Chapter 789: Chapter 20: Enduring the Old Man
[You’ve played basketball for 10 years, with more and more games, travels, failures, victories, everything entangling and consuming you.
What I want to say is, after playing for 8 years, basketball started having some negative effects on me, especially after you play a lot of games, you will start to feel it.
You continue to play, but you realize that you no longer have passion and desire for basketball, and at the same time, you become more critical of everything around you.
Being all-in on basketball for the entire season, like when you were younger, may no longer be possible for teammates, coaches, management, media.
Your spirits fluctuate, and everything around you seems to be a distraction.
That year, I took a break and didn’t watch any basketball games.
I played tennis and golf, and for the first time in 10 years, I acted on my own schedule.
My knees had problems, I was no longer the player I used to be, I couldn’t dominate the game.
I must say, after leaving, I miss those days when I played 35, 40 minutes per game and scored 20, 25 points.
After a year away, I feel completely different about everything.
I start to realize what an honor it is to play in the NBA, how great it is. I think I’ll probably play for another three, four years.]
————Excerpt from an interview with Sidney Moncrief after retiring in the 1988-1989 season and coming back for the 1990-1991 season.
On the last night of 1990, Gan Guoyang was hitting three-pointers one after another in his home’s basketball court, transitioning from 1990 to 1991.
This court had just been built this summer right by his house, with special glass walls erected over the open space to create this space for himself. As per agreement, aside from his wife and son, others were not allowed to enter without permission.
In daylight, from outside, it was a structure shimmering with a blue light, a bit like a pyramid or a glass tent, where sunlight could shine in, but outsiders couldn’t see inside, while inside, one could observe everything outside.
At night, it remained hidden in the darkness, its lights never shining outward, like a mysterious post-modernist building that made it hard even to find where the entrance was.
In fact, it had no door; it was connected to Gan Guoyang’s villa’s basement through a secret passage. Whenever Gan felt annoyed and the itch to play basketball, he would go into the basement to change his clothes and enter the court through the passage to enjoy his private basketball moments.
Just like many, many years later.
These moments were precious to Gan Guoyang, for with every championship win, his fame grew, and his personal time became increasingly scarce.
Everybody’s day only has 24 hours; he had to divide his time between the team, sponsors, fans, family, the gym, media, and so many other people.
The time left for himself was very little. Except for closing his eyes to sleep, as soon as he opened his eyes, his life was filled with all kinds of people and things.
Just like Michael Jordan, occasionally, he also felt a hint of weariness about his role.
He was Portland’s basketball deity, the guarantee of victory, the symbol of invincibility.
In front of the camera, he always maintained an image of health, wellness, and vitality.
He was the Trail Blazers’ nanny, the big brother figure, and he could handle all the team’s internal disputes.
His teammates’ dissatisfaction over playing time, dissatisfaction with their roles, Gan would strive to resolve them.
There were too many capable players on the Trail Blazers, and they were all star players during their youth, so accepting the role of a role player was not easy.
In fact, a considerable part of the League thought they had not received the treatment they deserved, believing they could make it to the All-Star Game, and the reason they did not was due to insufficient playing time.
Bobby Berman did everything in his power to balance the players’ playing time, sometimes even having to sacrifice some of Gan Guoyang’s court time, or due to rotations, training other players, leading to the team losing games.
At those times, Gan Guoyang was the ballast, the stabilizer, guaranteeing a positive team atmosphere. With him in the locker room, no one dared to misbehave.
However, correspondingly, when Gan himself had grievances, he could only swallow them because who could he vent to?
None, after a loss, he was always the first to take responsibility rather than blame his teammates for the defeat.
Even if it indeed was the teammates’ issue, poor defense, missing the game-winner, critical errors, and so on.
Gan Guoyang would still take the primary responsibility, rather than having the attitude of ’if we win it’s because of me, if we lose it’s because the teammates are bad’.
Others can rely on him, but he can only rely on himself, that’s the price of being the number one.
Standing on top of the mountain, there are no higher mountains in sight, no rocks behind to lean on.
Tonight, New Year’s Eve, naturally people were not going to let Gan Guoyang spend the end of 1990 alone in his home.
Tang Jianguo invited the celebrities from the West Coast to hold a New Year’s Eve party in Gan Guoyang’s home where people mingled and shared, a perfect image of high society.
Gan Guoyang didn’t enjoy this.
His relationship with Tang Jianguo had always been subtle. He genuinely disliked this American, his ostentatiousness, flamboyance, and cunningness were all tiring.
Yet, he was clever, with his passion for sports, for the Portland Trail Blazers (of course one could say it was passion for victory and money), he followed West’s advice in building the team and was willing to invest in making a champion team.
