The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 185 - 78 I’ve Never Encountered Such a Request in My Life
The Spurs hoped that after acquiring Gilmore, this "Old Train" could collide with Iceman to create a blend of icy and fiery sparks, capable of contending with Magic Johnson and the Sky Hook Jabbar in the Western Conference.
In 1982 and 1983, they made it to the Western Conference Finals in a row, but before the hugely talented Lakers, they still couldn’t put up effective resistance; and as Gervin and Gilmore aged, their competitiveness gradually declined.
As the Lakers’ dominance in the Western Conference grew day by day, the Spurs had not yet found a strategy to counter them, while new forces had already risen and were closely catching up.
After making adjustments at halftime, Gan Guoyang turned more of his attention to defense; he no longer fixated on tussles with Gilmore in the paint.
On the defensive end, the Trail Blazers chose to let Mychal Thompson match up with Gilmore, wasting a top defensive resource like Gan Guoyang on an "Old Train" was really unnecessary.
Gan Guoyang moved to the power forward position, expanding his defensive range, and with his rare sweeping defense at the time, he continuously disrupted Spurs’ outside offense.
Whenever the Spurs’ perimeter had screen protection, Gan Guoyang would rush out a step to strongly interfere, forcing Gervin, Morris, and Mitchell to protect the ball or even turn it into a dead ball, before he quickly fell back to defend under the basket.
In the 80s, nearly no centers defended like this. Gan Guoyang’s defensive pressure made the Spurs’ ball movement on the perimeter sluggish, forcing the Spurs into more isolation plays or passing to Gilmore in the post.
Gilmore played hard tonight, but his offense was just the icing on the cake, lacking the ability to single-handedly carry the team’s play.
Meanwhile, Gan Guoyang continued to exert pressure on Gilmore on the offensive end with frequent physical contact, highly aggressive offensive rebounds, and leaning forward pressing shots, which made Gilmore’s state of mind increasingly irritable.
Under Gan Guoyang’s leadership, the Trail Blazers unleashed a 15:6 scoring run in the third quarter, quickly extending the lead to more than 10 points.
In one offensive play, Gan Guoyang grabbed an offensive rebound inside, turned around to shake off Gilmore with his footwork, and slammed it home with one hand, while Gilmore’s hand, aimed for a block, missed the ball and hit Gan Guoyang’s head instead.
The two had a verbal altercation.
"I warned you in the second half, if you touched me again, I would knock you down, just like Lucas knocked you out!"
Gan Guoyang should not have mentioned Lucas, the mention of which reopened old wounds for Gilmore.
Gilmore, like an enraged lion, bellowed at Gan Guoyang, "Come on, then come. I want to see how you’re going to knock me down!"
Gan Guoyang thought to himself that he had never encountered such a request in his life, a swiftly low prowl, embracing Gilmore’s waist and thick legs, he flipped him over to the ground.
Gilmore was guarding against Gan Guoyang’s fists. Since being knocked down by Lucas with a punch, he had specifically trained in boxing to prevent being floored by a punch again.
Little did he know Gan Guoyang wasn’t playing boxing but wrestling; Gilmore was utterly unprepared, and with his high center of gravity, he lost his balance and crashed heavily to the floor.
Trail Blazers and Spurs players all crowded around, pulling Gan Guoyang away, lifting Gilmore up from the ground; the referee’s whistle blew continuously "beep beep beep," and the scene was in chaos.
George Gervin, who had underperformed in the third quarter, stood aside with his arms crossed, thinking to himself that there was a fight again—it was like going back to 10 years ago.
Gan Guoyang actually didn’t need to be pulled away since Gilmore had already been KO’d, and after his teammates helped him up, Gilmore saw stars spinning around, murmuring, "F*ck, we agreed to fists..."
Playing in the NBA is indeed not easy, requiring practice in boxing and defense against falls. It’s really too much.
The crowd in the arena cheered loudly, applauding for Gan Guoyang, tonight’s ticket money was well spent—a single game offered two types of sports.
Last time at the Silverdome, the takedown of Lan Bi’er was missed; this time at the Memorial Coliseum, the furious slam of "Train" Gilmore, though not as shocking as the slam on Lan Bi’er, was still splendid enough.
Tonight’s head referee was none other than Dick Bavetta, who had officiated some of the most chaotic NBA games of the 70s; to him, Gan Guoyang’s takedown was minor compared to the past.
He came over and said to Gan Guoyang, "Kid, I have no choice, I have to eject you. As for whether you’ll be suspended, it depends on how the commissioner’s office decides. You, kid, are going to shake apart the old bones of the league. You better be careful in the future, don’t provoke public outrage."
"Thanks for the heads-up, but I think it’s the other centers in the league who should be careful. They’d better be polite when they meet me in the future."
Bavetta smiled and then hit Gan Guoyang with a foul, ejecting him from the game.
Gan Guoyang left through the tunnel while the cheers in the Memorial Coliseum were deafening, departing the court like a hero.
When Gan Guoyang left the court, he left the Trail Blazers with a lead of more than 10 points, and he himself racked up a stat line of 19 points, 17 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 steals in three quarters.
All three steals came from the third quarter, each one leading the Trail Blazers to launch a fast break, successfully smoothing out the situation on the court, with the advantage shifting decisively to the home team.
On the Spurs side, after taking a serious fall, Gilmore, although he returned to the game after some adjustments, had already lost much of his morale.
The nameless fury he held against the Trail Blazers for over a decade seemed to be extinguished by the fall, clearing his head.
He was already 35 years old, still almost a front-line star in the league, with Lucas fading away and Walton barely half-fit.
As for Ah Gan, the vitality and potential within him were simply incomparable to his own. Just taking the single-game 50 points for example, Gilmore never achieved that throughout his entire professional career, not in the ABA nor the NBA.
What was he uselessly fuming about here? He would be better off saving that energy for dealing with Jabbar.
The Trail Blazers maintained the advantage left by Gan Guoyang, with Drexler taking control of the game in the fourth quarter. He consecutively broke through, dunked, made jump shots, and assisted, leading the Trail Blazers in an offensive climax that established the victory.
Drexler’s performance had become increasingly outstanding, his shooting more stable, and Ramsay was giving him more time on the court.
Joining Drexler on the court was Jerome Kossie, and with the two of them playing, the Trail Blazers’ style of play underwent a complete change—two whirlwinds of darkness swept across the court.
In front of the fierce and swift Drexler, George Gervin was as slow as an aging black wolf from a zoo, lively only when it was time to eat and moving about at meal times, spending the rest of the time lying quietly in the sun, occasionally opening his eyes to yawn and stretch.
Even when he had the opportunity to dunk under the basket, he would no longer go for it but would instead jump up, raise his hand, and gently flick the ball with his fingers, letting it slide into the hoop.
When he ran on the court, he even seemed out of breath, taking careful and tentative steps as if fearful that a larger stride would be too much for his body to handle.
Yet even such a weakened black wolf still scored 31 points, relying on his shrewd movement, precise jump shots, and the deft touch of his fingertips.
After the game, while being interviewed by reporters, George Gervin said, "When Gan was defending me on the court, I felt enormous pressure, especially in the third quarter—I simply couldn’t score. Later when he threw himself to the ground, I breathed a sigh of relief; finally, I could score."
Of the 15 points Gervin scored in the second half, 13 came in the fourth quarter.
103:112, The Trail Blazers seized a victory at home.
And the 103 points conceded allowed them to lower their average points allowed per game even further.
Ramsay and Adelman even began to ask Gan Guoyang for defensive strategies and methods after the game was over.
The ideas and defensive techniques he provided were indeed very advanced for the 80s, and they worked well.
However, the media and fans were clearly more interested in Gan Guoyang’s body slam, and his conflict with Gilmore once again made the headlines in the Sporting News.
The NBA didn’t want the incident to be overly reported since the league had always been trying to rid itself of violent elements.
Avia, however, took advantage of the situation to market their product well, claiming that Gan Guoyang’s shoes had strong traction, making wrestling moves very effective.
"The reason a skyscraper stands so tall is because its foundation is solid enough."
"The more stable, the taller it rises." Avia launched a new slogan for their basketball shoes.
Avia, dedicating all its marketing expenses to Gan Guoyang and the Skyscraper series, was advancing quickly and now knew how to catch a hot topic.
Inside the NBA teams, they were also discussing the matter, with players passing word among themselves, concluding: better not provoke Ah Gan next time.
Of course, there were still some who didn’t accept it, wanting to challenge Ah Gan the next time they faced the Trail Blazers, like Olajuwon.
In the end, the league did not issue a suspension for the incident. The fans of the Knights had been furiously cursing after the previous suspension, and now was the time to open up the market, so no suspension—fine him money instead.
Gan Guoyang was fined 5,000 US Dollars by the league for the body slam, which at the time was a significant sum.
As for the Trail Blazers, they imposed no penalty on the matter. Ramsay thought what Gan Guoyang did was splendid, and the toughness of the Trail Blazers’ frontcourt was being rebuilt, a successor to the "Law Enforcer" Morris Lucas.
The only person who criticized Gan Guoyang was his old man Gan Youwei, far away in San Francisco; he learned about Gan Guoyang’s fight with Gilmore from the TV and called him that very night.
"Guoyang, are you there to play basketball or to fight? Why have you gotten into wrestling again? You always upset people. Why do you fight every day in the NBA when you were so good in college?" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
"Dad, I had no choice; the NBA is a dog-eat-dog place, if you can’t fight, people will bully you."
"Nonsense, I think you’re the one bullying others. I heard from that... that English teacher that the person you fought has a good temper, said he’s very gentle."
"Off the court and on the court are two different things, besides, at that moment on the court he told me to hit him. I’ve never come across such a request in my life."
"He tells you to hit and you hit him? If he tells you to eat shit, would you eat it?"
Gan Guoyang’s seemingly invincible argument was no match for his father’s scolding, leaving him without a response.
In the end, Gan Guoyang promised Gan Youwei that he absolutely would not fight for the remainder of the year’s games—at least save it for next year.
