(Sorry, I delayed the update of the big block today. It's too... I can't help it. It's such a stable delay on weekends.)

If you think about it carefully, Gan Guoyang hasn't returned to San Francisco for a while.

Since the draft was selected by the Trail Blazers, Gan Guoyang has almost never returned here, but has been traveling around other places.

As Gan Guoyang's second hometown in the United States, this city has left too many memories of basketball for Gan Guoyang.

The small basketball stand next to Union Square in San Francisco, where the reborn Gan Guoyang truly experienced the fun of basketball for the first time and discovered his talent in basketball.

He also met Bernard King here, and learned a quick turnaround jump shot from him, destroying all high schools in the San Francisco area.

At the Binhai Stadium, "Gun Rose" encountered the challenge of "cancer". After failure, Gan Guoyang vowed to be a powerful center forward and since then he embarked on the road of fighting in the inside.

There is also the street court in Oakland, where his single-handed fight with the street legend Mitchell, became the eternal legend in the streets of Oakland.

Not to mention the Palo Alto High School he attended, he is now the biggest pride of the high school, although he failed to bring a California championship trophy to the Vikings.

This carries too many memories of Gan Guoyang, and those beautiful, painful, difficult, happy, and everything will always remain in his new life.

Among them, the place that is as important as a holy place for Gan Guoyang is the Greater Nate Barbecue Restaurant located in the South District of San Francisco.

After Gan Guoyang arrived in San Francisco with the Trail Blazers, he took the time to go back to the Gan Family Restaurant in Chinatown, and had a good gathering with his father, his cousin and his cousin. He then took a taxi to leave to the Big Nate Barbecue Restaurant.

Just like when he first came to San Francisco, the one who drove him was an Indian San, which also made it convenient for Gan Guoyang. He was not pestered by the driver to ask for an autograph or something because Indians were completely uninterested in basketball.

When encountering some drivers watching football in other cities, Gan Guoyang is always entangled.

When Gan Guoyang arrived at the Danett BBQ restaurant, he found that business was booming. Gan Guoyang did not go directly through the gate, but went around to the back yard and came under the basketball stand where he had been practicing low-level skills.

The basket was a bit ragged three years ago and had been tortured by Gan Guoyang, Thurmond and Chamberlain. At this time, he looked even more rusty, but the basket was still very straight, the metal net was still there, and although the rebound was missing a corner, the black frame was vaguely distinguishable.

"How tall was I at that time? 6-foot-6? Or 6-foot-5..." Gan Guoyang recalled the scene when he first practiced positioning with Thurmond here. He never forgot the point of "using his butt and back" that Thurmond taught him.

"Hey, Gan, you're back." A thick voice came from behind Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang was very familiar with this voice, "Mr. Thurmond, long time no see." Gan Guoyang turned around and said.

He saw Thurmond wearing woolen pants and a dark casual suit with a fashionable red lapel sweater inside, standing at the back door of the barbecue restaurant, revealing his white teeth indicating Gan Guoyang "I'm here."

Since Gan Guoyang went to college, he has rarely contacted Thurmond because Gan Guoyang did not often return to San Francisco. He was busy with training, studies and games, and then started his basketball career.

Thurmond is different from Chamberlain. He just stayed in San Francisco with peace of mind, ran his barbecue restaurant, and did some community service activities.

Unlike Chamberlain, who is running around the United States, the best way for Gan Guoyang to find Chamberlain is to buy a newspaper of the day and see where he is going again.

If you want to see Thurmond, just go back to San Francisco and call him.

"Hoho~ You are almost the same as me! I still remember when I first met you, you were still a 6-foot-4 little guy!" Thurmond walked to Gan Guoyang and patted Gan Guoyang on the shoulder like an elder and said.

6-foot-4 is still a little bit in Thurmond's eyes, and I can only say that the giant's world is too terrible.

"I remember I'm already 6 feet 5! Yes, it's 6 feet 5. When I first arrived in the United States, I was only 6 feet 3. Later, I grew very fast... Actually, I think I can grow to seven feet..." Gan Guoyang made it 7 feet when setting the height of a player, so now he will be 7 feet.

"Is that... I can't remember it anymore. You were not as strong as you are now... Come in, let's sit down and talk... talk about your NBA experience, rookie..." Thurmond said while pulling Gan Guoyang into the barbecue restaurant.

Gan Guoyang does have many worries to communicate with his enlightenment mentor.

"How is it like defending Jabbar?" Gan Guoyang had just sat down, and Thurmond gave Gan Guoyang some rum, lit a cigar himself, and asked.

Gan Guoyang knew that Thurmond had fought with Jabbar, but he didn't know the grudge between the two, so he was a little surprised why he asked Jabbar all at once.

"I feel... I would rather do a hundred rebate runs. Even if I try my best, I can only limit him occasionally. At other times, I have to eat at the weather and bet that his hands are not good." Gan Guoyang took a sip and said.

"Haha, if you want to limit him, you have to take out the strength to do a hundred rebate runs and make him do two hundred rebate runs. This guy's hook is like an adult playing with a primary school student's basket, and you have to make him become a primary school student." Thurmond seemed to remember the scene in which he and Jabbar competed on the court in the past.

In the 44 games between Thurmond and Jabbar, Jabbar averaged 25 points per game, a very good number, but much lower than his average score.

In the playoff series, Jabbar was limited to only 40% of his shooting percentage by Thurmond and averaged 22 points per game, which is something other centers, even Chamberlain, could not do.

Therefore, Thurmond has always been Jabbar's hard work. Now that he thinks that his disciples enter the NBA and want to confront Jabbar in the Western Conference, he wants to give Gan Guoyang a few moves.

"I used to try to lock him up like wrestling, which had some effect, but I couldn't always do this. The referee sometimes called me a foul, and I also had to help defend other players." Gan Guoyang said helplessly.

"It is correct to increase physical contact. He hates too much physical contact, and you have good strength. But you should pay attention to some skills and pay attention to his habits when doing movements, such as you should be closer to the left side of his back to defend, rather than the middle. If you are in the middle, then he pushes you with his left hand and hooks his right hand directly, which is almost impossible to defend. And when you are on the left, he cannot easily push you away with his left hand, so he will foul. Of course, you have to guard against his right turn, his left hand hook, and a backward jump shot, but the threat of his move is much smaller than a direct hook with his right hand, and it takes more effort."

Thurmond said that he asked Gan Guoyang to stand up and demonstrate to him, telling him how to stand and how to interfere with Jabbar's shooting.

Thurmond's statement made Gan Guoyang suddenly realize. He didn't expect that there were so many things to pay attention to when defense was done.

"Also, you must be fast, if he turns right, you must keep up, if he turns over to the basket, you will be finished." Thurmond added.

"Okay...but there is more than Jabbar in the league, just one center. Do I want to study it one by one?" Gan Guoyang said.

"Of course! You have to study the characteristics of each opponent, come up with targeted strategies, and then implement them. Of course, this is not only your job, but also the team's job."

"I performed poorly in the first two games, and was beaten by Bill Walton and Jack Sikma. I originally wanted to teach them a lesson, but... I think I have to consider the entire team." Gan Guoyang said what he felt depressed recently.

He was swaying between the team and the self, and his conversation with Carl made him lean towards the team, but the two consecutive losses made his self revival.

"I know what you're thinking, all star players will go through this process - whether to put the team first or be yourself." Thurmond smiled and smoked the cigar, looking like a godfather who is experienced and specialized in solving problems for others.

"If Wilt was here, I think he would be better suited to answer your question than I did."

What troubles Chamberlain's entire career is the contradiction between personal performance and team victory. This contradiction has tortured for many years and has also caused great controversy for him.

"I know, Wilt's data is great, but victory is always Russell's, but he won the assist king one year! Then the team won the championship!" Gan Guoyang thought of Chamberlain's magical performance in the 1967 season.

"Yes, then do you think you can become the assist king?" Thurmond asked.

"I...I...can't...I can't even do a good job of passing after being double-teamed." Gan Guoyang's biggest technical shortcoming now should be passing. For any powerful center, passing after being double-teamed is a compulsory course.

It will take a long time to train Gan Guoyang to do this seemingly simple but strategically significant technology.

"Not many people can do it. Wilt is Wilt, and there will be no second Chamberlain. You have to understand that what you have to do is what the team needs you to do. As long as you do this, then the individual will integrate with the team, show your self, and contribute to the team."

"Like Wilt, he scored too many points, so that the team didn't want him to score so many points, then those scores that he scored were not good for the team... Why would it be useless for the team? Because other players can get these points, and it can be more efficient. If Wilt's shots were assigned to his teammates, the team would get more points, but he didn't, so he always lost to Russell. But later, he learned to pass the ball, he used his deterrent power to attract defense, and then passed the ball to his teammates to score. The difference between this and his own score was that it was more efficient."

"And you are different. I have watched your game and the Rockets. You have no problems. The opponents perform too well and it is normal to lose. But in the next two games, your teammates are not in good shape. They feel that there is a problem with their offense. This is a problem that professional players often have. At this time, the team needs not to share the ball, but to score! Need to score! Ramsey is a good coach, but he is too obsessed with team basketball and sharing the ball rights. The Trail Blazers in 1977 cannot be replicated. He still doesn't understand that sometimes superstars can solve problems on their own, especially on offense."

Thurmond shared his experience with Gan Guoyang without hesitation, and every sentence spoke to Gan Guoyang's heart.

In fact, Thurmond's words are essentially the same as what Kenny Carl said, except that Carl emphasizes "compromise", while Thurmond emphasizes "self".

In the game against the Clippers and the Supersonics, the Trail Blazers were in offensive crisis many times. Ramsey made tactical adjustments, but he could not withstand the players' shots and could not score goals.

At this time, it should be when someone stood up to score consecutive goals. At this point, Gan Guoyang's super scoring explosive power gave him this ability.

Although his stability and tactical ability still need to be improved, once the feel comes, it is really unstoppable.

"Stand up when you need to stand up, do your auxiliary work silently, and stay on the bench when you need to rest."

"Then how should I judge what I need when..."

"By your own heart, you have to be one with this team, with the coach, teammates, and fans. By then you will understand their needs as much as you know your needs, and then do what you can do." Thurmond finished speaking, then took another chew of the cigar, then stood up and walked to the TV.

"This is a videotape of my game. On October 18, 1974, the season's opening game, the Hawks, who I was in, fought against the Bulls. I won a four-double, but we still lost the game." Thurmond turned on the videotape.

The ancient game of 74 years began to be played on TV. Thurmond has always treasured this video tape. It was recorded by local TV stations at that time and was given to Thurmond as a four-double performance commemorating Thurmond.

But Thurmond used it as a negative textbook for Gan Guoyang. He wanted to tell Gan Guoyang that omnipotence does not necessarily lead to victory, and of course, it is even worse to do nothing.

What you need to do in a team is the best thing.

When Gan Guoyang left the Danet Barbecue Restaurant, there were basically not many customers left in the barbecue restaurant.

There will be a game tomorrow, and Gan Guoyang still needs to rush back to the hotel to rest early and prepare to reverse the decline in Auckland.

Thurmond personally drove Gan Guoyang back to the hotel in Auckland. Before leaving, Thurmond rolled down the window and said goodbye to Gan Guoyang.
Chapter completed!