The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 423 - 41 The Unparalleled Pair

In the 1987 season, Nielsen Company had not yet started to track ratings for the NBA’s Christmas battle. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

But this year, during the CBS television broadcast of the Christmas battle, the cost for advertising slots increased by two hundred percent compared to usual.

In this way, a large number of companies still participated in the competition for commercial times during halftime and timeouts, hoping to get a piece of the action during this basketball feast.

In fact, the Trail Blazers and the Bulls were quite mismatched in strength, and from the first minute of the game, the Trail Blazers were playing high and pressing down on the Bulls, who were struggling under Jordan’s leadership.

Previously, games with such a large disparity in strength hardly captured the wide attention of basketball fans; only die-hard, local fans would be interested.

However, due to the competition between Gan Guoyang and Jordan, the game became much more interesting, especially for ordinary, non-die-hard fans.

In reality, most audiences, particularly TV viewers, mainly watch the game for the excitement.

Blood-pumping dunks, adrenaline-fueled fast breaks, dazzling one-on-one offense, and impressively precise long shots are the types of exciting elements that ordinary fans can grasp, keeping them glued to their TV sets.

Whereas tactical contests and team discipline, which seasoned fans, professionals, and sideline coaches care about, have a certain threshold of appreciation which most fans are not that interested in.

Even if some team offenses are pleasing to watch, fans will just think "Wow, that offense is smooth"; expecting them to spot the fine details is both difficult and unnecessary.

As the new President, David Stern understood this well; he didn’t operate the NBA from a basketball professional’s perspective, but rather designed and planned NBA games from the viewpoint of ordinary fans, and even those who weren’t fans at all.

What attracts people the most, what can get someone with no interest in basketball gradually hooked and turn them into an NBA consumer, what can spark public discourse on the sport—Stern had a clear idea about all of this.

"Gan vs. Joe" was one of the most powerful weapons in his arsenal. If "Magic vs. Bird" still carried a whiff of the old era’s leftovers, Gan Guoyang and Jordan, the two superstars who entered the NBA alongside Stern, exuded the vitality of the new era from every pore.

The final quarter of the Christmas battle turned into a showdown between Gan Guoyang and Jordan.

They displayed all the skills they seldom used during the game, maximizing their offensive and defensive capabilities and starting a head-to-head battle at the crucial moment.

Gan Guoyang began to defend Jordan personally. When Drexler wanted to come over to help defend, Gan shouted at him, "Back off"!

Similarly, when Charles Oakley wanted to come over for a pick and roll, Jordan waved him away impatiently, indicating he did not want the interference.

Thus, during the game’s critical moments, other players cleared out on the court, the camera focused on the two men, and the game turned into their one-on-one duel.

Jordan’s penetrations were difficult to defend, not only because of his explosive speed but also due to his strong adjustment ability.

If you managed to follow his breakthrough to the right, he would immediately pull back and go left. If you could keep up, then he would suddenly switch back to the right. Essentially, he was capable of moving opposite to your predictions, making your anticipation useless.

Jordan’s physical control was also evident in his high-difficulty layups; when he landed after an aerial contest, he almost never fell.

Whether he was pushed or squeezed by someone, or collided with a tall center, no matter how contorted his body got in the air, even if he charged fiercely and completely lost his balance, he would always land steadily instead of falling face-first or landing on his butt.

This was another area where Drexler fell far short of Jordan—Drexler would blindly charge and couldn’t control his body, after all, he was a Glider lacking power, whereas Jordan was the Airman.

When facing average defenders, Jordan didn’t even need to rely on this control, as he could surpass them in a single step.

It was only against Gan Guoyang that Jordan’s physical control was showcased in full glory; starting, pulling back, dribbling between his legs, moving left, changing direction outward, and then suddenly pulling up for a jump shot!

And yet Gan Guoyang kept up with him at every step and managed to get a hand up in front of Jordan, who still made the shot.

"You almost had me there, Sonny," said Jordan to Gan Guoyang after making the basket.

This infuriated Gan Guoyang; soon after, he received the ball in a far-out position, backing against Oakley, with Jordan coming over to help defend.

Gan used his dribbling to break away from the encirclement; Jordan patted Oakley, signaling him to back off, wanting to defend Gan one-on-one.

The two positioned themselves near the three-point line on the left side; here, height and strength didn’t play as significant a role as they did under the basket.

If Gan made a light move, Jordan would undoubtedly swipe the ball away. If he passed the ball? Where would that leave Gan’s face?

"Pass the ball, Sonny, or you’ll turn it over."

Jordan verbally assaulted Gan Guoyang while the Trail Blazers were still leading the Bulls by five points.

At the same time, he stuck closely to Gan, standing straight, his left hand on Gan’s waist, his right hand raised, fluttering in front of Gan’s eyes to disturb him, and his lower body blocking Gan off—a very good defensive posture.

In normal circumstances, a player would definitely give up on going solo and pass the ball to a teammate for a transition, seeking a better offensive position.

But Gan Guoyang knew that wouldn’t do; this was a duel between the two of them, and the other Trail Blazers players consciously kept away, not wanting to spoil it, just watching with their hands on their hips from the weak side.

Gan Guoyang adjusted his stance with the ball, ensuring his pivot foot was set before using his shoulder and body to bump Jordan, the great force pushing Jordan back a step. Guoyang immediately put the ball down, dribbled to create distance, and did so with his left hand.

Jordan immediately went for the steal, but Gan Guoyang was prepared. With a behind-the-back dribble, he avoided Jordan’s reach, and as Jordan gambled on the steal and lost his defensive position, Gan Guoyang drove right to the basket. His huge right hand grasped the ball, dodging Oakley’s defense in the air and scoring the layup with ease.

Gan Guoyang’s strides during the drive were enormous; he started gathering the ball from the free-throw line, palming it with one hand, taking two steps to storm into the paint unstoppably.

As a tall player, he didn’t have Jordan’s freakish control and swaying moves, but with broad strides and clean footwork, his snatching of the ball and layup seemed natural and effortless, truly a blend of Doctor J and G Doctor Plus.

After scoring, Gan Guoyang looked at Jordan and said, "How does it feel to eat my dust? You’re far from capable of guarding me!"

Jordan was a bit frustrated; his risky attempt at a steal had cost him his defensive position, but he had no choice. With the team trailing, steals and fast breaks were the best way to catch up.

These two plays were a microcosm of the full-game duel between Jordan and Gan Guoyang in the fourth quarter and were also a climax.

In the past, these kinds of plays were considered unreasonable and would have been criticized by the coach. Jordan, after drawing the defense of the big men, how could you go one-on-one? You should have passed to the mismatched player inside for a higher success rate.

Gan Guoyang’s play was even more outrageous. Being near the three-point line on the left side is a "dead zone" for a center. The best course of action would be to pass the ball to a teammate to reorganize the offense, but you went one-on-one with the opposing guard and even played with a behind-the-back dribble?

Unreasonable, too unreasonable.

But the 1980s audience loved seeing unreasonable stuff.

It was like a time machine sending people to the future, terminators from the future coming back to the present, E.T. the extraterrestrial arriving on earth, RoboCop maintaining law and order, and aliens from space spreading terror; the audience’s imagination and emotions were greatly stimulated.

The bland, rule-abiding, and reasonable narrative would only seem boring to people who craved stronger thrills.

As the game reached its final moments, Jordan broke through to the basket against triple defense, switching hands in mid-air before finally making the shot.

But in response, Gan Guoyang received a pass from Drexler and sank a three-pointer from the outside, completely extinguishing the Bulls’ hopes of a comeback.

At the same time, Jordan’s score stopped at 46 points, while Gan Guoyang’s total score reached 47 points, one more than Jordan.

Their scores were 99:104. In the last possession, Jordan could have taken the opportunity to score and surpass Guoyang, but he chose not to.

He threw the ball to Guoyang and said, "See you in Chicago, Merry Christmas."

Clutching the ball, Gan Guoyang replied, "Merry Christmas, Michael. Is your foot so sore you can’t stand it?"

"None of your business; just take care of yourself."

As they spoke, the buzzer signaling the end of the game sounded, and the two embraced briefly before Jordan, enduring the pain in his foot, headed back to the locker room through the players’ tunnel.

Once in the locker room, Jordan immediately took off his shoes and socks to reveal a bigger blister on his left foot.

The team doctor sterilized the scalpel and lanced the blister, squeezing out the pus while Jordan winced in pain.

The team doctor consoled him, "You played great tonight, Michael. You didn’t lose; nobody knows how badly your foot hurt."

Jordan didn’t respond. He knew the doctor was trying to comfort him, but he never accepted the logic of losing the game but not personally accepting defeat.

After treating his toe blister, it quickly returned to normal, and with some rest, it didn’t affect his subsequent games; he continued to play as usual.

However, the day after Christmas, Jordan read a piece of news in the newspaper:

"Ah Gan, due to a severe cold, will miss the December 27th game against the Suns. It’s said that he contracted the cold virus during activities before Christmas. Despite pushing through the Christmas showdown, he couldn’t hold on any longer and chose to rest."

After reading it, Jordan tore the newspaper to shreds and cursed, "The son of a bitch isn’t giving me any way out. You have a cold, you have a cold; why the hell would you keep playing? If you’re going to play, you might as well have played through the end, and now you rest and even tell the reporters! Fuck!"

Enraged, Jordan dialed Gan Guoyang’s home phone; he had to straighten things out with him, or else Gan would forever be smug about winning while sick.

But he couldn’t get through at all.