June 27, 1992, City of Portland, Oregon.
The NBA Finals had ended two weeks ago, but the banners cheering for the Trail Blazers along the roads remained, as people seemed unwilling to wake up from the magical dream of the second three-peat.
The miraculous Game 5, Gan Guoyang’s three-point shot killed the Bulls and scored 50 points in the Finals, a battle destined to go down in history, setting an all-time NBA Finals viewership record.
Of course, this record didn’t last long. Two days later, Game 6 between the Trail Blazers and the Bulls took place in Chicago and immediately broke the record set by Game 5.
Gan Guoyang once again left a heavy mark on American basketball television history, earning the title of King of Ratings.
However, the excitement and intensity of Game 6 were not as high as in Game 5, due to the fact that Jordan was in a mediocre state after being heavily consumed in Game 5.
Jordan had been even more exhausted than Gan Guoyang in Game 5, handling both offense and defense, scoring 49 points in attack, and defending the entire game against Ah Gan, who was 10 inches taller and dozens of pounds heavier.
It was a miracle he managed to insist on playing the whole game, almost making a fatal assist, and without injury.
Hoping for him to recover fully for Game 6 and continue to deliver divine performances to turn the situation around was too difficult.
With the loss in Game 5, the entire Bulls team’s morale had already dropped, especially with Pippen’s dunk failure, which triggered a storm of criticism from the Chicago media.
Pippen not only failed to redeem himself in Game 6 but was plagued by migraines once again, leaving the court in the second half for the locker room, leaving only Jordan struggling on the field.
On the Trail Blazers’ side, Gan Guoyang also had an average performance after fully exhausting himself in Game 5, but the Trail Blazers, with a deep lineup and high morale, played a beautiful team offense.
Petrović, Reggie Lewis, Jerome Kossie, and Terry Porter contributed with precise jump shots, building the foundation for the team’s second three-peat.
In the end, the score was set at 100:94, with the Trail Blazers defeating the Bulls at the Chicago Stadium, completing a super comeback after trailing 0:2.
This was the second time in their history to achieve such a comeback; the team successfully secured their sixth championship in seven years, marking their second three-peat.
After winning the championship, Gan Guoyang stood in front of the bench, raised his hands high, one hand with five fingers extended, and the other with one finger stretched out, representing six championships.
It was at this moment that Gan Guoyang ascended to his peak, his iron throne as the Basketball God became even sturdier, unbreakable.
In the visitor’s locker room, Gan Guoyang received the championship trophy and FMVP trophy from David Stern, donning the black cap symbolizing the championship.
Champagne sprayed towards him wave after wave; he led the team to create a miracle, a real miracle.
In the locker room, Wu Zhixiong held a microphone, asking Gan Guoyang about his feelings on winning the championship. Gan Guoyang said this was the happiest moment of his life.
Wu Zhixiong asked, isn’t there anything happier than this?
Gan Guoyang replied, yes, the next time winning the championship.
Upon returning to Portland, the city immediately held an unprecedented grand celebration, the Trail Blazers returning victorious.
Tang Jianguo took out all six championship trophies, rented six large flower cars, placed the trophies on the cars to participate in the celebration.
The celebration continued for three days, until two weeks later, the air in Portland was still filled with the scent of champagne, champions, and revelry.
This might have been the craziest championship celebration in NBA history. Due to the large crowd, a stampede occurred, resulting in a tragedy with 11 deaths and 23 injuries.
During the process, there were also dozens of thefts, robberies, and vandalism incidents, stressing the Portland police system and highlighting the increasingly deteriorating urban security by the 1990s.
Despite this, when the hot summer arrived in June, cool Portland was still an ideal place for playing and hosting games.
Today, the 1992 America Basketball Championship opened in Portland, with 10 participating teams: America, Canada, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Panama, Mexico, and Uruguay.
The top four of the championship will qualify for basketball in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
The grand opening ceremony was held at the Trail Blazers’ former home, the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Though its home function was replaced by the Rose Garden Arena, it still plays a role in other games.
This time, Team USA’s lineup can be described as unprecedentedly luxurious, gathering the strongest batch of NBA stars: Jordan, Ewing, Robinson, Stockton, Malone, and also the retired but returning for the Olympics Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, along with the sole college player Reiner.
The head coach was Bobby Berman, who had just helped the Trail Blazers achieve a three-peat.
They first conducted a week-long training camp in California to prepare for the America Championship qualifiers.
Other national teams were selected, trained, and played together since the youth team period, cooperating with each other for many years.
But for the strong Team USA, a week of training was already sufficient.
To ensure the successful training of these superstars, the USA Basketball Association specially brought in excellent college players for training matches with Team USA.
Among them were Grant Hill, Alan Houston, Bobby Hurley, and Chris Weber, future NBA stars.