Guoyang, then realized he couldn’t—this guy’s back was as solid as a rhinoceros.

The rhinoceros received the ball, powered his way inside for one step, spun around, and jammed the ball with one hand, scoring the first points.

"F*ck... this kid is so strong..."

This was nearly every player’s exclamation the first time they faced off against Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang, standing 6 feet 10 inches tall with an Asian face, easily caused his opponents to underestimate his strength, thinking him to be a mere "tin-foil gun barrel."

Besides having tremendous absolute strength, Gan Guoyang also possessed explosive power. Unlike white centers who were strong but moved as slowly as pandas scratching an itch when dribbling and backing down opponents, scoring in the low post with great difficulty.

Gan Guoyang, like a lion striking a rabbit, would knock you off balance instantly and complete the offensive move in a blink, crisply and decisively, leaving no chance for savoring the moment.

Thompson hadn’t even had time to process what happened when Vandeweghe missed a shot from the outside, and Gan Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound, driving the ball upcourt himself, unguarded.

Thompson could only retreat to the three-second area and brace himself to draw an offensive foul, but Gan Guoyang took a large stride and hooked the ball - he never even made contact, and the shot was good for two points.

In just one minute, Gan Guoyang had already scored 4 points, and Thompson was still trying to figure out what was going on. Was this kid even playing basketball?

Training and playing games with the Olympic Team and the NBA All-Star Team for several months brought significant improvements to Gan Guoyang.

He played with more confidence than during his Gonzaga days since, after all, he had measured himself against All-America young talents and NBA stars, most of whom he regarded as nothing special.

Vandeweghe and Drexler, former teammates of Gan Guoyang, were very excellent players, quite impressive, but they both had noticeable flaws.

One had no defense, and the other’s shooting was too amateurish. If the two of them could combine their skills, they would indeed be second to none in the league.

And since the Trail Blazers’ main team was smaller in stature compared to the Rookie Team, they definitely intended to play fast, and Gan Guoyang had some experience dealing with fast-playing teams:

That is, on defense, firmly protect the three-second zone beneath the basket, let them play whatever tricks they want on the outside, it doesn’t matter to me.

Against fast offenses, the biggest fear is not getting back on defense in time and leaving the basket area vacant to be exploited by the trailing opponent.

Lose some balls on the outside is inconsequential—points will be dropped anyway. Without shooting a large volume of three-pointers, the efficiency of shooting from outside is much lower than driving to the basket for layups.

With this principle in mind, Gan Guoyang and Scheffler worked together to firmly control the three-second zone, ignoring whatever antics were happening outside.

Although Scheffler was a "rookie," he had actually been drafted by the Pacers in 1977, chosen too low to enter the NBA, and played basketball in Europe.

So he was an inside player with a lot of experience in games, standing at 6 feet 11 inches tall, definitely insufficient to handle the three-second area alone.