The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 461 - 78 King of San Francisco

[I spent my first season at Golden State, and everything went smoothly.

That year was great, quite successful, and it felt like redemption for what had ended in Cleveland.

The Warriors didn’t have a general manager, so I took on a lot of work, with Finnegan and me responsible for all personnel decisions.

The players were very invested in the game, and I knew how to communicate with the indifferent Barry Carroll, which wasn’t easy because he was misunderstood by many.

He really was apathetic, sometimes infuriating me, those things that could ignite me on and off the court had no effect on him, as if we were made of completely different materials.

But I still managed to activate him, and with him, the Warriors had support. The previous year they only managed a 30-52 record, and fans didn’t like going to the Oakland Arena to watch the games.

This season we got 42 wins and 40 losses, the Warriors made it to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, Barry Carroll and Sleepy Floyd were selected for the Western Conference All-Stars, and we began planning how to beat the Portland Trail Blazers before the playoffs.

Yes, we wanted to beat the Trail Blazers, who were the defending champions, as many years the champions tend to struggle the following year.

Like the nearly invincible 76ers of 1983, who fell to the New Jersey Nets in the first round of ’84, why couldn’t we do the same?

Of course, I knew Portland had Ah Gan, the super scorer averaging 38 points, the beastly bastard who scored 81 points in the last game of the regular season.

Because of his presence, we anticipated that even in San Francisco we wouldn’t get support, as the Chinese people here are much more numerous than the hair on my head.

The Trail Blazers were very strong, and playing against them meant enduring immense pressure; Ah Gan was a terrifying sadist and wrestling expert, the entire League was living in his shadow.

We lost the first two games terribly, getting crushed by large margins in Portland, and we seemed to have no hope.

During the second game there was a conflict between the players, and the TV commentator shouted, "George Karl hit someone! George has lost his mind; he’s attacked a fan!"

It wasn’t like that, Drexler and Gregg had a conflict, the venue security was poor, many fans rushed onto the court, and it was chaos.

Ah Gan was restrained by the referees, then he held a referee and rushed towards the crowd to calm everyone down, but some blockheaded jerk in a hat came in and punched me in the back.

I was already fuming, extremely dissatisfied with how the team was playing, and now someone attacked me from behind!

I turned around and charged at him, and the coward kept backing away. I didn’t hit him; it was Mu Lin who came over and pushed him away. I didn’t lose my mind.

At that moment Ah Gan broke free, first throwing Mu Lin out, then dragging the fan over to apologize to me. I didn’t accept it, I couldn’t feel a shred of sincerity in his arrogant behavior.

After the game, I gave a speech in the locker room. I criticized Ah Gan harshly, saying things people were afraid to say. I called him a hypocrite, a pretender. We were going to beat them, to take a bite out of them.

Of course, Ah Gan later heard about what I said, and he was magnanimous, didn’t say anything. I admit I was trying to use the players’ emotions, and even those of the fans.

The emotions of the entire Bay Area were ignited, and I was fanning the flames in the media. We had to win the next home game and send the defending champions home, which had been a traditional program in the NBA playoffs for the past 17 years.

I knew many people didn’t believe we could, they thought winning one game would already be good, but I didn’t care. You have to go into the game with the belief that you will win.]

————Published in 2017, an excerpt from George Karl’s autobiography, "Furious George".

The Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang arrived in Oakland, making tickets for the game on April 28th extremely hard to come by.

The enthusiasm of the Chinese fans in San Francisco was extraordinary, with Gan Guoyang, who continually created basketball miracles, serving as a spiritual idol for the American Chinese, second only to Mazu. Some of the older folks called him "Gan Zu".

In order to prepare well for the game and avoid distractions, Gan Guoyang didn’t step out of the hotel except for training after arriving in the Bay Area, and he did not even go home to visit.

Now it’s playoff time, and even after winning the first two games decisively, he would not relax for a moment. In the NBA, complacency is feared most, thinking the opponent will concede without a fight.

Everyone is a professional athlete; while the gap might seem big, no side is guaranteed victory. Once you show weakness, even the seemingly fragile opponent can become a bloodthirsty shark.

Because of underestimating the enemy, there are countless examples of stronger teams being drained by weaker series opponents, allowing the opponents to gain confidence, and even being overturned.

Gan Guoyang always reminded himself that his strength came from focus, not from the accumulation of past games.

Every game, every ball, is a brand-new challenge. The past has nothing to do with what is about to happen.

On the night of the 28th, the Oakland Arena was filled to capacity, with fans of the Warriors and the Trail Blazers almost equally split.

Gan Guoyang would always enjoy home court treatment whenever he came here, but actually, Gan Guoyang didn’t quite like it. With too many fellow townspeople around, he would feel embarrassed playing too aggressively.

Instead, he preferred playing in noisy, hostile away games. He liked silencing the huge arenas to a quiet hush, relishing the pressure and pleasure of taking on the whole world.

Therefore, many of Gan Guoyang’s classic performances were born in away games, where his focus was sharper, his competitive spirit stronger, and his approach more bloodthirsty.

Tonight, under George Karl’s spirited boost, the Warriors unleashed a formidable fighting force, taking a 9-point lead in the first quarter with 25:34.

In the second quarter, the Trail Blazers began catching up, and Gan Guoyang continuously used one-on-one plays in the latter half to help his team find its rhythm.

But the Warriors had a particularly good offensive touch this game. George Karl designed many outside shooting tactics, creating opportunities for Floyd, Mu Lin, and Short.

The third quarter, normally a period when the Trail Blazers would widen the score gap, saw the Warriors employing extremely tough defense, continuously disrupting the Trail Blazers’ passing game and blocking every pass to Gan Guoyang.

Morale indeed greatly boosts a team’s combat effectiveness. In the third quarter, which should have favored the Trail Blazers, the Warriors outplayed them with a score of 31:23, regaining the lead.

By the fourth quarter, both sides entered the final battle. Gan Guoyang finally tore off the mask of a fellow towner he had worn in the previous three quarters, and began attacking the Warriors’ paint using the toughest and loudest methods possible.

Constantly rushing for offensive rebounds, and mercilessly posting up to draw fouls. Gan Guoyang succeeded again and again with put-backs, stepping to the free throw line to sink his shots.

The Trail Blazers caught up with the score, but the Warriors didn’t give up. Sleepy Floyd stepped up, engaging in a scoring duel with Gan Guoyang in the fourth quarter.

Floyd was on fire tonight; he weaved through the defense with awkward rushes to the basket, using floaters and layups to score points, leaving Porter with no answers.

He was indeed incandescent, unstoppable by anyone, and the whole Oakland Arena erupted in jubilation as the Warriors once again took the lead.

Only Gan Guoyang stood up to the challenge, facing the Wolves-like defense of the Warriors, powering to the basket with his strong body, scoring with layups, hook shots, and second-chance points.

All the flashy offensive moves he used to score 81 points against the Hawks vanished. Gan Guoyang cooled down the fiery hot Oakland Arena with his cold, merciless inside scoring.

The teams fought tooth and nail from an 83:83 tie up to 110:110.

At the start of the game, George Karl had pinned a carnation to his suit lapel.

But by the fourth quarter, that carnation was long gone, the tidy tie loosely hanging aside, the dress shirt wrinkled, and his hair in complete disarray.

George Karl was on edge, and in the final stage, Floyd broke into the paint on an offensive play, drawing a foul from Gan Guoyang and earning himself two free throws.

At the same time, it was Gan Guoyang’s fifth foul. With 45 points under his belt, there was a risk he could be sent off, which excited George Karl enormously. He clenched his fists tightly on the sidelines, swinging his arms and his face turning bright red.

Floyd made both free throws, scoring 25 points in the fourth quarter alone, almost single-handedly accounting for the team’s points for that period.

The Warriors gained the lead at 110:112. George Karl grabbed the tactical board, preparing the Trail Blazers for a timeout to set up a defense.

Unexpectedly, the Trail Blazers didn’t call for a timeout. Porter advanced the ball quickly past the midway point, and with the Warriors players all converging under the basket, he passed the ball to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang took the ball at a 45-degree angle and shot from beyond the three-point line, sinking the three-pointer and leaving the Warriors with less than two seconds on the clock.

Oakland Arena was half ocean, half flame.

George Karl was stunned. All he could do was call for a timeout, erasing the defensive setup in his mind, and quickly come up with an offensive tactic.

As Gan Guoyang headed back to the bench, he shouted towards George Karl, "I am the true King of San Francisco. You guys can go home and fish now!"

In the final play, Floyd’s layup was tightly intercepted by Gan Guoyang leading to a turnover, and the game ended, the series concluded.

The Trail Blazers defeated the Warriors 113:112 in an away game, sweeping the opponents with a 3:0 series score, and moving on to the next round.

[But sometimes, belief is of no use. Floyd scored 25 points in the fourth quarter of the third game, totaling 50 points for the game, but he was killed off by Ah Gan’s cold-blooded three-point arrow, ending their season.]

————Published in 2017, excerpt from George Karl’s autobiography "Furious George".