He completed a left-handed gliding slam dunk at the beginning of the game, scoring the first point of his career, a very memorable basket.
His first score after the comeback also came from a slam dunk. Gan Guoyang loves dunking, even though it makes his hand ache and consumes much more energy than a layup.
But the feeling of releasing emotions and power is fantastic.
The basket in Vancouver Arena has been reinforced, and will no longer be broken by power monsters like Gan Guoyang and O’Neal when they dunk.
The Grizzlies are indeed a weak team; they got the third draft pick and chose Rashim, but there’s essentially no change compared to last season.
Still, unknown players are in the lead. Head coach Brian Winters is forced to take charge; he served as an assistant coach to Pete Carrell in Princeton.
He tries to replicate Princeton with the Vancouver Grizzlies, using some ordinary players to deliver beautiful offense and find a foothold in the NBA.
In fact, it proves that Princeton without star support is nothing in the NBA. To survive in the NBA, you must have a player with strong individual ability; otherwise, no system can work effectively.
After making the first basket, Gan Guoyang didn’t immediately retreat to defense but collaborated with Porter and Riddle to perform a pressing defense in the frontcourt.
This was Bird’s tactical arrangement before the game, starting with two minutes of full-court press to warm up and pressure the Grizzlies early, securing an advantage.
Actually, there’s a third reason: Bird wanted to see how the starting players would perform in a pressing defense and whether there’s defensive teamwork.
As a result, a pressing defense succeeded. Porter, near the center line, along with McGee, intercepted the opponent and successfully stole the ball, giving it to Gan Guoyang.
Gan Guoyang got the ball and rushed to the basket again, this time Bryant Rivers stood in a good defensive position.
He was too slow to react on the first ball; by the time he ran to the basket, Gan Guoyang had already completed the dunk to cheers.
This ball was a head-on duel between him and Ah Gan. He lunged, jumped to block, but was posterized!
Another dunk! Gan Guoyang adjusted his steps for this ball, completely ignored Rivers’ defense, burst up, crushed Rivers, and scored the posterized dunk!
He transformed the frustration and passion of not playing for two seasons into two heavy slam dunks, declaring his return.
And poor Bryant Rivers became the sacrifice; after being posterized, he was dazed.
It was as if he was hit by a tank, his vision turned black, stars sparkled, somehow finding himself with a ball in hand, teammates reminding him to hurry and make the throw-in.
He released the ball based on feeling and habit, relying on instinct, he ran to the frontcourt, nearly reaching the center line, before his mind came back online.
He recalled he was Bryant Rivers, an NBA player, a center, standing seven feet tall, a Grizzlies player, matched against Ah Gan tonight...
At this time, the full-court press defense of the Trail Blazers failed again, their midfield defense was breached, as Point Guard Greg Anthony reached the basket and scored a floating shot.
Bryant Rivers turned around to run back, heading to the Three Second Zone to complete his defense.
Gan Guoyang also came to the Three Second Zone, a familiar place for him; when the game just started, everyone had yet to find the rhythm, passing to the inside was the common choice of NBA teams at the time.
The Trail Blazers were no exception. Gan Guoyang positioned himself low and asked for the ball inside, Rivers, slightly catching breath, thought, finally it’s my strength’s turn, where power and weight come into play.
Rivers tried to push Gan Guoyang to a position further from the basket; he exerted nearly all his strength but to no avail, not even an inch.
Gan Guoyang easily received the ball, turned, pressed Rivers, made a hook shot and scored, collecting another 2 points, Gan Guoyang has already scored 6 points in the opening.
But there was no pride or joy on his face because the team’s subsequent full-court press defense failed again, dismantled by the Grizzlies’ mediocre passes.
They faltered again in the midfield, the ball passed inside, Abdul-Rahim received and scored with a close-range bank shot, Grizzlies 4:6, just trailing by 2 points in the opening.
Gan Guoyang looked at Bird sitting on the sidelines as he performed a baseline throw-in; their eyes met, Bird gestured to stop the full-court pressing.
The Trail Blazers used Gan Guoyang, Porter, PJ Brown, Riddle, Alon McGee as the starting lineup, an arrangement that’s somewhat conservative.
To better collaborate with Ah Gan, Larry Bird sat Van Exel on the bench, though he won’t remain there for too long.
Because after a few rounds, Bird noticed that Porter’s offensive capability had degraded seriously, almost posing no holding threat.
Meanwhile, this lineup showed a serious lack of defensive teamwork, with the full-court press failing twice out of three times, providing the Grizzlies with relatively easy scoring opportunities.
Back to offense, in the fourth play, Porter scooped the ball to Gan Guoyang, who positioned at a relatively shallow spot.
Rivers was tightly pinned behind him; at this point, Rivers already forgot everything he told the media before the game.
The game had just begun, and thinking about facing such a player throughout the match, Rivers felt overwhelmed.
Then he remembered what Ah Gan said at the start, "Relax," apparently not a joke, he truly was a good person.