The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 252 - 135: The Waves of 60 Minutes

At the end of the 1985 season, the team underwent a lot of changes, one of which being that a teammate had all but ended his professional career due to drug problems. I watched, helplessly, as my teammate and friend became the victim of some vile curse. He could not fend off the demon inside him and gave up the most valuable things.

We also experienced coaching changes because assistant coach Phil Johnson went to Kansas City to become the head coach, and Jerry Sloan came from Southern Illinois to fill the gap. At first, I was very nervous; Jerry was known for his toughness. The first time we shook hands, I knew he lived up to his reputation.

The team made it to the playoffs and, in Houston, we achieved a shocking victory in the first round of five games. Then, without Mark-Eaton, we headed to Los Angeles. Even though Billy Bolts had driven Olajuwon mad in the first round, everyone knew we couldn’t beat Jabbar and the Lakers; we were swept 0:4, ending our season.

The playoffs were a reward for the effort during the regular season, and everything was magnified: energy, excitement, intensity. It was my first experience of this atmosphere, and I was fascinated by it. However, the failure in the playoffs was absolute. Apart from the champions, all players would leave heartbroken, so the agony of defeat was magnified. But we didn’t have much time to waste and had to dive into preparations for the summer.

Generally, we met the morning after the last game of the season to clean out our lockers and deal with the remaining odds and ends. The coach gave his last speech to the players for the season, followed by the owner and general manager summarizing their thoughts on the season. At the end of the meeting, rookies typically handled their last task for the season: buying hamburgers for the whole team and staff.

Before departing, Layden would meet with each player in order of seniority, offering candid feedback and areas for improvement, and if appropriate, he might comment on a player’s future.

I remember I was the last one on the team. I handed out hamburgers to everyone and then entered the office with two burgers, thinking Layden needed them. After talking about some topics and opinions related to me, he asked, "Did you watch last night’s Western Conference semifinal, the Nuggets and the Trail Blazers?"

I said I hadn’t; their game was later than ours, I knew Ah Gan was playing, but I just didn’t feel like watching after being swept.

Layden started eating the burger, took a couple of bites, and said leisurely, "Ah Gan scored 60 points."

I thought I had misheard. "What do you mean by 60 points?" I asked. "Did he barely pass?"

Layden shook his head, saying he really did score 60 points, an entire game’s 60 points; he took down the Nuggets by himself.

I can’t quite remember what else we talked about after that; anyway, Layden’s mention of Ah Gan clearly had some hints in it.

At the time, I was just shocked, incredulous. "60 points," I calculated in my mind, wondering if I had totaled 60 points in the entire playoffs.

Then I thought Layden’s hint meant I should think of a way to get Ah Gan to Salt Lake City.

It was only later that I realized what Layden meant was that I should strive hard, and Ah Gan was my benchmark and role model.

That summer, I trained extremely hard, even frantically, but it was difficult to catch up with Ah Gan; he was running too fast and too far, his shadow already out of sight.

——Excerpt from John Stockton’s autobiography "Assisted," published in 2012.

Gan Guoyang’s 60 points in the playoffs caused no small stir in the American basketball community and even impacted the entire American sports scene.

Ah Gan’s die-hard TV station ESPN brought out a special report the next morning, delivering a feast of scoring through game video footage and a recap of past high-scoring NBA playoff games to the fans.

The previous battle between Joe and Ah Gan had already tasted sweet to ESPN; that special report on the two players’ game contributed a 3.5% increase in users for the channel, marking an important step in ESPN’s growth.

At that time, the hyping of the duel between the two players was criticized by many established newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations, who felt this was not real basketball. They believed that basketball, a team sport, was being turned into a contest between two individuals.

Half a year later, such voices had almost disappeared. All newspapers, radio stations, and magazines were following suit, writing reviews, reporting news, and publishing special reports to marvel at the miracle on the basketball court.

Although there were still some sporadic criticisms—like saying the Nuggets didn’t defend or suggesting Dr. Jack opted for decadence—these were drowned out by overwhelming positive publicity.

This was a significant change since Stern took office; media participation increased, and the NBA no longer wanted to be a silent league. They had to make more people see and hear, especially letting the fans know about the young stars’ performances on the court.

The proliferation of color TVs played a role in spurring this on. A television network spanning America allowed incidents at one point to quickly spread across the nation, and in the future, it would go global.

Aiva company had made great strides compared to the past. After Ah Gan scored 60 points, they quickly launched the "Skyscraper 60-point Rainbow Commemorative Edition."

This was a multicolored pair of basketball shoes, the concept inspired by the Denver Nuggets’ rainbow uniforms adopted since 1981, complete with a "60" tag on the shoes.

However, these dazzling shoes didn’t quite catch on in the mid-80s, and after producing a small batch, production stopped due to the lukewarm response.

Many years later, this relatively unpopular model from the Skyscraper series suddenly became hot, with some collector’s editions selling for high prices and becoming favorites among certain groups.

The shock of Gan Guoyang’s 60 points was no less significant for the team and the players. It is said that when Pat Riley heard about Gan Guoyang scoring 60 points, he thought to encourage his players by saying, "A player can’t score 60 points twice in the playoffs," but he swallowed his words mid-sentence, fearing he’d jinx it like Doug Moe and instead settled for, "A player can’t...not in his rookie playoff..."

The Lakers players thought to themselves, what nonsense the coach is saying!

Michael Jordan watched the live broadcast of that game on TV, then unplugged his phone line and went to the gym to practice that night.

Larry Bird told his coach during practice the next day that maybe they should start preparing to face the Trail Blazers in the Finals.

KC Jones told Bird, then you’d better think about how you’re going to handle Ah Gan’s defense.

Charles Barkley called Gan Guoyang to get him to snag a couple of tickets; he wanted to go to Portland to watch Ah Gan play live.

But Gan Guoyang regretfully told Barkley that it was simply impossible to get tickets anymore. The tickets for Game 5, whether through normal channels or some special tickets reserved by the team, had been completely snatched up, not a single one left.

Plus, the arena had added seats wherever it was possible, barely stopping short of selling hanging spots over the glass curtain wall.

"We do have a seat on our bench, if you want to come and watch the game sitting there, but there’s a requirement—you must wear a Trail Blazers jersey."

"No can do, Gan. I consider you a brother, but that doesn’t mean I want to be your teammate on court. Playing against you is way more fun."

"Then you really are, not too great at planning your career... You should eat fewer donuts. I saw in the newspaper that you seem to have gained some weight again."

"I use newspapers to wipe my ass, why are you still reading them? But I do miss those burgers you make."

The Washington Bullets were eliminated by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, and Barkley was already back in his hometown in Alabama, playing with trucks.

And the biggest shake-up due to Gan Guoyang scoring 60 points was within the Trail Blazers themselves; as a center, he had already broken multiple scoring records in Trail Blazers’ history this season.

Most points in a regular-season game, most points in a playoffs game, highest average points per game in the regular season, most total points in a single regular season, highest average points per game in the playoffs, and so on.

Gan Guoyang wasn’t just a high-scoring fanatic who only knew how to score; often, he was just proving that he could do it, and whether he did it or not wholly depended on whether it was advantageous for victory.

Jack Ramsay’s basketball system was disrupted by Gan Guoyang, whose position as a superstar who could transcend the system was firmly established.

years ago, Ramsey, while acting as the general manager for the Philadelphia 76ers, had coach Hannum request that Wilt Chamberlain give up his high shot volume and pass the ball more to involve his teammates. It led the 76ers to rise and forge one of the greatest teams in NBA history, overturning the terrifying reign of the Boston Celtics.

Chamberlain’s various scoring records at that time were considered antithetical to winning basketball. His transformation in 1966 was a beautiful story of enlightenment.

Just 20 years later, it seemed like the basketball world was changing—not just the old tactical systems, old player evaluation systems, and old basketball aesthetic systems were collapsing and being reshaped.

When Ramsay was interviewed by The Oregonian and asked what he thought about Gan Guoyang’s high-scoring game and whether he was the second Wilt Chamberlain, he calmly replied:

"He is not the second Wilt. Wilt’s high scoring was an exploitation of the team; he monopolized shooting opportunities. Ah Gan is different; he only steps up when others can’t handle it. And Wilt never scored 60 points in a playoff game. If he could, I think he should have been able to defeat the Celtics and Russell a long time ago."

Ramsay never got along with Chamberlain, so his comments were anything but courteous.

Part of what Ramsay said was factual, citing Chamberlain’s terrifying season in 1961-1962 when he averaged 50.4 points per game as an example.

In the playoffs, his average points per game dropped to 35, and his shooting percentage fell to 46%. In 12 playoff games, his shooting percentage was below 50% in 8 of them.

The team regrettably lost to the Celtics in seven games, and the result of that series was decided by a hair’s breadth. If Chamberlain had played with his regular-season efficiency, or played like he did in ’67, the team would have won much earlier.

Of course, this is somewhat unfair to Chamberlain, as he already had the highest shooting percentage on the team during that series, and they only lost by two points in Game 7.

Moreover, the playoff duels of the 60s were even more hostile than those of the 80s, with interior players facing vicious fouls and physical confrontations.

So when Chamberlain saw Ramsay’s comments in the newspaper, he was furious and accused Ramsay of talking nonsense. In retaliation, he brought up the sorry state of the 76ers after they traded him away in 1968 and how the Trail Blazers’ loss of Walton was largely Ramsey’s fault.

He even called Gan Guoyang and criticized Ramsay over the phone, calling him a heartless scavenger vulture, stubborn and ruthless—it left Gan Guoyang quite bewildered.

Gan Guoyang knew that Ramsay and Chamberlain had always had a strained relationship, but he hadn’t expected that his own 60-point game would make things even worse between them.

In the end, Gan Guoyang pacified Chamberlain over the phone, saying that he was still far from Chamberlain’s level, and that his high-scoring proved that Chamberlain’s style of play was without issue.

"People used to say I’m like Russell, but in terms of scoring, I’m really not like him at all, am I? I’m much more like you."

Gan Guoyang’s words made Chamberlain very happy, finally feeling at peace. He said he had forgiven Ramsay and hoped the Trail Blazers would go further in the playoffs.

By that time, the Trail Blazers had already eliminated the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals, taking the series 4:2.

Gan Guoyang had returned to his normal state in the last two games, but the entire team, inspired by him, had stepped up in shooting accuracy and scoring.

The Trail Blazers had definitely opened up; in the last two games, the team’s scoring exceeded 130, and with their offense, they annihilated the Nuggets, reaching the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the 1977 season.

The Los Angeles Lakers were waiting for them at the Great Western Forum.