The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 438 - 56: Change of Weather

After securing the Slam Dunk Contest championship, Gan Guoyang leapt into history as the unparalleled champion of both the Three-point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest.

In the future NBA, no player would ever achieve such a feat, especially not within the same All-Star Weekend event.

He became the biggest winner of this All-Star Weekend.

Without a doubt, the biggest loser was Michael Jordan.

Not only did he lose to Gan Guoyang in the Slam Dunk Contest, an event in which he excelled, but he also "made history" in the Three-point Contest with the lowest record of 5 points.

Latter, no player would be coerced like Jordan into participating in the Three-point Contest, naturally, there wouldn’t be a lower score.

However, Jordan took it very sportingly, and after Gan Guoyang won the championship, the two shook hands and took pictures together under the basket.

"Sorry Michael, I stole one of your Slam Dunk championships." If Gan Guoyang remembered correctly, the 1987 Slam Dunk champion should be Jordan.

His last ’umbrella dunk’ was indeed too advanced for the 80s audience and judges who had never seen such an entertaining and creative dunk before.

At that time, the entire NBA still had an air of rustic charm, with players being rather shy and reserved. There were few tattoos among the players, and most wore meticulously high socks, sneakers, shorts; they didn’t look cool at all.

For someone like Jordan who wore flashy gold chains and flamboyant sneakers, he was quite ostentatious and an exception, leading the trends of the times.

But even he couldn’t compare to Gan Guoyang, who had at least 5 creative ideas in his mind that could score full points on the final dunk.

Under the plain and simple lighting of the venue, Gan Guoyang was like a bolt of lightning cutting through the sky; it would be difficult for the fans to accept if he didn’t win the championship.

"What do you mean stole? What’s yours is yours, and I’ll take it back next year."

"I believe that, but I won’t be participating next year."

"Why not? You have to participate next year."

"I’ve already won the championship, why should I compete again?"

"So if you win the championship, you don’t want to win it again?"

"The championship is different; it’s about team honor, and with so many people on our team, don’t I have to win more?"

The two joked with each other as they headed back to the locker room, marking the end of the Three-point and Slam Dunk Contests.

Come Sunday’s All-Star Game, Gan Guoyang, who had already won the All-Star MVP the previous year, didn’t try to hog the spotlight.

He volunteered to Pat Riley, "Let me sit on the bench more, I want to rest and save my energy for the Lakers."

Upon hearing this, Riley wished he could have him play the full 48 minutes to give that guy a good workout.

This was the fifth time Coach Riley had served as the head coach of the Western All-Star Team, and he believed he knew every Western All-Star player like the back of his hand. However, Gan Guoyang was the one he found increasingly inscrutable.

During the ’87 season, Riley lived in a state of anxiety, having lost weight compared to last year, and his appearance became more severe.

In earlier years, he used to wear glasses to soften his image, making him appear more approachable.

This season, he ditched the ornamental gold-rimmed glasses, and his clothing style shifted to darker colors.

Driven by a flame for revenge, the Lakers dominated the regular season.

The Houston Twin Towers had fallen, with Ralph Sampson injured again just before the All-Star Game, missing out on the Seattle All-Star event.

The League replaced him with Seattle SuperSonics star Tom Chambers, hoping that a local star could boost the All-Star market.

The Dallas Mavericks built their team to challenge the Lakers, repeatedly causing trouble for them during the regular season. Mark Aguirre wanted to prove to his good friend Magic Johnson that he was better than James Worthy.

But Riley knew that as long as Sam Bowie couldn’t grow to suppress Jabbar, the Lakers wouldn’t fear the Mavericks.

The only team the Lakers feared was the Portland Trail Blazers; the Lakers had lost twice to the Trail Blazers that season, with their sole win being a narrow one.

As a coach, Riley found no way to stop Gan Guoyang, and having Jabbar breached in the low post was a problem the Lakers found hard to accept.

General Manager Jerry West feared that Gan Guoyang would become the next Bill Russell; he didn’t want the Lakers to relive the nightmares of the 60s.

Gan Guoyang’s emergence prompted West to change his recruiting strategy. In the past, he preferred all-rounded veteran power forwards to partner with Jabbar; now, he favored younger centers who could at least offer some resistance to Ah Gan’s one-on-one play on defense.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss appeared calm on the surface, claiming that as long as the team played beautiful basketball, victory was a natural outcome. However, behind the scenes, he kept lobbying New York to exert pressure on NBA headquarters, arguing that the League could no longer allow one-on-one plays like Gan Guoyang’s and Jordan’s.

With such anxiety, Riley couldn’t fully enjoy this All-Star Weekend. Rarely seen with a smile on his face, he seemed resigned to his role as All-Star head coach. He didn’t want to do it and would rather let someone else take over, but he had no choice.

The game took place at the enormous Kingdome, and to everyone’s surprise, it was intensely contested, leading to overtime.

In the final moments, Blackman’s free throw helped the Western All-Star Team secure a victory, while Tom Chambers, who stepped up to replace Ralph Sampson, scored 34 points to take home the All-Star MVP.

For a SuperSonics player to become the star among stars in Seattle, there couldn’t be a better script.

The 1987 All-Star Game concluded successfully, and David Stern was very satisfied with the Seattle All-Star festivities.

The three-point and the dunk contests had garnered massive attention, and the underdog story of the All-Star Game itself was equally satisfying.

The success of the All-Star Game further enhanced Stern’s prestige within the league, giving the league confidence to face a series of challenges ahead.

The development of the NBA was clearly not smooth sailing; behind the glitz, crises loomed, persisting throughout the ’70s and ’80s.

In just three seasons, Stern had solidified his position and rapidly pulled the NBA out of the mire, setting it on an upward trajectory.

However, the challenges were far from over. In fact, they were just beginning because, starting from the autumn of 1987, the league was to enter a new round of labor negotiations, with Stern facing the challenge of Larry Fleisher and the Players Union.

Judging from the current stance of Larry Fleisher and the Players Union, the outlook seemed pessimistic.

Fleisher wanted to eliminate the recently implemented salary cap, remove restrictions on player trades, and ultimately dismantle the NBA draft system, transitioning to a system resembling European football where players are almost entirely free agents.

Such a large appetite from Fleisher was difficult for Stern and many owners to stomach, as these three systems were foundational to the NBA’s normal operation and were the bedrock Stern had built for the future of the NBA. Fleisher’s attempt to pull the rug out from under the league threatened to bring the NBA to ruin.

Of course, Stern and the owners knew Fleisher’s goal wasn’t to destroy the NBA but to leverage this tactic to secure more benefits for the players and for labor, which is the reason the Players Union exists.

This major battle would officially commence in the summer of 1988, and currently, both sides were in the preparation phase, mustering their forces and seeking support theoretically, legally, and from public opinion, to carve out the largest piece of the pie in this struggle for interests.

Without a doubt, the Seattle All-Star Game had scored major points for Stern and the NBA office, and successful publicity would bring the players more exposure. As league revenue increased and broadcasting contracts grew, player salaries would rise accordingly.

Which player or owner wouldn’t like such a decisive, marketing-savvy commissioner and management team?

But Fleisher’s camp couldn’t be underestimated either, with a core group of league’s star players and retired veterans, led by Gan Guoyang, firmly standing by his side, significantly increasing the league’s negotiation pressure.

Beneath the surface of the 23 teams, undercurrents were swirling, but the NBA regular season went on as usual.

After the All-Star Game, as the season entered its second half and the trade deadline neared, teams were working hard to strengthen their rosters for the final playoff push.

The Houston Rockets, with two key players suspended and Ralph Sampson injured, traded two draft picks to the Los Angeles Clippers for Maxwell to maintain competitiveness.

The Clippers’ trade of Marques Johnson for Maxwell had been a complete failure from the start.

Marques did not win a championship with Boston, and after the loss of his beloved son, he became disenchanted and faded from the basketball world.

Maxwell, heartbroken by Boston’s trade, was just biding his time at 30 with the Clippers. Now with the Rockets, he hoped to contribute whatever he had left.

The Clippers had accidentally received the 1986 second overall pick, Len Bias, who could have perfectly replaced Marques and Maxwell, becoming the Clippers’ new star. Tragically, he died of a drug overdose.

It was a trade with no winners.

The Clippers’ rebuilding effort failed, the playoffs were out of reach, and they began a massive fire sale.

The team had hit rock bottom, suffering a 12-game losing streak in December, followed by a 16-game losing streak in January.

If it weren’t for the Seattle SuperSonics gifting them a warm win in between, they would have amassed a staggering 29 consecutive losses.

As the season’s end neared, they would face even more defeats, making victories hard to come by.

On February 13, the Los Angeles Clippers traded their center James Donaldson to the Detroit Pistons for two first-round draft picks and one second-round pick.

This trade displeased both the Los Angeles Lakers, in the same city, and the Boston Celtics, far away in Boston.

The Lakers were unhappy because they had communicated with the Clippers earlier, trying to trade for Donaldson as a backup for Jabbar to counter Gan Guoyang.

But Sterling had no interest in the Lakers’ offer and didn’t want to trade with a city rival, sending Donaldson to the Eastern Conference instead.

Jerry West’s plans for strengthening the team before the trade deadline fell through, and he had to rely on rookie Duckworth to face Ah Gan.

The Celtics were upset because the Clippers’ trade further strengthened the Detroit Pistons, making their frontcourt terrifyingly deep.

The Clippers had already given Melvin Turpin to the Pistons; why would they give an excellent center like Donaldson to the Detroiters?

With the Celtics currently dealing with injuries and retirements, leaving only their starting five usable, could they withstand the rapidly rising "pack of wolves" from Detroit?

The gap between the Eastern and Western Conferences was becoming ever more apparent.