The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 565 - 65 Anger

Gan Guoyang had scored 28 points by halftime, and the game had him charging towards 50 points.

Of course, if the game fell apart in the third quarter, Gan Guoyang wouldn’t need to score 50 points, and over 40 would be enough to seal the game.

At the end of the first half, the Trail Blazers were already showing a trend of finishing the game in three quarters.

Apart from Gan Guoyang, Jerome Kossie was the best performer for the Trail Blazers.

He racked up 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals in the two quarters, excelling on both the offensive and defensive ends.

This season, Kossie replaced Vandeweghe and stepped up as the Trail Blazers’ reliable defensive gatekeeper on the perimeter.

His improvement and performance plugged a long-standing gap in the Trail Blazers’ defense at the small forward position.

The team’s roster this year was actually more balanced than last season, all because of Kossie’s promotion.

Only the team unity, defensive focus, and stability and explosiveness on the offensive end were not as good as in 1987.

In Jack Ramsay’s view, Kossie’s role in the playoffs was no less significant than Drexler’s, and even more crucial in certain games.

An important aspect of Kossie’s role was to reduce the number of times Gan Guoyang had to cover for the small forward position, allowing Gan to focus more on his primary duties.

The lead at halftime put the Trail Blazers in a good mood, with Kossie feeling particularly excited.

His defense against Bernard King was very successful, limiting King to just 7 points in the first half and breaking the Bullets’ firepower.

The Bullets managed to fall behind by only 12 points, thanks entirely to Moses Malone’s offensive rebounds and Moncrief charging to the basket with a dynamite pack.

Just as the half-time break ended and the game was about to resume, the Trail Blazers players came out of the locker room when suddenly a black man approached Jerome Kossie and greeted him, "Hey, Kossie, it’s me."

Jerome Kossie paused for a moment, eyeing the rather tall black man. From his expression, it was clear Kossie didn’t recognize him.

Gan Guoyang noticed this person and was about to call security to clear him away when he quickly realized that the man bore a striking resemblance to Kossie.

No, not just a little similar, but very much so.

Gan Guoyang stepped forward and asked, "Who are you? Please leave, we have a game to play."

The black man said to Gan Guoyang, "Hello Ah Gan, I am... I’m Jerome’s father, I’m Hargrove."

Surprisingly Kossie’s father had shown up during the game. Gan looked at Kossie, whose expression was very complicated.

Clearly, this man really was Kossie’s father; otherwise, Kossie wouldn’t bear such a look.

Gan Guoyang told Hargrove, "If you truly are Kossie’s father, please come find him after the game. He needs to focus on playing right now."

"I have been waiting for this day for a long..."

"Then can’t you wait another half of a game?"

"Sorry, I..."

"Calvin! Take this gentleman away, and let him come back after the game."

Calvin came over and led Hargrove away, who kept looking back at Kossie.

Kossie, who had been so excited in the locker room talking about thrashing the Bullets in the second half, now appeared as if he were about to cry.

On the Trail Blazers team, where most players had fathers, Jerome Kossie was the exception. His father had abandoned him and his mother a long time ago and had run off to Philadelphia to become a Greyhound bus driver.

It wasn’t until one day that Hargrove heard the name Jerome Kossie on the radio during a Trail Blazers game.

He realized that his son was playing in the NBA, had become famous, and turned into a millionaire.

At that time, Hargrove had a girlfriend, to whom he revealed, "Jerome Kossie is my son."

His girlfriend, through some means, reached out to the Trail Blazers, hoping to arrange a meeting but was refused.

Later, through some channel, she obtained Kossie’s contact address and wrote him a letter.

In the players’ tunnel, Gan Guoyang asked Kossie, "Do you know he’s your father?"

Kossie nodded and then shook his head, saying, "I can’t recognize him anymore. But before the finals, his girlfriend wrote to me saying he would come to Washington to watch my game."

Kossie’s expression was grim, and Gan Guoyang was simply fuming.

The guy was just like Charles Barkley’s father.

Disregarding their children’s upbringing and then, once their sons grow up and become famous and wealthy in sports, they go to great lengths to acknowledge kinship.

If you want to reconnect, do it during the off-season when there’s plenty of time for family reunions. Instead, they choose game day, the locker room, in front of everyone, to play out the drama of long-awaited reunions.

In the end, it’s all about public moral coercion, making it difficult for the young people to refuse. Once the public recognition is successful, naturally, they can reap the benefits.

After all, NBA players really are rich compared to the average person; just a little bit slipping through their fingers is enough for these old black men to enjoy themselves for quite a while.

Before the start of the second half, Kossie looked terrible, his complexion awful.

Jack Ramsay asked what happened, who that person was who had come to find Kossie.

Gan Guoyang said, "Nobody important. It’s okay, it won’t affect the game."

But obviously, Kossie’s performance was greatly affected in the second half.

As soon as the third quarter began, Bernard King received the ball on the wing and took on Kossie one-on-one.

Kossie’s defense was noticeably slower, allowing King to get past him and easily score two points.

Then, on offense, Kossie seemed utterly distracted and indecisive; the ball would just stop with him.

The Trail Blazers’ offense missed, and the Bullets seized the chance to counterattack, with King catching the ball quickly, dodging Guoyang’s defense, and scoring another basket!

King scored consecutively in the third quarter, narrowing the gap to single digits.

Ramsay was caught in a dilemma, who should he use if he benched Kossie at this point?

Vandeweghe had come back from injury with a serious decline in performance and was basically abandoned in the playoffs.

If he let Hornacek play, then Drexler would have to play as the small forward to deal with Bernard King.

This was a choice for the team’s second lineup; using the second lineup this early, what would he do later on?

If Kossie didn’t play enough minutes, Ah Gan would face tremendous pressure in the paint.

After giving it much thought and discussing it with Beelman, Ramsay decided to trust that Kossie could adjust.

But adjustments take time, and the Bullets took advantage of this in the third quarter to keep scoring and went crazy with the physical play on defense.

Gan Guoyang, who had been consistently making mid-range shots in the first half, was aggressively double-teamed by Moncrief.

The Bullets were clear, let Drexler shoot and focus on tightly guarding Ah Gan.

As the third quarter progressed, the Bullets quickly realized that leaving Drexler open was a better bet than leaving Kossie.

Kossie, noticeably out of sorts in the third quarter, was left open by King who allowed him to shoot, resulting in zero points from three attempts.

During a timeout in the third quarter, Kossie asked Ramsay to sub him out, and Guoyang, sitting beside him, immediately threw an elbow at Kossie.

"Fuck, what are you talking about? You want to back down just because of that? For someone who abandoned you? Pull yourself together!"

Kossie said nothing, his expression still ugly.

Ramsay probably guessed what had happened, and he still subbed Kossie out to calm his emotions.

At this moment, the situation on the court underwent a drastic change, with the score at 66:64, the Bullets only trailing by 2 points.

Gan Guoyang continued to stay on the court, his anger shattering his calm, but not taking away his excellent state of play.

Rage burned in Guoyang’s chest.

He was not angry about Kossie’s father’s sudden visit.

Rather, he realized that there must be someone behind the scenes pulling strings against the Trail Blazers.

From the news of the team sale being leaked to the exposure of Jack Ramsay’s retirement.

To today’s finals game being disrupted by Kossie’s father’s sudden visit messing with Kossie’s emotions, who would believe there was no mole?

This mole, or rather the instigator, might be watching the game right now from a corner of the Capital Arena, smug about their own scheming.

Gan Guoyang clenched his fist as he walked onto the court, his chewing of the gum became more intense, his cheekbones protruding.

Gan Guoyang received the ball on the left baseline, a spot he liked very much for playoff reception because it minimized the interference of double teams.

Receiving the ball facing Moses Malone, Guoyang faked a shot, shaking Malone off balance, then drove baseline with his left hand, storming to the basket and hammering down a one-handed dunk over Charles Barkley!

Barkley tried to block the shot, but was sent flying out of bounds by Guoyang’s powerful force.

Next, Guoyang on defense helped out on the perimeter, blocking Bernard King with a great block.

After grabbing the ball, he dribbled past midcourt, spun past Kolter, and made the layup.

He also drew a reaching foul from Kolter, essentially handing out free points.

Gan Guoyang’s rampage, scoring consecutively, helped the Trail Blazers widen the gap once more.

At the free-throw line, Guoyang scanned the dense crowd of spectators, wondering who that person was, where they were?