The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 524 - 27 Ah Gan’s Fear

Gilmore threw that punch, was disqualified by the referee, and made a glorious exit.

Because of that punch, Old Train’s status in the Trail Blazers’ locker room was elevated.

Sometimes, the NBA is as savage as the underworld; if you dare to fight and scrap, everyone respects you.

Conversely, if you follow the rules like an ordinary person, refined and legal, players will actually look down on you from the bottom of their hearts.

Competitive sports are full of primal instincts—it’s where civil society releases its savage nature.

The fans on-site cheered loudly, giving Old Train a send-off for his exit.

And Melvin Turpin, who was hit, calmly sat back on the bench holding his teeth.

In front of the television camera, Turpin gave a smile with his missing tooth revealing a dark hollow, looking comical yet somewhat terrifying.

This season, Turpin had become the Pistons’ number two bad boy, second only to Bill Lambier.

After being thrashed by Gan Guoyang at the Silverdome during last year’s finals, instead of toning down, the Pistons attacked their opponents even more fiercely this season.

The warnings, penalties, and recommendations from the League office during the finals became empty words.

After all, confrontational games attract more viewers; it’s all for the ratings.

Last year’s finals, the game where Gan Guoyang and the Pistons had a big fight, reached the highest viewing figures in recent years.

Following that game, the fourth match still had high ratings even though the Pistons were facing a sweep.

Therefore, how could the League completely forbid intensive confrontations?

Besides, in Stern’s view, today’s NBA was already much cleaner and more civilized than in the ’60s and ’70s.

The Pistons tasted success from their savage style of play and became more unrestrained.

Of course, with the sweet comes the bitter, and Gilmore is not the only one in the NBA who dares to fight back.

Lambier and Turpin hit people most often, and they get hit the most, too.

Compared to Lambier’s cunning and craftiness, liking to provoke people, Turpin was rougher and more direct—it was not too much to say he was the number one enforcer.

In this respect, Turpin was rather honest and forthright, fighting you openly and fairly, without resorting to underhanded tactics.

Being hit by Gilmore and losing a tooth didn’t seem like a big deal to him—it was what he deserved.

The team physician made some quick fixes at the sidelines, and he returned to the court, missing a tooth and continued to play.

The game was very intense by the third quarter, with the scores closely intertwined.

After losing the finals, the Pistons didn’t make significant moves to strengthen their squad in the summer.

The Pistons’ management knew that what they lacked was time and experience; they needed young players like Rodman and Salley to grow, and they needed Thomas, Lambier, Dumars, and Turpin to reach their peaks.

Maintaining team stability, they improved their defense and against the Trail Blazers, increased the frequency and intensity of one-on-one marking to counter the Blazers’ precise outside shooting.

Together with their usual brutal confrontations, it made it quite difficult for the Trail Blazers to play against the Pistons at home.

The Pistons’ players tacitly avoided provoking Gan Guoyang; everyone else got hands-on as they should, and beatdowns were administered as expected.

At that moment, Gilmore stepped up, and with a body check, a solid punch, he indeed suppressed the Pistons’ momentum.

After Gilmore left the court, Gan Guoyang returned to the game, scoring consecutive hook shots, helping the Trail Blazers to slightly widen the gap—a 5-point lead.

With one less tooth, Turpin’s arrogant spirit was significantly dampened.

Gan Guoyang’s steady and elegant hook shots left the Pistons feeling helpless.

Chuck Daly immediately called a timeout and put in James Donaldson, replacing Turpin and forming a twin-tower lineup with Lambier to counter Gan Guoyang’s height.

But the King of the Third Quarter wasn’t about to give the Pistons any more chances.

After bulking up to 265 pounds, Gan Guoyang’s power in the low post had increased.

James Donaldson, at 7’2", big and strong, couldn’t withstand Gan Guoyang in the low post.

After the timeout, he was scored on once, then committed a foul, leaving Donaldson quite frustrated.

Like many tall players, such as Daugherty and Carroll, Donaldson also came to basketball late, initially not liking the sport, but because of his height and physical fitness, he was brought onto the basketball court.

This situation is quite common on the basketball court; after all, unlike soccer, height has a decisive influence in basketball.

Especially for giants like Donaldson who were 6’8" in high school and over 7 feet in college, it’s hard not to catch the attention of basketball coaches.

Unlike black players who play basketball for money after growing up in the slums, Donaldson was British; his father was a military man serving at Travis Air Force Base in America.

So his playing style was straightforward; after all, being born in wealth like Lambier, who is dirtier than the slum kids, belonged to a rare oddity, the likes of which only appeared once in the NBA’s decades of history.

While Gan Guoyang was at the free-throw line, Lambier went to "advise" Donaldson, "You should be more fierce, especially when fouling; if you’re sure you’re going to foul, just hit him hard!"

Lambier liked to stir up not just the opponents but his own teammates as well.

However, Donaldson remained calm and responded, "Why don’t you take the main defense?"

Lambier refused and said, "No, I can’t do that, I’ll get hit."

"Then just get him thrown out of the game."

"I’m afraid I could be out for the season."

Even though Bill Lambier wasn’t a coward, being hit repeatedly had actually cast a bit of a shadow on him.

Getting punched and kicked out of nowhere, twice bleeding for doing nothing, unless it was the Finals, he didn’t want to tussle with Ah Gan anymore.

He now had a bit of a Gan Guoyang phobia, fearing that if Gan Guoyang didn’t hold back, he would be done for.

Gan Guoyang’s surge in the third quarter helped the Trail Blazers establish a lead.

The Pistons were once again facing the same issue they had during the Finals: their interior offense was lacking.

Without an effective low post option, their offense became monotonous.

James Donaldson could occasionally score from the low post, using his clunky left-hand hook shot—but against Gan Guoyang’s defense, he stood no chance.

Lambier entirely skipped backing down his opponents, always shooting from the perimeter or finishing easy baskets under the rim.

The only reliable low post option was Dantley, but an interior defender with fast help defense like Gan Guoyang was the bane of Dantley’s existence.

Plus, with Vandeweghe not playing, Kossie was assigned to guard Dantley, making the solo scoring king quite uncomfortable.

Having depth in offense is important; a combination of inside and outside play keeps the defense continuously guessing and off-balance.

As soon as one aspect falls short, it becomes a target in high-end play.

The Pistons could handle other teams offensively, disrupting their opponents’ mentality with their defense.

But against the Trail Blazers, lacking low post offense made them vulnerable in a tight contest.

In the fourth quarter, the Trail Blazers tightened their defense, while their offense blossomed from multiple points. Curry and Porter hit consecutive shots from the outside, securing the lead firmly until the end.

101:109, the Trail Blazers defeated the Pistons at home with an 8-point advantage.

Gan Guoyang scored a total of 31 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, and dished out 9 assists for the game.

He played a decisive role in the third quarter, and in the face of rampant double-teaming by the Pistons in the fourth, he continued passing the ball with great control of turnovers, helping his team win this focus-grabbing battle.

Despite internal frictions within the team, just as Gan Guoyang said, these were internal issues of the people.

Once in the game, everyone was still able to unite, facing the enemy together.

If at any time the internal strife became so deep that they couldn’t present a united front against the external foe, continuing to infight or even exploit external conflicts to survive at the expense of others, then the team would truly be finished.

Gan Guoyang’s authority and the team’s victories suppressed the players’ selfishness and conflicts.

In the early part of January 1988, the Trail Blazers achieved impressive results.

As of January 14th, the Trail Blazers secured 25 wins and 8 losses, continuing to rank second in the Western Conference, just one win behind the Lakers.

As Gan Guoyang had planned before, they wanted to establish a solid foundation before the All-Star break.

Approaching the All-Star game, the team would inevitably face some issues with injuries and a slackening in the players’ mentality, leading to losses.

With the foundation laid earlier, the team could comfortably heal and allow the players to relax and rest, gearing up again after the All-Star game, targeting the playoffs.

After defeating the Rockets on the road on January 14th, the Trail Blazers faced the Los Angeles Lakers back-to-back on the road on January 15th, only to lose by 4 points with a 99:103 defeat against the Lakers.

This was the Trail Blazers’ third loss to the Lakers this season, and Gan Guoyang’s VIP membership at the Great Western Forum seemed to have expired.

Since Old Nelson’s arrival at the Lakers, although he continued to promote the Showtime and let players like Magic Johnson and James Worthy thrive in Run and Gun,

it was his tightly-knit multi-layered defense that was key to containing the Trail Blazers’ offense.

Gan Guoyang, in the games against the Lakers, unusually focused on passing and encouraged his teammates to shoot a lot of threes.

Facing the intensity of the Lakers, the Trail Blazers did not shoot well from beyond the arc.

But Gan Guoyang didn’t seem to care much, as he didn’t appear interested in going all out to beat the Lakers during the regular season.

So even though they won three games against the Trail Blazers this season, General Manager Jerry West still did not have much of a smile on his face.

On January 16th, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns completed a trade.

The Lakers sent out draft picks and Mike Smrek, acquiring James Edwards from the Suns.

The Lakers finally strengthened their backup center position.

Meanwhile, the Suns Grocery was officially open for business. The management knew the current roster could no longer remain competitive, so they decided to trade everyone away and start rebuilding.

Larry Nance and Mike-Sanders were traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Kevin Johnson and Mark West.

Phoenix Suns fans had yet to realize that this small guy from California would become an essential pillar for the team’s future.

Major sports media outlets considered the Lakers and the Cavaliers as the winners of these trades, making off with the talent they needed from the Suns.

Particularly the Lakers acquiring James Edwards, filling the last gap for the Lakers.

All of this was to go against Ah Gan; from West to other managers in the League, especially those in the Western Conference, many had developed a bit of Ah Gan phobia.