The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 236 - 122 Effeminate

Gan Guoyang scored 14 points in the first quarter, using his abundant stamina to disrupt the Pistons’ defense.

He indeed told Jordan that he’d score 50 points, but that didn’t mean Gan Guoyang was only aiming to fulfill a promise to Jordan—though that reason was also quite important.

In 1985, when the spotlight for the center position mainly shone on Jabbar, Moses Malone, Sampson, Olajuwon, and the future Ewing, Gan Guoyang knew that Bill Lambier, an unpopular white player who looked like a hooligan, was one of the most formidable opponents after ’85.

This wasn’t just from some residual basketball history knowledge in his mind, but also from Gan Guoyang’s direct experience and feeling from confronting Lambier on the court.

Bill Lambier wasn’t just a bastard who knew how to cheat and use dirty tricks to win games; those who underestimated him would definitely pay the price.

As an inside player, although he wasn’t fast or a high jumper, he had many strengths in terms of technique: long shooting range, precise free throws, excellent defensive positioning, calm defensive decision-making under the basket, and a playing style that could disturb the opponent’s mental state.

If you hid the name, many people would think it was Gan Guoyang being described.

Lambier indeed shared many defensive strengths with Gan Guoyang, as they both were disciples trained by Bobby Beelman.

They were both players who played intelligently, which often made them tricky in games, especially in crucial ones.

Honestly, there weren’t many smart people in the NBA league; just use your brains a little, and you’d be called a high-basketball IQ player.

Larry Bird was known by many as a player with a high basketball IQ, but when he went to college, he couldn’t keep up with his studies at Indiana University and later transferred to Indiana State, a school with much lower academic standards, partly due to poor grades.

During the transfer gap, he returned to his hometown to work at the sanitation department and collected garbage for a year.

Although academic performance and basketball IQ can’t be directly linked, they can somewhat explain some issues.

Lambier also struggled academically in college, and in his freshman year, his grades were so poor that he was kicked off the basketball team and even dropped out for a year.

In fact, his GPA was 1.6, meeting the requirements of most NCAA school basketball teams, but the requirement at the University of Notre Dame was 2.0.

Then Lambier transferred to Owens Technical College, which was closer to his home. He planned to study there while seeking an opportunity to return to the University of Notre Dame basketball team.

The University of Notre Dame, like Gonzaga University, is a Catholic school with high requirements for students’ grades and personal qualities. Father Ted, who was in charge of student affairs at the time, demanded Lambier achieve a GPA of 3.0 to return to play basketball at the University of Notre Dame.

If it were some uneducated black students, they could forget about returning to school in this lifetime; it would be better to stay somewhere with lower requirements.

Lambier’s family was not short of money; his father was a paper industry tycoon, and when Lambier later entered the NBA, he was the only player in the league who earned less than his dad.

As a result, Lambier studied hard to get back on the team and really achieved a GPA of 3.0. (The average GPA of the Gonzaga basketball team was 3.38.)

Even then, the priest was not satisfied and demanded that Lambier attend summer classes at the University of Notre Dame, and he needed to obtain two A grades in class to return to the basketball team.

Lambier did as required, completed the summer classes successfully, got two As, and returned to the University of Notre Dame basketball team.

After returning to the team, Lambier and the University of Notre Dame made it into the NCAA Final Four.

During the time Lambier was studying at Owens Technical College to improve his GPA, Beelman continually encouraged him to persevere. Returning to play basketball at the University of Notre Dame was the right path, Beelman insisted.

Eventually, Lambier did come back, but due to a work mishap, Beelman got involved in a gambling scandal and was persuaded to leave—fate really has a way of playing jokes on people.

But what Lambier didn’t expect was that Beelman had cultivated a comprehensive Plus version of him in California and almost got killed on the court because of it.

Lambier never stopped thinking about how to deal with the kid—the kid was perfect in every aspect, no wonder Coach Beelman valued him so much.

Lambier was never afraid of centers who were stronger or more perfect than himself. If he feared confronting players like Moses, Jabbar, and Lanier, he wouldn’t have been able to make it in the NBA.

But facing Gan Guoyang, he really couldn’t think of any good strategy at the moment.

When Gan Guoyang came back on the court in the second quarter, Lambier also returned.

Lambier tried to prevent Gan Guoyang from receiving the ball with fronting defense, denying him the opportunity to initiate an offense.

But Gan Guoyang anticipated Lambier’s intention—he wanted to pull him into a close-quarters battle under the basket and then draw fouls. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

This was a commonly used tactic by Lambier; in the jostling under the basket, he was an acting master on the NBA court.

Gan Guoyang was a center with a flexible playing style. He began performing repeated pick and roll tactics with Drexler and Parkson on the flanks.

Then, using his swift footwork, he rolled to the basket, and as long as he received the ball near the three-second area, Gan Guoyang could attack the hoop directly.

Because the Pistons’ help defense was too weak, their starting five for tonight didn’t even include a power forward.

Terry Tyler, despite having an outstanding wingspan and broad shoulders, and once boasting an average of 2.7 blocks per game in a season during his younger days, had deteriorated into a purely offensive player in the past two years, becoming the team’s sixth man off the bench.

The Pistons’ bona fide power forward was Dan Roundfield, an outstanding interior defender, but he was undersized at only 6 feet 8 inches tall. He was absent due to injury tonight; otherwise, Coach Daley wouldn’t have started Tyler.

This allowed the hot-handed Gan Guoyang to commence a relentless scoring frenzy.

Bill Schonely’s passionate voice was transmitted throughout Oregon via the airwaves.

"Gan cuts inside, tosses up a floater, and hits it! Beautiful, the arc is as graceful as a crescent moon."

"Baseline hook shot! Gorgeous! Woh! Moon hook! Tonight, Ah Gan is confident in his hook shot!"

"Pick and roll, Ah Gan catches the ball, cuts inside, turns around, and makes the jump shot! Beautiful, tonight Ah Gan has added a scope!"

Gan Guoyang, with his hot hand, frequently used hook shots, turnaround jumpers, and floaters to avoid physical contact with Bill Laimbeer.

To guard Gan Guoyang’s moving hook shot, it’s crucial to have help from the power forward and small forward positions to block the shooting path. The Lakers did this very well, as they had abundant defensive resources for their two, three, and four positions.

The Pistons were different; they had no one, relying solely on Laimbeer to follow, to chase, and to block.

And Laimbeer’s slightly slow movements couldn’t keep up with Guoyang, who tried to drag the game into a physical battle and completely miscalculated.

By halftime, Gan Guoyang had already racked up 35 points, leading the Trail Blazers to widen the gap, gaining a lead of more than 20 points early on.

During the halftime break, Laimbeer kicked the lockers in the dressing room angrily and cursed, "Fuck! Watching the video, this guy looks like Moses Malone, and as he plays, he turns into Sikma and Jabbar! What is he? A Transformer?"

"And you guys, the defense is shit, pure shit!" Laimbeer yelled at his teammates.

Indeed, the Pistons’ defense tonight was shit, their frontcourt a complete mess in help and rotational defense.

But no one dared to speak up, except for Isiah Thomas who asked, "Bill, this shows he’s afraid to confront you, why don’t you call him a ’pussy’?"

Laimbeer’s angry expression instantly softened; he looked at Thomas and said, "I’m the pussy, okay?"

"If you don’t dare to say it, I’ll say it for you."

"Isiah, it’s just a regular-season game. Even if we lose this one, we’re still two games ahead of the Nets, so the home-court advantage won’t be a problem."

Coach Chuck Daley had already lost his ability to rally the locker room. At this moment, he just hoped the rain would stop and that they could return to Detroit on time.

The third quarter began, and Gan Guoyang’s hand was still scorching hot. One reason he could often score high points was that his hot shooting streak lasted exceptionally long. This was thanks to his impressive stamina and high-frequency training.

Some players get hot for half a quarter, and after a timeout, their hands cool down, and their stamina can’t keep up.

NBA history’s super scorers all had abundant energy to support their efficient shot-making.

Laimbeer hadn’t given up the fight. Although he refrained from using dirty tricks on Gan Guoyang, he was still an outstanding player under normal circumstances.

The Pistons tried to double-team Gan Guoyang, but it was already in vain. Bernard King-style quick turns made the double team ineffective.

In the third quarter alone, Gan Guoyang added another 15 points, bringing his total to 50 points in three quarters!

At this point, the score had reached 75:105, with the Trail Blazers leading the Pistons by a whopping 30 points.

When Gan Guoyang was subbed out for a rest at the end of the third quarter, the cheering in Memorial Coliseum was as manic as the thunderstorm outside.

Gan Guoyang didn’t return to the court in the fourth quarter. At the end of the game, he told Laimbeer, "Bill, I said I’d get fifty points, not a point more, and not a point less."

[In March 1985, the Western road trip was an utter disaster. Everything was falling apart, and it was a nightmare. We faced a seven-game road trip, lost six of those games, and staggered like drunkards; our flights were delayed and canceled eleven times. Particularly demoralizing was the seventh game, where we were beaten by 30 points by the Trail Blazers in Portland, with Ah Gan scoring 50 points on our heads, 50 points in three quarters, sending the entire team into the depths of despair.

After playing the seventh game, we also had to contend with Oregon’s heavy rain and thunderstorms. Our flight home to Detroit was canceled. The airport provided an option – we could take a propeller plane to San Francisco and fly back to Detroit from there, but no one wanted to risk that. The contracts did not say that players needed to fly on propeller planes.

I spoke with Scott Stirling of the NBA office in New York and asked if the game on the sixth against the Bucks could be postponed, as we were stranded in Portland by a dismal defeat and heavy rain. At that time, the Trail Blazers helped us out since they had just been to Seattle for a game and had rented two eleven-seater jets parked at Portland Airport. With a slight break in the weather, we split into two groups, boarded the two planes, securely stowed over fifty pieces of luggage needed for long travels, and found a window to fly out.

We had to land in Minneapolis to refuel and remained at the airport for over two hours before taking off again to return to Detroit. When I met the players, exhausted in the baggage claim area of Metroland Airport, Isiah Thomas looked like he was about to cry from sheer fatigue.

But Bill Laimbeer seemed fine, as if the series of failures, Ah Gan’s 50 points, and the dressing room locker-kicking spree had never happened.]

— Excerpt from Chuck Daley’s memoir "Daly Life," published in 1990.