The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 331 - 67: Unlucky

At the end of March, on a spring evening, Gan Guoyang received a call from Stockton, who said his marriage proposal had been successful.

Gan Guoyang was surprised, as the guy had started planning the proposal last year and tried for nearly half a year with no news.

Gan Guoyang thought Stockton had come to his senses, not wanting to enter the grave of love at such a young age, but it turned out he couldn’t resist and had written his own epitaph.

"How come I haven’t seen any news? Didn’t you propose during a home game?" Gan Guoyang thought that if Stockton had proposed at home, it would have made the news.

"No, I gave up on that plan. Although it was nice, every time I was ready to propose, our team lost the game, so I dared not propose anymore."

Last time the Trail Blazers played in Salt Lake City, Stockton planned to propose, but they lost, and he wasn’t in the mood.

He decided to change the game, yet they lost again, still leaving him without the mood.

In the games they won, either the timing wasn’t right, or Nada was too busy to come watch.

On his third attempt to propose, at a Jazz home game against Knight, they lost again...

After the game, Coach Layden was furious, saying the team played like crap and wondering why their form was so poor.

Stockton, drenched in sweat, did not dare to think about the home game proposal plan anymore, not with 41 home games at stake in a season.

Later, he decided to use the most old-fashioned method, inviting Nada to a candlelit dinner and proposing to her at the dinner table.

But Stockton, too excited and driving a little over the speed limit, got pulled over by the police. Upon checking, the car was not registered or insured, so it was impounded!

Due to his status as a Jazz player, the police let him off without harsher punishment, but the dinner was definitely out of the question, and so was the proposal.

Stockton was very dejected. He believed God was preventing him from getting married, so he put the plan on hold and focused on training and games.

It wasn’t until March of this year that Stockton and Nada both caught the flu. Normally living apart, the two of them huddled together for several days.

They took care of each other, cooked together, reminded each other to take medicine, brought water, and took each other’s temperature.

Suddenly, Stockton felt he should propose to Nada, so he took out the ring and knelt before Nada, who was wrapped in a blanket with a runny nose.

"Then she said yes, and she’s still there admiring the ring, been at it for hours now. She says she wants to admire it all night."

Over the phone, Gan Guoyang could smell the sourness in Stockton’s tone and asked, "How much did the ring cost? Don’t tell me it was another promotion giveaway!"

"No, I got a really nice ring. We’re planning to have the wedding this summer, set in Rogue Valley, Oregon. You must come."

"Don’t worry, congratulations John, you’ll definitely be happy."

"Of course, by the way, Sonny, are you planning..."

"Stop! Don’t ask me that question!"

"Alright, alright, Fosse is a great girl."

"I know. Let’s talk about something else."

After a while, Wang Fuxi, who had finished showering and was toweling his hair, asked, "Who was on the phone?"

"Stockton."

"What happened?"

"He’s dead."

"Dead? What, how can that be! But... if he’s dead, how could he have called you?"

"A part of him is dead. He was calling to have me mourn with him."

-----------------

By April, the regular season was ending, and the playoff contenders were entering their adjustment period, while the teams on the fringe fought desperately for playoff spots.

The situation in the Western Conference was clearer, with the Trail Blazers relying on their strong performance to gradually leave the Lakers and Rockets behind, maintaining a lead of at least two games.

As long as they didn’t play too poorly at the end of the season, they would enter the playoffs as the Western Conference’s number one seed, the first time since the 1977-1978 season.

The Trail Blazers’ first-round playoff opponent will emerge from the Spurs, Suns, and Kings, among which the Suns have little chance of catching up to the Spurs who are currently in eighth place.

Walter Davis, having returned to the court after drug rehabilitation, still manages to perform well, but the foundation of the Suns has been destroyed, and they are inching ever closer to collapse.

The Lakers continue to maintain their momentum chasing the Trail Blazers, putting pressure on them.

Due to division rules, if they can’t overtake the Trail Blazers, they will rank third.

Then their first-round opponent is likely to be the tough Jazz; Riley doesn’t care who they play in the first round, what he cares about is being first in the Western Conference.

From 1980 to 1985, during six seasons, the Lakers finished first in the Western Conference five times, with the only exception being the 1981 season.

That season, Head Coach Westhead and Magic Johnson had a falling-out, resulting in the Lakers’ first-round elimination—the only time in those six seasons they didn’t make it to the finals.

Riley is very concerned that if they don’t secure first place in the West this year, could it be like 1981 all over again, with the entire team in a state of tension?

On April 6, the Trail Blazers played host to the Lakers, which was an excellent opportunity for the Lakers to narrow the gap in the standings.

From the first quarter, the Lakers maintained a very high level of focus; just like last season, they were not focused at the start of the season, but by the end they found their rhythm, and the Trail Blazers were no longer a match for them.

But this year’s Trail Blazers are not the same team as last year. Under the high-pressure offense and defense of the Lakers, the Trail Blazers withstood the pressure and the score was tightly contested throughout the game.

In the decisive fourth quarter, Jack Ramsay deployed the Lakers’ nemesis—the "three towers"— which sent the Lakers reeling with an 11:3 run.

Jabbar showed clear signs of fatigue when facing the "three towers;" the previous season’s Finals MVP, after a high-scoring season, somehow seemed less than he was the year before in the face of intense competition.

Riley had already realized that Jabbar could no longer be the team’s primary tactical core, but the brilliance of 1985 made it hard to deny this veteran the ball.

Jabbar provided a stable performance with an average of 23.4 points per game during the regular season, the highest since 1982.

However, correspondingly, his average number of rebounds and blocks per game dropped to a new career low.

The rejuvenated veteran expended too much energy on offense, and with reduced defensive efforts, his presence was actually a loss for the Lakers.

The unstoppable "three towers" took complete control of the game in the fourth quarter as the Trail Blazers secured a 117:110 victory at home, with a 7-point advantage over the Lakers.

The Lakers’ hopes of overtaking the Trail Blazers for the standings were all but dashed; as long as the Trail Blazers make no mistakes, the Lakers will have to accept entering the playoffs as the third seed in the West.

In comparison to the West, the Eastern Conference competition is slightly more intense, with the battle for the eighth spot heating up between the Bulls and the Cavaliers, and only a razor-thin margin separating the two.

Michael Jordan, against Klaus’s objections, insisted on making his comeback to play in the regular season.

Concerned about Jordan disrupting his tanking strategy, Klaus instructed the head coach to limit Jordan’s playing time.

In the first five games of his return, Jordan played less than 16 minutes, averaging only four minutes per quarter—with the Bulls losing all five games.

Jordan was infuriated; he didn’t want to tank. He wanted to win games, especially seeing Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers advancing swiftly. He couldn’t stand the idea of simply watching from the sidelines when he was fully capable of playing, all for a future draft pick. He just couldn’t do it.

Faced with his determination, Klaus had no choice but to lift the playing time restriction on Jordan.

In the subsequent games, once Jordan’s playing time exceeded 20 minutes, his scoring never fell below 20 points again.

Clearly, the injury hadn’t had much impact on him, and his thirst for competition and victory was as strong as ever.

But the true rulers of the East were the Boston Celtics; following an ugly loss to the Knicks in a Christmas Day game that they let slip, the Celtics unleashed a terrifying streak of 18 consecutive wins, pushing their record to the top of the League.

Even the Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Celtics at their home court.

Then another 8-game winning streak, followed by 14 straight wins to close out the season—the Celtics lost only one home game at the Boston Garden all season.

They seemed to grow stronger with each battle and were nearly unbeatable as their form continued to improve.

Of course, that one loss at home served as a warning, since it was the Portland Trail Blazers who defeated them.

By the end of the last game on April 13, the Celtics’ record was locked in at an impressive 68 wins and 14 losses.

That was tied for the second-best regular-season record in NBA history at the time.

However, that number wasn’t particularly auspicious.