The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 460 - 77 Frenzy
When the Suns’ collective drug abuse, trafficking, and sports betting scandal erupted, the NBA playoffs still went on as scheduled.
The NBA tried to downplay the issue as much as possible while also ramping up promotion for this year’s playoffs, creating momentum for the journey to the birth of a new champion.
A major highlight of this year’s playoffs was whether the Portland Trail Blazers could break the seventeen-year curse of defending champions failing to win the championship and become another back-to-back championship team after the Celtics.
Although Gan Guoyang stunned everyone with an 81-point performance in the last game of the regular season, many people still favored the Lakers or the Celtics when it came to the playoffs.
They believed that the Trail Blazers relied too much on Ah Gan. Although last year’s championship win also relied on Ah Gan, the Trail Blazers were clearly a very cohesive team.
This year was different, as the Trail Blazers’ reliance on Gan Guoyang on the offensive end reached an unprecedented level. He defended his scoring title, becoming, in some people’s eyes, another Chamberlain.
Chamberlain’s super scoring style was considered detrimental to the team and unable to defeat the more team-oriented Boston Celtics in the playoffs. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
In response, Gan Guoyang’s answer during the media day was blunt, "Sorry, I won the championship in my second year."
He didn’t care about Old Zhang’s feelings anymore, thinking, "I won the championship in my sophomore year, what do you have to compare with me, Old Zhang?"
Amid a wave of doubts, the Trail Blazers’ first playoff game took place on April 24th at the Portland Memorial Coliseum, facing the Golden State Warriors.
Facing the Warriors, who were clearly weaker, the Trail Blazers showed no mercy or complacency. They went all out like a lion hunting a rabbit. They won the first game 129 to 101 at home, a 28-point advantage over the Warriors, offering them no chance for resistance.
Gan Guoyang played for 31 minutes, scoring 33 points with 14 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 3 assists, continuing his good form from the regular season.
In the second game, the Trail Blazers continued to dominate the Warriors. Guoyang scored only 21 points, as he was creating opportunities for his teammates to get a feel for the game tonight.
Drexler and Vandeweghe exploded, one scoring 31 points and the other achieving a triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
The gap between the two sides was indeed significant, especially in the interior, which at the time was decisive.
Joe Barry Carroll’s punch-in, punch-out attitude towards the game couldn’t pose any threat in the face of the hungry pack of Trail Blazers and their lead wolf, Gan Guoyang.
Despite head coach George Karl desperately trying to motivate his players, especially to ignite Carroll’s passion—they worked pretty well together in the regular season—but against Ah Gan in Portland, Carroll played listlessly.
The game lost suspense by the second half of the third quarter, but conflict erupted between the Trail Blazers and Warriors players.
After completing a fast-break dunk, Drexler picked up the ball and threw it toward Greg Ballard on the baseline. Ballard returned the ball forcefully, hitting Drexler.
An argument broke out between the two, escalating into a physical altercation with shoving and then punches being exchanged.
Players from both sides rushed over, and some fans also ran onto the court, surrounding the Warriors players.
The scene was chaotic. Gan Guoyang, who had been sitting on the bench, immediately rushed in when he saw the conflict.
Not expecting the referee’s vast experience, one referee tried to control the conflicting players while another charged over to embrace Gan Guoyang around the waist, locking him in a bear hug to keep the bomb away from the flames.
But the referee couldn’t possibly hold back Gan Guoyang. With a lift of his hands, he picked up the referee and carried him towards the crowd, cursing "fuck all of you" and saying to the referee, "Get them back to the bench."
"The one who should be getting back to the bench is you, put me down!"
"I brought you over here to solve the problem... anyone who wants a one-on-one, come find me! I’m right here!"
Gan Guoyang’s arrival quickly defused the conflict, as the Warriors players knew this guy was too fierce in a fight. There was no need to sacrifice themselves in a game destined to lose.
Just as things were beginning to calm down, a fan suddenly rushed out and threw a punch at George Karl. George Karl immediately charged at the fan, ready to fight back.
The TV commentator shouted, "George Karl is hitting a fan! George Karl has knocked down a fan! George Karl has lost his mind and attacked a fan!"
In fact, Karl hadn’t hit the fan; it was Chris Mullin who rushed over and pushed the fan down.
Gan Guoyang saw his team’s fan pushed to the ground and immediately charged forward, grabbing Chris Mullin from behind and throwing him onto the scorer’s table.
The scene became even more chaotic, with police and security rushing onto the court, but no one stopped Gan Guoyang.
Although Gan Guoyang had thrown Mullin onto the scorer’s table, his presence calmed down the Warriors players and Trail Blazers fans who were thinking of rushing forward.
Gan Guoyang pulled the fallen fan up and dragged him over to George Karl, meanwhile holding back and intimidating anyone else who tried to come closer.
"It was wrong of you to hit someone from behind just now. Apologize to Coach Karl!" Gan Guoyang told the fan.
The guy was a twenty-something youngster, wearing a baseball cap, who looked like a small chick being held in Gan Guoyang’s hand.
He loudly said sorry to George Karl. The once raging Karl calmed down a bit, but he didn’t accept the apology.
At that moment, Mullin jumped off the scorer’s table and approached Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang stretched his hand out to him, and Mullin hesitated before giving Gan Guoyang a high-five.
The two had trained together at the Olympic Training Camp and had always been on good terms. Also, Mullin knew he was no match for Ah Gan, and Ah Gan had handled the situation well.
Forget it, endure it, let the high-five be a sign of making up.
The conflict was temporarily quelled.
Although the Warriors had suffered a heavy defeat, their willingness to fight showed they had spirit.
After losing by 28 points in the first game, they lost by another 21 points, and it looked hopeless.
But George Karl did not believe that the series was over. Back in the locker room, the madman yelled and screamed at his team, venting his anger.
He took issue with Gan Guoyang, telling his team, "Did you see that? Did you see that? Their fan came out and hit someone from behind, and he just brings the guy over to apologize and that’s the end of it. Who does he think he is? The Arbitrator? The Judge? Just because he’s the toughest, everyone should be afraid of him, listen to everything he says? I didn’t accept his apology at all!"
"And he even threw his good friend Chris Mullin onto the stands. Mullin was just standing up for me. Why didn’t he throw that fan onto the stands to teach him a lesson? He’s just a hypocrite, pretending to be noble, scoring 81 points, wow, so impressive, we might as well just surrender in front of them. The next game will be played in Oakland, his home court, in his hometown, where more than half the fans will be cheering for him."
"He must be thinking of taking the victory in Oakland and ending the series. But I, and we, don’t want to let him get his way, we want to take a bite out of them!"
Thirty-six-year-old George Karl, red-faced and almost hysterical in the locker room, was indeed very angry about the loss, the insolence of the Portland fans, and the helplessness deep inside him.
But he didn’t want to give up. There was something mad and unyielding in his blood that drove him to not fear any strong opponent, determined to bring the king down from his throne.
On the other side, Gan Guoyang didn’t let the fan who rushed onto the court go unpunished. He requested that the Memorial Coliseum ban the young fan from watching Trail Blazers’ home games until he had completed three weeks of public service for the arena—cleaning the premises.
The young man accepted his punishment and stated that he was an ardent fan of Drexler.
Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "Clyde’s fans really are of poor quality. Don’t do such stupid things in the future."
Upon learning that it was his own fan, Drexler sent him a pair of his own Avia signature basketball shoes.
Later, on April 27, Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers team headed to San Francisco, hoping to finish the series in Oakland.
