Chapter 977 - 21: Another Path

Gan Guoyang earned the title of Dunk King at the Seattle All-Star Game with his "Flying Umbrella" dunk, and also received the nickname "Rain Man".

Seattle and Portland, these two cities, are constantly shrouded in incessant rain, both earning the nickname "City of Rain".

However, Gan Guoyang’s most famous nickname is still "Sun King", which really clashes with Rain Man.

Therefore, news media, magazines, and newspapers rarely use the nickname Rain Man for Gan Guoyang, almost forgotten by people.

Kemp, coming from Seattle, also has his own nickname. Because of his explosive playing style, everyone calls him "Reign Man".

And the pronunciation of Reign is the same as Rain, Seattle is inherently rainy, along with Gan Guoyang’s phrase "Rain Man belongs to you", Kemp turned from a ruler to someone suffering from dementia...

Anyway, tonight, the Supersonics’ performance amazed everyone.

A group of young people used energetic defense and wolf-like positivity to shatter the Trail Blazers’ home unbeaten record.

In a journalist interview, Gan Guoyang was frank, saying that in this game they were careless and did not perform as expected.

"We did not even properly watch the Supersonics’ first-round game footage before the match. We underestimated the opponent and paid the price."

After the interview ended, Gan Guoyang punished himself with two hours of three-point practice, hoping to regain his form for the next game.

Actually, the Trail Blazers lost the first round not only because the Supersonics performed well, the Trail Blazers underestimated the opponent, external pressure, and other factors, but also because Gan Guoyang hesitated during the game.

His hesitation was not about wanting to win or fear of losing, but rather he felt on the verge of a breakthrough, a kind of nearing transformation, akin to the darkness before dawn.

He can’t express such feelings to others, with no one to share this peculiar realm.

Honestly, Gan Guoyang doesn’t like this sensation, as if suddenly he doesn’t know how to play basketball.

Gan Guoyang is similar to Jordan in that they both do not make basketball overly complex.

Both possess strong animal instincts, a kind of superior killing instinct, which makes them perform very well in crucial moments.

But lately, Gan Guoyang feels his killing instincts are gradually fading, replaced by something new.

He suspected whether the birth of his daughter changed him, or perhaps constant victories lightened his fighting spirit, leading to boredom.

After ruling out these possibilities, Gan Guoyang realized, he is already at the edge of a breakthrough, this is his eighth year in the League.

At 28, the accumulation from quantitative change has reached the point of qualitative change, at the semi-finals.

But everything seemed without any omen, after admitting his mistake post-game, Gan Guoyang didn’t utter any heroic speech.

Nor did he lose his temper at his teammates in the locker room or watch tapes with Bobby Berman.

He simply returned home, disconnected from all outside communications, spent time with his son and daughter, and headed to his private basketball court.

He played ball by himself for a while—shooting, dribbling, hook shots—all too practiced, flowing like water, without any flaws in terms of details.

He lay on the court center, staring at the empty ceiling, recalling everything that happened in the first match.

Everything was clear, details were in his mind, the correct ones, the wrong ones, instinctively provide an answer.

Gan Guoyang shook his head, got up from the ground, and said to himself: "I used to play without thinking too much, just beat them, really annoying."

Gan Guoyang doesn’t like overthinking, like in the 1986 finals against the Celtics, when Jack Ramsay is exhaustively planning, Gan Guoyang tells him, just give me the ball, I’ll get 50 points and we can win.

He did it, succeeded, won the game.

He remembered what he said to Larry Johnson, and what Xu Xun said to him, don’t think, just feel.

Also, when blocking opponents, he never uses his eyes to track their ball, but relies on feeling, his eyes focus elsewhere.

This is the secret to his ability to defend two at once.

But why are his thoughts getting more chaotic?

Seated on the ground, Gan Guoyang questions himself, eventually arriving at an answer:

"Maybe I should become a coach, let Bobby return to Gonzaga."

Unfortunately, this is not the answer Gan Guoyang wants.

Finally, he stopped pondering and decided to leave everything to the games, to basketball.

Basketball won’t deceive him, it will eventually provide him the answer.

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Unlike Gan Guoyang’s humility, George Karl quickly revealed an arrogant demeanor after winning a game, this guy can just pretend for one match at most.

"Sonny said they underestimated us, I don’t agree with that statement, it’s an excuse. It implies, that once they take us seriously, they’d definitely win? Buschet, losing is just losing, I didn’t expect a player like Ah Gan to use such weak excuses like ’carelessness, underestimation’, this isn’t like him, is he still the Ah Gan I remember?"

"Ah Gan is becoming arrogant, which is certainly natural, and arrogance will cost them the game."

On the second training open day after the game, George Karl commented on Gan Guoyang’s interview from the previous day.

Although Karl didn’t openly attack Gan Guoyang, criticizing him as "arrogant" is undoubtedly a strong slander.

On the other hand, he is subtly suggesting Gan Guoyang’s hypocrisy.