The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 174 - 67: Should Buy a Ticket to Chicago

Jim Durham called the first NBA match-up between Jordan and Gan Guoyang the best basketball game.

After the game ended, press releases from reporters flew to major newspapers all over America like snowflakes, then were typeset and printed from that evening until the early hours of the next morning.

About the game’s text and data, they were imprinted on steaming, black newspapers, delivered to thousands upon thousands of households.

Some business-savvy newspapers immediately went to press with the next day’s editions more than an hour after the game ended and managed to sell quite a few by releasing them ahead of schedule.

In the 1980s, morning news broadcasts on television began including sports segments, with ESPN focusing more on gathering and broadcasting basketball news than CBS.

It was this year that another major television network, ABC, acquired 100% of ESPN’s stocks. Due to funding issues and mistakes in strategy by ABC, the acquisition meant ESPN could no longer broadcast NHL and NCAA football games, as they failed to renew the broadcasting agreements.

Although this was a loss for ESPN, on the other hand, they put more energy and resources into NBA broadcasting and reporting.

Roger Verner, the planning vice president of ESPN and a former business consultant at McKinsey & Company, watched this game on a live broadcast. As soon as the game finished, he immediately requested the news department to cover the match in detail, allocating at least fifteen minutes in the morning news to explain the cause and effect of the game as well as the entire process.

ESPN staff worked overnight on editing the game video and the on-site interview material. The director wrote the copy on the fly, and the next morning, in their morning news, ESPN covered this game with a nearly 20-minute special feature.

For this, they had to sacrifice some of the baseball coverage time, but it turned out their decision was correct, as many viewers were in front of their TVs the next morning hoping to see a detailed post-game broadcast about this match.

Among them were some Illinois fans and viewers who had watched the game the night before, and others who hadn’t seen it but heard about the great battle between Jordan and Gan Guoyang. They wanted a glimpse of the spectacle in the post-game coverage.

Without the internet, unless one recorded the game themselves, the only way to revisit the game’s highlights was through the TV broadcast and replays.

Typically, TV stations only show a few highlights of the game, such as a player’s dunk or a last-second game-winner, paired with some intense moments from during the match.

But this time, ESPN’s special feature almost included all the offense and defense between Jordan and Gan Guoyang in the fourth quarter, satisfying the fans waiting for the morning news.

Moreover, the same special news feature was played again at noon, and they only briefly touched upon it in the evening when there was a new live game broadcast.

According to Verner’s later statistics, this special news feature about the game between Jordan and Gan Guoyang added at least 1 million household channel subscriptions for ESPN.

In 1984, ESPN had roughly 28.5 million subscribed households in America, and one game between the two contributed a 3.5% increase for the channel’s subscribers, Verner called it nothing short of a miracle.

"This truly was the best basketball game, a battle of heroes," Verner said after watching the live broadcast.

But not everyone agreed with this view. Although the media extensively hyped and praised the match between the two, many coaches, managers, and commentators in the NBA frowned upon it.

Auerbach said, "53 and 50? Isn’t that just a rerun of those two deadbeats Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor in the ’80s? Let’s see who still wants to watch them when they can’t get a ring on their finger."

Auerbach naturally scoffed when he saw the sports headlines on the front page of the newspaper highlighting both players’ scores.

Similarly, many sports magazines and media in Boston made comparable comments, suggesting that Jordan’s and Ah Gan’s scoring showdown was diminishing the beauty of team basketball.

"They turned a ten-person war into two kids playing house."

Boston has the largest sports news system in America, where a large number of news writers, sports commentators, and sports journalists make judgmental comments on sporting events all over the country.

Sharp and biting criticism is the water and air they depend on for survival here; other than Boston’s local teams, it is difficult for other players and teams to receive positive reviews—unless you come here and completely conquer the place.

Neither Jordan nor Gan Guoyang had faced a challenge in Boston at this point in their careers.

Of course, Auerbach scoffed at the showdown between the two after reading the morning paper, but by noon, after watching ESPN’s special feature, and then seeing the game footage of both teams in the evening, Auerbach’s opinion changed.

"I should have bought a ticket to Chicago last night," he said.

By then, he was too late; the heat of the Chicago Stadium had already cooled down.

Gan Guoyang left with the team by airplane early the next morning to return to Portland.

Jordan also took a flight to California in the afternoon to start his team’s Western Conference road trip.

As teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences, the next meeting between the two would not occur until the following year.

There were no exchanges between the two after the game, and the adversarial stance only diminished around Christmas.

On the post-game media releases, due to Nike’s efforts, Jordan ended up becoming the more dazzling one.

He was portrayed as a solitary hero, especially with his splendid performance in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Gan Guoyang was considered to have better teammates and a better coach, and the consensus was that if the two were to switch places, the victor would surely be Jordan.

Both players made no response to such boring opinions, as they were already looking forward to their next encounter in their hearts.

Due to an early flight, Gan Guoyang, who hadn’t had enough sleep the night before, slept soundly in his seat.

Usually full of energy, he didn’t need much sleep and could feel rested in a short amount of time.

It seemed that yesterday’s game had truly exhausted him, as Ramsay even reminded the flight attendant to be quieter as she served the meal.

One of the benefits Stern had granted players upon taking office was flying first class, so tall players no longer had to squash into narrow seats, struggling to fall asleep.

Gan Guoyang didn’t wake up until the plane had landed in Portland, and when the plane stopped at the airport and everyone disembarked, the long and chaotic road trip officially came to an end.

During this road trip, Gan Guoyang’s fighting skills were fully exercised, leading to the team’s 3 wins and 3 losses, bringing their record to 13 wins and 5 losses.

However, this did not diminish the Portland fans’ love for Gan Guoyang; on the contrary, many fans came to the airport that morning to welcome the Trail Blazers home, holding up many banners to celebrate.

One bold female fan broke through the airport security line, hugged Gan Guoyang, and was then pulled away by the team staff, apparently validating the saying that women fancied Ah Gan.

The team disbanded on the spot, Ramsay gave everyone a day off, a rest tomorrow, and the competition would continue at home the day after.

When Gan Guoyang returned home, he found everything just as he had left it: clean, tidy, and even more orderly.

The refrigerator was stuffed with drinks, beer, and ready-made sandwiches, and the newspaper rack was filled with the latest papers and magazines.

In his specially designed wardrobe, clothes were sorted and neatly arranged, even sorted from light to dark.

The bathroom smelled of disinfectant, and an exquisite glass vase with air-freshening sticks rested on the window ledge of the ventilating window.

The adjoining living room and kitchen were also very tidy, and the roses in the large vase on the table were clearly freshly picked.

Portland is known as the City of Roses, home to the best rose cultivation in America.

All of this was obviously the work of Wang Fuxi, who managed to put the house in such great order when she wasn’t at school, no small feat.

In the afternoon, when Wang Fuxi returned home after classes, the couple reunited like newlyweds, and Gan Guoyang spoke of her life in Portland, "I’m always flying around, and yet you keep the house so clean and tidy by yourself, you... you didn’t hire a cleaning lady, did you?"

Wang Fuxi pinched Gan Guoyang’s arm hard and said, "Everything at home is managed by me! Who would hire a cleaner? Besides, Portland is not Los Angeles; housekeeping is hard to find here, and I’d rather do it myself. I like to keep the house clean and refreshing, so when you come home after a game, whether you’ve won or lost, you’ll feel comfortable and rest well, preparing for the next match."

"Your thoughtfulness and virtue move me; as a reward, a thousand kneading massages..."

"Ouch, stop it... you...I still have a question for you!"

"What else do you want to ask?"

"How did it feel to be hugged by a female fan?"

"..."

"There wasn’t much to feel; she was pulled away too quickly. If there’s a longer hug next time, I’ll let you know."

"You can drop dead..."

The two young people tussled again, and since meeting at the age of 17, their closeness and familiarity with each other had only grown.

They were not only young lovers but also best friends.

However, Gan Guoyang’s stay in Portland was short-lived.

On November 30, they played their last match of November at home, winning 116:104 against their old rivals, the Phoenix Suns.

On the last day of November, they flew to Utah, where they would play an away game in Salt Lake City before flying back to Portland for two matches.

Following that, there’d be another trip to the Western Conference, then back and forth between home and away games until Christmas.

The fragmented schedule was tiring and wearying, but Gan Guoyang was in good spirits, as he finally had the chance to compete against Stockton.