The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 573 - 1 1988-1989_5

Gan Guoyang moved his own father and mother-in-law into the large house in Portland, where four members of the family lived together, plus the one in the belly, making their living environment instantly more complex.

Fortunately, both elders were quiet and measured in their personalities, staying in their rooms, taking care of their duties, neither overly interacting nor disturbing each other, which was quite harmonious.

Quietly, everyone awaited the arrival of the new member.

On October 31st, the Trail Blazers welcomed the opening game of the new season.

Tang Jianguo made the opening game a grand event, specially inviting Michael Jackson to the Memorial Coliseum to sing the national anthem, causing a sensation.

During halftime, Tang Jianguo presented championship rings to the Trail Blazers players, and Gan Guoyang raised the fourth championship banner for Portland.

In the game, they lived up to expectations, easily defeating the Phoenix Suns at home, securing their first victory of the season.

Contrary to what people had anticipated, after the season started, the Trail Blazers were unexpectedly in excellent form.

After losing Drexler, the Trail Blazers did not seem to be seriously affected, but instead further perfected their "center-guard" system.

Under the leadership of Beelman, they completely focused their offense and defense around Gan Guoyang, starting their regular season with consistency and stability.

The Trail Blazers’ three-point shooting created a new league high, Gan Guoyang continued to lead the league with efficient low-post play, steadily contributing 30 points and 15 rebounds per game.

Night after night, he continued to deliver sensational performances, and the Trail Blazers’ viewership and ticket revenues reached new heights.

Especially in this season’s "Gan vs. Joe," due to the rise and fall of the team’s strength, the games were extremely intense and exciting.

The regular season viewership rates set a new historical high, and both players demonstrated with their superhuman performances that they were a notch above the rest.

The red and black colors of the Trail Blazers and Bulls were starting to replace the green and yellow as the primary colors of the NBA.

Tang Jianguo increased the marketing efforts on the original team promotion strategy, swearing to make the Trail Blazers the New York Yankees of the basketball world.

In the Western Conference, the biggest rival of the Trail Blazers was still the Lakers, with Jabbar announcing this would be his final professional season.

The League prepared a retirement tour for Jabbar, where he would receive gifts prepared by the teams at each away game.

These gifts included a Tiffany silver apple from the Knicks, a portrait painting from the Pistons, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle from the Bucks, a piece of broken floor from the Boston Garden from the Celtics, and a crystal skyhook sculpture from the Trail Blazers, among others.

The Lakers directly presented him with a Rolls-Royce, and bid him farewell from the comfort of a rocking chair.

While Jabbar enjoyed his final NBA moments, Jerry West spent the entire season in anxiety.

The conflict between him, Don Nelson, and Jerry Buss grew increasingly serious, as the Lakers had fallen in the Western Conference for three consecutive years, causing internal turmoil within the team.

Nelson felt that his ideas were not fully respected, while West regretted working with Nelson.

Jerry Buss tried to mediate between them, but he was already making a choice in his heart: if they did not win the championship this year, either Nelson or West would have to leave.

Buss began to complain that in the 1986 draft, he should have completed the trade with the Mavericks, sending Worthy to the Mavericks in exchange for Mark Aguirre.

Mark Aguirre had performed markedly better against the Trail Blazers in the ’88 playoffs than Worthy had.

West claimed, however, that whether it was Worthy or Aguirre facing Ah Gan, the result would have been the same, and that the real misstep was the coach’s strategy.

Nelson, on the other hand, felt that management interference had disrupted his tactical rotation, and that the Lakers might not have lost if they had stuck to playing three guards.

Despite the internal strife, the Lakers, led by Magic Johnson, still achieved an excellent record of 59 wins and 23 losses, once again ranking first in the Western Conference, and securing the Western Conference regular-season championship for three straight seasons.

Johnson also secured the regular-season MVP with averages of 22.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 12.8 assists per game.

The Trail Blazers followed closely behind with a 56-win and 26-loss record, continuing to rank second in the Western Conference, putting immense pressure on the Lakers.

Gan Guoyang played out the season with averages of 31.7 points, 15.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 3.5 blocks per game.

Owing to a lack of bench depth inside and the loss of Drexler outside, Gan Guoyang devoted a large amount of energy to defense.

At the same time, Beelman strictly controlled Gan Guoyang’s playing time, limiting it to 40 minutes during the regular season, the lowest of his career.

In the voting for the best defensive player, Gan Guoyang edged out Mark-Eaton, obtaining the Best Defensive Player award for the second time in his career.

However, Gan Guoyang’s greatest achievement this season was having his own child in March.

Wang Fuxi gave birth smoothly at Portland Hospital, they had a son, and according to the Gan family genealogy "Kuan Bing You Guo Wen, Ding Xin Wu Shi Qun," he was named Gan Wen Shan.

The character "Shan" was to commemorate Gan Guoyang’s former name, Dang Lei. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Drexler started his career as the main man in Miami, and in the first season, the Heat were placed in the Western Conference.

The Heat, located on the South Coast, had to keep taking flights to the distant Western Conference for games.

In Portland, amidst boos and cheers, Drexler received his third championship ring from Gan Guoyang’s hands.

The two smiled as they shook hands and embraced, and then in the game, the Trail Blazers thoroughly thrashed the Heat, sweeping the season series 4:0 against the Heat.

Drexler reached the peak of his career with averages of 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists per game.