Chapter 934 - 5 Georgetown Idiot_3

Push back, no problem. Ah Gan stepped back. Mutombo had heard from Ewing that Ah Gan’s lower body strength was terrifyingly powerful, making it nearly impossible to move him in the low post.

But today’s attempt didn’t seem all that exaggerated. Didn’t he manage to push him back?

Mutombo followed up with a stiff pivot move, dribbling forward like a tree coming to life, preparing for a hook shot.

The execution was quite smooth, very complete, but Ah Gan blocked it head-on, swatting the ball away with a massive rejection.

The moment he was blocked, Mutombo realized that Ah Gan had been waiting for him, deliberately baiting him into attempting the hook.

No wonder—Mutombo felt that his confrontation wasn’t solid enough and hadn’t truly overpowered Ah Gan. His shot attempt had been far too easy.

It turned out to be a trap.

Mutombo was an exceptionally smart individual. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have learned several languages so quickly.

After being blocked, he fought hard to regain the ball, but the Trail Blazers had already gained control.

They were prepared all along, confident that Mutombo wouldn’t make the shot, and launched a quick counterattack.

The Nuggets’ defense was like paper—fall apart with one strike. Reggie Lewis capitalized on the opportunity, easily scoring with a fast-break dunk.

After the block, Gan Guoyang lightly shook his head and remarked, "Too rigid, too slow. Patrick and John-Thompson are still not teaching you offensive techniques? Are they just letting you grind like Spartan warriors at school, relying solely on muscles and physicality to win games?"

Gan Guoyang saw through Mutombo’s pivot-hook move immediately—it was unmistakably a Georgetown product, yet another Georgetown fool.

Rigid pivots and hook shots, formulaic footwork—centers trained by John-Thompson always had an abundance of brute force but lacked finesse.

Ewing, for instance, obviously had an excellent soft touch and great mobility, yet his offensive arsenal was unimaginatively simplistic.

Mutombo? Even worse. And as for another Georgetown player, Mourning, he couldn’t be much better.

Faced with Gan Guoyang’s criticism, Mutombo didn’t say anything and remained focused on the game.

He was smart. After taking a block, he understood that going head-to-head with Ah Gan was futile. He started collaborating more with his teammates.

Greg Anderson, who had previously played with the Trail Blazers before being selected in the expansion draft, received a pass and drove toward the basket. But faced with Ah Gan’s help defense, he didn’t dare to shoot and dished the ball to Mutombo inside.

Mutombo caught the pass, dropped the ball, and jumped up intending to dunk, but Gan Guoyang defended two players at once, turned, and delivered another huge rejection, shutting Mutombo down once again.

Mutombo maintained possession of the ball and attempted another attack on the rim, but as he went up again, he was blocked once more—this time, both he and the ball were slammed to the floor.

The entire Memorial Coliseum erupted. Ah Gan began the game by delivering three massive blocks on Africa’s Mountain, reminding everyone who the true mountain really was.

The Trail Blazers regained possession once again, but this time they didn’t rush into a counterattack. Instead, they waited for Gan Guoyang to set up position in the low post.

Mutombo bent down behind him, pressing hard against Gan Guoyang, knowing this was a challenge: if you can’t score, at least defend successfully.

Gan Guoyang received the ball and started to back down, and Mutombo felt an overwhelming force coming at him—it was impossible to resist.

Gan Guoyang spun, pressed down, and Mutombo tried to jump but couldn’t even leave the ground, completely overpowered. He could only raise his head and watch as Gan Guoyang slammed the ball into the hoop with one hand!

The powerful dunk hit with tremendous force, and Mutombo could no longer look down from above—he had no choice but to look up instead.

Landing on the ground, Gan Guoyang turned to Mutombo and advised, "Don’t drop the ball when attacking the basket. It’s a bad habit—you need to fix it."

Mutombo froze for a moment, realizing Gan Guoyang was referring to the sequence in which he was blocked consecutively. His habitual motion of dropping the ball when attacking the rim had slowed his tempo, giving Gan enough time to react and deliver two rejections in a row. Ah Gan’s reaction speed was truly extraordinary—a player must put their utmost attention into both offense and defense when facing him.

Rather than becoming discouraged, Mutombo threw himself actively into the game. Gradually, he began to understand why Russell had said, "If you can block him once, that’s already remarkable."

He was too fast, too strong, too explosive, and too smart. If you fell short in any area, the result was being toyed with and steamrolled.

Within just a few possessions in the first quarter, Mutombo felt the sensation of being crushed. Even when facing Olajuwon, he hadn’t felt like this before.

So this was what it meant to be number one—the top center—the unscalable Asian peak.

Mutombo didn’t lose confidence. Instead, he gained even more drive to learn and improve himself.

That’s a quality every outstanding basketball player should have. Of course, there’s another possibility—he just hadn’t been beaten enough yet.

As long as he remained in the Western Conference, there would be plenty of opportunities to spar with Gan Guoyang.