Chapter 945 - 9 Friends_2

————Published in 2016, Roland Lazenby writes the biography "Michael Jordan: The Life", excerpt.

By mid-February 1992, the NBA welcomed this season’s All-Star Weekend.

Before the All-Star Game, the Trail Blazers played their last NBA regular-season game at the Memorial Coliseum — they easily defeated the visiting Orlando Magic at home.

After this game, the Memorial Coliseum will no longer host Trail Blazers games. This Glass Palace that has accompanied Portland fans since the team’s inception, built in 1960, is finally saying goodbye to everyone.

Of course, it won’t be demolished; it will continue to host hockey, college basketball games, concerts, music festivals, exhibitions, and other events.

However, only when it hosts Trail Blazers games is the Glass Palace at its most brilliant, most dazzling, and most shining.

After the game ended, all the Trail Blazers players stayed on the court to take photos with the Coliseum staff.

Gan Guoyang looked up at the ceiling where six championship banners were slowly being lowered; they will be transferred to the new Rose Garden Arena.

When Gan Guoyang first came here, there was only one championship banner. Without his arrival, that banner would have hung alone for a very, very long time.

Each banner represents a beautiful memory, along with the wonderful memories of the Memorial Coliseum.

Two days later, the All-Star Game’s Three-Point Contest and Dunk Contest were first held at the Rose Garden.

This arena is newer, larger, and can accommodate 20,000 fans to watch the games live, greatly alleviating the previous scarcity of tickets.

The exterior of the arena is more modern, no longer a box-like structure like the Memorial Coliseum, but has complex curved facades and a domed roof.

The interior facilities are more advanced. Tang Jianguo specifically requested the construction of over a dozen VIP suites at the top of the spectator seats, providing a private viewing environment for wealthy fans, businessmen, and dignitaries.

The lighting and sound systems on-site are the most advanced, offering fans the best audiovisual experience outside of the games.

The home locker room is luxuriously decorated with large-screen TVs, leather sofas, oversized refrigerators, warm bathing pools, muscle relaxation treatments, and massage devices all available.

The players can get the best rest and care here, and Tang Jianguo has also equipped coaches with full audiovisual equipment, including projectors, HD video players, and computers, to quickly analyze videos and provide data to guide the second half of the game from the locker room.

This is the home locker room, and there are three visitor locker rooms with naturally lesser decorations than the home ones, but all basic facilities are available, not torturing visiting players like at the Boston Garden.

When the Trail Blazers players first visited here, everyone was a bit cautious, afraid to dirty or break things.

"From now on, this is your home, your temporary resting place and refueling station! Go team, no one knows better than us how to win championships, this arena will surely enhance us greatly!"

Tang Jianguo was very satisfied with his new creation.

The project was completed beyond its deadline in just a year and a half, and Tang Jianguo decided to host the most magnificent, greatest All-Star Game ever, to match his prestige, wealth, and the Portland Trail Blazers’ current status in the league.

Magic Johnson’s participation brought the topic level of this All-Star Game to its peak; there was no way Tang Jianguo would miss such an opportunity. He openly supported Johnson’s participation and stated, "We need to help AIDS patients; someday, our society will eliminate this terrible disease!"

Although privately, Old Tang despised those who had fallen ill, thinking they lacked morals, he still had to support publicly and say nice things.

Since coming to the NBA, Tang Jianguo had become better at compromising, knowing how to use the art of compromise in handling matters.

After all, sparring with experts like David Stern quickly raised his level.

For this All-Star Game, Tang Jianguo deployed significant funding and connections, applying all his practices from operating a casino in Atlantic City.

Beautiful women, luxury cars, throngs of performers, free shows, rock bands, movie stars—he filled the All-Star Game with it all.

Additionally, he provided fans on-site with endless drinks, seafood, invited top chefs to cook various delicacies non-stop.

Fans at the scene would surely marvel at the menu provided by the Rose Garden, sparking suspicion of whether this is a basketball arena or a world cuisine exhibition hall.

The Dunk Contest and Three-Point Contest were merely appetizers. The Suns’ Cedric Ceballos won the Dunk Contest with a blindfolded dunk using a black cloth, and Bulls shooter Hodges defended his Three-Point Contest title.

The main event was the second day’s All-Star Game, where Magic Johnson was the absolute protagonist for the night, surpassing the host Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang didn’t mind being overshadowed; once, in Chicago, he too overshadowed Michael Jordan, and besides, Johnson was an ill senior.

Before the game started, Johnson was very nervous. The previous night he was sleepless in his Portland hotel room, even though he had played basketball for over a decade and experienced countless crucial games, Johnson was still anxious.

He knew this All-Star Game would be one of the most important games of his career. He hadn’t participated in professional games for four months and he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of the world.