The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 396 - 15 Unwelcome Visitor

[Basketball is about seeing who can intimidate who.] — "X-man" Xavier McDaniel

On October 31, 1986, the Portland Trail Blazers welcomed their new season opener at the Memorial Coliseum, facing off against their old rivals, the Seattle SuperSonics.

Because Portland and Seattle are in close proximity, the Trail Blazers and the SuperSonics were bound to clash within the first five matches of the season, and there had long been grievances between the two teams.

Over the summer, the SuperSonics underwent major changes. Jack Sikma was traded to the Bucks, Lenny Wilkens stepped down as manager and left for the Cleveland Cavaliers, marking the end of the ’79 championship era, and the SuperSonics entered a new period.

However, after sending Sikma away, Seattle had no intention of completely throwing in the towel. On the contrary, a series of signings, trades, and management changes all indicated their ambition for the new season.

They first secured Nate McMillan in the draft to bolster their backcourt.

They then acquired Bucks center Alton Lister (who Ah Gan had dunked on brutally) from the trade involving Sikma.

In July, they traded Al Wood to the Mavericks for Dale Ellis, further filling out their backcourt.

After Morris Lucas was bought out by the Lakers, the SuperSonics claimed him, and then traded with the Detroit Pistons to acquire veteran John Long.

In October, the SuperSonics traded John Long and a second-round pick to the Pacers to get frontcourt player Russ Schoene.

With that, the SuperSonics constructed a formidable frontcourt framework with Xavier McDaniel, Tom Chambers, Alton Lister, and Morris Lucas.

In the backcourt, Dale Ellis was set to experience the most brilliant stage of his career with the SuperSonics, and Nate McMillan was also a key player they planned to develop.

Bernie Bickerstaff, who replaced Lenny Wilkens as the new head coach, was one of the new and energetic coaches in the League. Under his leadership, a rejuvenated SuperSonics team was very keen on making a name for themselves in the new season.

And facing off against the reigning champions on their home court in the very first game was undoubtedly the best opportunity for them to stir things up and show their mettle.

Before the official start of the game, the Portland Trail Blazers held a championship ring ceremony on the court, where players from the previous season received their glittering championship rings from owner Larry Weinberg.

The championship rings from the ’70s and ’80s were very modest – generally a gold ring engraved with the team’s name and inset with a diamond, as seen in the 1977 Trail Blazers’ championship ring.

This ring was similar in design to those of other teams, the main difference being the Blazers’ spiral team logo engraved on the side.

The 1986 championship ring, since it was the Trail Blazers’ second title in history, featured two diamonds instead of one, with no significant changes to other designs—such was the NBA’s aesthetic and investment at the time.

Nonetheless, everyone was very happy. After all, the symbolic significance of a ring far outweighs its material value. How many professional players play their entire lives just for such a trinket, even at the cost of being vilified and hopping from team to team?

And there are some players who obtain what others spend over a decade dreaming of very early in their careers. It can be said that the fates of players are vastly different.

Afterwards, in the presence and attention of over ten thousand fans, Gan Guoyang hoisted the team’s second championship banner to the rafters of the arena.

The SuperSonics players sat on the sidelines, watching the Trail Blazers celebrate their championship with indifference, their eyes filled with the desire to defeat their opponent.

That’s the NBA for you. Becoming a champion doesn’t get you respect and submission, but an endless stream of challenges. The champion is always the target of everyone’s arrows.

Xavier McDaniel’s eyes were fixed on Gan Guoyang the entire time, tonight’s central figure, the focus of the spotlight, the League’s red-hot superstar.

Just before taking the court, McDaniel said to his teammate Tom Chambers, "Tonight I want to find a way to dunk on Ah Gan’s head."

Chambers looked at McDaniel as if he were crazy, "Have you lost your mind? Don’t just provoke Ah Gan for no reason."

McDaniel replied, "Are you scared? Have you forgotten how you were posterized by Ah Gan in the beginning?"

In Gan Guoyang’s rookie season in 1984, during the first encounter with the Seattle SuperSonics, he executed a highly difficult turnaround dunk over Chambers.

That became one of Gan Guoyang’s career classics, a dunk he himself would never replicate again. It also sentenced Chambers to appear as the backboard in countless television and video replays for decades to come.

Faced with McDaniel’s challenge, Chambers was honest, "I’m scared."

His expression read like, "If you want to court death, that’s on you, but don’t drag me into it."

McDaniel snorted in disdain at Chambers’, and the rest of the League’s, cowardice.

As the saying goes, a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers. Being a rookie just the year before, in 1985, McDaniel was one of the few in the League who had the audacity to challenge Gan Guoyang.

Just like Hakeem Olajuwon, the number four pick had a strong desire to prove himself. From his rookie season onwards, he never shrank from any challenge, whether from within his own team or from the opponents.

For a lengthy period to come, he would be known as one of the most intimidating enforcers in the League, an incendiary element on the court.

Chambers knew he couldn’t dissuade McDaniel, a guy whose hormones were on an extreme overload.

From the start of his rookie season, he had shaved his head to a gleaming, eye-catching baldness, and from the moment he stepped into the training camp, Xavier McDaniel was eager to prove himself.

In his matchups against the team’s veteran forward Reggie King, King was always bothering him, using hugs to interfere with McDaniel’s reception of the ball.

McDaniel asked the head coach how he should shake off the defense, to which the coach said, do what you have to do.

So McDaniel punched Reggie King, and that solved everything.

His hormones were surging, as evidenced by his extraordinary baton.

After a game or training session, his baton would be incredibly firm due to the excessive exercise, and he would walk around the locker room completely naked, hanging a towel on it to display his power.

Beyond hanging a towel, he would also hang a lantern, a little blackboard, and even a sock during Christmas—the point was to symbolize his masculine strength.

His teammates sometimes found it vulgar, but were helpless—this guy was not easy to mess with, like the newly traded Dale Ellis who had already had a fight with McDaniel.

McDaniel was an unstable element, but on the court, he truly made his adversaries fear him, and his competitiveness, his desire to win, exposed the timid players.

So tonight, he was ready to take on the toughest stone in the League, to see just how much weight he carried in the new season.

The SuperSonics’ starting lineup tonight was Al Wood, Tom Chambers, McDaniel, Gerald Henderson, and Michael Phelps.

Among them, Gerald Henderson should be one of the trades the SuperSonics regretted the most—for him, they gave up a first-round draft pick of ’86, which turned out to become the number two pick.

However, after seeing that Len Bias died due to a cocaine overdose, the SuperSonics’ regret was somewhat mitigated, because if they had received the number two pick, they would have likely chosen Bias.

The Trail Blazers’ starters were the same as during the finals, with Terry Porter securely in the position of starting point guard, the backcourt partnership he formed with Drexler had strong mutual compatibility.

Vandeweghe, who had bulked up, had some doubts about his style of play for the new season which made his expression look quite nervous.

The inside line was still the partnership of Gan Guoyang and Thompson; compared to Walton, Thompson was a partner Gan trusted more.

As long as Thompson was there, Gan felt he could do anything without worries—this former number one pick’s importance was underestimated by many.

In Gan’s heart, Thompson was extremely important; their private relationship was also getting better and better, and Gan often visited Thompson’s home.

The game between the two sides officially began, and Gan Guoyang completed the first tip-off of the new season, giving the Trail Blazers the offensive possession.

The Trail Blazers’ tactical system had no major changes compared to last season; as champions, they definitely wouldn’t make big changes but only adjusted the details.

For example, at the start of the game, last season it was Parkson who started, and Ramsay liked to have Gan come out more for screens, looking for offensive opportunities through interweaving positions.

This season, with Gan’s status completely established, the Trail Blazers would start by letting this low-post monster open up, to intimidate the opposition right away.

The one-on-one defense against Gan was done by Al Wood, the guy who got posterized by Gan at the Bucks.

Gan easily got position in the low post, received the ball, and if it had been last season, he would have launched an attack right away.

But this time he paused and observed a bit, Porter and Drexler’s movements drew away the defense, and Vandeweghe was on the move.

The SuperSonics opened with a tight man-to-man defense, no double-teaming, and Gan no longer held back, using his strength to force his way under the basket, a sudden spin fake shook Wood, and his layup scored while drawing Wood’s foul.

The first basket already caused Wood to foul, turning it into a 2+1. Bickerstaff on the sidelines wiped the sweat from the bridge of his nose—this MVP was tough to handle.

Gan made the free throw, giving the Trail Blazers the lead.

The Trail Blazers began with great momentum, stopping the SuperSonics’ offense.

Drexler drew a foul from Henderson in a fast break, and made both free throws.

However, Drexler should have been able to dunk the ball, in the end, he only drew a foul against 6-foot-2 Henderson.

It was apparent that Glider’s physical fitness hadn’t been well maintained over the summer; this could be a concern for the Trail Blazers.

The Trail Blazers quickly took a 2:8 lead at the start, prompting Bickerstaff to call a timeout to adjust his team’s offense.

The only points for the SuperSonics came from McDaniel, who grabbed an offensive rebound and forcefully scored underneath the basket.

After scoring, he even flexed his muscles at Gan, but Gan didn’t respond at all.

In McDaniel’s view, this was his intimidation toward Gan, he was trying to scare Ah Gan.

As the game progressed, such actions would become more frequent; soon Gan would understand that someone was coming with malicious intent.