The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 310 - 48 Keeping Promises

[Before the 1985-1986 season started, I signed a two-year contract, which gave me some security.

The team acquired Terry Porter in the draft, and it would prove to be one of the most successful picks in the team’s history, just like Jerome Kossie (Ah Gan didn’t count; Stern would have picked Ah Gan if he were in the management.)

Then we welcomed back Bill Walton, which was an exhilarating and touching signing, as no one expected him to return after all he had been through.

His arrival brought us a sense of history, glory, and tactical richness, and of course, it also brought pressure. All of us knew that we needed to be successful this season.

Stu-Inman left his management position over the summer, and Buckwalter replaced him. It was said to be related to Walton’s return. Maybe so, years later, Inman still had a good relationship with the team.

During the summer, while I was working out my legs in a gym in Houston, I suffered a fibula stress fracture due to excessive force, but thankfully, the Trail Blazers’ medical team gave the correct treatment advice.

I didn’t need surgery or a cast and could still run. I just had to stop lifting weights. The doctor gave me a stimulator to help with the bone growth and healing, and I wore it around my leg all summer while I slept — it buzzed so loudly that I had trouble sleeping.

But I am someone who loves sleep, and I could fall asleep quickly. Sleep and the machine both sped up my recovery, allowing me to participate in the great 1985-1986 season.

Before the season began, I bought a house in Oswego Lake Park. It was 4,000 square feet, with four bedrooms, and cost me $160,000. I thought it was time to settle down here.

Ah Gan, Thompson, and Jerome Kossie all bought houses here. We lived close to each other, went to practice together, ate together afterward, and then went home together.

Only Cheche insisted on not buying a house here and kept renting, living with his sister Tawna Vandeweghe. Cheche said he was a bachelor and buying a house made him think of marriage.

After the training camp for the new season started, I never arrived late again, and I would arrive half an hour early for practice every day. Of course, at that time, Ah Gan would have already been sweating bullets inside, making me wonder if the guy had 48 hours a day. Why was he always training?

The atmosphere in our training camp was incredibly good. Walton’s return brought a lot of things into play — passion, fervor, and he had a shaman-like magic that immersed everyone in a fervent atmosphere.

After the season started, we achieved a series of incredible victories. We were unmatched, especially as we defeated the Los Angeles Lakers twice. This former Western Conference powerhouse no longer seemed fearsome to us.

Ah Gan played amazingly. He was already surprising last season — so surprising that you could fit an egg in your mouth. This season, it was a dinosaur egg.

He became the scoring king of the League. Scoring points was as simple for him as it was for me to pick up girls. His presence made our games simple, and as a starter for the team, I could freely do what I was good at: ball handling, steals, fast breaks, blocks, and assists.

Bill Walton’s return seemed to flip a magical evolutionary switch on Dr. Jack; he became more tolerant and calm and was willing to try many new things — I must point out Jack was a tactical master, but due to his preference for frontcourt combinations, he was not very proficient with backcourt-focused systems.

So he boldly delegated authority to me, and I played many all-around games. Against the Warriors, I got 16 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, and 7 steals, nearly a quadruple-double.

On December 31, the last game of 1985 against the Bucks turned out to be the closest I ever got to a quadruple-double, with 21 points, 11 assists, 10 steals, and 9 rebounds — I’m sure if Ah Gan hadn’t played, I definitely would have got a quadruple-double. That guy always complained that I took his rebounds.

However, we lost that game. The Bucks made a huge comeback in the second half, breaking our winning streak, which didn’t make the end of 1985 perfect.

On January 2, we went to play against the Bulls away, and Ah Gan scored 60 points like a madman, reportedly because Jordan had been trash-talking the Bulls’ management to him for two and a half hours before the game, which led to Ah Gan’s grudge against the Bulls and taking it out during the game.

Ah Gan was really interesting. Right after that, we had a back-to-back game in Milwaukee. We got false fire alarms in the hotel, and nobody rested well. I thought we were going to be crushed by the Bucks again.

But Ah Gan exploded again, scoring 54 points with low post moves, and on the final attack of the game, he dunked from one end of the court to beat the Bucks.

It was his greatest regular-season performance. When the game was over, we ran back to the locker room while the referees were still checking the technical desk to see if there was any time left for the Bucks.

We didn’t want to play anymore. We were tired and sleepy. I felt my eyelids drooping during the game, so we went back to the locker room to change and take showers. The referees couldn’t make us return to the court to continue the game, so we won.

As a result, Ah Gan rushed into the bathroom and took a 15-minute cold shower, which led to him catching a cold. He had been scoring way beyond his means for the last two days, was exhausted, and after sweating so much, took a cold shower, which made his fever spike to 39 degrees.

Because of his illness, we were sure he was human, not some Frankenstein created by East German technology.

His absence and the fatigue from the back-to-back away games led us to lose against the Knights. George Karl’s smug look made me want to kick his ass.

When Ah Gan wasn’t there, we realized how important he was to us. The games suddenly became much more difficult. Walton couldn’t play for too long, but thankfully, Jones stepped up at this time to help.

Ah Gan missed three games, and we lost two, one against the Knights and one against the Spurs. That made him so proud. When he returned, he yelled at each one of us, "You guys really need me!"

Unfortunately, that night we lost by one point at home against the Boston Celtics. We each retorted to Ah Gan, "Seems like we don’t need you that much!"

Haha, of course, we were just joking. He hadn’t found his own state back yet. A cold and two 50+ point games had taken a toll on his energy. Afterward, he continued to play at an MVP level, and we beat the Lakers for the third time, all the way up to the All-Star Game.

This year, I was successfully selected for the All-Star Team, and Dr. Jack became the head coach of the Western Conference All-Stars. He picked me, which meant a great deal to me.

I went to Dallas with an eagerness to learn; I was excited. It was a dream of mine to stand on the All-Star stage. Gan Guoyang, who came with me, told me that he was going to get the MVP of the All-Star Game.

Well, that award belonged to him then. He had always been someone who could do what he said he would.

————Published in 2004, an excerpt from Clyde Drexler’s autobiography "Clyde The Glide".

The 1986 All-Star Game was held in Dallas, at Reunion Arena.

Regrettably for the fans, two highly popular players from the Eastern Conference, Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, were absent due to injuries, despite both being voted in with high scores.

Ewing’s poor knees were already scarred from college, forcing him to play with thick knee pads, and this injury meant he would miss not only the All-Star Game but the rest of the season—as a result, the Knicks seemed particularly ill-fated.

In contrast to Ewing, Gan Guoyang’s body was like iron.

With his indisputable, stunning performance, he surpassed Magic Johnson to become the All-Star Game’s top vote-getter.

David Stern decided to bring footage of this All-Star Game to China to be broadcasted on television for free.

This year was the NBA’s 40th anniversary, so the "Dallas Morning News" organized a group of 60 people to select the "Greatest Player in NBA History". 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

This group of 60 was composed of active players, retired players, coaches, and managers, which included All-Stars like Jabbar, Bird, and Magic Johnson.

After counting the ballots, Jabbar was elected as the Greatest Player in NBA History with 18 votes. Even though he only had four championships, his performance still won recognition from industry insiders.

Of course, at that time fan voting wasn’t an option; if fans had been included, the results would have definitely been different.

Jabbar didn’t vote for himself, casting his vote for his former teammate Oscar Robertson instead. Most players who faced off against Jabbar admitted to his strength.

Gan Guoyang, being a young player, wasn’t eligible to participate in the selection or to be selected, but as the top vote-getter, he was inevitably asked by reporters about his opinion on the outcome.

Gan Guoyang said, "Karim is a very strong and incredible player. We’re always chasing after him. He’s our greatest imaginary enemy and a peak that seems insurmountable. He has maintained a dominance, setting a benchmark for the center position, the oldest in basketball. I’ve had in-depth conversations with him. He’s full of wisdom, tranquil yet brave. To beat him, you first have to respect him. He deserves this title of the greatest in history."

But while he verbally showed respect for his elder, Gan Guoyang still managed to snatch the starting center spot on the Western All-Star Team from Jabbar during the game.

In the dunk contest just before the All-Star Game, Spud Webb caused a sensation, defeating his teammate, defending champion Dominique Wilkins, with his height of 170 cm to miraculously win the championship of this edition’s dunk contest.

As a result of that contest, Webb became an instantly recognizable figure, a renowned short dunker.

However, the biggest winner of this All-Star Game was Avia.

Listening to Gan Guoyang’s advice, they struck a deal with Webb before the dunk contest, providing him with Avia shoes and announcing plans to design a new signature shoe line for him.

Avia originally intended to create a "mini-skyscraper" model for Webb, but Guoyang suggested it was entirely unnecessary. Instead, they respected Webb’s wishes and designed a "Potato Spud" series unrelated to skyscrapers.

Following the dunk contest, Gan Guoyang and Webb took a set of photos together, one tall and one short, which became a perfect promotional image for Avia.

Later, Gan Guoyang exerted his efforts in the later course of the All-Star Game, scoring consecutively while the Eastern Conference had been leading. Then, on defense, he teamed up with Drexler to block Thomas’s layups and shots, helping the Western Team to a narrow victory over the Eastern All-Star Team, 138-136, with a two-point advantage.

The Eastern Conference would have had it, with Thomas’s performance of 30 points and 10 assists guaranteed to secure him the All-Star MVP. But when the Eastern team lost, the MVP naturally went to Gan Guoyang, who scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Gan Guoyang thus earned his first Most Valuable Player award—although it was just for the All-Star Game, he considered it a beginning.