The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 131 - 31 Teach Me to Play Ball

After experiencing the training camp, preseason, and the psychological test conducted by Dr. Ogilvy, Ramsay’s attitude towards Gan Guoyang took a complete 180-degree turn.

This was related both to Guoyang’s performance on the court and to the opportunity Ramsay had to speak candidly with Bill Walton after the preseason game against the Clippers.

Because the Trail Blazers had reformed their medical team and published an apology to Walton in the newspaper, the proud Walton gradually let go of his anger, after all, he had not had an easy time with the Clippers.

After leaving the Trail Blazers, Walton hardly spoke to Ramsay, and the two had almost no communication.

Walton resented Ramsay’s coaching strategy at the time; he was too determined to win, at the cost of players’ health, which led to a series of subsequent breakdowns.

Ramsay, on the other hand, thought that Walton was not a responsible player. In college, he was already injury-prone, and after coming to Portland, he liked to hike, go off-road, attend various gatherings, was obsessed with rock music and the Grateful Dead, all of which could distract him from basketball and harm his already fragile body.

They had once cooperated seamlessly to reach the pinnacle, creating a dazzling championship miracle in NBA history, and the term "Blazermania" remained in the annals of history.

But precisely because of this, the more profound the rift was after the breakup, the more difficult it was to heal, like a chasm.

The appearance of Gan Guoyang became a bridge, although after that game, the two did not talk much, only briefly on the court sidelines.

Yet this breaking of the ice was enough to make Ramsay feel much better, as his heart had been punctured by this event and relationship all this time; the internal bruise and abscess were being removed and healing slowly.

After the timeout and taking the court again, Gan Guoyang seemed very confident.

In fact, after playing several preseason games, Guoyang felt that the NBA of the 80s was just so-so.

In terms of intensity, it couldn’t compare to the NCAA national tournament. During the national tournament, Guoyang fought for every ball and never relaxed for a second.

Playing in the NBA, he felt he still had energy to spare, even if it was just to run back and forth behind his teammates, he found it easy and the breeze in the arena was quite comfortable on his face.

The team’s offensive tactics were truly rich. Jack Ramsay taught everyone something new almost every day. In his words, many basketball offensive tactics appeared and were perfected in the 1920s, and now, many tactics were just modifications of the old ones.

Today’s coaches don’t pursue specific plays anymore but rather integrate them into a set of basketball philosophy to form a complete system.

In this respect, John Wooden was the master, having done this in the ’60s and elevating UCLA to the eternal summit of college basketball.

Ramsay may not have reached Wooden’s stature, but he was absolutely a master in offense, constantly directing players to move, shoot, and run from the sidelines.

But moving on from offense to defense, the NBA was much more monotonous, as the man-to-man coverage seemed to limit the coaches’ imagination.

Anyway, besides intense defense and some double-teaming on the ball-handler, the League didn’t have many tricks for defensive tactics.

If a team wanted to improve its defense, it mainly relied on the players’ individual skills, defensive willingness, and morale.

In the struggle between the spear and shield, at this time, the spear was stronger than the shield, which is no wonder the Nuggets and Pistons could score up to 370 points.

Gan Guoyang was very dissatisfied with the NBA’s lax and intuitively reliant defense. As a protector of the basket within the three-second zone, he hated the feeling of being continuously scored on.

After re-entering the game, when Mychal Thompson stood too far inside, Gan Guoyang pushed him a bit to move him to a position further out.

Mitchell ran in that direction as much as he could without losing his man, and although he felt annoyed, he had no choice; everyone had to follow Guoyang’s commands in defense.

Sure enough, when Eddie Johnson tried to break through from the wing, Mitchell came over in time to close the door, disturbing Johnson’s drive and shot.

Gan Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound, and Vandeweghe had already run off into the distance. Guoyang made a long pass to the frontcourt, Vandeweghe caught the ball, stopped abruptly, and scored with a jump shot.

After the goal, Guoyang looked at LaSalle Thompson and asked, "Why didn’t you disturb me?"

"What?"

"I’m asking you, why didn’t you try to grab the rebound just now? Why didn’t you disturb me?"

LaSalle was perplexed, ’Why do I have to disturb you? How do I disturb you?’

"The result of you not disturbing me," Guoyang continued, "is that you allowed me to easily send out a long pass for a fast break. Had you come over to fight for the ball, I would have had to pass to the point guard and play a set offense."

LaSalle understood, "You’re teaching me how to play?"

"Mind your own business, and you’re teaching me defense?"

LaSalle Thompson, known as the "Tank", had always been a force in the League.

Though he wasn’t a star player, he was unafraid to face the big-name centers.

A rookie center was schooling him now.

But even though he said this, LaSalle was feeling a bit panicked inside because how good a player was—especially an inside player—one would know after a few matchups on the court.

The first time they battled for a rebound under the basket, LaSalle realized that this Chinese kid, touted all over America, was the real deal—boxing out like a boulder, immovable even for a tank.

And he didn’t just have solid boxing out skills but also extremely agile movements, unlike some big centers who would just stand there, looking up and relying on their height and arm span to wait for rebounds.

The Kings’ offense encountered some trouble, ultimately forcing Reggie-Seth to take a desperate long-range shot from the outside. The moment the ball left his hand, it was clear it wouldn’t go in.

Gan Guoyang had predicted the landing spot, running to the free-throw line area, and in front of two Kansas Kings perimeter players, he secured the rebound.

Normally, the ball would have bounced out to the perimeter players, initiating a second chance offense.

Gan Guoyang controlled the ball by anticipating where it would land.

LaSalle had just said he didn’t need any lessons, but then he actively came over to try and disrupt and steal the ball.

Gan Guoyang protected the ball and passed it to Valentine, while mockingly praising LaSalle, "You learn quickly, good pupil."

Having just said that, Gan Guoyang suddenly accelerated, sprinting to the frontcourt—slashing straight to the basket down the middle. Perimeter player Jim Paxson, in perfect sync, threaded a direct pass to him under the rim.

Gan Guoyang caught the ball, and with a left-handed glide, he dunked, igniting the somewhat dull gym—the crowd always loves dunks, no matter who throws them down.

Gan Guoyang was always good at in-game dunks, and scoring the first NBA point with a dunk was quite meaningful.

On defense, Gan Guoyang said to LaSalle, "Lesson two on defense, if you go up to disrupt the opposing center, remember to immediately get back on defense; otherwise, you’ll get beaten on a fast break."

After an exchange over two possessions, LaSalle’s emotions were slightly collapsing.

He strained to keep a straight face, forcing himself to concentrate on the game.

No wonder before the game began, the rookie Audie Norris said, "Be careful with that Gan guy, matching up with him is a pain."

That was Norris speaking from experience—they had gone head-to-head at Indiana University’s training camp.

The Trail Blazers pulled away by 7 points through a quick offense as the Kings, finding the Blazers’ interior too tough to handle, turned to focus on attacking the softer perimeter targets.

Eddie Johnson repeatedly isolated Vandeweghe and scored by using his accurate jump shot, helping the Kings claw back the score.

Eddie Johnson was a forward with an exceptionally accurate jump shot. The offense heavily relied on his shooting, and his signature move was to dribble the ball, accelerate, and then pull up for a jump shot.

The front and two baseline corners were his sweet spots. Not being strong at penetrating, most of his offensive moves involved finishing with a shot, and he was quite confident in his long-range capabilities.

Like many forwards with weak defense, Vandeweghe’s main issue was slow footwork, preventing him from keeping up with Johnson’s first step.

Once he’d been shaken off on the first step, Johnson didn’t go inside—the inside was difficult with Thompson and Gan Guoyang there. Instead, he would just shoot jump shots. Tonight his hand was hot, going 4 out of 5 in the first quarter.

When the first quarter ended, the score was 30 to 26, with the Trail Blazers leading the Kings by 4 points.

Gan Guoyang had 2 points, 9 rebounds, and 1 block, and was substituted out with 2 minutes left in the first quarter.

Sitting on the bench, hardly having broken a sweat, Gan Guoyang looked around the dimly lit gymnasium, the spotty balding audience stands, and the lax defense, thinking, "So this is what the NBA is like."