Chapter 930: Chapter 4: Bumping into a Wall_2
Christmas is here, and the League could no longer tolerate its best players refusing to play in the Christmas game. This time, Stern ignored all opposition from the Trail Blazers and firmly forced the schedule to include a Christmas game.
No one can wrestle an arm against a thigh. The Trail Blazers were once again assigned a Christmas game, and their opponent was the unfortunate Denver Nuggets, while the other match was the Chicago Bulls against the Boston Celtics.
The day before Christmas, the entire Trail Blazers team returned to Portland. Gan Guoyang invited both Peterlovic and Sabonis, the two foreign players, along with their families, to spend Christmas Eve together. Beelman and his lawyer girlfriend were also on the guest list.
In the past, before anyone was married, the younger players on the Trail Blazers would always gather together at Drexler’s house and eat meals prepared by Gan Guoyang.
But later on, everyone grew up and started families of their own. Christmas Eve was now reserved for their families and kids, and things could no longer be the same as their single days.
Because of the Christmas game, Gan Guoyang couldn’t go to San Francisco to have barbecue with Nate-Sermonde like he used to.
Last year, Sermonde opened a barbecue joint in San Francisco using a family recipe passed down from his mother. It was called "Big Nate’s Barbecue" and was doing exceptionally well.
Gan Guoyang managed to get the sauce recipe from him so he could make it at home himself.
Tonight, it just so happened to be snowing in Portland. The cold wind and snow outside made the warmth inside the house all the more comforting. Gan Guoyang personally took charge in the kitchen and made a delicious roast chicken.
Gan Guoyang wasn’t particularly fond of turkey meat. He still much preferred a simple roast chicken—juicy and tender, much tastier than the dry texture of turkey meat.
Wang Fuxi’s belly was growing bigger—this was her second pregnancy. With her experience from before, she was well-prepared to handle all the various inconveniences that came with it and could still help entertain the guests a bit.
The house Gan Guoyang lived in was quite large, but typically it only housed the three members of his family, his mother-in-law, three bodyguards, four housekeeping staff, and four temporary security personnel (who didn’t live in). It wasn’t an overwhelming number of people.
Gan Guoyang enjoyed peace and quiet. After all, playing games at the stadium was already chaotic enough, so when he returned home, he needed a bit of tranquility. But after staying home for too long, it would occasionally start to feel a bit lonely.
This Christmas, however, with everyone coming over, the house suddenly became lively. Everyone ate, drank, and played to their hearts’ content—everyone except Sabonis, whose face bore a constant shadow of worry.
Even when he smiled, his brows would stay slightly furrowed, and he didn’t laugh openly as he usually did. It was a little out of character for him.
Holding a glass of wine, Gan Guoyang approached him and asked, "Arvydas, what’s been on your mind? You’ll be healthy and back on the court by next month—lighten up."
During the two months without Sabonis, Gan Guoyang found himself missing him quite a bit. While Gan Guoyang had been putting up jaw-dropping statistics, playing this way was undoubtedly exhausting and demanding.
There was no way he could keep playing with such high energy levels indefinitely. Otherwise, come playoff time, it might be manageable against other teams, but if they faced the Bulls and Jordan in the Finals, he would definitely need reserves of strength to rely on.
This season’s Bulls, and this season’s Jordan, were even stronger and more challenging than last season.
Sabonis gave a faint smile, followed by a helpless sigh. "I wish I could get back on the court right now, even for the next Christmas game. I’m desperate to return to play. But what’s worrying me more... you know it—the Soviet Union is falling apart."
Gan Guoyang was momentarily stunned. So it was the collapse of the Soviet Union that had been troubling Sabonis.
Indeed, when America was immersed in the festive Christmas atmosphere, their old rival, the once-mighty Soviet Union, was teetering on the brink of collapse.
The signs had been there back in 1990. With the Soviet Union’s failed attempts at reform, they were ultimately embarking on the path of systemic restructuring—they were determined to negate everything from their past.
In March 1991, the Soviet Union held a nationwide referendum on whether to preserve the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. However, the results of the referendum seemed to have little influence on the eventual outcome.
By June, as the NBA Finals were in full swing, NBC’s commentators remarked, "Aside from a world war, nothing could be more attention-grabbing than Gan Qiao’s Finals."
Yet, on June 12th, the Soviet Union’s core, the Russian Federation, declared its independence. Soon after, Russia held its presidential election, in which Yeltsin won by a landslide.
This event signaled the Soviet Union’s complete disintegration. Although in August there remained a glimmer of hope—when the military staged a coup and tanks rolled into Moscow—
the coup ultimately failed. Gorbachev was placed under house arrest, the military lacked party leadership, and the tanks didn’t know where to go. In the end, they defected, and the coup was abruptly quashed.
Yeltsin delivered a speech declaring the State Committee for the State of Emergency illegal, and later, at the National Congress, he stripped Gorbachev of power, initiating the irremediable collapse of the Soviet Union.
One by one, the Union republics declared independence. By December 21st, 11 republics signed to form the CIS in Almaty, Kazakhstan, effectively sentencing the Soviet Union to death.
On December 23rd, Gorbachev was stripped of all his powers and left the Kremlin. The last order he ever signed, officially declaring the dissolution, would take place tomorrow—Christmas Day.
Sabonis had witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union’s grand edifice. As a Lithuanian, he supported Lithuania’s independence, yet at the same time, he held strong feelings for the Soviet Union.
When he was born, the Soviet Union had been one of the world’s most powerful superpowers. The national team he represented was under the Soviet Union. All the honors he had achieved in Europe and across the globe were won as a Soviet citizen.
And so, at this moment, he felt lost. The spiritual homeland he once knew—that once-mighty Union—was now exiting the stage of history, dissolving into dust.
