The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 417 - 35 Faith

Magic Johnson had a chance to turn the game around.

But in the final defense, Drexler did an excellent job, closely blocking Johnson’s shooting space.

When Johnson tried to cut into the middle with a hook shot to end the game, Gan Guoyang’s help defense caused his hook to miss.

Then Jabbar’s follow-up shot was disrupted by Thompson, and Jerome Kossie rushed to the basket, boxed out Worthy, and grabbed the rebound, securing the victory for his team.

122:121, the first battle of the season between the Trail Blazers and the Lakers, ended with the Trail Blazers’ last-minute comeback victory.

Gan Guoyang scored 46 points tonight, grabbed 18 rebounds, and dished out 7 assists, including a critical three-point assist.

The Lakers players walked off the court with their heads down, dejected, while the Trail Blazers players came forward to high-five Gan Guoyang. Fans in the Great Western Forum started to leave, another bad night for them.

Los Angelenos’ feelings toward Gan Guoyang are getting more and more complex. It’s not quite hate since the guy plays beautifully, and it’s just basketball after all, nothing to hate.

But it’s definitely not love either. After all, he’s an opponent who keeps injuring the Lakers and their fans in the Great Western Forum, to the point where it’s said that "no child in Los Angeles dares to cry out at night."

In any case, Gan Guoyang has played one classic game after another in the Great Western Forum, earning one honor after another, making Los Angeles fans both respect and fear him, just like Madison Square Garden does for Michael Jordan.

At the post-game press conference, Gan Guoyang praised Curry, saying, "Dell Curry’s three-point shot was very important. I believed he could make it, so I passed him the ball. We practice long-range shooting after practice every day, he’s a very talented shooter. He seized the opportunity and helped us win the game."

Curry also received his first post-game interview in his career. In the locker room, he was stopped by reporters and said, "I had been preparing for that shot for a long time. It felt great, really good. I hope this is a good start, and there will be many more such goals waiting for me in the future."

This victory is undoubtedly important for the Trail Blazers, proving that their style can stand up to the powerful Lakers.

Of course, this was a very close win. The Lakers held the advantage from start to finish, but just failed to secure the final stages and were defeated by Gan Guoyang’s individualism.

Riley tried to control his emotions at the press conference, but his complaints about the "one vs. four" tactic were evident: "I think the Lakers are playing the most beautiful basketball in history, which has both entertainment and competitiveness. We have superstars, but we play very much as a team, very evenly. Our tactics and willpower have always been underestimated. Now the League is developing in a worrying direction, advocating individualism, extreme heroism, like Hollywood movies shown in cinemas, more and more heroes overshadow the light of the real world, the real people."

Riley’s words weren’t entirely out of bitterness. Indeed, the world was undergoing significant changes in the mid to late ’80s.

The aftershocks of various sports movements from the ’60s and ’70s had completely dissipated, and the rapid economic development had made the material and entertainment life of ordinary people increasingly rich and colorful.

Individualism began to prevail, the younger generation liked stars, heroes, fresh, vibrant, and eye-catching elements.

Disco began to spread, curly hair, sequins, jeans, miniskirts, Avia sneakers, and Nike air-Jordan frequently appeared in lively TV commercials.

Pat Riley, once a trendsetter, now felt like he was suddenly becoming the spokesperson for conservatives overnight—his shiny hair and immaculate Armani were about to become symbols of being stodgy and stubborn.

The show-time, once criticized as superficial, had actually become a representative of team basketball because it’s motherfucking no. 11 and Eastern no. 23 did something outrageously excessive.

Of course, Riley’s ranting won’t change the direction of the world’s development. In fact, individual heroism had not yet reached its peak in the ’80s. This was just the beginning.

As Gan Guoyang scored 46 points against the Lakers, his average scoring successfully surpassed Michael Jordan, climbing to the top of the scoring list, though only leading Jordan by 0.1 points.

Jordan immediately responded by scoring 43 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers on December 23rd, while Gan Guoyang only managed 35 points in the game against the Suns, hence Jordan leapfrogged over Gan Guoyang to retake the top spot on the scorers’ leaderboard.

The battle for the scoring title between the two intensified, but in an interview with The Oregonian’s Steve Kelly, Gan Guoyang made it clear: "I’m not aiming for the scoring title. I score points just to win games, not for the sake of scoring."

Gan Guoyang was just expressing his feelings, but once a statement is disseminated, it inevitably gets processed, especially comments from celebrities. Exaggeration or even distortion is commonplace. Otherwise, what would those journalists feed on?

So a regular interview article in The Oregonian got turned into the following when reproduced in other newspapers:

"Ah Gan is not interested in the scoring title; the scoring title can’t bring victory." This version is one of the less distorted ones. Who says a scoring champion can’t bring victory? Last year Gan Guoyang was the scoring champion.

"Compared to the scoring title, Ah Gan is more interested in victory and championships, unlike some people who are only scoring for the sake of scoring." This started to add fuel to the fire, insinuating someone, even though Gan Guoyang’s original words were not targeted at anyone.

"Ah Gan said, ’You can have the scoring title, but victory and the championship belong to me.’" This was purely fabricated, with the insinuation throughout that Ah Gan was targeting Michael Jordan.

Later, as his words were reproduced and spread more and more, the original meaning became increasingly distorted.

Years later, there was a story circulating among the fans: Ah Gan mocked Michael Jordan during the 1987 season, saying Jordan sacrificed victory for the scoring title, yet still couldn’t surpass Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang’s response was always the same, "Michael is my best friend, I would never say something like that."

Then the story added another layer: Ah Gan and Jordan were once best friends, but not anymore after the mockery...

In fact, they had always been very good friends, even with the fierce competition for the scoring title, and despite the media frenzy, neither Jordan nor Gan Guoyang ever really attacked each other publicly—of course, according to the media’s fabrication, they were arch enemies locked in a fight to the death.

Behind this were Nike and Avia stirring the pot, as they did not want to miss this rare opportunity to create confrontation, to exploit each other and promote their own brands.

As Christmas 1986 approached, this atmosphere was built up more and more, as this year’s Christmas Day game was set between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Chicago Bulls.

In the early years, Christmas Day games didn’t feature Eastern against Western teams, as transportation wasn’t so advanced, and it was quite painful for away teams to travel to a far-off city over the holiday, not being able to reunite with family in time to celebrate.

So typically, Christmas Day games would choose teams from closer cities, or at least within the same conference.

For example, with the Boston Celtics versus the New York Knicks, the Celtics players could drive themselves to New York, play the match, and then drive home to celebrate; they didn’t have to stay overnight in another city.

Games between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Clippers were even more convenient, as home and away didn’t make a difference, and teams from California were well-suited for the Christmas Day games.

Games like Lakers against Celtics, being the League’s biggest rivalry, would logically be the best choice for Christmas Day games.

But the two cities, one in the northeast corner and the other in the southwest corner, are over 4,800 kilometers apart, taking more than seven hours by plane.

Definitely not being able to leave the same evening after the game, they would have to stay an extra night in another city, then fly almost an entire day to get home the next day, effectively ruining the holiday.

Therefore, such a highly anticipated matchup had never featured in the Christmas Day games in the 1980s, with both players and management disagreeing.

Of course, as a businessman, David Stern undoubtedly wanted the Christmas Day games to feature the most followed teams.

So, during the pre-season scheduling, Stern overcame objections, insisting on arranging a Christmas Day game featuring an Eastern vs. Western Conference battle between the Chicago Bulls and the Portland Trail Blazers.

Despite protests from the management of both the Bulls and the Trail Blazers, Nike and Avia, as League sponsors, pushed hard behind the scenes for this eye-catching showdown.

After discussions, communication, and the special arrangement of flights for the visiting team from American Airlines, this unprecedented East vs. West Christmas Day game appeared on the schedule, a matchup that would not have any like it for a long time afterward.

Once it was confirmed that the Bulls and the Trail Blazers would play on Christmas Day, the two teams stopped protesting and began to argue over whether the game would be played in Chicago or Portland instead.

Portland easily won this battle because the headquarters of both Avia and Nike were in Portland; Chicago had no chance.

As Christmas approached, Nike and Avia both began to hype up this long-awaited scoring champion battle.

[The] Portland downtown area was filled with advertisements from both companies, with Gan Guoyang and Jordan’s sneaker ads appearing in large numbers on television, bombarding the ordinary person’s visual nerves.

In modern society, the television is the new gospel of religion, the priest of consumerist deities preaching in the mortal world, and advertisements are the scriptures in the hands of the priest, repeatedly inputting concepts and symbols into the brains of the public, making them willing to pay with their time, money, and sincere passion. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

This is collectively referred to as faith.

Only in this new religion, one Jesus is black, and the other Jesus is yellow.

The two Jesuses would meet on Christmas Day, to see who is the real strongest idol.