The Golden Age of Basketball

When the team's confidence began to crumble, the game could no longer continue, and the remaining time became a slow suicide for the players of Lihua High School.

In high school or college games, young players' emotions and psychology are easily swayed, far from as mature and stable as adults.

Thus, upsets are common in games, where unknown and weak teams ride high on morale, knocking out mentally unbalanced strong teams to secure victory.

After the timeout, Lihua High School couldn't find a solution; nobody on their team could match up to Gan Guoyang, and none could break out.

Their survival-based team synergy was also disrupted, and in the second half, they were just killing time, running down the remaining 20 minutes to end this cat-and-mouse game.

Gan Guoyang wasn't playing games either; in the second half, he exploded in scoring, repeatedly pummeling the opposition in the low post, still managing to squeeze through double teams to slam the ball in.

The spectators on the sidelines had their fill of dunks, with waves of cheers coming one after another until Gan Guoyang was substituted out early by Beelman.

At that point, his stats were 25 points, 31 rebounds, 9 blocks, and 5 assists, just one block shy of a triple-double.

Gan Guoyang didn't mind this, he didn't care about stats, just about victory and the process of achieving it.

But some spectators on the sidelines did mind, they wanted to continue watching Gan Guoyang's performance.

An old man shouted, "Hey, put number 11 back in! We want to see him play! What's the deal with you, foreign coach? I paid for my ticket!"

The old man from Chinatown spoke in Chinese, which Beelman couldn't understand. He asked Gan Guoyang, "What's that old man shouting at me?"

Gan Guoyang said, "He said that the coach's command tonight is fantastic, with appropriate tactics and masterful strategy, simply brilliant, he salutes you."

"Buschet, I've hardly done anything tonight, you took care of everything. You damn guy, did you break number 5? You let him score in the first half, then locked him down in the second half, and crushed his fragile little heart! God, you're a fucking devil."

"I was just breaking down their team offense, they're more in sync and better trained than us, but that guy got carried away. He forgot there's more to the game than scoring, so he had to pay a price."

Beelman squinted at Gan Guoyang and leaned in, "What kind of monster are you?"

Gan Guoyang rolled his eyes at Beelman and said, "I'm just playing ball."

Beelman grumbled with his mouth, but inside, he was exceedingly excited, coaching a player like Gan Guoyang made it all the more interesting for him.

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Just before five o'clock in the afternoon, the sky over San Francisco was still bright, and the game between the two teams had ended.

51:39, Beiqiao High School comfortably defeated Lihua High School at Kezar Stadium.

In the 1980s, high school games consisted of two halves totaling 40 minutes, with no three-point line.

Therefore, the pace of the game was slow, and scoring was low; for the one-week-old team of Beiqiao High School to reach 51 points was already a miracle.

Usually, it wouldn't be a problem for Lihua High School to score over 50 points in a game, but tonight their confidence was shattered by Gan Guoyang, and their second-half performance was a complete mess.

Lihua High School's captain, Wang Tianduo, sat on the bench after the game, covering his face and weeping. This game would undoubtedly become a lifelong shadow for him.

The vice-chairman of the Chinese Progressive Association, Huang Shaohua, danced with joy in the high stands, while the people from the Strait Self-Reliant Association sitting not far away kept shaking their heads.

They must regret not contacting Gan Guoyang earlier to get him to attend Lihua High School.

If Gan Guoyang had been at Lihua, perhaps they could have applied to join CIF this year, or participated in the state championship organized by the First International Bank Sports Foundation and achieved good results.

When Gan Guoyang was leaving the court, many people crowded around to shake his hand, blocking the exit so tightly that the players could barely make it back.

It was the first time Gan Guoyang felt the overwhelming enthusiasm of the fans up close. The joy of victory was exhilarating, and for a long time afterwards, this match was the talk of Chinatown.

In the evening, Huang Shaohua threw a banquet at Gan's Restaurant for the whole Shui Zhong team to celebrate their first victory since the team's establishment.

Old Huang couldn't stop smiling throughout dinner, saying that he had finally gotten one over on Lihua High School.

Gan Guoyang was happy, but he knew that Lihua High School, both in San Francisco and the whole of California, was considered a mediocre team.

Competitions among Chinese-American teams were after all just "infighting." The real challenge for Beiqiao High School was facing off against other African-American and white high schools.

So after dinner, instead of joining his teammates in playing arcade games, Gan Guoyang went to the rooftop court at Cameron Center to play basketball.

Xu Xun followed Gan Guoyang to the rooftop; he helped pick up balls for Gan Guoyang and acted as a defensive target.

The two shared similar personality traits. Like Gan Guoyang, Xu Xun also came from a single-parent family and lived with his father.

However, Xu Xun's father was much more abusive than Gan Youwei; Xu Xun received little affection from his father, only indifference and brutal beatings when he made mistakes.

The school was rife with militaristic discipline, corporal punishment, violence, and bullying. Growing up in such an environment meant that even after arriving in America, Xu Xun was inevitably taciturn and full of anger.

"America is no paradise either. Here, as long as you have an Asian face, you're treated differently everywhere. In Korea, the bullying is overt, completely disgraceful insults, beatings, and corporal punishment. Those scars are left on the body, blue and purple marks that you can see at a glance. But it's different in America; there's no corporal punishment here. They say it's a country of equality and freedom, and it's relatively safe if you don't go to dangerous areas. But having an Asian face means you're lower-class here, even lower than African-Americans."

After playing basketball or extra training, the two often chatted together.

Xu Xun's insights were clearly deeper than those of his peers. Despite being quiet on the surface, he thought deeply about the environment he was living in.

"You can't call people the N-word outside, or you'll be in trouble," Gan Guoyang reminded him.

"They call us Gook, Chink, and no one cares," Xu Xun retorted.

"We don't need others to care. We need to stand up for ourselves. If someone calls me that, I'll give them a punch."

"I'll show them the power of the nunchakus too! That's why I especially admire Bruce Lee. It's not just his kung fu I like, but also the way he made a name for himself in America. He's really incredible."

When they talked about Bruce Lee, Xu Xun's eyes always lit up with a different kind of brilliance. Bruce Lee was the spiritual totem for him and many Asian youths of his generation.

"Axun, I'm going to be more successful than Bruce Lee one day, believe it or not?"

"I don't believe it."

"Humph, just wait and see. That day will come."