As Gan Guoyang once again appeared on the court wearing the red, black, and white Trail Blazers uniform, the arena stirred, and the cheers grew louder and louder.
Although preseason games have been played in different venues with many fans and many reporters, the feeling of the regular season is truly different.
Gan Guoyang clearly felt his heart pounding, not from nervousness but from excitement, and he wanted to tell the world, "I, Gan Guoyang, am back!"
However, he held back, knowing that the true return must be proven by performance on the court, not by words.
Many young fans ran to the sidelines to get Gan Guoyang’s autograph, and he did not refuse, as their eyes were all aglow.
Even as the game was about to start, people were still queuing up, showing how popular he was in Vancouver.
During the entrance ceremony, when the DJ announced, "From Gonzaga University, 6’10", center, Sunny Gan," the entire audience erupted into enthusiastic applause and cheers.
The applause lasted for more than a minute, making it impossible for the home player’s introduction to start, as many fans could not even recognize most of the Grizzlies’ players.
The game was about to start, and this first match back in a venue he had never played at before was a unique sensation for Gan Guoyang.
The Grizzlies’ home, General Motors Arena, is a relatively new multi-purpose venue, also being the home of the Vancouver Canucks, with an ice rink set up for hockey.
The court’s center floor featured the Vancouver Grizzlies’ logo, a gigantic brown bear clutching a basketball and roaring at everyone.
Compared to the simplistic and crude designs of the 1980s, by the mid-to-late 1990s, NBA designs had become colorful and cartoonish.
Team logos grew larger, logos became more exaggerated and complex, and jerseys and floors were covered with more flashy colors, bringing NBA’s visual marketing to a new stage.
Take the Grizzlies as an example; their logo is not only large and complex, but their jerseys, with a main color of blue-green, stood out among other teams in the league dominated by red, yellow, blue, and green, giving off a youthful vibe.
The court’s flooring, aside from the large center logo, was painted sky blue from the three-point line to the three-second zone, with the free throw circle painted red, surrounded by a black border with the word "Grizzlies" in script.
The large blocks of color and huge logos and fonts provided a strong visual impact, advantageous for catching the audience’s eye during television broadcasts.
In the 1980s NBA broadcasts, the images were very monotonous, too boring for children, and the style and colors of the jerseys were not flashy enough to stand out on the street.
With Gan Guoyang, Jordan, and other stars leading the way, by 1996, NBA jerseys had already undergone great changes.
The short shorts and tank tops of the 1980s were gone, except for a few old-school players who still insisted on wearing short shorts. Other players switched to jerseys with knee-length shorts.
Gan Guoyang had been away from the league for merely two seasons, yet returning to the unfamiliar Grizzlies’ home gave him the feeling that the world had changed immensely.
The world indeed had changed significantly; standing at center court for the jump ball, the surrounding players seemed somewhat unfamiliar, with three of the Grizzlies’ starting five entering the NBA after Gan Guoyang had retired.
Including the center jumping against Gan Guoyang, picked by the Grizzlies in the 1995 draft, the white center known as "Big Country," Bryant Rivers.
Rivers was the first draft pick in Grizzlies’ team history, chosen sixth overall in 1995, right after Kevin Garnett.
At a full 7 feet tall and weighing 290 pounds, he was one of the heaviest and strongest players in the league.
In his rookie season, he averaged 13.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, quite excellent for a rookie.
Due to his massive physique, the Vancouver media was filled with fantasies about him before the game, speculating whether Rivers could withstand Ah Gan’s attack in the paint.
Time makes people forget many things; Ah Gan left the league for two seasons, and many things changed. Some scenes and statistics would inevitably fade from memory.
Adding to that, Gan Guoyang had aged a bit, so it’s inevitable for people to speculate whether Ah Gan had declined and if he could still reach his former heights.
Gan Guoyang naturally heard these voices, and during a pre-game interview, a reporter asked him his thoughts on facing Bryant Rivers.
Gan Guoyang paused for three seconds and then asked back, "Who is he?"
Now Gan Guoyang knew who Rivers was, indeed a tall and strong guy, seemingly quite powerful.
Before the jump ball, Gan Guoyang said to Rivers, "Relax, don’t be nervous, it will be quick."