The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 313 - 51 New Life

Gan Guoyang always believed that good emotions require firm rationality to restrain them.

Whether it’s love, family affection, or friendship, once rationality is lost and emotions overflow uncontrollably, they tend toward destruction.

The more precious the emotion, the more it needs to be protected by firm rationality, like the soft, delicious flesh of a crab, which is always guarded by a hard shell.

Gan Guoyang valued this younger brother highly and wanted to help him at the critical junctures of life, but what was more important was that he could stand and fend for himself.

Gan Guohui was rendered speechless by Gan Guoyang’s question; he really hadn’t figured out what he could do.

He was hit hard by Gan Guoyang’s words, wanting to escape for the moment because he was not prepared to dive into adult life.

As for what he could do following his cousin around, he was clueless, simply thinking that it would be fun to be in a glamorous place like the NBA.

Now that his older brother was making waves in the League, he was sure that he’d have a meal if he stuck with his brother.

Seeing Gan Guohui stammering, Gan Guoyang guessed that his cousin was acting on an impulse and asked, "Guohui, do you like basketball?"

Gan Guohui nodded vigorously, "I do!"

"How long has it been since you’ve been to a game?"

"...It’s been a year, I really don’t have the time."

In high school and college, Gan Guohui often went to watch Gonzaga’s games.

After Gan Guoyang joined the Portland Trail Blazers, Guohui even went all out to see several games in Portland.

However, since graduating from community college, Gan Guohui began working and dating, and the frequency of watching games greatly decreased.

"Lisa is your third girlfriend?"

"The third one."

"Do you love her a lot?"

"I... I don’t know."

"Are you just lusting after her body?"

"I didn’t... I’m not..."

Though he said this, Gan Guohui’s voice lacked confidence.

Gan Guoyang had met this Lisa, a fiery mixed-race Thai-Chinese girl.

Just by looking at Ah Hui’s increasingly gaunt appearance, one could tell the girl’s allure.

Gan Guoyang said, "You mentioned before that you wanted to open a restaurant in San Francisco, so, have you changed your mind now and don’t want to be a restaurant manager anymore?"

"Being a restaurant manager... isn’t really respectable... Amy broke up with me over this; she wanted to marry a doctor or a lawyer. She already married a Western doctor last year."

Gan Guohui once had a very stable girlfriend, the first girl he dated from Beiqiao High School.

After dating for over two years, when it came time to talk about marriage, she looked down on the Gan family’s line of work in the restaurant business.

"So you think you’d be successful if you hung around your big brother in the NBA? You can’t play basketball; following me you could only do miscellaneous jobs or I could arrange a job for you in Portland—would that satisfy you?"

"I... I don’t know."

The once optimistically cheerful Gan Guohui had, in just a few short years, been tormented by adult concerns to a point of profound disillusionment.

Gan Guoyang patted his brother’s shoulder and said, "I don’t know how you plan your future or how things really stand with you and Lisa, but you need to figure out what you want and what kind of life you wish to live. If you’re still unsure, then take some more time to think, until you understand clearly and thoroughly."

"Here’s the thing, I have an agent in New York, Larry Flesher, who’s a big shot in the NBA, starting as a tax lawyer. Although he’s my agent, he’s too busy with work to stay by my side. Going forward, I have a lot of financial, tax, and endorsement matters to deal with, and I need someone I can trust and rely on. If you’re willing, I’ll introduce you to him to learn for a while, let him show you the ropes. Once you’re ready, you can work with me."

"Hey! Don’t be too quick to agree, think about it seriously. This path isn’t easy. You’ll have to leave your comfort zone and go to New York. All problems and difficulties will be yours to solve. I’m busy with basketball, and Flesher is busy too; we won’t be there for you. You’ll suffer a lot. And you’ll have to sort out things with Lisa, your dad, your mom, and your grandpa. If they disagree, there’s nothing I can do, and I won’t plead on your behalf; you have to stand on your own."

After listening to Gan Guoyang, Gan Guohui vigorously nodded and said, "Okay, I will think it through carefully and figure out exactly what I want to do."

"Good. Give me your answer after tomorrow’s game."

Gan Guoyang suddenly asked, "By the way, what happened to those game cartridges you collected?"

Gan Guohui sighed, "Ah, forget about it, the games Atari made later were incredibly bad. The company went bankrupt within a year. All the cartridges I had stocked up became useless, I couldn’t even sell them. Now everyone is playing Nintendo... But I haven’t played games for a long time now."

"Find some time to play games. Life without games, how can it be complete?"

The next evening, Gan Guohui, along with his girlfriend and a few friends, went to the Oakland Arena to watch the game between the Warriors and the Trail Blazers.

Due to Gan Guoyang’s arrival, the usually deserted Oakland Arena was packed to the brim.

It’s no exaggeration to say that nearly every young Chinese person in the city would come to watch whenever Gan Guoyang played in San Francisco.

With Sermonde’s help, Gan Guoyang managed to get several tickets for Guohui and the others, allowing them to enjoy Gan Guoyang’s performance from a position near the court.

Gan Guohui hadn’t been to the arena to watch a game for a while, but he still remembered the passion he felt waving the flag with "Gan’s Restaurant" printed on it on the sidelines to cheer on Gan Guoyang.

How had he lost his passion for basketball, and even for life itself, in just over a year?

His girlfriend Lisa was a beautiful girl, cheerful and enthusiastic, and very open, daring to try all sorts of romantic gestures with Guohui, which left him utterly captivated.

However, when it came to their future, Lisa had no clear ideas, marriage or not was fine by her, but if they did marry, it had to be in a house in Pacific Heights.

For this reason, Guohui often worried, but tonight his body and soul were immersed in the game between the Trail Blazers and the Warriors.

After the All-Star break, both teams were in good condition, especially the Warriors, who didn’t show any sign of passivity despite the strong opponent.

Tonight, Joe Barry Carroll, Floyd, and Larry Smith all performed brilliantly, leading the Warriors in a fierce battle with the Trail Blazers.

The Warriors took a 33:27 lead in the first quarter and maintained that lead until the end of the first half.

Guohui was incredibly excited watching the game; although as a San Franciscan he was a Warriors fan, with the Trail Blazers in town, he naturally channeled his support for them.

More than half of the fans in the venue were supporting the Trail Blazers, mainly because of Guoyang—this was practically like being on the Trail Blazers’ home court.

But Lisa and her friends were not very interested in the game; they were just there for the fun of it, and Lisa even thought the arena was too noisy.

Back then, there were no smartphones for selfies, otherwise, they would definitely have plenty of things to do in the arena, as Lisa and her friends planned to go backstage to meet professional players after the game was over.

After all, Guoyang was Guohui’s brother, and at that time, the security at the stadium wasn’t strict, fans and reporters could move about more freely backstage.

Although the players were household names, they had not yet become icons to be placed on a pedestal, and close contact with fans was a common occurrence.

"Hey, be sure to take my friends backstage after the game is over, or it will be a wasted trip," she said.

"Oh right, go get us some drinks during the break, thanks, really appreciate it~"

"Make sure to bring some food too!"

In the third quarter, the Warriors grew stronger as they played, withstanding the Trail Blazers’ usual third-quarter offensive surge and instead countering with an offensive climax of their own.

Before the start of the fourth quarter, the Warriors had extended their lead to 10 points, with the Trail Blazers at a disadvantage, as the Warriors were in great form that night.

The Trail Blazers launched a major counterattack in the fourth quarter, with Vandeweghe and Steve Colter hitting consecutive outside shots, and Guoyang drawing defense down low, narrowing the gap to 2 points at one time.

But the Warriors were determined to win tonight—having lost all three previous encounters with the Trail Blazers, with Carroll having been scored 50 points by Guoyang, they were desperate to win this one.

The 2-point gap, always like an insurmountable mountain, the Trail Blazers just couldn’t manage to take the lead. Instead, due to their impatience, they made two errors which the Warriors capitalized on with counter-attacks, further widening the lead.

In the final minute of the game, the Trail Blazers were still 5 points behind the Warriors, the odds were in favor of the Warriors, prompting the Trail Blazers to call for a timeout.

After returning, the Trail Blazers ran a baseline double screen tactic, with Vandeweghe using the screens to receive the ball at the right 45-degree angle and sinking a three-pointer!

It was the first three-pointer made by the Trail Blazers in the game, and more importantly, it was a three-point strategy personally designed by Jack Ramsay, a true rarity.

The lead was cut down to 2 points, igniting the Trail Blazers’ hopes for victory once again.

In a crucial offensive play, the Warriors faltered, with the pass on the outside intercepted by Drexler.

The Warriors immediately committed a foul, they hadn’t yet reached the foul limit, and Ramsay used his last timeout.

The atmosphere in the Oakland Arena was suffocating; Guohui covered his face, not daring to watch the final attack.

In his heart, he prayed, "If the Trail Blazers make the buzzer-beater, I’ll go to New York. If they make it, I’ll go to New York!"

He heard the referee’s whistle signaling the end of the timeout, and the Trail Blazers were about to inbound the ball; Guohui dared not look even more.

If the people around him cheered, it must have been a goal, since all the Chinese fans around Guohui were Trail Blazers supporters.

If the cheers came from afar, then it must have been a miss, and the Trail Blazers would have lost.

5, 4, 3, 2... Guohui counted down silently in his mind, when suddenly a thunderous cheer, almost deafening, nearly swept him off his feet.

He quickly opened his eyes to see the score had changed to 121:120; the Portland Trail Blazers had taken the lead!

It was a buzzer-beater! And it was a three-point buzzer-beater at that! Who was it, who had made that final buzzer-beater?

"Who was it? Who made the buzzer-beater? Who?" Guohui asked his girlfriend over and over.

"Oh, it was your brother, number 11, your brother made it!" Lisa said impatiently. "Hey, remember to take us backstage later."

"Wow! My brother made another buzzer-beater! Another one! Why did I say another..." Guohui shouted while holding Lisa, and then suddenly he calmed down and loudly said to Lisa, "Lisa, let’s break up!"

Lisa clearly hadn’t heard Guohui properly amidst the noise, and leaned in to ask, "What did you say?"

"I said let’s break up!"

Lisa looked shocked and asked, "What? Why?"

"No reason! I just want to break up!"

"Freak!" Lisa threw a drink bottle at Guohui and left with her friends.

Guohui didn’t care at all; the Trail Blazers had won, the game was over, and many things had come to an end.

To end means to begin anew, he decided to start a new life.