Everything went very smoothly in today's training. It can be seen that the Trail Blazers players are in very good condition.

The arrival of new teammates gave Gan Guoyang a lot of freshness. As the 1981 draft, Buck Williams struggled in the league for 7 years. As a member of the Nets, he has played against Gan Guoyang many times in the inside.

As a light inside player who is only 6-foot-8 and weighs 215 pounds, Buck Williams has energy that cannot be ignored and has strong rebounding ability.

This is also why he is called "Buck" (Buck), whose original name is Charles Williams.

After coming to the Trail Blazers, Buck Williams joked that Gan Guoyang might not get the rebounding champion, because there was an extra rebounding expert in the team and he would inevitably be divided into part.

While practicing in the interior basket, Gan Guoyang and Buck Williams shared some tips and tricks for rebounding.

Since Gan Guoyang entered the league in 1984, except for the 1987 season being reimbursed due to injury, he won the league rebounding champion in the other three seasons, but among his rebounds, the backcourt rebounds accounted for the majority.

This is related to the tactical characteristics of the Trail Blazers, and also to the fact that Gan Guoyang is not very good at grabbing frontcourt rebounds.

Buck Williams is different. His relatively thin and short figure makes him not advantageous when guarding the backcourt rebounds, but his flexible movement and strong explosive power have kept him above 3.9 frontcourt rebounds since he entered the league in 1981.

At his peak, he averaged 4.5 frontcourt rebounds per game. In the entire league, no one except the frontcourt rebounder Moses Malone can go to the right.

In recent years, Buck Williams' condition has gradually declined. Born in 1960, he is almost thirty years old. As a small insider who relies on explosions and speed, his health is getting worse and worse.

Although he could still score 18.3 points and 11.9 rebounds last season, of which 11.9 rebounds were the lowest since his rookie season, his entire state was in an unstoppable decline.

In addition, the Nets' record has not improved, so the Trail Blazers and the Nets, together with New York, made a three-party deal, bringing Buck Williams to Portland in advance - in history, his arrival will have to wait until 1990.

The Trail Blazers made this deal for two reasons. One is that after both Sampson and Kenny Carl left, the team lacked a high-quality and reliable No. 4 position, which made them suffer a lot in the playoffs against the Lakers in 1988.

The second is that Gan Guoyang made suggestions to the management, hoping to get Buck Williams or Otis Thorpe's trade.

In fact, Gan Guoyang hopes that Thorp can come. The two have a good relationship in private, and Thorp is taller and younger.

But unfortunately, Thorpe was traded first by the Houston Rockets, so the Trail Blazers could only trade the trumpet Buck Williams.

Gan Guoyang is a good learner. On the first day of training, he asked Buck Williams a lot of ways to grab the frontcourt rebounds.

In the fierce and variable playoffs, Gan Guoyang knew that at critical moments of the game, sometimes a frontcourt rebound could completely change the direction of the game.

In addition to Buck Williams, Gan Guoyang's inside helper also has the "Big Duck" Kevin Duckworth.

Duckworth was originally just a second round pick chosen by the Spurs in the draft in 1986. At that time, the Trail Blazers were suffering from Gan Guoyang's reimbursement of the season without a good center. After the season began, the inside defense was empty.

So they switched the No. 14 rookie, power forward Wat Barry, who was selected in the first round, to the Spurs, and traded the second round center.

At that time, the deal was criticized by many people, and they felt that it was a loss to buy a 14-point rookie in the first round to exchange for a second round pick.

However, Duckworth quickly became a barrier for the Trail Blazers' inside line. He was 7 feet tall and weighed 270 pounds, making the Trail Blazers' inside line look thicker.

After Gan Guoyang's comeback in the 1988 season, Dakworth became a stable substitute for Gan Guoyang, giving Gan Guoyang plenty of rest and rotation time and ensuring health.

Just started last season, a year ago, when the Trail Blazers also held a training camp, Duckworth faced Gan Guoyang, who had returned in training for the first time.

The ungrateful duck wanted to fight Gan Guoyang one-on-one in the confrontation training, but was 10 goals in a row and a basket of trash talks were given. From then on, he never dared to provoke Gan Guoyang during training.

For the first training this year, the Big Ducks would be a sparring coach for Gan Guoyang during the confrontation training as usual, but he became much more honest and just did a defensive move with no singles in the offense.

However, Gan Guoyang asked Dakworth to stay after the training, accompanied him to practice hooking, and carefully guided the big duck.

Duckworth received guidance from the league's second hook-up expert, so he naturally studied hard and trained hard, so the third hook-up expert in the Trail Blazers' inside line will be born soon.

Now, what Gan Guoyang misses the most is the second master of the Trail Blazers, Sabonis.

………………………………………

After the training, Gan Guoyang, as the boss of the team, invited the whole team to have a drink at the bar in Chinatown. In the past, Kenny Carl did this, but now it is Gan Guoyang's turn.

Training is both exhausting and relaxing. Everyone drinks happily in the bar. Portland beer is very famous throughout the United States.

As usual, Gan Guoyang just sat there and drank slowly, and chatted with each teammate from time to time.

This is a little different from Gan Guoyang three or four years ago. At that time, he rarely came to the bar and was occasionally pulled by Kenny Karl, and he just drank silently. This occasion was not his home court.

And now, like a respected godfather, he wandered among every teammate with a wine glass, asking about his well-being, talking about training, basketball, or talking about things that anyone is interested in.

This is the experience he learned from Kenny Carr, paying attention to every teammate and establishing relationships with everyone, like friends or brothers, a person's leadership skills come not only from his own strength, but also from the support of people around him.

Halfway through the wine, everyone was in a state of state. After drinking, Gan Guoyang was about to withdraw and let them go to High by themselves.

Gan Guoyang put down his wine glass and prepared to go to the bathroom to make it convenient.

As soon as he came out of the private room, Gan Guoyang was pretending to be full of worries. The army hit the abdomen, and ordinary people couldn't hit Gan Guoyang's arms at all.

"I'm sorry, I've dirtyed your clothes." It should be a rash treat. He hit someone with a drink and spilled some onto Gan Guoyang's clothes.

Gan Guoyang looked at the waitress in front of him. In the dim light, he found that the color of his hair seemed to be a yellow person.

This is a bar in Chinatown, but there are not many Asian-faced hostesses.

"It's okay, but your wine has been overturned." Gan Guoyang said in Chinese, wanting to see if this girl is Chinese.

The girl was a little surprised when she heard someone speak Chinese, but it was normal to think about it quickly. This is Chinatown, so she said, "It doesn't matter, I'll go get it again, and I'll go get it again."

As she said that, the girl turned around and left in a hurry. She didn't look up at Gan Guoyang from beginning to end, and she looked very reserved.

Gan Guoyang has been in bars and nightclubs in Chinatown all year round. The waitresses and waiters here have seduced him a lot. Every time a waiter comes to deliver wine, someone will stuff him a small note with a phone number.

When leaving the bar and nightclub, there were always girls wearing sexy and exposed clothes at the door showing off their charm to Gan Guoyang, but Gan Guoyang has never been interested in them.

However, this waitress is probably new and doesn't know anything.

Gan Guoyang was also a little curious. Judging from the accent of the girl just now, he was very authentic Mandarin, unlike Chinese people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan or Chinese Americans.

Gan Guoyang also knew that in 1988, there were still very few mainlanders who could come to the United States, either smuggling, powerful and wealthy people, their children, or international students sent by the state.

If you smuggle, most of the smugglers on the southeast coast of Fujian go to Los Angeles, San Francisco and other southwest coastal areas, and rarely come to places like Portland in the north.

The Chinese who came to Portland in the past were all piglets trafficked by Americans, and it is impossible for this to happen now.

Naturally, the powerful and wealthy people would not come to work as waiters in such places, and there is no need to come here to experience life.

The international students sent by the government are not similar. Gan Guoyang knows some international students sent by the government from China. They are generally older, and their living expenses are supported by the state and scholarships, so there is no need to come here to work.

Gan Guoyang thought of the girl's timid appearance, and there was a sense of pity in his heart. He wanted to do this as she did, and he probably would be scolded by the foreman.

So, Gan Guoyang walked to the door of the private room and said to Feng Peiyu who was sitting outside drinking, "Peiyu, go to the bar counter to take a look, and said that he accidentally knocked over a waitress's wine and paid some money to the bar."

Feng Peiyu has always been more sane in his work. After Gan Guoyang talked to him, he didn't ask any more questions, nodded and headed towards the bar.

After saying this, Gan Guoyang returned to the private room, but he still thought of the waitress in his mind. He always felt that this waitress seemed to have a little familiar feeling.
Chapter completed!