The Golden Age of Basketball

Cap Raven, Cap wasn't his real name, but his nickname.

His birth name was Albert Raven, and in the 1940s he was a well-known young basketball player in the San Francisco Area—there was no NBA back then.

He later played for the University of San Francisco as a point guard, boasting a very precise jump shot.

Once, in a citywide free-throw competition held in San Francisco, he made 26 consecutive shots and won the championship, earning a honeymoon trip to Hawaii as a reward.

However, in the '50s, it was very difficult to make a living from basketball, with great players like Bob Cousy even hesitating between playing basketball and driving a taxi.

To support his wife and three children, the young Raven took on many jobs: selling cigarettes at the beach amusement park, operating elevators at the public library, driving long-haul Greyhound buses, and even winning money at pinball machines in nightclubs.

Eventually, he found a job as an English teacher, which became his lifelong career.

And this English teacher had a great influence on the San Francisco basketball scene.

He often played at Rochambeau Court, 3v3, where he had once been the top star.

Former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was Raven's best friend, the two having been high school basketball teammates.

In the 1975 San Francisco City election, Raven campaigned for his friend, arranging for Moscone and his staff to play a 3v3 game at Rochambeau Court to attract votes from minority ethnic groups who loved basketball.

Moscone was successfully elected, but the open-minded mayor, who advocated for city inclusiveness and racial equality, was assassinated in 1978 by a radical former colleague.

Raven delivered a eulogy at City Hall for this beloved mayor and his best friend.

Beyond San Francisco, Cap Raven was well-connected throughout the California basketball community.

He was good friends with UCLA's legendary coach John Wooden—who himself was a high school English teacher in Indiana.

Cap Raven was fifty years old this year, and he was still active at Rochambeau Court, often taking his youngest son, Steve Raven, to play games there.

Steve Raven, the youngest of Cap's six children and the one with the highest basketball talent, inherited his father's gentle and precise shooting touch and played as a point guard for the Francis Drake High School basketball team.

He grew up on the street courts with his father, and last year he formed a three-man team named "Cancer" with his high school teammate Pitman and his good friend from Sacred Heart High School, Eric White, nearly sweeping the San Francisco street courts.

They were keen on challenging San Francisco's skilled three-man teams, seeking fun and continuously improving their skills through competition.

In the past two weeks, rumors about a Chinese basketball trio dominating local courts rapidly fermented and spread within the San Francisco basketball community.

They were said to be unbeatable across various courts, especially with one tall player, who had an astounding defensive impact and was a rare talent among Chinese players.

After hearing about this, Steve Raven went out of his way to find Chen Xing's contact details, then called to challenge them to a game at Rochambeau Court.

Cap always paid close attention to talented young streetball players in San Francisco, and when his son mentioned the recent rise of a Chinese youth, he came to the sidelines full of curiosity to watch the battle.

Cap was an iconic figure of Rochambeau Court, and his presence attracted even more attention, with the news of this showdown between talented youths spreading like wildfire, drawing more and more spectators.

Even as the six players on the court warmed up, the crowd surrounding Rochambeau Court continued to grow.

Even neighborhood residents, curious about the commotion, came out to watch.

Chen Xing and Gan Guohui were increasingly nervous, while Gan Guoyang was both calm and excited.

He methodically stretched and warmed up his body, grabbed the ball with one hand, ran up, jumped, and easily slam-dunked with a single hand.

Each dunk drew exclamations from the crowd; his jumping wasn't particularly spectacular, but his movements were expansive and graceful. With his long arms, large hands, and lean, muscular build, dressed in a brown athletic vest and dark blue basketball shorts, and wearing white Avia860 sneakers and tube socks given by Chen Xing, his dunks were reminiscent of Dr. J Irving's style.

A spark of interest flickered in the eyes of Cap Raven, watching from the sidelines.

Gan Guoyang's dunking form was so elegant that Cap Raven had never seen an Asian player like this before.

Besides being a basketball player and an English teacher, Cap Raven was also a lover of literature, a writer, and a promoter of writing programs.

From a writer's perspective, this Chinese-American youth was undoubtedly an excellent subject matter, surely harboring stories worth writing about.

Cap couldn't help but recall his late friend Mayor Moscone, a politician who was deeply concerned with minority groups and the issue of urban community integration.

It was apparent that Cap was more focused on the skin color of Gan Guoyang and his two companions, rather than their skills on the court.

Even as an enlightened White, Cap still didn't believe that the three of them had what it took to challenge "Cancer."

Steve was an excellent guard among his peers, inheriting his father's shooting ability, with a cool head and a superb overview of the game.

He had been playing basketball with his father from a young age, had rich experience on the court, and was highly competitive among his peers.

Pitman was Steve's teammate, and the two had been playing basketball together since junior high, having a tacit understanding on the court.

And at Sacred Heart High School, Eric White was the true core of the Cancer trio, the one with the most talent.

At 6 feet 6 inches, he played forward and served as the center in 3v3 games.

Although he wasn't that kind of exceptionally talented player, Cap knew that this guy had an outstanding physique and solid skills.

There is a basic threshold in the professional league; if you are within that threshold, with some effort and opportunity, you stand a chance to enter that world.

But if your physical talent is below that threshold, no matter if you put in 200% effort, love basketball to the extreme, and excel at it, the doors to the NBA will not open for you.

Among the Cancer trio, Steve and Pitman were very unlikely to make it to the NBA, but White was different; he was one of those within the threshold.

The two teams flipped a coin to decide who would attack first, and Cap's eyes were firmly fixed on Gan Guoyang, wanting to see how the kid would perform against White.

The Cancer team gained the right for the first offense.

The ball was in Steve Raven's hands, his ball-handling was smooth, completely ignoring Chen Xing's defense as he glided around the court like a nimble cat.

On the first move, he used a convincing fake to quickly get past Chen Xing's defense and dashed toward the basket.

Gan Guoyang stepped forward to defend, and Raven pushed the ball behind him, a clever and sudden behind-the-back pass.

The ball reached White, who was cutting inside, and after catching it, he took a step and leaped high, intending to slam dunk with both hands!

But White had underestimated Gan Guoyang's reaction speed; he actually turned and jumped at the same time as White, blocking White's dunk attempt in mid-air!

"What a block, what trickery!"

The fans at the venue all gasped.

The first play of the game, and it was such a thrilling block.

The two collided with full force, and as the ball was hit by two opposing forces, it slipped from their hands, slammed to the ground with a thud, and bounced up high.

Both landed at the same time, and Gan Guoyang jumped again, snatching the ball with both hands and passing it to Chen Xing on the outside.

Offense and defense switched sides, and Gan Guoyang had successfully stopped the opponent's first attack.

Cap Raven, who had been sitting on the sidelines with his arms crossed, stood up.

He realized that this Chinese youth might not be as simple as he had thought.