The Golden Age of Basketball

On the 31st, a weekend day, Beelman gave the players a day off - there was no practice.

Gan Guoyang invited Gan Guohui, Chen Xing, and Xu Xun, the three teammates he was closest to, to go to Oakland to watch The Warriors' season opener at home.

Contrary to his expectations, he thought the three would enthusiastically agree to go, but each of them had a reason for not attending.

Gan Guohui said he had a date, Chen Xing had to attend a math tutoring class, and Xu Xun had to stay in the shop to help out.

Even though Guoyang said the tickets were free as someone had offered them, they still did not accept, clearly showing no interest in The Warriors' season opener.

One can imagine how insignificant the NBA's influence was at the time since the season's opener was not televised, there was no large-scale advertising, and it all happened very quietly.

If it weren't for Sermonde's call to Guoyang, he wouldn't even have known that the new NBA season had started two days earlier.

In the afternoon, Sermonde personally drove Guoyang to Oakland and upon learning that his friends couldn't come, Sermonde shook his head, "The current NBA situation is even worse than in the 70s. Young people are not interested in professional basketball, and the locals prefer college basketball and high school games. Ah Gan, you've done a marvelous job.

The news about you and the Shui Zhong Team in October completely overshadowed The Warriors' news, and people lost a lot of interest in The Warriors. In fact, The Warriors did quite well last season."

The Shui Zhong Team's popularity in San Francisco led to a further decline in fan interest in The Warriors. Guoyang hadn't expected the NBA to be in such a decline in the early 80s.

In terms of the lineup, The Warriors were very competitive. Last season they had traded for Bernard King and World B. Flynn, drafted rebounding enthusiast Larry Smith, and in a trade with the Celtics, they sent away Parrish and the third overall pick for the first overall pick, and took the 7-foot tall center Joe Barry Carroll.

Although this trade was later considered to have contributed to the Celtics' resurgence - Auerbach used the third overall pick to select Kevin McHale, who along with Bird and Parrish formed an iron trio in the frontcourt, and they won the championship in 1981.

But from The Warriors' perspective, having Carroll wasn't such a bad thing. Several young players performed quite well in the 80-81 season, missing the playoffs by just one victory. (If The Warriors could have kept the third overall pick and Parrish and managed to get McHale, history might have been very different, but Auerbach certainly would not have allowed this to happen.)

The Warriors maintained the complete roster from the previous season, with only one player over the age of 30, and the core players were young players around the age of 25; such a lineup with potential should attract the city's fans.

However, on the ride there, Sermonde told Guoyang that today's home opener, the second game of the new season, had only attracted just over 7,000 spectators, not even reaching 40% occupancy.

"So you're inviting my friends and me to the game because there are too many empty seats, just to fill the numbers?" Guoyang joked.

"I'm not as sleazy as you say, kid. Your words are getting sharper. I promised before to invite you to a game so you can experience the NBA atmosphere. That could give you a concrete goal in your mind, you want to play on the NBA court in the future, don't you?"

"I know, thanks Nate, I was joking. Actually, I have a lot of questions I want to ask you about some details of offensive techniques."

Guoyang trained diligently with the Shui Zhong Team, and Beelman's guidance was meticulous, but one problem was that Guoyang couldn't find anyone on the Shui Zhong team to match up against.

This meant that Guoyang couldn't effectively practice certain offensive skills. Although Beelman had a wealth of knowledge, he wasn't originally an inside player.

The level of high school training could no longer meet the growing needs of Guoyang's basketball skills; he was craving more advanced guidance.

"Being eager to learn is good. Your rate of improvement astonishes me. To be honest, I can't instruct you. Offense is not my strong suit," Sermonde said.

"But you can still score an average of 20 points per game."

"Average 20 points per game and average 20 points per game can be different. Some people's average 20 points are given by the team, and some people's average 20 points are contributed to the team. I'm clearly the former. I haven't liked offense since high school; I prefer defense. But I can find someone to give you some tips, for free."

Sermonde drove over the Bay Bridge and arrived at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, a multi-sport facility complex built in Oakland in the 60s.

The core venue was a large multipurpose stadium and a basketball hall which later became known by a name familiar to everyone - Oracle Arena.

Sermonde parked the car, and it was just after two o'clock in the afternoon, with several hours to go before the game was set to start.

He led Gan Guoyang through the staff entrance into the interior of the arena, offering unobstructed passage, as Sermonde's face served as their pass.

Gan Guoyang was guided through the players' locker room and the media center until they finally reached the edge of the court, where the round dome design inside the Oakland Arena seemed simple, yet grand.

Besides being the home court of The Warriors, this venue also hosted a multitude of concerts and musical performances. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Marvin Gaye, and Queen had all left their musical marks here.

This was Gan Guoyang's first visit to an NBA home venue, which seemed much older than what he had seen on TV, considering it was designed and built in the 60s without having undergone modern renovations.

The floor was dim and lusterless, the ceiling lacked massive LCD screens, and the first row courtside was lined with metal folding chairs, looking quite casual.

Sermonde pulled Gan Guoyang over to two specially made large folding chairs to sit down, telling him to wait patiently for a while as the person who could answer his questions was about to arrive.

At three-thirty, the Golden State Warriors players arrived at the home court to do their warm-up exercises to get accustomed to the venue. Sermonde got up to greet Head Coach Al Attles of The Warriors.

Attles was one of the earliest black coaches in the League, second only to Russell. He was Sermonde's former teammate at The Warriors, as well as his coach.

During the 1970-1971 season, he became a player-coach and continued to coach until now, leading the team to a championship in 1975.

Sermonde introduced Gan Guoyang to Attles, who feigned surprise, "Woh, you're that Ah Gan! You've completely stolen The Warriors' thunder this summer! Shouldn't you compensate our team? Just come and play for The Warriors next year, I'll get the boss to offer you a big contract."

"Don't joke, Al. If you could get the boss to offer a big contract, you might as well give one to me—I think I can still play."

The two old friends teased each other, and Sermonde explained his purpose, saying the young friend was eager to learn and had some techniques he wanted to consult about.

"Consult? Why don't you teach him center techniques?"

"You know my offense is like crap."

"So you do know it, I thought you were clueless."

Attles blew his whistle to gather The Warriors players, who looked Gan Guoyang over with curiosity, intrigued by the tall Chinese-American youth.

Feeling restrained in the presence of so many professional players, Gan Guoyang nudged Sermonde and asked, "Nate, I just wanted to ask a simple question, do we need such a big fuss?"

"It's no big deal," Sermonde replied. "Professional players mentoring younger students is nothing out of the ordinary. We're all players, just sharing and exchanging knowledge."

In America, it's a long-standing tradition for professional players to mingle, share and exchange tips with amateur streetballers and college players.

Many professional teams train at local college venues, and if they encounter NCAA players, they'll shoot some hoops together and pass on experience.

Veterans often look after the younger players, some of whom might become their colleagues and opponents in the professional arena in the future.

"Kid, whatever you want to know, we've got The Golden State Warriors coaching staff at your service. Your performance in Fremont has been hyped to the skies, and we too are eager to see what you've got, Ah Gan."

So this was that Ah Gan. A few Warriors players became excited, eager to try their hand, while others were indifferent and dismissive, showing little interest.

Gan Guoyang said, "I want to learn about the turnaround jump shot technique. I feel my movement isn't very fluid."

Attles pointed at two people, "Larry, Bernard, you two, give him some pointers. Everyone else, warm up, or if you're interested, you can watch too."