The Golden Age of Basketball

[People are never static, and neither is a team.

One day, when key individuals in a team no longer fulfill their duties, a team without a core will be unable to unite.

The core can collapse due to various reasons, aging, exhaustion, accumulation of negative emotions, or the unbearable weight of life and fate.

In any case, when the core can no longer unite people's hearts, the corresponding team cannot provide positive feedback—trust, loyalty, and a sense of security—to the core.

Sometimes, the core could even become the focal point of resentment, the source of all conflicts.

Take, for example, my Hollywood friend Robert Towne.

Towne is an Oscar-winning screenwriter who brought us the great film "Chinatown."

Afterward, everyone hoped for a sequel, for Jack Nicholson to reprise his unforgettable role as the private detective Jake Gittes.

Thus, Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson, and producer-actor Robert Evans prepared to start shooting the sequel to Chinatown.

Having worked successfully together in 1974 on Chinatown, in 1990, they named the film "The Two Jakes" hoping to achieve glory once more.

Evans was set to play an important role in the film.

However, shortly after filming began, Towne painfully concluded that Evans could not fulfill this role.

Production suddenly stopped, directly resulting in the loss of millions of US Dollars, followed by protracted lawsuits.

No one was a winner; Evans lost as his role was replaced, Towne lost because he was no longer part of the team when the film restarted.

Nicholson lost because handling the roles of director, producer, and actor was too challenging for him.

The public and the movie studios also lost because "The Two Jakes" was not a true sequel to "Chinatown," and the film couldn't reach the height of its predecessor.

During this process, a quarter-century of friendship and the efforts and work of the film company employees were all wasted and ended up in vain.

When individuals stray from their path, the team composed of individuals will similarly lose motivation and direction, especially the individual that serves as the core.

I also have another friend, Dr. Lu Richfield; he is a therapist and team repair expert in California.

"When a team has no goal or a leader doesn't have a clearly defined goal, the team will break apart."

Dr. firmly said, "The goal must be deeply rooted; otherwise, people may start operating like individual parts in this system that so truly requires cooperation, which will inevitably lead to division."

From 1993-1995, Miami Heat had a unified goal, the championship, and we worked together to reach the highest peak.

However, starting in 1996, our core leadership gradually collapsed, the team broke apart, and we no longer had a clear goal.

The same year Sunny Gan made a comeback, before which he had already won 7 championships, always surprising people with his ability to maintain leadership.

How the Trail Blazers always kept focus on championship and victory is a question I've researched over the years.

One thing is certain, he must have been unwavering, the strongest, most unshakable core.

He is the least likely to change.]

———— Published in 1998, excerpt from "The Winner Within," a New York Times bestseller by Pat Riley.

Time flew by to July, and Gan Guoyang endured a week of hunger.

He didn't entirely stop eating but controlled his intake to a level that quickly burned fat.

Guided by a professional team, he lost over a dozen pounds in just over a week.

His face changed from its previously chubby, slightly double-chinned appearance to a sharply sculpted one.

His eyes, which used to look somewhat gentle, now appeared sharp and gleaming (actually from hunger).

His shoulders and back became thinner, allowing him to wear the custom broad-shouldered suit without needing a new one.

His belly became smaller, no longer looking bloated; the once strong and perfect body shape returned.

When Gan Guoyang donned the full outfit and stood before the mirror, holding a basketball, he felt he was back.

However, Gan Guoyang knew inside that he hadn't fully come back; only his appearance was temporarily restored.

His strength, jumping ability, reaction speed, game sense, and desire for victory were still in a pending state.

He breathed deeply, deciding to manage the surface tasks first and tackle the press conference next.

There was one hour left until Gan Guoyang's comeback news conference; he was currently sitting prepared in the locker room at the Rose Garden Arena.

Meanwhile, helicopters hovered outside, broadcast trucks blocked the entrance, and many reporters rushed from all directions to attend the press conference.

For this day, Gan Guoyang, Tang Jianguo, and the Trail Blazers had all done sufficient groundwork and preparations.

Things gradually became hectic; public emotions turned restless, with impatient people constantly calling the Trail Blazers to question if they and Ah Gan were toying with the public?

Tang Jianguo monitored all this and very much relished the situation.

This vast scope and immense scale of media attention are priceless.

"USA Today" reported that in recent days, stocks of Tang Jianguo's company, as well as Avia, increased by over a hundred percent, with their market value rising by over 3 billion US Dollars.

This fueled speculation, leading people to wonder if Gan's comeback was somehow linked to financial manipulation.