After returning to his residence, Gan Guoyang couldn't sleep with excitement.

When he came to the United States four years ago, Gan Guoyang was curious about everything he saw, especially when he saw the NBA and NBA players of this era. Gan Guoyang still remembered the magical feeling now. For example, he met Payton for the first time, Russell for the first time, and Chamberlain for the first time.

But after a long time, this feeling began to fade away, especially when Gan Guoyang himself became an NBA player and those future superstars all became his "colleagues" and competitors, no matter which basketball celebrity he saw, he would no longer be excited.

However, it feels different when meeting Chinese men's basketball players.

Nowadays, Gan Guoyang is increasingly understanding the hometown complex that remains in the hearts of Chinese people. In the past few years in the United States, he has also had many Chinese fans, but most of them speak standard English and belong to Americans in terms of identity. After all, this pure Chinese is different.

Therefore, whenever he receives the current news from China in the United States and meets people from mainland China, he will feel extremely intimate and happy. The sense of blood connection brought by the same root and species is something that the Pacific cannot block.

But after being excited, Gan Guoyang, who was lying on the bed, was also a little worried. He knew that as an NBA professional player, he could not represent the Chinese national team in international games, and the lifting of this ban would take until 1992.

Gan Guoyang cannot give up his NBA player and return to China to play. After all, this is the highest palace of basketball in the world.

Moreover, Gan Guoyang also found that the players of the Chinese team did not seem to be very interested in Gan Guoyang. Except for the two coaches, coach Qian Chenghai and Lu Changxin, the other players were not interested in communicating with Gan Guoyang, and just ate or watched the performances there.

Gan Guoyang wanted to talk to them several times, but he ended up putting his hot face on his cold butt and only received a few few responses, which also made Gan Guoyang feel a little unhappy.

However, Gan Guoyang has seen the world after all. Not only has he seen the world, he is also aware of the future, so he does not care about the men's basketball players. He also understands the mentality of the men's basketball players. They are all young people and are also top-notch players in the Chinese basketball world. Now a Chinese basketball master from the United States suddenly pops up, and they must have thoughts of being dissatisfied in their hearts.

"You must be unwilling to accept it, so I will convince you tomorrow." Gan Guoyang thought, but the phone in the room rang.

"Hello, this is Sonny Gan, who are you?" Gan Guoyang asked after firing the phone.

"It's me, Bernard, fortunately you are in the room." The person who called was the Knicks player, former Warriors star, Bernard King.

"Bernard! How do you know the phone number in my room? I haven't contacted me for a while. Are you in New York?" Gan Guoyang heard that it turned out to be Bernard Jin. Since entering the NBA, Jin has become a better friend of Gan Guoyang.

However, due to the long route distance between New York and Portland, the two have little chance of meeting each other. This season, Bernard King was also trapped by injury and played only 55 games in 82 games.

Even so, he still won the title of scoring champion with averaging 32.9 points per game, which is enough to show his strong scoring ability.

"Yes, I'm in New York, and the day after tomorrow the Knicks are going to play a game with the Chinese men's basketball team. I heard that you were also in New York, so I asked someone to check your room number. You are indeed staying in the room. How about it, do you want to come out and have a drink?" Bernard King invited.

"If possible, I hope I can stay at the stadium for a while. If your knees are fine, I can't stand the nightclubs in New York." Gan Guoyang has always stayed away from nightclubs. The noisy and hustle and rich environment is really not suitable for him.

"Yes, we can go to the Knicks training grounds, and I will drive to the InterContinental Hotel to pick you up."

The two basketball madmen did not choose to spend time and live, but ran to the training hall at night, which may be the reason why the two were able to become good friends.

Soon, Gan Guoyang waited for Jin's car at the entrance of the hotel, and he made a taxi to come over.

Gan Guoyang opened the car door and sat up, but when he looked at Jin's face, he found that this super scorer, who was square and always energetic, looked much fatter than before.

"Hey Jin, what's wrong with you? Because the light at night is not good? Long time no see, why do I think you have gained a little weight?" Gan Guoyang said bluntly.

"Oh, you know Gan, my cruciate ligament is torn. I don't know how long it has been since I touched the ball. How could I not gain weight?" Bernard King said to Gan Guoyang while starting the car.

"Oh damn, I actually forgot this, otherwise we'd better find a place to sit down and talk, don't go to the training hall." Gan Guoyang then remembered that Bernard King had a torn cruciate ligament on his right knee in a match with the Kansas Kings in March, and his seasonal surgery was completely reimbursed.

He also saw a pair of crutches next to Bernard King.

"No, it's okay. I think of standing on the court for a while. I like the feeling of standing on the court, even if I can't play," said Bernard King, and signaled the taxi driver to drive.

The Knicks are in a pretty bad situation this season because of injury problems with core player Bernard King, who lost competitiveness in the East and ended the season with a record of 29 wins and 53 losses and missed the playoffs.

What's worse is that Bernard King's injury was not a minor injury, but a torn cruciate ligament in his eyes. This is likely to ruin a player's career in the NBA in the 1980s.

Now Bernard King is facing such a danger. He recovered quite slowly after the surgery and has not completely escaped from the crutches.

The two soon took a bus to the Knicks' training hall, which is located in Greenberg, New York, and is a famous entertainment area in Brooklyn, but the two did not come here for entertainment.

For Bernard King, no matter when he wants to enter the training hall, it is just a matter of words. Whether he is injured or not, he is the king of New York - at least before 1985.

Since leaving Portland, Gan Guoyang has not practiced his ball well in the training hall for a while. Just flying around the United States has wasted a lot of his time.

"Hey Gan, do you remember being in the Central Plaza in San Francisco? That night, I taught you to make a turnover jump shot. At that time, you were not as tall as me. Now... you guy has become a center." Bernard King said as he looked at Gan Guoyang warming up on the court with the ball.

"Of course I remember! After that day, the turnover jump shot became my ultimate skill! Helping us to the finals all the way to high school... But later, I grew taller, my strength and weight grew along with my hook, and I lost the turnover jump shot! But I had decided to practice again in the summer."

As he said that, Gan Guoyang took the ball to the position under the basket, took the ball and made a fake move, and then turned over to the bottom line and shot!

"Swish!" The ball entered the net hollow.

"You are too slow. Gan. Your movements are very hesitant. The fake movements are too artificial. The opponent will not be fooled. Turning over is not smooth. You are indeed unfamiliar. Also, although you turn around with your heels, the premise is that your posture must be stable. Only a stable posture can ensure the accuracy of your shooting." Although Bernard King was leaning on a crutch, he could see Gan Guoyang's shortcomings in movement at a glance.

As for Gan Guoyang's current level of jump shots, it does not have practical value. Once it reaches a high-intensity game, it will definitely not be useful.

"Haha, I haven't used this trick for a long time. Take your time and I will practice hard. One day I will return to normal and make him my regular weapon."

After saying that, Gan Guoyang began to devote all his efforts to shooting practice, while Bernard King was coaching on the sidelines.

Everything seemed to be back to that night, and Gan Guoyang seemed to be back to the starting point and re-honed this basic offensive technique.

…………

"Guide Qian, you can tell the players to come to the team's confrontation training. It's still too relaxing to practice these kids like this. After all, there are games to play tomorrow, so let them be nervous."

The next morning, in the Knicks' training hall, the players of the Chinese men's basketball team were practicing. They were wearing red sports shorts and white T-shirts. The front of the T-shirt was printed with the logo designed by the US side of the visit, and the back was printed with the "China-US Friendship Tour Group 1985."

The intensity of the morning exercise was not high, it was all simple basic training, and the Knicks training staff also knew that the male basketball players were training.

Two coaches of the men's basketball team felt that this practice was too relaxed, and they should play a battle match with intensity to wind up tomorrow's game.

"Hey, why didn't that Gan Guoyang see him in the hotel? Did he follow him?" Qian Chenghai cared about Gan Guoyang. He hoped that Gan Guoyang could participate in the men's basketball training so that he could see the level of this NBA Chinese player.

"Oh, he will come over immediately. He didn't seem to be staying in the hotel last night, and he was not here to find him in the morning," said the translator Men Lei.

"These American players are just undisciplined. It seems that even Chinese people will be the same when they get here. I don't know where to play at night." Assistant Lu thought Gan Guoyang had gone to a messy place to mess around.

"Hey~ Everyone has their own freedom. Besides, they don't have to be our control. He is his freedom wherever he wants to go... You see, aren't they here and their clothes have been changed."

Coach Qian Chenghai said that Gan Guoyang had already entered the training hall in his sportswear.

Gan Guoyang did not go back to the hotel at night because he practiced football in the training hall until very late. Later, he opened a room nearby with Bernard King for a night and came directly to the morning.

"Hello, Director Qian, hello, Director Lu." Gan Guoyang smiled and said hello to the two coaches, without a trace of fatigue on his face.

"Hello, Comrade Gan Guoyang... Well, I'm in great health. Are you interested in playing a practice game with my players?" Qian Chenghai looked at Gan Guoyang wearing a basketball uniform, and his whole body was full of strength. Other Chinese players were obviously thinner than him.
Chapter completed!