Gan Guoyang laughed, "It’s all on Avia’s tab. I don’t even know how much money I’ve earned them in a year. This meal is just a drop in the ocean. By the way, everyone’s been eating pretty monotonously lately. Tonight, let’s have a change and eat freely."
This training trip to America aimed primarily to enhance the Chinese players’ ability to withstand physical challenges. Although the time was short, it was better than nothing. Improving even a little was worthwhile.
During this period of combined training, Gan Guoyang felt that the main gap between Chinese players and world-class standards wasn’t in skills or tactics but in physical fitness.
This group of young basketball players was already the cream of the crop in the nation, with top-tier talent among the Chinese: great height, wingspan, and agility.
Moreover, the team’s new coach, Jiang Xingquan, established a stringent training standard called "Three Follows and One Large", with extensive training camps and heavy workloads, ensuring the players possessed good stamina.
However, limited by the national conditions of the 60s and 70s, these players experienced average nutritional intake during their adolescent years, lacking the strong foundational nutrition of meat, eggs, and milk-rich players from Europe and America.
After becoming athletes, they ate more and trained more, but their diet wasn’t particularly good, especially since sports nutrition was a niche field in China then, attracting little attention.
In fact, to enhance physical fitness, high-level athletes must balance diet and exercise. A reasonable nutritional structure, abundant high-quality protein, and energy intake are crucial to ensuring players have ample stamina and strength.
Gan Guoyang always had a training diet plan suited to the Asian physique, which he freely applied to the national players’ training this time, helping them recover their stamina and gain enough muscle quickly.
The diet, though, was fairly monotonous with not very pleasant taste. Eating and training a lot every day was quite tough, so tonight’s buffet was just right to whet everyone’s appetite.
Hu Weidong had already eaten seven or eight king crab legs. The tender, juicy crab meat dipped in specially-made sauce was indeed irresistible.
So, when Jerry West came over to toast him, he was momentarily caught off guard, hurriedly wiping his mouth and hands, raising his glass for a quick toast, and downing it in one go.
"King crabs from Alaska, with excellent meat quality. When I was younger, I could eat two or three in one sitting, although eating too much isn’t good," West chatted with Hu Weidong.
Hu Weidong barely understood. During his time in America, his English had improved a bit, but there were still many challenges for normal communication.
"Hey, Old Song, Old Song! Come here and translate for me!" Hu Weidong called to Song Tao nearby to come over and translate for him.
Song Tao had played a season for the Trail Blazers, although he didn’t make much of a name and eventually quit basketball due to injuries.
But he did manage to earn a championship ring, broaden his horizons, and developed fluent English.
This time, he came to America as the national team’s translator, assisting players with communication and life here.
Among the twelve national players, Jerry West was most interested in Hu Weidong.
This young man from Jiangsu Xuzhou was just 21 years old, the youngest player on the national team.
Youth represents talent, represents potential.
West watched the Chinese National Team’s training and found only this number 8 young man demonstrated real prowess, able to meet the threshold of American players.
Other Chinese Team players were either too old to have much plasticity.
Or they lagged significantly in physical fitness compared to American players, unable to withstand high-level competitive confrontations.
Hu Weidong was outstanding, and no wonder he made the national team at just 21, his talent impossible to conceal.
Through some conversation, West found Hu Weidong was similar to other Chinese players he had met: quite straightforward.
His mind wasn’t complicated: join the national team, play well, take it step by step, with no clear plan for the future.
Because, back then, Chinese sports still operated under a nationwide system, unmarketed, and players were selected layer by layer, and had to follow state directives with little personal freedom.
Young players like Hu Weidong, filled with patriotism, followed this path even more so, despite a dazzling superstar on the other side of the ocean. Frankly, the gap between Gan Guoyang and them was insurmountable.
Before the training camp, Hu Weidong and other young players still harbored the idea of testing their skills, wanting to measure up against Ah Gan in training.
As soon as the training began, within just a morning, they realized the gap was too vast, beyond imagination.
As Hu Weidong said many years later in an interview, "Later in the training, he just stood there, and you had no intention of charging in to attack, none at all. Going in is just sending yourself to get blocked. And in offense, he played so easily, surrounded by three or four people, he could still get the ball in. At that time, we thought, why bother with the NBA, forget it, if Old Song couldn’t make it, neither could we."
So, Hu Weidong didn’t realize at first that Jerry West was interested in him, implicitly probing if he wanted to play in Portland.
When West walked away to chat with others, Song Tao told Hu Weidong, "Xiao Hu, didn’t you pick up on it? He wants you to come play for the Trail Blazers!"
Hu Weidong said, "Pick up on what? I couldn’t understand it. Didn’t you interpret it for me, did you translate that part?"
Song Tao said, "I translated it, yet you didn’t get it? He asked how you felt in Portland, whether you liked it here, and if you had plans for the future... Isn’t that probing if you want to play ball in America."
Hu Weidong grabbed another king crab leg, nonchalantly saying, "You tell me, what’s it like playing ball in America? With my frame, can I handle it?"
"I can’t, but you might just. Look at Lao Gan."
"Stop, stop now. Is Lao Gan even human? Out of a billion Chinese, there’s only one like him, I can’t do it."
"But if there’s a chance, would you really not come?"
Song Tao’s question went unanswered by Hu Weidong.
To say he didn’t want to would be a lie. He still remembered joining the Jiangsu Men’s Basketball Youth Team in 1985. He had already beaten all contenders in Jiangsu, opponents several years older, in their late teens or early twenties, might not even be his match.
That summer marked NBA’s China Tour, with the Trail Blazers and several other teams coming to China for exhibition games, one of which was held in Shanghai between the Trail Blazers and the Celtics.
Hu Weidong went to Shanghai with the Jiangsu team to watch the game live, experiencing the highest level of world basketball up close for the first time, deeply struck.
More striking was the number 11 Gan Guoyang flying across the court, performing outstandingly, not inferior to anyone on the court.
At that time, Hu Weidong was only 15, and Gan Guoyang was 21. Hu Weidong understood what it meant for there to always be someone better above and beyond.
Later, as connections between the NBA and China grew closer each year, with the annual China Tour, recordings and broadcasts of games became part of public life and served as a window for Chinese people to understand the world.
In the hearts of these young Chinese players, Gan Guoyang was a god-like presence. On their first day in Portland, everyone was cautious and anxious.
After two weeks, Gan Guoyang turned from a god into a man, but in the hearts of the young players, his image became more real and towering, with everyone affectionately calling him "Lao Gan".
Hu Weidong said, "If Lao Gan wants me to help him win a championship, I’ll come."
Song Tao laughed, "Don’t tease me like that. Does Lao Gan need you to win a championship? You’re like me, lucky to join just for the championship experience."
Song Tao’s smile carried a hint of bitterness. He wanted to help Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers, more out of contributing to the country.
But injuries are fiercer than tigers. Realistically, given his physical condition, if he kept playing in the NBA, he might find it difficult to continue without getting injured.
Only after experiencing a complete NBA season did he deeply appreciate why basketball players who can survive in the NBA are extraordinary beings.
The intensity and fatigue level would likely ruin slightly less talented players after just one season.
Players like Jordan, Gan Guoyang, Jabbar, and Johnson, who stand at the top for years, aside from skill, possess a remarkable physical resilience far beyond ordinary athletes.
Hu Weidong hadn’t fully grasped this yet. After Song Tao’s remarks, he was already somewhat longing for future scenes of playing in NBA games.