Chapter 952: Chapter 12: Windbreaker
After some discussion, Gan Guoyang named his daughter Gan Wenyi, meaning as sweet as honey, hoping her future life would be as sweet as living in honey.
When Gan Wenshan was around, the feeling of fatherly love towards a child wasn’t particularly strong for Gan Guoyang, after all, Gan Wenshan was a son, and he had expectations for him, hoping he would achieve something significant in the future.
When Gan Wenshan could crawl, Gan Guoyang intentionally observed his son’s gross motor skills to see if he inherited the genes of his steel-like body.
Now Gan Wenshan can walk, he’s a healthy, strong little boy. If he could inherit some of his father’s athletic talents, he might also become a remarkable athlete in the future.
Whether it’s basketball, soccer, or other sports, it doesn’t matter to Gan Guoyang. He actually doesn’t hope that Gan Wenshan pursues a career in basketball. If Gan Wenshan also plays basketball, he’s almost destined to always live in the shadow of his father.
Rather than that, it’s better to open a new path, go to new realms, and create his own world.
For his daughter, Gan Guoyang’s expectations are completely different. At the moment of holding his daughter, he only had one thought: hoping she leads a healthy and happy life.
He finally understood what kind of feelings Gan Youwei had towards him, as a parent who deeply loves his children, it’s the kind of emotion one carries for their child.
These were feelings he found difficult to understand in the past, and it’s also the thing he is most grateful for upon coming to this time and space: it’s not the plug-in-like basketball career, but being able to feel the warmth of family.
With the arrival of the new member, Gan Youwei left San Francisco again and came to Portland, where he settled in a small room in Gan Guoyang’s vast villa, cooking and taking care of his wife every day.
Gan Guoyang reserved a comfortable large room for Gan Youwei, but he refused to stay there, insisting on living in the cramped attic, sleeping on a narrow wooden bed.
He said he was used to sleeping in such a room and bed, and he would be unable to sleep the whole night in a big room and comfortable Simmons mattress.
Gan Guoyang had no choice, knowing Gan Youwei’s stubbornness.
He also insisted on feeding the child at night, changing diapers, then attending training with sleepiness during the day, and playing games at night.
On days when he left Portland for away games, he would call home on time every day to check on the situation at home.
The birth of his daughter gave Gan Guoyang more motivation to play basketball, all the weariness and fatigue vanished at that moment.
Defeating the Phoenix Suns became a turning point, that night after the game, Charles Barkley sent Ah Gan a large bouquet of flowers and a small gift, congratulating him on having a daughter.
"Dear Sonny,
for the sake of your daughter,
be a person.
— Charles Barkley"
This was Barkley’s message to Gan Guoyang in the gift box.
Barkley has always been the greatest poet in the NBA.
Gan Guoyang smiled and decided to go easy next time facing the Phoenix Suns, not to play too relentlessly.
As for other teams, they weren’t so lucky. After having a daughter, Gan Guoyang’s performance began to rise again, as if he had returned to the beginning of the season.
On February 20th, the Trail Blazers faced the Los Angeles Clippers at home.
The Clippers, after suffering several seasons of poor performance, ushered in new head coach Mike Schuler in the 1990-1991 season.
Schuler, after working for the Bucks for a while, lifted the team defense upon arriving at the Clippers, leading the team to 31 wins in the 91 season, returning to the right track.
In the 1991-1992 season, the Clippers built a lineup based on Ron Harper, Danny Manning, Doug Rivers, Charles Smith, and Haitian center Olden Polynice.
This lineup is very competitive in the Western Conference in both offense and defense, and Schuler, with his extreme pursuit of detail in coaching, led the Clippers to the threshold of the playoffs.
However, compared to the past, Clippers owner Sterling hadn’t changed at all, he was still extremely impatient, causing the Clippers team to constantly be in an impetuous atmosphere.
Before the All-Star Game, the Clippers dismissed Schuler, who helped the Clippers rise from ruins, and assistant coach Mike Calvin took over Schuler’s position.
But Mike Calvin was merely a temporary replacement, after coaching one game, the Clippers had a new coach candidate: Larry-Brown.
Brown was fired by the Spurs in January, and the direct reason for his departure from the Spurs was the same as Schuler, players resisted his control, the conflict between coach and players couldn’t be reconciled.
The difference lies in that Larry-Brown is genuinely more malevolent, he’s notorious among coaches for being harsh to players.
While Mike Schuler was more neurotic, too tense about basketball work, making it impossible to build good relationships with players.
Entering the 90s, players’ salaries were getting higher, their fame growing popular, more endorsements, and increasingly bigger tempers.
Authoritarian coaches have less and less room to survive in the NBA, star players prefer inspirational coaches, like nurturing coaches.
They could mingle with players, understand players’ needs, especially star players, can ensure the time on court and data performance for star players, which is crucial for contracts.
In the past 10 years, the Los Angeles Clippers have changed coaches 8 times, with an average coaching tenure of less than two years.
Two years aren’t enough to bring significant changes to a team, even those who could lead a team to finals and win championships in their first year, there would surely be a coach or manager who had worked hard for years upfront, laying a solid foundation for the team to truly achieve great outcomes.
