The Golden Age of Basketball

Even the strongest and most enduring climax has a moment when it subsides.

How to face the ensuing emptiness and calm, and lay the groundwork and preparation for the next arrival, is a topic everyone must confront.

For Gan Guoyang, the grand comeback press conference was as brilliant as fireworks, with news media around the world reporting on his return to the NBA that day.

The footage of him on TV, accompanied by the music of "Sunrise," would be replayed time and again in the future.

His speech at the press conference was brief and powerful, a declaration of a king returning to the battlefield, and ticket prices at the Rose Garden soared to an extremely high level.

Even the three major indices of the American stock market rose sharply that day, a confidence as precious as gold, reflecting to some extent the overall prosperity of America in the '90s.

Yet, upon returning home after leaving the Rose Garden Arena, the first thing Gan Guoyang did was sit down and have a good meal.

Gan Youwei prepared a table of dishes that Gan Guoyang loved, and Gan Guoyang devoured more than twenty pieces of the special grilled chicken legs at once.

Gan Guoyang quickly reminded his son not to eat so voraciously; having not eaten properly for some time, his stomach and intestines wouldn't be able to take it if he binged all at once.

Fortunately, Gan Guoyang's stomach and intestines were as strong as steel; he could digest even ten pounds of iron beans.

After a satisfying meal, Gan Guoyang felt content and took a basketball to his glass ball hall to arrange training and expend his body's energy.

In the period after announcing his return, Gan Guoyang kept a low profile, starting to readjust his physical condition.

The hypocritical appearance is ultimately used to deceive people; to truly return to the peak, extremely hard training and scientifically healthy diet are needed.

Since moving from Portland to San Jose over a year ago, their house in Portland wasn't left neglected; they specifically hired people for its upkeep.

Everything is the same as before; the mysterious pyramid glass court makes Gan Guoyang feel safe and relaxed playing there.

After waking up in the morning, Gan Guoyang would spend the whole morning doing skills and physical training in the glass court, guided by a professional team.

In the afternoon, Gan Guoyang would go to the Portland Community College basketball court to train with his old friends and regain a sense of competition.

The training venue was closed from start to finish, not open to the public; Gan Guoyang completely cut off contact with the media, sweating profusely on the court.

He felt excited to be training here again, preparing for the new season.

It felt as if everything was really the same as before, as they were once again on the road to contending for the championship.

But is everything really the same as before?

There are still many differences, such as when attending the press conference that day, Gan Guoyang glanced into the audience and found that from those who accompanied him to win the championship in 1993, only two remained: Terry Porter and PJ Brown.

Since 1986, whether coaches or players, only Porter has always stayed by Gan Guoyang's side.

Even Gan Guoyang did not expect that the team friendship between him and Porter could last so long.

And the acquaintance between the two dates back to the 1984 Olympic Training Camp, where Porter performed well and persisted until the very end.

But ultimately, he had to leave the camp due to contracting chickenpox; at that time, Gan Guoyang, who was an assistant, took care of him, and the two became friends.

Later, they became teammates, winning championships from the 1985-1986 season, all the way to the seventh championship in 1993, with Porter being the only one to accompany Gan Guoyang through all the glories.

In 1994, after Gan Guoyang played for a brief stint and chose to retire, Jerome Kossie, without Gan's protection, was traded mid-season in 94-95.

Since winning the three-peat in 1992, after signing a big contract in the offseason, Jerome Kossie's performance plummeted, frequent accidents on and off the court making him one of the least cost-effective players in the league.

But with Gan's protection, he lingered with the Trail Blazers for another two seasons; once Gan retired, he was the first the management wanted to clear out.

The saying "when the rabbit dies, the hound is boiled" happens often in the NBA; most of the time, business is still business.

However, the Trail Blazers never moved Porter, the meritorious veteran, even though Van Exel rapidly improved in these two seasons, management still kept Porter.

Because Tang Jianguo knew that as long as Porter was there, the Trail Blazers would still retain a lingering taste of the old times, which was necessarily one of the reasons that attracted Gan to return.

Gan Guoyang admitted that when he saw Porter still staying with the Trail Blazers, there indeed was a sense of warmth and stability within him.

But Gan Guoyang isn't naive enough to think that just because of one Porter, the Trail Blazers are still the former Trail Blazers, or the league is still the former league.

The league has changed tremendously over the years, especially during the year and a half Gan Guoyang was retired, many big events occurred.

Three days have passed since the comeback press conference, and people's attention on Gan's return is gradually fading.

It's not exactly silence, though; people are just waiting—waiting to see how Gan Guoyang would perform in the new season.

In the morning, Gan Guoyang trained as usual with the physical coach in the glass ball hall, urgently needing to recover his explosiveness and strength to previous levels.

However, the physical coach Calvin told him that even with the most advanced and rigorous training methods, restoring to the level of 1992, 1993 would take a considerable amount of time.

"Does this mean that from now on, my level can only recover to Michael Jordan's level at most? I used to be 2 Dan; even if I can't explode as I used to, I should at least recover to the level of 1.5 Dan, right?"