It’s just attention, still not watching NBA games, might forget about it in a few days.
Then one day, the sports news on TV was about the NBA, and the Trail Blazers had achieved a 30-game winning streak!
At the 30-game winning streak: "My gosh, 30 consecutive wins? Haven’t they lost yet? Last time I heard they had 20 consecutive wins was about half a month ago? Let’s check the news and see how the Trail Blazers and Gan play."
At this point, fans who didn’t watch NBA games in the past began actively following related news, turning on the TV to purchase Trail Blazers games on NBC’s pay channel.
Game ratings related to the Trail Blazers began to soar, and the Trail Blazers’ seamless offense and Gan Guoyang’s outstanding personal skills are mesmerizing. Many people who didn’t watch NBA in the past instantly became fans, becoming loyal followers of the Trail Blazers and Ah Gan.
After the 30-game winning streak, the streak could end at any time, whether it’s 31, 32, or 33. Once it ends, quite a few spectators will stop and turn away.
Because seeing the Trail Blazers lose, their wish has been fulfilled.
It’s not that they’re hoping for the Trail Blazers to lose, but once a run is over, the following naturally concludes too.
This is the mentality of most people tracking an event: once this "melon" is eaten, I’ll leave and find the next fun thing.
Only a few will become fans, always keeping an eye on those involved, becoming fans of the team or players.
But the Trail Blazers haven’t stopped running; they’ve defeated the record-holder of 33 consecutive wins, the Los Angeles Lakers, at home, pushing the record to 34 consecutive wins.
At the 34-game winning streak: "My goodness, no one can stop the Trail Blazers now! 34 wins in a row, every win from now on is a new record! But looking ahead, they’ve already very tired; playing the Lakers was tough, the streak could end at any moment."
The sports fan who didn’t originally pay much attention to NBA has already begun following the NBA standings and starts studying other NBA teams through the Trail Blazers.
He begins his journey of becoming a seasoned NBA fan.
Meanwhile, even those who weren’t sports fans at all joined in.
Because the 34-game streak not only set the NBA record but also the longest winning streak in North American professional sports history.
Everyone is discussing the Trail Blazers’ streak; if you’re not a sports fan and don’t join in, you’ll appear out of place.
So, even non-sports fans began paying attention to the Trail Blazers, to the NBA.
Some of them: "Oh! I know! Ah Gan! That Chinese guy, I heard about him back in high school, this guy is really amazing. Every time he appears, I know something big will happen, he’s a good friend of MJ. Can you talk about his achievements? I’m not very familiar now... Wow, seven championships? My God, seven... I think I should go watch his games."
The winning streak continues, and more followers keep coming.
consecutive wins, 36, 37, 38... heading towards 41.
At this time, the win count is undergoing a qualitative change, and 41 is a threshold for qualitative change.
NBA one season consists of 82 regular season games, and 41 is half of those games.
Anyone familiar with professional sports games, familiar with the NBA knows, with such intense, high-pressure, high-level confrontations, the season is halfway done and you haven’t lost a game?
This isn’t college, there’s only two games a week, and there are lots of weak teams as opponents.
On January 20th, Trail Blazers challenged the Detroit Pistons at their home court.
Pistons strengthened their offense after acquiring Jerry Stackhouse.
But faced with the Trail Blazers’ overwhelming momentum, the Pistons had no way out.
113:101, Trail Blazers defeated the Pistons on the road, 39-game winning streak.
In the post-game interview, Grant Hill said: "The deepest feeling I’ve had since coming to the NBA is that I had to learn to accept failure. Before entering the NBA, we were all college basketball elites, few losses in three or four years, I have an acute memory of college losses. But entering the NBA, you quickly have to learn to accept defeat, learn to deal with feelings of losing. Many people, including me, have lost more games in a month than in the past four years, that’s the NBA."
"But... my God, look at this team across from me, they haven’t lost a match in almost three months? Is this still the NBA I’m familiar with? Before the game, we all swore to beat the Trail Blazers. After the game, we’re all thinking, who the hell can beat the Trail Blazers? Who?"
Hill echoed the sentiments of many NBA players.
When the Trail Blazers were playing to this extent, some teams had already lost the will to resist.
The so-called "giving up without a fight", after all, losing isn’t shameful, winning isn’t possible, let’s see about luck.
Following closely on January 21st, Trail Blazers faced the Bucks away in a back-to-back game, offering Bucks a chance.
Before the game started, Bucks’ power forward Vin Baker was absent due to heart discomfort, leaving the Bucks with no inside presence (later news revealed Vin Baker’s heart issues stemmed from using banned substances, he almost died in the ambulance).
Already lacking a strong will to resist, the Bucks faced an unbeatable team, and after holding on for a while with no support they quickly collapsed.
Top pick Big Dog Robinson is a very talented forward, he received the most expensive rookie contract in NBA history: 10 years, 68 million.
In those days, a 6.8 million annual salary, 10-year contract could be considered very attractive.
Longer in term and higher in average salary than then All-Star Scottie Pippen’s contract, knowing back then Pippen had already helped the Bulls win a championship.