[{"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-738":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},1444305,1896,"Chapter 738 - 2 Thoughts_2","the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-738",738,"\u003Cp>All three were visibly brimming with talent; they all loved basketball and led clean, simple lives off the court, maintaining their condition and collaborating together for five or even ten years wouldn’t be a problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as they grew well with Ah Gan, and Jerry West managed reinforcement well, the 90s would definitely be the era of the Portland Trail Blazers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the Trail Blazers, having enjoyed the benefits of drafting overseas players, had to accordingly bear the cultural and political risks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this charity golf event, Gan Guoyang did not perform miracles with his strengths; he used the most strokes, while Jordan used the fewest, winning the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ah Gan was somewhat distracted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Champion Jordan was very happy, showing off the trophy to Ah Gan as if to say, next year’s NBA championship would be mine as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the basketball training camp for stars, the confrontation between Jordan and Ah Gan reached an extremely intense level.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Behind closed doors, everyone trained together, and soon Charles, Ewing, and others couldn’t handle the intensity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, only Ah Gan and Jordan remained on the court, with others sitting on the sidelines watching these two maniacs engage in endless one-on-one duels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jordan had grown stronger than the previous season; he persisted in strength training and it paid off. Although still not a match for Ah Gan, he felt less powerless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gan Guoyang’s power had reached its peak, and no matter how much more he trained, he could only maintain, not increase his strength—unless he put on more weight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But increasing weight would affect agility, and right now he had achieved a perfect balance between strength and agility. Disturbing this balance would not be worth the cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was also a problem that troubled Gan Guoyang; after all, he was human, not a god. No matter how good his physical foundation was, there was a limit. When it wasn’t possible to break through that limit, he would have to find another way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, Gan Guoyang started to focus more on technical progress. At the training camp, he and Jordan learned from each other - he learned Jordan’s dribbling and driving with the ball, while Jordan learned his post positioning and back-to-the-basket moves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gan Guoyang’s dribbling was top-notch among frontcourt players, but naturally, there was a gap compared to a top guard like Jordan. This gap gave him motivation to improve, and he set higher expectations for his future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the two-week training camp, Charles and others were trained to exhaustion. By the last three days, Charles didn’t even want to train anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What Rebound King, what Scoring King? I don’t know, I never said that!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Sonny, I want to eat a burger!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I want to go to San Francisco; I’m going to find your dad!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Charles Barkley looked carefree and talked nonsense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jordan could be considered sharp-tongued, but he had no tricks when it came to Barkley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This big mouth never played by the book; he dared to say anything and took nothing to heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Charles Barkley wasn’t actually carefree. Over the past two years, he got married, had a child, overcame financial crisis, and became one of the League’s hot stars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His big mouth was his persona, his label. He was smart and had ideas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He made friends with Ah Gan, Jordan, and others because he knew the crowd you hang with often determines what kind of person you become.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Barkley also longed for a championship, eager to enter the finals once again. The 1988 finals were like a dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had not dreamt the best ending when he woke up and had trouble falling asleep ever since because the Washington Bullets were in decline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Bernard King miraculously returned to All-Star status, King was a player of the past era. He belonged to the 70s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that era, small forwards didn’t need to defend, didn’t need to shoot long-range, they just needed to score, score, and score inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now it’s the 1990s, and the small forward position is seeing more and more versatile monsters appear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A pure scorer cannot boost a championship-level team, but the Washington Bullets, whether in drafts or trades, saw no bright future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now the whole League was hyping \"Gan vs Joe\"; everyone was expecting the Bulls and Trail Blazers to clash in the finals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Barkley thought, I entered the finals earlier and faced Ah Gan sooner, so why has everyone forgotten me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The 1988 finals have been forgotten because the Bullets’ journey was too tough, and they were decisively beaten in the finals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their only role was to serve as a stepping stone for the Portland Trail Blazers’ three consecutive championships, becoming the backdrop for Portland’s first empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the finals, Barkley’s performance was not comparable to Ah Gan’s; he seemed like a greenhorn, completely dominated by Gan Guoyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Charles Barkley was not content; he didn’t want to linger outside the finals doors when the 90s came.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the 1988 finals, Barkley signed a four-year 12 million US Dollar contract with the Bullet Team, taking the advice from Ah Gan not to sign for too long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now with two years left on the contract, Barkley was somewhat impatient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During this charity golf event hosted by Pollin, Barkley communicated with Pollin, hoping he could trade for stronger players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Be it a center or a guard, the current Washington Bullets were full of holes in both frontcourt and backcourt, far from their glory in the 1988 season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the 1990 season, Barkley reached his peak, but in the Eastern Semifinals, they were slaughtered by Michael Jordan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jordan scored 43 points in the series, crushing the Bullets and Barkley, making him feel powerless; he was battered by the beasts Ah Gan and Jordan.\u003C\u002Fp>",959,"2026-06-06T01:41:37.192Z",1,"novelbin.me","d7616673c4d6f65381f86d15cb94a8cc05b62998383ee2caed409525af78167d","the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-739","the-golden-age-of-basketball-chapter-737",2033,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-golden-age-of-basketball-cover.jpg"]