Chapter 794 - 21 Desert Storm_3

Gan Guoyang, despite scoring high, loses games, providing ammunition for his critics.

However, losses in the regular season are quickly forgotten, usually losing news relevance before the next game starts.

The real impact comes from losses in the playoffs, especially the finals, where everyone this year expects him to meet with Jordan.

Thinking of this, Gan Guoyang calmed his mood and decided to follow Coach Belman’s strategy, maintaining a steady pace in the regular season.

Of course, the frustration of two consecutive losses needs an outlet, and the next opponent will be on the unfortunate receiving end.

After the game against the Pistons, the same night, the Trail Blazers team took a plane to their next stop in New Jersey, where they will face the Nets the day after tomorrow.

On the afternoon of January 16, the team finished their tactical practice at the training gym, boarded the bus, and prepared to go to Brenda Barry Arena in East Rutherford.

On the bus, the driver turned on the radio, playing the newly released hit song of January by female trio Wilson-Phillips, "You’re in love".

The melody of the song is beautiful, primarily about romantic love, betrayal in love, and the pain of loss.

Going into the ’90s, American pop music moved away from the rock music of the ’60s and ’70s, starting to produce more and more saccharine love songs.

Being a trio, the song features beautiful harmonies, and it was later covered by a singer from Hong Kong.

This trend of American saccharine love songs quickly influenced the music scene in Japan, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, and eventually spread to mainland China.

The teenagers of the ’90s and ’00s grew up under the influence of these saccharine love songs, which originated from the popular music styles brought in by America.

While the music from the radio continued, some players chatted, some played cards, and Gan Guoyang sat in his seat, resting with his eyes closed, conducting "visualization" training in his mind.

Recently, his free-throw shooting percentage had dropped below 90%; since his training intensity remained the same, it was time to focus on visualization.

Then, the song on the radio ended, and the host relayed the latest news: America had started bombing Iraq; the Gulf War had officially erupted.

When the players arrived in the changing rooms at the arena, instead of playing the recorded game, everyone gathered around the TV to watch news reports about the war.

Last summer, when Michael Jordan was on tour in Europe, the US Army was already gathered in the Persian Gulf, with the clouds of war looming.

After nearly half a year of stalemate, Iraq was still unwilling to withdraw from Kuwait, unwilling to let go of the fat within reach.

Finally, the US Army commenced the operation codenamed "Desert Storm", launching a massive air strike on Iraq.

There were different reactions to the outbreak of war within the Trail Blazers team; the American players were quite exhilarated, believing it to be a just war.

Foreign players like Gan Guoyang and Sabonis remained unaffected emotionally; after all, it wasn’t their countries involved. It would be problematic if it was the Soviet Union or China going to war with America.

Since there were no Muslims in the Trail Blazers team, there was no conflict regarding the war, and overall, it was relatively calm.

That evening, the Trail Blazers played an away game against the New Jersey Nets, and Derek Coleman, this year’s top draft pick, a talented forward, was lining up against Gan Guoyang.

Coleman, a graduate from Syracuse University and standing at 6 feet 10 inches, is an excellent low-post player. His comparison to Ah Gan was inevitable before the draft.

He is left-handed, boasts outstanding physical fitness, brilliant offensive skills, and similar height as Ah Gan, considered a future prospect for the Nets.

Before the game started, when the two players stood on the court side by side, anyone could see that Gan Guoyang’s sculpted physique was much stronger and bigger than Coleman’s.

Their game experience was entirely on different levels, with Coleman more like a college student. He was talented, but the details in his gameplay were poor and rough.

When faced with Gan Guoyang’s top-level tough defense in the League, he was almost powerless, and from the first quarter, Gan Guoyang, like America bombing Iraq, devastated the top draft pick with scores and trash talk—every top pick suffers torment in their rookie season.

If you withstand it and earn the recognition from veteran players, you would have established your ground.

Otherwise, the respect you receive will diminish, and this is the burden a top draft pick must bear.

When playing one-on-one against Coleman in the post, Guoyang would inform him in advance how he was planning to attack.

"I’m going to use a hook shot soon."

"Turnaround jumper, get ready."

"I’m going to power through the low post."

"Jump shot from the face of the basket, remember to disrupt me."

Even so, Coleman still couldn’t stop Gan Guoyang at all.

The Nets’ defense was disordered, with their head coach being the veteran Bill Fitch.

It’s not that Fitch couldn’t coach defense, but he demanded Coleman to defend one-on-one and did not allow any help from his teammates.

In the first quarter, Gan Guoyang made 5 out of 6 shots over Coleman, easily scoring 11 points, causing Coleman to commit two fouls.

During the break, Fitch sarcastically remarked to Coleman: "If Iraq’s defenses were like yours, we would have definitely won this war."

Coleman sat on the bench, ignoring the renowned veteran coach, and threw his towel to the ground in dissatisfaction—a conflict between a seasoned coach and a young prodigious player, an ongoing drama in this league.

Into the second and third quarters, as Gan Guoyang continued his variety of one-on-one moves to overwhelm Coleman, tremendously successful in shooting and completely locking down the top draft pick defensively, Coleman couldn’t hold back anymore and during a timeout he yelled at Fitch, "Why keep making me defend him alone? I’m simply no match for him, he’s the number one player, number one!"

Fitch retorted derisively, "You are also a number one player, the first pick of the 1990 draft. Why can’t you defend? Are you missing an arm or a leg? Your task is to confront Gan!"

"I’m still too young, not his match."

"So, you’re planning to surrender? Oh, if Saddam had your awareness, this war wouldn’t even start."

Whether with the Celtics, Rockets, or New Jersey Nets, Fitch was always acerbic, fond of mocking the young players he deemed not hardworking enough, especially the big men, in hopes of igniting their fighting spirit.

From Kevin McHale to Ralph Sampson, and now Coleman.

But young players increasingly disliked being criticized, especially by Fitch’s icy sarcasm.

This planted the seeds for their poor relationship.

Throughout the game, Coleman received no help from his teammates, and Gan Guoyang freely scored 43 points over him.

Furthermore, his shooting accuracy was astonishingly high; playing for 31 minutes, he made 19 out of 22 shots, just like the Americans’ precision bombing—a high-tech war like none ever seen before by past generations.

Meanwhile, Gan stirred up a desert storm of his own in New Jersey, leading the Trail Blazers to a comfortable win over the Nets, breaking their two-game losing streak.