The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 142 - 42 No Longer Lonely

During the meal with Jack Ramsay, Gan Guoyang was recognized by quite a few people who came up to shake hands, chat, and hand out their business cards.

Although Gan Guoyang didn’t know them, out of politeness, he still responded to each one, listening to others introduce themselves, what they did, and how they knew Ah Gan.

Ramsay, Adelman, and Kossie were all surprised at Gan Guoyang’s fame in Los Angeles. In those days, there weren’t many NBA players known nationwide; you had to be a top superstar, frequently on magazine covers, and have posters of you everywhere to achieve such fame.

The likes of renowned coach Ramsay was only familiar to Portland locals, and when people saw Ramsay having dinner with someone, they would ask, "Who’s that person eating with Jack?"

Today, people in Los Angeles might be wondering who that flashy old man and two sportswear bodyguards dining with Ah Gan were.

When asked why he was so well-known in Los Angeles, Gan Guoyang said indifferently, "Because I’ve won enough here."

The three could only inwardly exclaim, "Damn, you’re badass."

Gan Guoyang had indeed won quite a few games in Los Angeles: the CIF championships, warm-up games at UCLA, and the NCAA West Regional games.

The basketball fans of Los Angeles went from being resistant and disliking him to being won over by Gan Guoyang’s performances, so naturally, the number of people who knew him wasn’t small.

Credit also had to be given to television media; CIF finals, NCAA finals, live broadcasts allowed more people to see Gan Guoyang’s face.

He appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" several times, and his distinctive and handsome Chinese features made him highly recognizable.

When the group finished eating and left, Ramsay was told that the bill was already paid, and the payer had left a note saying: Welcome to Los Angeles.

The signature was Donald Sterling’s, with his phone number next to it.

"Sterling? The name sounds a bit familiar."

"He’s the owner of the Clippers, an obnoxious guy. He was here for dinner tonight too? And he actually picked up our tab? Unbelievable..."

When Sterling was mentioned, Ramsay’s face showed displeasure, indicating the Clippers’ owner wasn’t well-liked.

The Trail Blazers’ next game would be against the Clippers; perhaps it was intended to make Gan Guoyang feel obliged and go easy on them.

Ramsay crumpled the note from Sterling and threw it into the trash can; he didn’t want his players to have any connection with the guy.

"He’s already destroyed Bill. Don’t have anything to do with him, that guy’s bad news," Ramsay warned Gan Guoyang, concerned he might feel indebted.

Gan Guoyang thought, you’ve also played a part in wrecking Bill. However, it was true in Gan Guoyang’s memory that Sterling didn’t have a good reputation, and the Clippers had always been the worst among the bad teams.

On the evening of November 3, the Trail Blazers played an away game at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, challenging the Los Angeles Clippers.

The visit from the Trail Blazers and Ah Gan had certainly stirred up the passion of Los Angeles fans to attend the game.

For a regular game, the attendance numbers here were generally only around seven or eight thousand, but tonight they had exceeded ten thousand.

Actually, the Clippers had a decent lineup: MVP center Bill Walton, championship Shooting Guard Norm Nixon, the up-and-coming Derek Smith, the former first-team All-Star Marques Johnson on the front line, and Walton’s inside partner was the 7’2" James Donaldson.

In theory, a lineup like this should have made it easy to get into the playoffs, at least attracting a significant following.

But since moving to Los Angeles, the team had never made a breakthrough in their records; the playoffs were just a wishful dream, and their popularity was bleak.

The problem with the Clippers wasn’t on the court; it was more off the court, primarily with their unfortunate owner Donald Sterling.

Sterling moved the team to Los Angeles after buying the Clippers, which business-wise was a smart move, as the large basket market in Los Angeles acted as a safety net for the team.

But Sterling’s focus was on making money, on marketing rather than properly managing the team’s roster, and Sterling was an extremely miserly owner.

To save money, he arranged the team’s practice gym at a military base in Los Angeles at seven in the morning instead of the usual nine o’clock.

Because the seven o’clock slot was so cheap, it was even free, but the locker room and showers couldn’t be used at that time; players had to change in the restroom.

When the team flew to away games, like going to Portland or Seattle, they could have flown directly north to get there swiftly.

But the Clippers flights were different; they first flew to Kansas in the central part of the country and then connected to Portland or Seattle, taking a big detour.

It was because the team had free airline vouchers, even though this made the players’ travel time at least double.

Even after saving this money, Sterling wasn’t satisfied; he cut all of the team’s budgets to very low or even cancelled them completely, including medical, travel, laundry, and various types of bills. He would delay and refuse to pay.

Then Sterling spent money on a team of lawyers to fight lawsuits with these vendors with unpaid wages. Everyone knows how complicated the legal process is in America; he dragged it out until these small vendors couldn’t take it anymore and decided to accept a lower settlement price, saving Sterling another sum of money.

This behavior was externally, but internally, Sterling was just as scrupulous with contracts for players and staff. He repeatedly dragged his feet when negotiating contracts with players and deliberately leaked specific details of contract contents to players and staff to incite conflict, leading to private comparisons, discussions, and even arguments.