The Golden Age of Basketball

Chamberlain's hands were broad, thick, and solid. His fingers were not particularly long but were extremely sturdy, a testament to his strength.

Gan Guoyang's hands were also large, with long fingers and a firm grip. The moment they shook hands, they started to compete.

"Your hands are quite big, kid, not bad. But put some effort into it, or I'll crush your bones."

Chamberlain's grip tightened, yet Guoyang's expression remained unchanged, his focus razor-sharp.

Sermonde officiated, and the instant he let go and shouted to start, Guoyang channeled all his strength from the bottom of his feet, twisting up through his thighs, abdomen, back, and finally, like a lever, into his arms.

This explosive burst, akin to a tiger pouncing down a mountain, caught Chamberlain off guard. Although he was prepared, he overestimated his own strength and didn't expect the young man opposite him to possess such formidable power.

Sermonde neither lied nor exaggerated.

For the first time in his life, Chamberlain felt his arm was powerless, his muscles contracting in one direction while his arm bent in another.

Gan Guoyang almost slammed Chamberlain's arm onto the table, with Chamberlain's dark back of the hand merely a centimeter from the tablecloth.

But Chamberlain was truly Chamberlain. He held on. In an arm-bending position, he managed to stop the decline with his immense muscular strength.

At that moment, his face twisted fiercely, like someone suffering through the first bowel movement after hemorrhoid surgery, clenching his teeth and shutting his eyes tight to maintain the last centimeter of dignity.

"Xie Te, Xie Te, Xie Te!"

Chamberlain kept shouting. The disadvantage came too quickly; he couldn't believe he was close to losing.

Meanwhile, Guoyang bit his lips tightly, veins popping on his forehead.

The initial surge had passed, and now it was a test of endurance, willpower, and weight.

The surrounding crowd held their breath, having thought Chamberlain would teach the kid a lesson and win with ease.

Yet, Guoyang quickly pushed Chamberlain to the brink. In his current state of reversal, he could at best avoid losing. Winning seemed unlikely without professional wrist strength techniques to make a dramatic comeback.

Chamberlain could only grit his teeth and endure, hoping to exhaust Guoyang's stamina for a possible turnaround or at least a draw.

Both summoned all their strength, their right hands pushing while their left hands clutched the legs of the small round table.

The table was an old patchwork one that could hardly withstand the tussling of two towering men over two meters tall.

Under the tremendous force, it suddenly "cracked" into several pieces.

And at that moment, with a twist of his wrist using the weight of his body, Guoyang pressed down, and Chamberlain's hand touched the tablecloth.

But the tablecloth had lost support, as the leg had collapsed, and the table's top had been torn into three pieces by the two men, dismembered like a carcass.

"I won!" Gan Guoyang clenched his fist and shouted triumphantly.

"No! The table is broken; it doesn't count! I had already let go. You took advantage, kid. You exerted force first; I wasn't even ready."

Chamberlain waved his hands repeatedly, refusing to admit defeat to Gan Guoyang and demanding a rematch on a sturdier table.

Sermonde declared the match void, adding, "My cousin's bar doesn't have enough tables for you guys to break. Today is Christmas; we should be more peaceful, right?"

Gan Guoyang said it didn't matter, but Chamberlain, unable to hide his irritation, insisted on a rematch.

"This time I'm ready," he said. "I'll beat you in 0.1 seconds."

After repeated persuasion from Sermonde and Chamberlain lifting Gan Guoyang to show off his strength, the big kid finally calmed down.

Before leaving, Chamberlain warned Guoyang, "Kid, you didn't beat me at arm wrestling today. If you go around claiming you did and I find out, I'll organize a national broadcast of an arm-wrestling match to prove to all of America you're lying!"

Gan Guoyang thought, if it was nationally broadcasted and you lost again, wouldn't that confirm it?

But Gan Guoyang also knew he had indeed taken advantage by acting first while Chamberlain was unprepared.

Who told Chamberlain to underestimate him?

Anyone who underestimated him would pay the price.

"Fine, I won't say anything, but could I ask you a basketball question? How do you handle a situation with a strong frontcourt pairing, or the Twin Towers? Both are either very tall or very strong, and they attack you in the paint; how would you solve this problem?"

The defeat to Washington High School was like a thorn in Gan Guoyang's heart; he was in need of some experience.

Seeing Gan Guoyang asking for advice, Chamberlain generously shared his experience:

"Hah, you've definitely come to the right person. I've faced countless double teams and tight defenses in my life. If you're up against two strong big men blocking you, I'll give you the correct approach: focus on one, and beat him mercilessly, on both offense and defense."

"Focus on one and beat him mercilessly?"

"Yes. Do you know who Walter Bellamy is?"

"No."

"No wonder, you don't even know Sermonde. The young people these days... He was the first pick of the '61 draft, and in his rookie season, he averaged 31 points, an unstoppable center.

When I was in my third year, his team met ours for the first time; he introduced himself to me, 'I'm Walter Bellamy.' I thought, 'Who's this silly kid?' and I told him, 'Hello, Walter, you're not going to make a single shot in the first half.' Then I blocked all nine of his attempts in the first half.

Only at the start of the second half did I tell him, 'Okay, now you can shoot.' I remember he only scored 14 points that game. After that, he was always scared of me. But here's the main point. In 1965, he went to the New York Knicks, and the Knicks had another center, Willis Reed, a tough guy.

The Knicks tried to use the Twin Towers against me; both were immensely talented, but once the game started, I just focused on Bellamy. No matter how they double-teamed me, how Reed confronted me, I just focused on Bellamy, focused on defending him, ignoring the other. Guess what happened in the end? Bellamy completely collapsed, and Reed didn't perform well either.

It was later, after the Knicks let Bellamy go and Reed, that shorter guy, held the inside alone, and they brought in Dave DeBusschere, that the Knicks started to become trouble."

Gan Guoyang listened intently; he understood what Chamberlain meant.

It was a form of psychological warfare, like in a brawl regardless of how many were hitting you, you focus on the leader and hit them.

If you try to punch everyone, you might end up not severely hurting anyone, but if you focus on one and beat them mercilessly, the morale of the entire opposing side can crumble.

Gan Guoyang understood this principle, but he hadn't thought of applying it in the game. It looked like his ability to control an opponent's psychology had room for improvement.

"That's psychological, but what about on a technical and tactical level?"

"Techniques and tactics? There's not much to say, listen to your coach's arrangements. If a coach doesn't even know how to deal with a double-teamed frontcourt, he might as well be fired. Remember, at a certain point, psychology and willpower decide everything."

"Then why did you cheat?"

"I warn you! I didn't cheat, and I didn't lose!"

Chamberlain had a rather unpleasant Christmas in 1981 and afterwards, he never came back to San Francisco for Christmas again.

[Gan's dominance over the Twin Towers can be attributed to my guidance.]

————— Excerpt from Chamberlain's autobiography "A View From Above," published in 1992.