The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 430 - 48 Bird vs Doctor G

As the final buzzer sounded, Larry Bird and Gan Guoyang shook hands and embraced.

Bird had scored 28 points and dished out 11 assists for the game, performing admirably, but he couldn’t lead the Celtics in mounting a comeback in the fourth quarter.

Gan Guoyang racked up 33 points and 23 rebounds, Robert Parish was completely unable to stop Gan Guoyang from doing as he pleased in the paint; he snatched 10 offensive rebounds that night.

The average number of offensive rebounds per game for Gan Guoyang had been on a further decline this season, but tonight’s performance proved that it wasn’t that he couldn’t grab them, but that the team’s tactics required him to pull back on the offensive glass.

Whenever he wished, he could still be a monster on the offensive boards; not even the Celtics’ front-court trident could stop him.

Moreover, in the fourth quarter, he took on the task of guarding Bird himself, causing Bird’s personal offense to go silent.

Bird undoubtedly felt frustrated, realizing with his growing age, it was becoming difficult to make significant improvements.

During the summer, he had focused on enhancing his three-point shooting and added long-range shots in the new season, which had some effect.

However, against Ah Gan, everything seemed futile because Ah Gan was still improving while he had begun to decline.

This season, he’d already fallen behind in his matchups with Magic Johnson.

In December, during a home game against the Lakers, the Celtics led for three quarters, with Bird playing smoothly and shooting at an extremely high percentage.

He felt like a loaded machine gun—spraying bullets with no one able to stop him; Michael Cooper was simply his plaything.

The entire Celtics team performed exceptionally well, shooting at a very high percentage, and victory seemed within easy reach.

At that time, the Celtics had just gone public, and the fans at Boston Garden were extremely enthusiastic, believing they could defeat the Lakers again.

But come the fourth quarter, the Celtics completely fizzled out, scoring only 29:16 against the Lakers, with their 16 points setting the Celtics’ season low for a single quarter.

At that time, Bird felt a bit powerless; they had played the main players too long in the first three quarters, with Bird logging 43 minutes and Parish playing 44 minutes.

The team had no complaints about KC Jones’s farmer-like substitution strategy; back then, everyone thought it was appropriate—you earned the most money, so naturally, you should bear the heaviest responsibility.

The Celtics’ bench didn’t really have good options, so naturally, the starters had to hold the fort until the end.

It was alright against average teams, but facing strong teams like the Lakers and the Trail Blazers meant they were bound to run out of steam.

Bird was amazed by Gan Guoyang’s incredible stamina, and his unexpected rate of improvement.

Like Jordan, Bird was convinced that Gan Guoyang was holding back during the regular season, conserving his energy.

That is, this superstar center, averaging 38 points and 15 rebounds per game, with 3.1 blocks and 4.7 assists in the regular season, was not going all-out in the games.

He was only in his third year, and he was already hiding his true strength.

In the brief exchange after the game, Bird tried to confirm this with Gan Guoyang. After they shook hands and embraced, Bird asked, "Sonny, did you go all out tonight?"

Gan Guoyang shrugged and said, "Of course, didn’t you see I was sweating?"

Bird laughed disdainfully, thinking he really wanted to slap this guy, but he still patiently said, "Sonny, I have a question for you."

"What? I can answer anything except personal stuff, including how we beat you guys."

"I’m not interested in how I lost," Bird said. "I want to ask you, on the ceiling of Boston Garden Plaza, within the circle outside the retired jersey number 4 of the Boston Bruins, how many black vertical lines are there?"

Bird asked an unexpected question. In the airspace of Boston Garden, many championship banners and retired jerseys dangled densely.

Some belonged to the Celtics, and some were the NHL’s Boston Bruins property, among them number 4 was the retired jersey of the Bruins’ legendary star Bobby Orr.

Every night during the game, looking up at the ceiling during the national anthem in the pre-game ceremony, players would lift their eyes to the ceiling.

Bird would always stare at those retired jerseys and championship banners, but actually, every time, he was focused on Bobby Orr’s number 4 jersey, being overly familiar with that retired jersey banner.

Faced with Bird’s tricky question, Gan Guoyang didn’t even raise his head and said, "There are eight stripes."

"What’s the time?"

"1966-1976."

"What’s Bobby Orr’s real name?"

"Robert."

Bird was surprised by Gan Guoyang’s rapid-fire answers and said, "How do you know all of this so clearly?"

Gan Guoyang replied, "During the national anthem, I scan the jerseys and flags above, and I can memorize the sequence of those raggedy jersey numbers since I don’t sing along."

The Boston Garden is home to the Celtics, and Bird, playing more than fifty games there a year, is naturally familiar with every detail of the place.

While Gan Guoyang came from a Western Conference team, he’d only play there once a season, yet he played three games during the finals and knew every retired jersey hanging there like the back of his hand.

Bird truly respected Gan Guoyang, but from this level of observation, he knew this young man was definitely no simple character.

The focus and dedication he had for basketball, along with his astounding physical capabilities, had already surpassed the current state of the league.

This guy might just be a fully realized version of Wilt Chamberlain.

"Good luck, Sonny. I’ll see you in the Finals. Make sure your ass is clean," Bird finally said to Gan Guoyang, still refusing to concede verbally.

"It should be me wishing you good luck. I hope to see you again in the Finals. I’ve still got a few cigars left from last season," replied Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang had bought a big box of cigars last season, and after winning the championship, there were still a few left in the locker room cabinet because his teammates had one each.

After this game, Gan Guoyang thought he wouldn’t see Bird until March in Portland or in the June finals.

But to his surprise, the next afternoon, Larry Flesher called, asking him to take part in a brand event in the Boston area, which many sports media from Boston and New York were attending.

Every time they were in the Northeast area, Flesher always had something arranged for Gan Guoyang to do, like interviews, commercial events, or promoting Avia, and so on.

Flesher would say that Boston-New York was America’s voice box, a loudspeaker; the sounds made here were much louder than in other regions.

And then Gan Guoyang would usually retort that Los Angeles was the butt; though it didn’t speak, when it farted, the sound was not small either.

Gan Guoyang was not keen on participating in this kind of event because the team wouldn’t wait for him; they would head to the next stop by bus, and after the event, he would have to drive to Philadelphia by himself.

However, upon hearing that Larry Bird would also participate in the brand event, Gan Guoyang happily went. Being with Larry was interesting, and he even hoped to get a chance to compete in a three-point shootout with him.

At that thought, Gan Guoyang was quite excited.

But when he arrived at the event, he found out that this so-called brand event was actually for a video game!

The game was called "Larry Bird vs. Dr. Gan," a sequel to the previous similar game, "Larry Bird vs. Dr. J. Irving!"

Gan Guoyang thought to himself, it’s a duel, why don’t you let us actually play one, maybe provide a basketball court or something.

Instead of a basketball court, they had the opportunity to play a few rounds of the game.

Since Bird hardly ever played video games, and being a transmigrator who played plenty with Gan Guohui, Gan Guoyang was no match for him.

After several rounds, Bird was beaten black and blue by Gan Guoyang, without raising the slightest bit of temper.

It was one thing not to beat Gan Guoyang in reality but in the game as well, which suddenly made Bird angry.

It was said that from that point on, he started practicing hard at video games and became a gaming expert.

In the latter part of the event, both men posed together for photos for this unfortunate game’s cover.

Gan Guoyang asked Bird, "Why did you agree to participate in something like this?"

Bird replied, "They said you were coming. Why did you agree to it?"

Gan Guoyang responded, "Same reason, they said you were coming."

The two laughed, but internally both cursed their agents.