"Dear viewers, good evening. After nearly 4 months of waiting, the NBA has once again kicked off the curtain for the new season. There will be 6 games today, and ABC TV will bring you the Kansas Kings away to the Portland Trail Blazers."

"I am your good friend,"

"The most eye-catching thing about this game is the Portland Trail Blazers' Chinese rookie, this year's second-tier pick, Sunny-Gump. In the previous preseason, he did not appear on Portland's roster, but was placed on the injury observation list. According to the Portland Trail Blazers, there was a problem with his waist in training, so he missed the preseason."

"However, he will get a chance to play in this game. He appears on the Trail Blazers' roster and is as the starting center."

...

Half an hour before the start of the game, ABC TV's front reporter sent live reports at the Portland Memorial Arena. Behind him, the Trail Blazers players can be seen doing warm-up exercises on the court.

"How is it, Gan, no problem?" Drexler asked Gan Guoyang beside him.

"Yes, no problem, I think I can kill a cow now." Gan Guoyang replied with a smile.

After being injured two days ago in the preseason, the Trail Blazers canceled Gan Guoyang's plan to participate in the preseason, and asked Shui Miao to be responsible for Gan Guoyang's recovery.

Because Jim Paxson, another main player in the team, was also attacked by injuries, the Trail Blazers managers had to doubt whether the team's team doctor was really not capable as Gan Guoyang said.

But no matter what, under Shui Miao's rehabilitation treatment, Gan Guoyang's minor injuries quickly disappeared, which allowed him to catch up with the first game of the new season and Gan Guoyang's NBA debut.

Gan Guoyang still clearly remembers that in 2002, Yao Ming made his debut against the Indiana Pacers, and he didn't score a single point on the bench.

Although Yao Ming later slapped the critics in the face with his outstanding performance, it has to be said that his performance in the first game was a pity.

At this time, Gan Guoyang had a very big advantage compared with Yao Ming, who was later, that is, he had long been used to the playing environment in the United States.

When he entered the Portland Memorial Stadium, he had no sense of strangeness or tension. Before that, he had visited many NBA stadiums, in San Francisco, in Los Angeles, Seattle, in Salt Lake City, and in the field.

So he didn't feel nervous when standing on this field, not to mention that the stadium in the 1980s was really a bit broken in Gan Guoyang's eyes. The central ceiling of the stadium did not have huge quadrangle or octagonal screens like later generations, and only large electronic scoreboards.

There was no mascot performance on the court, no audience interaction, no midfield activities, and even the home team logo on the floor seemed extremely old-fashioned.

The NBA game still looks more like an old-fashioned drama show than the later kaleidoscope entertainment program.

Of course, all this will start to change this season, as Stern and a bunch of geniuses arrive.

"Okay, go back, and you're about to start the introduction." Drexler reminded Gan Guoyang.

"Oh my goodness, why did it seem like everyone doesn't know us?"

What Gan Guoyang hates the most is the lengthy introduction of players. Although the introduction of appearance in this era is much simpler than the later ones, and the magnesium powder is sprinkled with magnesium powder, Gan Guoyang still can't stand this rude ceremony.

Especially before the players are introduced, the US national anthem has to be played and sang the whole audience, which makes Gan Guoyang, a Chinese, always in a state of vain.

However, when the DJ on the scene reported Gan Guoyang's English name "Sunny-Gump", and the audience reported and their warm applause and cheers, Gan Guoyang was still excited.

This is his second time to be welcomed by Portland fans. Before the regular season officially started, the Trail Blazers had an event where the whole team met with Portland citizens, right outside the Memorial Stadium.

That meeting made Gan Guoyang experience the enthusiasm and madness of Portland fans for the first time. This gave him great motivation and brought him a lot of pressure.

Gan Guoyang knew that without him, the Portland fans in history would have suffered multiple disappointments, all of which came from centers and injuries.

"I want to bring the best era here!" This is the strongest thought that came to Gan Guoyang's mind.

When everything is ready and players on both sides step onto the field wearing sports vests and shorts unique to that era, the game is about to begin, and this will be the first NBA game in Gan Guoyang's life.

"Both sides are preparing to jump the ball. The starting lineup of the Trail Blazers is center Sunny Gump, power forward Mitchell Sampson, small forward is the strong aid of this year Chichi Van derwich, shooting guard Clyde Drexler, he is the starter of the injured Jim Paxson, and point guard Darnell Valentine. Rookie Gan took the start in the first game and jumped the ball with the Kansas Kings center Russell Sampson in the middle circle!"

Portland TV's Play-to-play commentator broadcasts the live situation in real time to facilitate broadcasters to listen to the game.

The NBA's operating conditions were not good at that time. Some games were recorded and not live broadcast on some TV stations, so the commentator needed to transmit the on-site situation to all parts of the United States through radio waves.

Gan Guoyang started his first game, which was beyond the expectations of many media. Jack Ramsey also under a lot of pressure for this, not only from outside, but also from the team.

"Gan has fought for the ball right! Oh, his reaction speed is really sensitive, like a little deer jumping, and the Trail Blazers will take the lead in launching the attack!"

Gan Guoyang was still a little nervous when standing in the center circle, but when he grabbed the ball from the jump ball with the opponent's center, another Sampson, he suddenly got into the state.

Small wins like scramble to make Gan full of strength.

"Go to cover boy, the inside is not where you stay!"

Just as Gan Guoyang was about to walk to the three-second zone, starting power forward Mitchell Sampson and Gan Guoyang said, signaling Gan Guoyang to go to the high position to cover his teammates, and he came to the waist position himself.

Mitchell Sampson was the No. 1 pick in 1978, and was 6-foot-10 like Gan Guoyang. Walton was already traded at that time, but he still played a substitute for Lucas for a year and became the starter in the second year.

Now Gan Guoyang stole his starting position in the first game. Although Sampson is also on the starting list, he has been squeezed into the power forward position.

This also made Sampson very unhappy. Gan Guoyang is the second place and is not as good as him as the No. 1 pick. Why did he let him start the center as soon as he came up?

At that time, the center in the NBA was the most important position in the team, while the power forward was the standard coolie position. Ramsey asked Sampson, who was also 6-foot-10, to play against the big front and let Gan Guoyang play against the center, which obviously meant that Sampson would attack Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang didn't care after hearing Sampson's words. Anyway, Ramsey's arrangement before the game was to let him provide more cover for the outside. The Trail Blazers mainly played against Van der Villeich and Valentine at the beginning.

Valentine is a Kansas University-graduated defender and is a pretty good point guard with a typical pass first and second goal score.

In the Christmas Game in 1983, he sent 13 assists against Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson, and he was also on the list in the history of the Christmas Game.

When Gan Guoyang and Valentine were training together, they felt like they were playing with Stockton.

After providing a cover for Valentine at the high position, Gan Guoyang began to go down to the right horn position, while Valentine cuts in from the left.

Obviously this is not the whole of the tactics. At this time, Van dervich had already circled from the bottom line to the outside, and just took advantage of Gan Guoyang's body to throw away the defender who was following.

Valentine passed the ball to Van dervich, who received the ball from the right side of the arc and made a jump shot!

The Trail Blazers took the lead in scoring two points in the first 10 seconds of the game, and the Kansas Kings' defense was full of holes just because of Gan Guoyang's two covers.

This surprised Gan Guoyang a little. Is this an NBA game?

If such a ball is switched to NCAA to face Georgetown, there will definitely be no chance of making a phone call so easily.

"Go back to defense! It's time for us to attack if we stay for a while!" Mitchell Sampson's voice flashed through Gan Guoyang's ears again.

Sure enough, the Kansas Kings player had dribbled straight into the frontcourt.

"Kansas Kings point guard Larry Drew dribbled the ball and rushed through the half, and he was quite fast. He handed the ball to small forward Eddie Johnson, who broke through the middle and made a layup! It was too fast! Portland's defense was not even ready!"

The king's counterattack was quite fast, and he was almost in Gan Guoyang and had not had time to run back to the three-second zone.

What puzzled Gan Guoyang was why his teammates didn't delay the obstacle? He reduced the speed of the opponent's point guard's advancement, and Johnson's layup was too easy, and no one even tried to block him.

However, Gan Guoyang didn't have time to question his teammates. Now he dared not criticize his teammates casually like in college for not doing well, and the Trail Blazers' offensive speed is not slower than the King.

"Run quickly! Gan, don't block the offensive line!" Valentine reminded Gan Guoyang.

At this time Drexler had already reached the bottom line.

Valentine handed the ball to Sampson who squeezed into the three-second zone, but Sampson did not force the inside, but instead used the ball to Drexler who was overdoing it.

Drexler, with the help of Sampson's cover, directly hit the inside from the side.

His first step was so fast, his speed was so fast that when he reached the inside, a player who followed and a player who made up for defense fell behind.

Facing Kansas center Sampson squatting in the three-second zone, Drexler, who lowered his head, directly stepped up and hit the ball into the basket with Sampson's block!

"Clyde~~Drey~~Kesler! A beautiful dunk on Russell Sampson's head! This is Portland's first dunk this season at home, from Drexler. I believe he will give more such a beautiful performance in this year's game."

Drexler's dunk was quite beautiful, showing his outstanding first step and strong aerial confrontation. This dunk also ignited the enthusiasm of the audience in the memorial gymnasium, and the atmosphere of the game began to become increasingly popular.

However, Gan Guoyang was a little unacceptable because the pace of the game between the two sides was really too fast, and this speed was different from the speed of training with the Lakers that day in Palm Springs. It was a speed of not defending but only attacking.

Gan Guoyang felt like he was doing a back-and-forth run on the court. His main functions were running, the second was to cover his teammates, and the third was to pick up a few rebounds if he had nothing to do.

After half a quarter of the game, Gan Guoyang felt that he hadn't touched the ball a few times, and ran behind the butts of the small players on both sides.

"Is this the fuck the NBA?" This is the sentence that Gan Guoyang thought the most.

The pace of the game between the two sides played quite fast, almost every attack ended in about 13 seconds, and some were directly attacking without any cooperation after halftime.

This also made Gan Guoyang, who was used to playing tactics in the NCAA, was not adapted to it, especially when defending. Since the NBA did not allow joint defense, the monotonous people stared at people, making Gan Guoyang at the basket fade out.

The opponent's center Russell Sampson is purely a blue-collar center, mainly playing for defense and rebounding. The main role in the offense is to cover the teammates, occasionally picking up a gap and getting two or three points.

"Forrest Gump is a little overwhelmed. It seems that he is still not used to the NBA rhythm." Adelman, who was sitting on the sidelines, said.

"NCAA and NBA are originally two worlds, and it's only the first quarter now, and it's still early." Another assistant coach, Buck Buckwater, said.

The Trail Blazers' offense in the first quarter was quite smooth. Van dervich, the new aid, integrated very well and fully utilized his abilities. He was able to give in front of the king, who was originally not strong. After playing 7 minutes in the first quarter, he had already scored 10 points.

Mitchell Sampson, the main player in the Trail Blazers' inside, also relied on solid inside skills and seized the opportunity several times to successfully play inside, scoring 8 points in 7 minutes.

Drexler didn't get any more scoring opportunities except for that dunk, but he contributed 3 rebounds and 1 steal.

The Blazers had already scored 30 points in 7 minutes. This score was the score of the Texas El Paso miners against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the 32-to-16 game. The Bulldogs only scored 35 points in that game.

Now, the Trail Blazers did it in 7 minutes.

But the Trail Blazers did not pull the score apart because their opponents were equally sharp in offense, relying on their number one scorer, small forward Eddie Johnson.

Johnson's condition is as good as his opponent Van derwich, with an unexpected surprise. He made a surprise shot inside and outside. No one can stop him, or no one wants to stop him, except Gan Guoyang.

However, Gan Guoyang, who lacks the help of his teammates, faces the impact of Fang's forward line, and he is the only one who suffers.

"Bee!" After Johnson entered the inside with a pick-and-roll and directly hit the basket, Gan Guoyang faced Johnson and wanted to block him in the three-second zone.

Unexpectedly, Johnson was very cunning. He shrank and directly hit Gan Guoyang's arms. The ball was thrown into the air, and then he fell to the ground.

The referee naturally blew the whistle. This was Gan Guoyang's second foul in the first quarter. He also committed the last foul on Johnson.

"Goodbye, Fish." (Goodbye, rookie.) After Johnson got up from the ground, he said to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang got off the court with his head down. He knew that he would definitely be replaced after two fouls in the first quarter.

Sure enough, Ramsey replaced Gan Guoyang and replaced Tom Schefler.

"Don't be discouraged. You did a good job and created many opportunities for your teammates." Ramsey, who was standing on the sidelines, patted Gan Guoyang and said to him.

Gan Guoyang just nodded and didn't say anything. Obviously he was very dissatisfied with his performance.

Sitting on the bench, Gan Guoyang watched the game on the court and began to seriously think about what was wrong. Is this what he had been looking forward to for the first NBA game he had been looking forward to?
Chapter completed!