The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 530 - 33 Rooted

The All-Star game of 1988 came to a perfect close, even if it had an imperfect ending with Gan Guoyang stealing the AMVP from Jordan.

Despite the undercurrents and the tense stand-off between labor and management, the stars still delivered one of the most spectacular All-Star games in recent years to the fans.

The cold weather and snow of Chicago did nothing to extinguish the passion for basketball; instead, the flame of basketball spread across All-America during the winter.

Gan Guoyang took the Union’s votes and flew back to Portland with Song Tao.

Throughout the journey, Song Tao not only felt happy for Gan Guoyang’s All-Star MVP win but also worried about his big brother.

That night, because Gan Guoyang took the AMVP from Jordan, Song Tao, who was watching the game at courtside, faced verbal attacks from some emotional fans who claimed that a Chinese person had stolen their honor. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

In newspapers and on television, the criticism of Gan Guoyang gradually increased.

After all, Gan Guoyang was no longer the Dragon Slayer; he had become the actual Evil Dragon.

Fans like to see the story of a young warrior slaying dragons, and every Evil Dragon was once the young hero of a previous generation.

Gan Guoyang remained calm about this; he told Song Tao, "When you win one championship, the fans rejoice with you, when you win two, some start to get tired of you. When you win your third, everyone starts supporting your rival, hoping to see you fail. But if you keep winning championships and the fans get used to it, then everyone will support you again."

The saying goes, killing one person makes you a murderer, killing thousands makes you a hero; the principle is the same with championships.

Win one championship and you’re a king, win three and you’re the king of kings, and with six, seven, eight titles you’re a god.

Moreover, even if the American media gradually started to attack Gan Guoyang and support Jordan, at least in Portland, in Oregon, Gan Guoyang remained an untouchable basketball hero.

After returning to Portland, Gan Guoyang distributed all the votes, patiently persuading each player to agree to dissolve the Union.

He did not use his reputation to pressure them, but rather had individual conversations with them, striving to persuade them and guaranteeing that if troubles arose in the future, and if anyone faced financial difficulties, he would surely help and not break his promise.

This led to the Trail Blazers’ votes being collected the quickest, and they were mailed to Larry Flesher’s office in New York within a week after the All-Star game, completing the task faster than any other team.

Flesher, taking the votes from Gan Guohui, praised, "Your brother is cut out to be a politician – he’s clear-headed, determined, eloquent, strong in execution, and his character is impeccable without blemish. His only flaw is not taking up American citizenship; otherwise, he could make big waves in the political arena."

Gan Guohui replied, "If he were willing to become an American, he wouldn’t be the resolute Ah Gan that he is."

Flesher nodded in agreement, feeling it was a pity; if Ah Gan were American, he could have pushed Gan Guoyang for Union President, and the possibilities for the future would be boundless.

The status of Gan Guoyang as a Chinese citizen significantly restricted his potential influence on the American public.

Gan Guohui shared the same concerns as Song Tao and asked, "Larry, it seems that the media’s attitude towards Ah Gan is getting sharper, especially after he took the MVP from Jordan. I’ve seen that politics in Europe, and even in China, are changing constantly, could this affect Ah Gan’s development in the future?"

While checking the votes and smoking his pipe, Flesher said, "That is indeed an issue. But Stern, although a bastard, is on the whole a commissioner who holds a tolerant and open attitude, and the NBA is becoming more and more international. As long as the NBA is made into an international, global league, his influence will be even greater."

"Also, as Ah Gan’s assistant, you need to expand his business territory and entangle him with as many interest groups as possible. The more interests he represents, the more people will speak up for him."

Gan Guohui nodded and then showed a look of difficulty, saying, "Larry, but my brother’s investment foresight..."

Flesher sighed and said helplessly, "I know, the kid is doing funeral home business, construction, suits, and I heard he even wants to get into the maternity hospital business!? Damn, his investment vision really is unique."

"My brother did tell me to pay more attention to Silicon Valley companies, and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, has approached me recently."

"Allen? What does he want to do?"

"I’m not sure yet; he just wanted to get to know me. But from the things he said, I could feel that he’s very interested in the Trail Blazers."

Since the Microsoft IPO, co-founder Paul Allen’s assets skyrocketed, quickly making him one of America’s newly wealthy elite.

There would be more and more tech magnates like him in America’s future.

They would be an unstoppable new force in American society.

Larry Flesher was busy saying, "You must hold on to this connection, it will be of great help to Ah Gan in the future. With emerging forces, you have to match up with emerging forces to succeed."

Flesher had already seen the trend in the NBA, where small group-owning bosses will gradually be replaced by industrialist big bosses, followed by Old-money being supplanted by the new rich elite.

Of course, this process was not going to be accomplished overnight; it was sure to be a long one.

As an emerging force in the League, if Ah Gan could combine with the emerging forces off the court, he would be invincible.

At the very least, his foreign identity would not be an impediment to his development.

Moreover, Guoyang was different from the typical foreign players as he didn’t come directly to the NBA; he played in the NCAA, giving him "roots" in American basketball.

As someone with roots, he certainly had an advantage over the rootless, parachuted-in foreign mercenaries.

In short, Flesher was considering all aspects for Guoyang’s development.

Choosing this agent was indeed a wise decision by Guoyang.

While Flesher was concerned about Guoyang’s future, Guoyang, after sorting out the votes, started to focus all his attention on the games.

The All-Star game had ended, and the NBA regular season was entering its second half.

As the trade deadline approached, teams were making their final bolstering trades.

The Trail Blazers’ biggest rival, the Lakers, acquired Edwards and were quite satisfied; Jerry West had filled the Lakers’ last gap.

The Suns, in addition to sending Edwards and Larry Nance away, traded Jay Humphries to the Bucks in February, clearing the way for Kevin Johnson’s arrival.

The defending champions Trail Blazers were also busy – after the All-Star game, they made a trade with the Celtics, sending former All-Star guard Jim Paxson and getting guard Jerry Sichting in return.

The Trail Blazers had multiple considerations for this trade.

First, due to repeated injuries, Paxson had already lost his rotation spot at the Trail Blazers.

The Trail Blazers’ backcourt was now a domain for the young players: Drexler, Porter, Hornacek, and Curry were all set.

Furthermore, whether it was the state of play or playing style, Paxson was out of sync with the current Trail Blazers.

He lacked ball-handling capabilities, and in the current tactical system of the Trail Blazers, Paxson was not able to perform well.

Conveniently, the Celtics hoped to acquire Paxson, whose traditional guard skills fit well with their fast-break and passing system, so the two sides hit it off immediately.

Last but not least, the Trail Blazers also considered lightening the salary cap pressure.

This summer they had to retain both superstars, Guoyang and Drexler.

Both players had declined early contract renewals, keeping the Trail Blazers’ future in a state of turmoil and anxiety.

Guoyang was on good terms with Paxson, and when he learned about the separation, Guoyang made a call to Paxson.

"We’ll try to meet in the Finals," Paxson said over the phone.

The Celtics were still a team capable of reaching the Finals.

However, the Eastern was no longer dominated by the Celtics.

On February 9, in the first game after the All-Star break, the Trail Blazers went on the road to challenge the Washington Bullets.

By this time, the Bullets had firmly secured a top-four spot in the Eastern.

After a poor start to the season, they chose to change their coach.

They fired Lou Holtz and selected the meritorious player Wes Unseld as their new coach.

And they also added the former meritorious coach Dick Motta to the coaching staff.

Unseld, a burly man nicknamed "The Bone Crusher," was working hand in hand with his mentor to transform the Bullets into the most formidable meat grinder in the Eastern.