[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-golden-age-of-basketball":3,"chapter-the-golden-age-of-basketball-the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-1440":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Golden Age of Basketball",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1445007,1896,"Chapter 1440 - 47: The Boy Who Never Grew Up","the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-1440",1440,"\u003Cp>Due to the absence of Olajuwon and Charles Barkley, the game between the Trail Blazers and the Heat was uneventful, lacking suspense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the All-Star Game, Gan Guoyang was in scorching form, and without the two main cores, no one on the Heat’s inside could stop him from rampaging in the low post.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>98:91, the Trail Blazers defeated the Heat by an 8-point advantage on the road, handing the Heat their second consecutive loss and getting their Eastern road trip off to a good start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kobe, who started in the game, scored 17 points, shooting 6 of 10, and 2 of 3 from three-point range, performing rather well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Drexler also scored 24 points, he seemed to lack interest throughout the game, and even when Kobe broke through and dunked on him, Drexler had little response or display.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He just smiled, received the pass, and continued to participate in the offense normally, not taking Kobe’s smugness to heart — he really looked like he needed a beating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the game, Drexler and Gan Guoyang hugged, the two remained good friends, and Ah Gan was still the godfather of Drexler’s daughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly, Drexler wore Avia sneakers, and when negotiating a new contract, he needed Ah Gan to help him out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Drexler achieved quite a brilliant career as a player and was very famous, but his contracts were always relatively small.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether with the Trail Blazers or the Heat, Drexler was never the highest-paid, and often not even the second highest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This summer, Drexler, Gan Guoyang, and the Heat signed a two-year, $11 million US Dollar contract, with the last year being a player option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This salary level, at this stage, many rookies can’t match, and a veteran with four rings, who was once the core of the team and lifted the Heat’s reputation, couldn’t even get a long-term, high-value contract.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the end of the 1997-1998 season, Drexler will be 35 years old, not completely incapable of playing, but Riley was unwilling to sign Drexler to a longer, larger contract.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From 1988 when he was lured away from Portland to the extension until the 1997-1998 season, Drexler will have spent 10 years in Miami.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Drexler was determined to become the Sun of Miami, and he finally got a new championship ring, but everything was vastly different from the future he had once imagined, far from becoming a star.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But overall, he was satisfied with these ten years, so, unlike Olajuwon, facing Riley’s stinginess and coldness, Drexler chose to make do, two years is two years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t have a strong desire for money; anyway, the money earned in his career is enough for a lifetime. Signing a lifetime contract with Avia, the NBA will still provide a pension after 45, and after retirement, he can find a job in commentary, coaching, or management. As long as he doesn’t make bad investments or have a bunch of illegitimate children, he won’t have financial worries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And after signing the contract, he did not shy away from telling a friendly reporter that there was a 99% chance he would retire after the 1997-1998 season, end his athletic career, and start a new life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His pursuit of basketball was really not much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The obsessions that once drove him forward no longer exist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew he could never be a player like Ah Gan; there was an insurmountable barrier between them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This barrier was mainly not about talent and ability, but about personality, about their views on life and destiny.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how influenced he was by Ah Gan, Drexler was ultimately still that somewhat lazy, carefree big boy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because of this, the relationship between Drexler and Charles Barkley wasn’t very good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gan Guoyang could see it, after the game, Barkley didn’t greet Drexler, the two brushed past each other and left the court in different directions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed very normal, the two never really appreciated each other anyway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the 1995-1996 season, when the Heat was aiming for a title defense, in a game between the Heat and the Suns, Barkley hit Drexler’s leg from behind, causing Drexler to miss many games, ultimately performing poorly and falling behind in the playoffs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this season, Barkley joined the Heat, and the Heat formed the Big Four, with Barkley eager to win a championship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He found out that in games, Drexler often lacked effort and held an indifferent attitude towards winning or losing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As early as 1992 in the Barcelona Dream Team, Barkley heard Jordan and Pippen complain that this guy Drexler wasn’t serious enough about games and basketball.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now playing on the same team striving for the championship, Barkley, of course, couldn’t accept Drexler’s attitude, and disagreements started to surface in training and games.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Drexler also felt unhappy in his heart, thinking, \"You, who can’t control your weight and eat McDonald’s while riding a bike, have the nerve to say my attitude isn’t right?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally Olajuwon could serve as a lubricant between Barkley and Drexler, but unfortunately, Olajuwon was also disinterested in basketball and had conflicts with Riley and Tim Hardaway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, it’s a mess, four people, two pairs that don’t get along, while all four of them dislike the head coach, how are they supposed to compete for the championship?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Heat can still maintain a spot in the top three in the Eastern mainly relying on their talent, and Riley’s authoritarian control over the team, keeping them united in games.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once this season’s playoffs fail to achieve the predetermined goal of winning the championship, the breakup of the Big Four is foreseeable.\u003C\u002Fp>",929,"2026-06-06T01:41:56.049Z",1,"novelbin.me","ac7671f2444e09681c22dd9f913b61bd3a8166636623b3315ff0d74bffbd9bb4","the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-1441","the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-1439",2033,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-golden-age-of-basketball-cover.jpg"]