The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 209 - 96 Little Secrets

Gan Guoyang’s earth-shattering dunk made the outcome of the game itself seem less important.

Just like when Gan Guoyang faced the Supersonics and performed that astonishing turn and evade dunk, many years later, people will only remember that dunk, while who lost or won the game and how it played out will not be much remembered by many.

On January 5, 1983, nearly exactly two years prior, Dr. J in a game against the Lakers at the Spectrum Arena, stole the ball and initiated a fast break, pulling off the "Rock the baby" maneuver, and the whole stadium plunged into a sea of joy, with fans too excited to contain themselves.

That became the most thrilling score of 1983 and this dunk even became more famous than the 76ers’ championship that year, admired over and over by fans.

No one could perfectly replicate that dunk in a game, not even Dr. J himself later on; it was a stroke of genius, just like Gan Guoyang could not replicate the 360-degree spinning dunk.

Gan Guoyang’s rendition of "Rock the baby" was the one with the highest fidelity, a center in a game replicating Dr. J’s most classic dunk, which seemed somewhat incredible.

But Gan Guoyang was not lying at halftime; in high school, he dunked like Dr. J and insisted on practicing yoga, resulting in good flexibility and coordination in his body.

During Dr. Ogilvy’s visualization training, Gan Guoyang had envisioned in his mind completing a "Rock the baby" dunk during a fast break many times.

Finally realizing it in a game was like a dream coming to reality, the hallucinatory feeling was intoxicating, and even the game itself began to go wild.

The two teams let loose and started to exchange blows, with Drexler and Dr. J being masters of fast break dunks.

They began to run, accelerating the pace of the game.

Once the opponent had a chance to dunk, neither side committed fouls anymore; they just gave the opponent the opportunity to dunk. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The latter part of the third quarter and the fourth quarter almost turned into a dunk contest, with Glider, Dr. J, Kossie, and Tony all furiously bombarding the hoop in their own way.

Even Sam Perkins, who was known for his laziness and never dunked during games, was swept up in the frenzied atmosphere and attempted a dunk under the hoop.

He was met by Gan Guoyang rushing over for his sixth block of the game—a big rejection.

As Jordan’s once close teammate and right-hand man, Sam Perkins’ personality was worlds apart from Jordan’s.

He came from a poor background, was raised by his grandmother, and only started playing basketball in his junior year of high school because of his height and his desire to escape poverty.

Therefore, Perkins did not have such a strong desire to win in basketball; it was just a job for him. He trained and played ball during work hours and wouldn’t spend an extra minute on basketball in his free time.

He was highly talented and could complete the tasks given to him by the coach well, but he was unwilling and looked down on doing anything extra, such as dunking, which to him was just a waste of energy.

After all, a dunk was just two points anyway, and dunking would wear out the knees more, consume more energy, and make his hands hurt. "I might as well just shoot a layup; why bother dunking?"

Sam Perkins’ philosophy was further reinforced by Gan Guoyang’s big block. After being thoroughly disoriented by the block, Perkins lamented in his heart: Why bother dunking when I could have tried a banked floater, maybe it would have gone in, why suffer for nothing...

Tonight, the fans who purchased tickets at the Memorial Coliseum made a profit, watching twice the number of dunks they would in a regular game, and all from the league’s dunk masters.

The coaches of both teams didn’t bother anymore. Billy Cunningham knew that the 76ers were gradually softening and could no longer return to the intensity and toughness of their 1983 championship year.

Even though the 76ers were in a much better state this season than the last, Cunningham knew they were more reliant on talent and inertia to win games, rather than determination.

Ramsay stood silently on the sidelines, no longer shouting "Run, run, run," but just quietly watching his players sprinting and chewing gum— the old man had actually started chewing gum.

In the relentless running, the 76ers gradually couldn’t keep up with the pace, which was somewhat unbelievable for Dr. J who was once considered the league’s number one at fast breaks.

There was no helping it; their legs and stamina simply weren’t what they used to be. Into the fourth quarter, the Trail Blazers’ young forwards and centers could still run at full strength, but Dr. J started to feel a burning sensation in his knees.

Irving, Malone, and Andrew Toney, whose career was hampered by injuries, had to slow down, and Sam Perkins didn’t want to go crazy either.

The young Trail Blazers overwhelmed the 76ers in a tidal wave of tit-for-tat offense, as the new wave ultimately submerged the old one, 131 to 119, securing the victory by a 12-point margin.

Gan Guoyang racked up 18 points, grabbed 22 rebounds, blocked 7 shots, and made 3 steals, while Vandeweghe scored 30 points, Parkson 22 points, and Drexler 19 points.

Gan Guoyang’s lead in the rebounding charts continued to grow, and he was now chasing an average of 20 rebounds a game; a feat no player had achieved since the beginning of 1970.

In the midst of Gan Guoyang’s frenzy for rebounds every game, his own formidable rebounding ability was one aspect, while the fact that Vandeweghe and Parkson, the two white forwards/guards who never boxed out, also played a significant role, unknowingly surrendering many rebounds to Gan Guoyang.

If Vandeweghe had been traded for Marques Johnson, Gan Guoyang’s rebounding numbers would indeed have dropped significantly, since there are only so many rebounds available in a game.

As the final buzzer sounded, Dr. J Irving took the initiative to come over and shake hands and embrace Gan Guoyang; journalists at courtside were frantically taking pictures of the two.

"That was an incredible dunk, I never thought someone could replicate it in a game," Irving lavished praise on Gan Guoyang.

"I’m just imitating you, following in your footsteps," Gan Guoyang knew how to speak to the occasion.

Before leaving the arena at the end of the game, Gan Guoyang asked Irving, "Doctor, how did it feel to punch Larry Bird?"

A strange expression crossed Irving’s face when he learned that the Trail Blazers would be traveling to Boston next week, but then he smiled again.

"It felt pretty good, we made up afterwards, but I’ll tell you secretly I have no regrets, I only wish I’d hit him harder."

After the 1984 fracas that ended with a 42-6 scoreline, Bird and Irving were outwardly on good terms again, jointly promoting an electronic game called "Larry Bird vs. Dr. J" through advertisements.

Afterward, Irving leaned in and whispered to Gan Guoyang, "I’ll tell you a secret; when I was hitting Larry, his teammates didn’t come to help. My teammates rushed over and grabbed Larry, but his didn’t. Robert Parrish was just standing nearby, but he didn’t move at all, he didn’t even think about coming to help. I think Larry cares a lot about that."

Gan Guoyang nodded after hearing this, pondering that this little secret might prove useful in Boston.

The day after tomorrow, the Trail Blazers easily conquered the visiting Indiana Pacers at home, 119 to 102.

This former ABA team, which had only made the playoffs once since joining the NBA, consistently performed poorly.

Terribly mismanaged since joining the NBA, they carelessly traded draft picks, resulting in many years without high draft selections.

The team was losing money and nearly lost their franchise rights; they had to exchange a guard for the Trail Blazers’ vice president to solve management and financial issues.

During the struggle for the first draft pick, they were again unlucky in 1983, losing the coin toss to the Rockets and missing out on Ralph Sampson.

Then they traded their 1984 first-round draft pick to the Trail Blazers, giving the Trail Blazers the second overall pick in 1984 and handing over the chance to draft from the golden generation.

This year they still lingered at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, theoretically ready to toss coins for the number one draft pick again in the summer.

However, the newly appointed Commissioner Stern proposed a new draft rule, revamping the old method of the Eastern and Western Conference bottom teams deciding the first pick with a coin toss, and introducing a lottery system to determine the ownership of the 1985 first pick.

In 1985, the highly anticipated Patrick Ewing would be entering the draft, but would the NBA League allow this super-talented new star to land in a place like Indiana, where even birds won’t poop?

No one knows yet.

After this game, the Trail Blazers packed up once more to set off again.

They were about to head to Boston, starting their journey to the Eastern Conference away games.