The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 462 - 79: An Unexpected Opponent

The Trail Blazers eliminated the Golden State Warriors with a 3:0 sweep, marking their third consecutive year sweeping opponents in the first round.

From this, it’s evident that the Trail Blazers are a solidly consistent team, tough for weaker opponents to beat.

In the regular season, we often see hollow pseudo-strong teams that end up with good records and rankings.

But once they enter the playoffs, they become stepping stones, easily upset by teams with far worse records, often struggling embarrassingly.

Yes, I’m talking about the Portland Trail Blazers without Gan Guoyang, who in ’84 were second in the Western Conference but were eliminated in the first round, watching the Suns advance to the Western Conference Finals.

In 1981, they were fourth in the Western Conference and faced the Kansas City Kings, who were fifth and had six fewer wins, yet were upset and watched the Kings advance to the Western Conference Finals.

Before acquiring Gan Guoyang in 1984, the Trail Blazers were known in the Western Conference for their mediocre regular seasons and their soft touch in the playoffs, hardly making a splash.

Gan Guoyang’s arrival completely transformed the Trail Blazers, who used to struggle in the first round but now thunder through it decisively, leaving no room for the opposition to even dream.

After winning the third game smoothly and advancing to the next round, Gan Guoyang took the next day off to visit his father Gan Youwei and his uncle’s family in Tenderloin.

During this time, Gan Guohui was not with Guoyang, nor was he in the Bay Area; he followed Larry Fleisher to Phoenix to assist in handling the Suns’ drug case.

His uncle’s family and Gan Youwei moved into the house Guoyang bought in Pacific Heights. Besides this house, Guoyang also purchased a storefront and an apartment nearby.

Gan Youwei asked Guoyang what he planned to do with the storefront; if he was considering opening a restaurant in the future? Guoyang replied that he wanted to open a funeral home, which nearly made Gan Youwei choke on a chestnut.

Since learning about the various operational procedures and industry secrets of funeral homes through Knight, Guoyang realized that cremation was much more profitable and easier than cooking.

The restaurant business is indeed tough, with low-profit margins, fierce competition, and the constant need for innovation, improvement, and expansion. It’s not easy to sustain a long-term business.

The funeral industry is different; it has a monopolistic nature, offers one-time services, doesn’t require consideration for repeat customers, doesn’t need much innovation, and probably doesn’t require customer outreach.

Guoyang saw potential in the funeral business, an industry that could serve those in grief, and he felt it was a very merit-worthy endeavor.

In the future, many celebrities would invest in restaurants after becoming wealthy and famous, using their popularity to attract traffic and monetize it, but Guoyang chose a different path, starting his funeral business on an unpopular track.

In this world, he buries the deceased’s physical bodies, and on the basketball court, he buries the defeated teams.

Guoyang only stayed at home for one afternoon, had lunch, and then met with Coach Cap and Sermonde for a coffee.

Before going to the airport in the evening, Guoyang had Quentin take him to the cemetery at Golden Gate Park, where he laid a bunch of flowers at Raymond’s grave, then bid farewell to Golden State and continued on his postseason journey.

The Trail Blazers advanced to the second round with ease, and the results of the other matchups in the Western Conference emerged as well.

The Los Angeles Lakers, like the Trail Blazers, faced no suspense, easily crushing the Denver Nuggets 3:0.

With Knight injured and Cooper declining, the Nuggets stood no chance against the Lakers, who displayed even fiercer dominance in the first round than the Trail Blazers.

At least the Warriors put up a fight in the third game, just barely stopping the Trail Blazers from crashing.

The Nuggets were powerless, with the three games’ margins being 33, 12, and 37 points, respectively.

The Lakers showed their extreme desire for victory and the championship; their scoring increased with each game, averaging 135 points over the three games—more than ten points higher than their regular season average.

Like the Trail Blazers, they were only eyeing the championship; the first round was just a formality for them.

To the Lakers’ delight, their next opponent in the second round would be the Houston Rockets.

Despite missing Ralph Sampson, Mitchell Wiggins, and Lloyd, the Rockets relied on Olajuwon’s exceptional performance and Maxwell’s remaining heat. After losing the first game, they took three straight, upsetting the Utah Jazz 3:1 to advance to the semifinals.

In the series, the hot-tempered Olajuwon clashed with Karl Malone, but Malone didn’t dare to physically confront Olajuwon. Amidst the chaos, both were ejected from the game.

In 1987, conflicts and violence were pervasive in every round of the series, with no one immune.

David Stern and the league office, entangled with the Suns’ drug case, were too busy to bother with such altercations.

The conflicts didn’t affect the outcome of the series; the Rockets eliminated the Jazz and once again met the Lakers in the semifinals.

But the situation was vastly different from last year’s playoffs; the Houston Twin Towers had declined, and the Lakers, burning with a desire for revenge, made the Rockets’ prospects grim.

In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, plagued by injuries all season, still comfortably eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs.

With a decisive 3:0 series victory, the Celtics ushered Dr. J, Julius Erving, through the final stretch of his professional basketball career.

The third game took place at the Spectrum, where the outcome became evident early on with the Celtics taking a commanding lead well ahead of the final buzzer.

But the Philadelphia home crowd didn’t leave early, knowing this was Erving’s last professional game.

KC Jones, when subbing out his starters, stood and joined the Celtics players in applauding Dr. J, Julius Erving, as he too was subbed out.

After the game, Larry Bird and Erving embraced tightly, marking Erving’s official retirement.

The era belonging to Erving’s afro, tube socks, and soaring dunks had come to an end.

Although Erving only won one NBA championship in his career, his contribution to basketball can’t be encapsulated by a single title.

He ushered in an era of individual heroism in the basketball world, influencing the style and play of a generation of guards in the ’80s and ’90s.

Basketball, from Erving’s era, transformed from a flat strategic game into a three-dimensional action-packed one. He showed future basketball executives the immense commercial power of a great, entertaining player.

He also kicked off the commercial era of basketball.

The trend of the times has already been set, and as waves of newcomers surge forward, he can retire honorably and enjoy life beyond basketball.

One of these new waves, Michael Jordan, facing the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, led the Bulls through a strenuous battle to a decisive Game 5.

With everyone doubting Jordan and the Bulls, Jordan exploded for 41 points in Game 5 in Atlanta and hit the game-winning shot at the last moment, upsetting the Hawks with a "black seven" and advancing to the semifinals!

The Hawks were labeled as a pseudo-strong team—they were defeated by Michael Jordan alone.

After the game, Gan Guoyang called to congratulate Jordan, "Your score in Atlanta exceeded half of mine!"

In the semifinals, Michael Jordan would encounter his early-career nightmare for the first time, the burgeoning force of the Detroit Pistons.

The label of pseudo-strong team wasn’t only affixed to the Atlanta Hawks but also to the Dallas Mavericks in the West.

The Trail Blazers, having defeated the Golden State Warriors, assumed their second-round opponents would be the Mavericks and were fully focused on their preparatory efforts.

The Mavericks won their opening game in Dallas gloriously, drilling 151 points and crushing the Seattle SuperSonics by a colossal margin of 22 points on their home court.

Following this win, the Dallas people believed the semifinals were secure; the SuperSonics stood no chance against them.

However, they soon faced the wrath of Dale Ellis, seeking revenge; Ellis scored 32 points in Game 2, leading the SuperSonics to a 2-point victory over the Mavericks and evening out the series.

Winning by a large margin or by a single point results in the same 1:1 series tie.

Back in Seattle, the SuperSonics didn’t even have a regular home court to play on.

Not anticipating advancing to the playoffs, their regular arenas, KeyArena and the former Kingdome, had already been rented out.

With no other options, the game had to be scheduled at the University of Washington’s home court, Alaska Airlines Arena—Gan Guoyang had competed there multiple times with Gonzaga.

Playing in this improvised home court, the SuperSonics unleashed tremendous energy; Dale Ellis, discarded by the Mavericks, scored 43 points in the third game, helping the SuperSonics slash the Mavericks and gain a series lead.

By the fourth game, the Mavericks, having lost their morale, appeared distraught and were thrashed by the SuperSonics from the start, trailing by 12 points at the end of the first quarter.

In the end, with a 98:124 defeat, the second seed in the West crumbled, ousted by the SuperSonics in a stunning upset.

Black sevens emerged in both the Eastern and Western Conferences, with both the Mavericks and the Hawks being stamped as pseudo-strong teams.

The SuperSonics, filled with the X-factor, advanced to the semifinals to challenge their longtime Northwest rivals, the Trail Blazers.

For the Trail Blazers, this was truly an unexpected opponent.