The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 463 - 80 12666

Portland and Seattle are two cities that have detested each other, a sentiment that began in the 19th century.

The competition between these two rain-infamous Pacific Northwest cities can match that of Charlotte and Atlanta, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Chicago, or San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The rivalry between the cities is comprehensive, ranging from the initial economic competition in maritime trade and rail transport vital to the cities’ development to later expansions into sports, culture, cuisine, and even legal statutes, each aiming to outdo the other.

As the flag and pride of Oregon’s sports teams, the Portland Trail Blazers have always been at the forefront of the rivalry between the two cities.

After winning the championship in 1977, the entire city of Portland went wild. They shot to fame across America, no longer mistaken for Portland, Maine, but recognized as Portland, Oregon; and they garnered this honor earlier than the Seattle team, which gave Portland people a sense of superiority.

Although the SuperSonics also captured the championship in 1979, Portland people have always felt they merely picked up the crumbs from the Trail Blazers’ injuries, with Seattle’s championship worth far less than Portland’s.

Fans from big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia can hardly comprehend just how important the Trail Blazers are to Portland, and what kind of status Gan Guoyang holds in this city.

Last year during the playoffs, tickets to the Trail Blazers’ home games became a pass for the city’s elite society, hot currency on the black market, fetching three to four times their face value in trade for goods and some intangibles that can’t be valued.

In a personal column of Portland’s "Willamette Week," there was an ad for companionship which bluntly listed what the man thought valuable about himself:

"I’m a 50-year-old, extremely wealthy, tall, divorced male, looking for a ’Dolly Parton type’ to share season tickets to the Trail Blazers, theater, music, dinners, travel, etc. Hope to meet a lady between 35-50 years old, unattached, free to have fun with a sincere man who loves entertainment, without being phony..."

Dolly Parton was a well-known country music singer at the time, famous for her impressive bust.

Among the man’s listed criteria, having money came first, but season tickets for the Trail Blazers followed closely behind, showcasing their importance to the people of Portland.

With only 12,666 seats in Memorial Coliseum, and 11,500 season ticket packages sold every season, some families could afford only one season ticket and had to share it between husband and wife.

The couple would decide who goes to which game based on their family status; if it’s a wife-dominant household, then the wife would definitely attend the games against the Lakers, Bulls, and Celtics, leaving the husband to watch the game at home on TV, listen to the radio, or head to Paramount Theatre for the closed-circuit broadcast.

If the husband held a higher status, then he would enjoy the high-stakes battles, and the wife could only go to less spectacular games against teams like the King or Knights.

However, for many wives, which game to watch wasn’t very important to them. They didn’t go to see the opponents; their purpose was to watch Ah Gan.

Ever since Gan Guoyang got married, his status among female fans seemed to rise even higher, attracting more women to write him letters, leave messages, and even slip love letters into his home.

Because married men don’t need to be responsible for them.

Some women with ulterior motives even knew that if a celebrity cheated while married, they would get hush money since the cost of a divorce was too high.

Gan Guoyang wasn’t very satisfied with the Trail Blazers’ ticket selling strategy, believing there were simply too many season tickets, leaving just over a thousand single-game tickets for fans unable to purchase season tickets to scramble over.

He thought more single-game tickets should be released, allowing more families of modest means or younger fans lacking financial power to come to Memorial Coliseum to watch the games, especially those who traveled from other places to Portland for a match.

"I want more fans to be able to see my games live. For some, it might be their only opportunity in a lifetime. Not everyone can afford season tickets," Guoyang once said.

At Guoyang’s insistence, this year during the playoffs, the Trail Blazers reduced the number of season ticket packages to 10,000, leaving 2,666 single-game tickets for ordinary fans, allowing more who had never been to Memorial Coliseum to experience the thrill of watching a game inside the ’Glass Palace.’

Of course, Guoyang thought 2,666 was still too few, mainly because there just weren’t enough seats in Memorial Coliseum. If it could be expanded to 20,000 seats, more single-game tickets could be released.

The semifinals had the Trail Blazers facing the SuperSonics, which was like a festival for Portland fans, everyone tremendously excited as the two teams met again in the playoffs.

In 1978, the Portland Trail Blazers lost the Western Conference semis to the Seattle SuperSonics, Bill Walton suffered an injury that brought down the dynasty dream of Portland.

Almost 10 years later, they met again in the semis, and there was no better plot than advancing to the Western Conference Finals by stepping over the Seattle SuperSonics.

All 12,666 tickets were sold out long before the opening game, let alone 2,666 standalone tickets -- they would have definitely sold out within an hour even if all seats were sold separately.

At 7 pm on May 2nd, the first battle between the two teams officially began.

The SuperSonics certainly knew the Trail Blazers were very strong, but having succeeded in the first round upset, they were full of confidence in themselves.

Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers, and Xavier McDaniel had respective averages of 29.5, 24.5, and 22.8 points per game in the first round.

Their ultimate trio took the Dallas Mavericks and completely tore them apart.

Among them, Dale Ellis’s performance was the most dazzling, touted as an NBA classic tale of revenge.

In the regular season, Ellis exhibited outstanding performance, increasing his average points by a remarkable 17.8 points from the previous season, setting a record for the most improved scoring in NBA history.

This year’s Most Improved Player award was undoubtedly going to be Ellis’s easy catch, his MIP was much more certain than the MVP win, with no one even close to competing with him.

Clearly, in his three years with the Mavericks, Dale Ellis did not demonstrate his full strength and value, and he believed he was mistreated and underestimated by coach Dick Motta.

"This is my chance to slap him in the face, and I’m going to slap him hard," Ellis said unapologetically before the series started.

After all, he harbored a lot of resentment over three years, some media said his hatred for Dick Motta was like Iran’s for Iraq—as the Tanker War phase of their conflict turned extremely violent at the time.

In the summer, Ellis was traded for an almost-retired Wu De, and Motta stated to the press, "I didn’t spend much time thinking about trading Ellis away. I said when Dale left that he could play in the NBA, but not in Dallas. No one on our team had any objections to the trade. We had congestion at his position. By trading, we got rid of Dale and Jay; we got better."

This statement undoubtedly added frost to an already icy relationship between the two.

And Motta was only half right: the Mavericks did get better, but only in the regular season.

In the playoffs, they were mercilessly struck down by the SuperSonics, experiencing the most ferocious revenge by Dale Ellis.

After eliminating the Dallas Mavericks, Ellis said, "This is the happiest day of my life; this is the moment I’ve dreamed of."

The entire SuperSonics’ morale was greatly boosted, and they feared not even the Portland Trail Blazers as their next opponent.

Before the game, Xavier McDaniel was naked again, strutting back and forth with his erect stick, to pep up the team.

This time, hanging on his stick wasn’t a towel, long socks, or a whiteboard, but Gan Guoyang’s number 11 jersey.

McDaniel also sought revenge, for the first game of the season, when he was knocked out by a headbutt from Gan Guoyang.

That blow made McDaniel miss two games and lie in the hospital for three days, his head still occasionally dizzy to this day.

Upon seeing this, Morris Lucas said, "How about you take over guarding Ah Gan?"

McDaniel hesitated for a moment before replying, "I think I’d better back you up instead."