The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 260 - 2 Unattainable

Liuhua Gymnasium was designed and began construction in 1956, and was completed in 1957. The venue most commonly hosted Pong matches.

For this basketball match, they specially transported the best quality hardwood flooring from Hong Kong to ensure the smooth progress of the game.

However, the construction workers lacked experience, and the floor wasn’t perfectly calibrated during installation. The floor quality was average, with some areas being uneven that affected the bounce or changed the trajectory of the ball, impacting the players’ ball handling.

Even so, both teams displayed a high level of skill—after all, some NBA venues’ floors were not even as good as those of Liuhua Gymnasium.

When the game turned into a one-on-one between Gan Guoyang and Jordan, the floor at times became a prop to add to the excitement of their confrontation.

While Jordan was dribbling to break through, the ball hit the edge of a slightly raised floorboard, and bounced off in another direction.

Jordan had to chase the ball, pick it up, and then turn around to make an extremely difficult fadeaway jump shot—and the ball went in.

The audience erupted into enthusiastic applause; the athleticism of this number 23 African American was just too good. His basketball movements were so graceful that they made people overlook his dark skin tone.

"Not bad luck," Gan Guoyang said to Jordan.

"Luck is part of the skill, Sonny," Jordan replied.

Jordan took the ball from Gan Guoyang and once again broke through on the left.

His speed was very fast, but he wasn’t going at full speed; he wanted to keep enough leeway to adjust at any time.

He used a half-step lead ahead of Gan Guoyang to break into the basket. In the air, he changed hands to avoid the block and made the right-hand layup.

The court once again erupted in enthusiastic applause. Such a way of scoring was too advanced for the audience at the time; it was quite mind-blowing.

Guangzhou could be said to be one of the most enthusiastic cities about basketball in China. Since the 1950s, various collectives, units, and enterprises had basketball teams, and there were countless basketball events.

After the turmoil ended, all careers across the country fully returned to normal, and the basketball ecology in Guangdong region recovered quickly, like prairies after a wildfire.

However, China’s basketball development level was severely affected at the time.

In the 1950s and 1960s relying on the tall center Mu Tiezhu, China had a place in basketball, but by the 1970s, basketball players around the world were becoming taller, faster, and stronger. Crowds of talented players emerged on the courts, and the bulky playing style of tall centers gradually couldn’t keep up with the trend.

And the Trail Blazers’ ten-day visit to China further showed people the world’s highest level of basketball, which was both tall and quick as well as agile.

Qian Chenghai, head coach of the Chinese men’s national team, accompanied them from the Capital and didn’t miss a single match. He watched with mixed feelings, the worry was that China was too far behind the world’s highest level.

In 1979, the so-called American college students’ team visited China, and the Chinese team won two matches.

The same year, the NBA champion Bullets visited China, and the Chinese team was able to compete but only lost by 11 points.

In 1982, Han Pengshan was able to challenge Jabbar on the court.

These friendship matches didn’t let the Chinese team truly realize the huge gap between them and American basketball.

It wasn’t until the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games when the Chinese National Team played against the carefully selected American college students’ Olympic Team that they realized the gap was too big to quantify.

The difference of 58 points in the score didn’t show the true distance between the two teams (in fact, the point difference could have been smaller, but Gan Guoyang made a major contribution).

Among them, Michael Jordan, in particular, left a deep impression on Qian Chenghai. During defense against Jordan’s shot, a Chinese player jumped to block, but Jordan didn’t shoot, the Chinese player landed, and Jordan was still in the air.

A second Chinese player jumped to block, and still, Jordan didn’t shoot; the Chinese player landed, and Jordan was still up there.

A third Chinese player did the same, and this time Jordan took the shot, but still, the Chinese player landed first.

Such an exaggerated level of athleticism and hang time, plus players like Ewing, Perkins, and other tall, quick, and powerful African Americans, really made one feel hopeless.

But the joy was that Qian Chenghai heard that there was a Chinese player in America whose level was higher than these American college students.

Initially, Qian Chenghai didn’t believe it, but after watching videos and now seeing Gan Guoyang and his teammate’s game in person, he knew it was true.

Jordan was not his match.

After Jordan scored another basket, Gan Guoyang commented, "Not bad at all, still trailing behind me by 8 balls. Keep it up, Michael, everyone likes you a lot."

Despite Jordan’s impressive scoring, on the courtside scoreboard, Gan Guoyang had a crushing lead of 10:2.

There was no way around it. In a one-on-one duel, a power center had an incomparable advantage over a shooting guard; they were not in the same league.

Without teammates to distract, without the pace of offense and defense stretching the gameplay, the guard’s only advantage against a center was speed.

But Jordan had clearly felt in the previous rounds that Ah Gan had become faster than before. What in the world had this kid eaten?

Moreover, during the exhibition game, he hadn’t exerted himself at all. Damn it; he’d been conserving energy just for this final one-on-one showdown!

If he’d known, he wouldn’t have agreed to it.

Every time Gan Guoyang, with his straightforward dribble towards the basket, would charge under the hoop, he’d push Jordan aside with a layup or hook shot, leaving Jordan without a single countermove.

Gan Guoyang’s ball handling was much better than the average big man’s. He had also learned from Vandeweghe the left-handed dribble to accelerate a breakthrough and the step-back jump shot.

These two moves were Cheche’s signature skills, the Vandeweghe step was something he created during the summer at Pete Newell’s training camp, mainly to evade Kermit Washington’s savage defense.

And Vandeweghe’s left-handed drive wasn’t particularly fast, but he took long strides and the details of his starting steps were meticulous. Gan Guoyang had stolen it pretty much perfectly.

Being naturally right-handed, now that Gan Guoyang could play ambidextrously, he became even harder to defend. Jordan could only gamble on trying to steal the ball. Out of ten tries, he succeeded once, earning a chance to counterattack.

On his third attempt, Jordan accelerated again. With a forceful right-hand layup, he attacked the rim. In mid-air, he confronted Gan Guoyang and managed to shoot, avoiding Gan’s block. The shot went in!

If Jordan wanted to score, it had to be with such difficulty. After landing off-balance, he landed on one foot, took two steps back, and stabilized himself.

The Nike consultants watching the game were on edge, afraid that Jordan might get injured in such a match.

But in a match between Jordan vs. Ah Gan, Jordan couldn’t refuse, and neither could the staff from Nike and Avia.

After landing, Jordan looked at Gan Guoyang and frowned, "Sonny, did you lose weight?"

Gan Guoyang replied, "Did you put on muscle, Michael?"

"I have indeed been hitting the gym, but it feels like you’re lighter than last season, aren’t you?"

After the regular season ended, Jordan had been soaking in the gym to bulk up, a lesson he’d learned from Gan Guoyang.

While bulking up, to maintain his shooting touch, Jordan doubled down on shooting drills. Once a person has a target to chase, their efforts become all the more manic.

After playing through the Western Conference Finals, Gan Guoyang lost more than 5 pounds, the series took a huge toll on him.

Instead of rushing to get back to his regular weight, Gan maintained his strength training while further refining his technique.

He was already dominant across the league in terms of strength. For the next season, he had two choices: one was to further enhance his advantage, gain more weight, and become an even more invincible low-post monster.

The other option was to lighten up a bit, to achieve greater improvements in speed and agility, especially to keep up with the Lakers’ frontcourt. This was important for defeating the Lakers.

The second option had a prerequisite: this summer, the Trail Blazers needed to find a suitable substitute big man; otherwise, Gan could not afford to lose weight with only him and an even older Mychal Thompson.

"I am a little lighter to get faster, and now my offensive skills have surpassed yours," said Gan confidently.

As he spoke, Gan Guoyang managed to stay close on defense, forcing Jordan to make a difficult turn-around shot that missed.

In the transition from defense to offense, Gan faced the basket then turned his back, performing a Bernard King-style heel pivot followed by a high-release jump shot.

The entire motion was incredibly smooth; Jordan did not even have a chance to hesitate, and the shot went in effortlessly.

The applause from the crowd grew even more enthusiastic, with many people standing up to cheer and clap. In that era, Chinese people liked to show their passion with vigorous applause, just like the American basketball audience of the 1960s.

Jordan knew this one-on-one was extremely unfair. The physical advantage of a center over a guard was too great.

Jordan asked, "Sonny, how long do you plan to play?"

Gan Guoyang responded, "Until the audience can’t stand it and leaves on their own. How about that?"

Jordan, with determination, replied, "I wouldn’t have it any other way."

[In 1985, the NBA’s grand tour of China was an unprecedented success. Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, as one of the five NBA teams, played an exhibition game against the Portland Trail Blazers in Guangzhou.

After the match finished, the spectators were so enthusiastic that the players couldn’t leave the court. Ah Gan and Jordan engaged in a one-on-one bullfight to satisfy the crowd’s wishes. The two willful men embarked on an almost endless battle, continuing until the spectators could no longer endure and left on their own.

In the end, Michael Jordan, due to exhaustion and cramps in his legs, had to call off the lengthy fight. This became a dark shadow over his combative life, one he could never quite shake off, the shadow of Ah Gan looming over him.]

————Published in 2016, an excerpt from Michael Jordan’s biography "Michael Jordan: The Life" by Roland Lazenby.