Jordan instantly lost interest in playing golf, 74 points, 74 points?
What the hell is Ah Gan trying to do? Just like that, he elevated the playoff scoring record to such a realm?
Jordan knew very well what kind of concept it was to score 74 points by a single player in a playoff game in the current NBA environment.
It wasn’t necessarily much easier than Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points in a regular season, maybe even harder.
Moreover, Jordan knew the kind of game style the Spurs had; scoring 40 points against them was already very difficult, let alone a terrifying 74 points.
"Go back to the hotel, I need to see the news and the game footage. George! Find a way to get me the footage. Did you know about this?" Jordan asked his personal bodyguard George Keller, as the two were always inseparable.
"Uh... I know, I watched the game."
"Then why didn’t you tell me?"
"I was afraid you’d be upset. Besides, I thought you already knew."
"Upset? Why should I be upset? Shit, let’s go back, back, back."
Halfway through the game, Jordan got onto a golf cart and left Barton Creek Valley Club.
He still had a charity event to attend at noon, but before that, he must see last night’s game footage.
George Keller quickly found a way to get last night’s game footage and played it on the TV in the hotel room.
In the morning, major sports media were repeatedly playing highlights of Gan Guoyang’s "miracle" in the fourth game.
The number "74" was incredibly eye-catching, and on the basketball court, everyone knew what the concept of 70 points was.
Jordan started to receive phone calls nonstop, from Barkley, from Pippen, and other close friends.
In fact, people called him last night, but Jordan, engrossed in golf video games, told everyone not to disturb him, and he didn’t take any calls.
"Ah Gan is a beast, he actually scored 74 points on the Spurs!"
"Unbelievable, Michael, I feel like this League needs you, otherwise I don’t know who can stop him."
"Michael, did you watch the game? You didn’t? My goodness, you need to watch the replay, you’ve missed a fortune."
Call after call irritated Jordan, did Ah Gan scoring 74 points have any major relation to me?
Thinking calmly, maybe it did, showing that many people missed Jordan and missed someone who could compete with Ah Gan.
In the 1998-1999 season, the League’s ratings weren’t great.
The pace of the game further slowed down, and teams seemed to be mired in quicksand.
Led by the Knicks, slow-paced basketball became the choice to achieve results for teams.
Although Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers continued to emphasize offensive basketball, no one could replicate their style of play.
The average points scored by teams per game that season dropped to a 20-year low, and both ratings and attendance were down compared to the previous season.
The 1998 matchup between the Trail Blazers and the Bulls left basketball fans with a sense of fatigue after a climax.
Fans experienced aesthetic fatigue from Ah Gan’s dominance as well, because there was no opponent.
Throughout the season, there were calls for Jordan to return, but Jordan ignored them, as he was quite satisfied with his post-retirement life.
Of course, the more important reason was that he felt emotionally hurt, which was an unknown reason.
Turning on the TV and playing the tape, yesterday’s G4, Joe sat on the bed with the remote control in his hand, fast-forwarding through the redundant parts.
When the game officially began, Jordan personally witnessed Gan Guoyang’s scoring performance.
Jordan’s style was fast-paced, alternating speeds, exploiting his opponent’s weaknesses in a back-and-forth rhythm.
He learned this from Dean Smith at North Carolina, having a profound and unique understanding of game rhythm.
Gan Guoyang, on the other hand, was different. He primarily engaged in pure brute force, and once he decided to score, there was no stopping him when he found his rhythm.
He didn’t need any changes in pace and instead pressed forward relentlessly, like a tank filled with power, charging all the way until you were all wiped out.
This was due to Gan Guoyang’s near-infinite stamina, and in continuous high-intensity confrontations and sprints, his anaerobic muscle endurance reached inhuman levels.
Jordan felt this deeply; athletes need good control of rhythm because human endurance isn’t limitless.
Between each breath, one needs to distribute stamina reasonably, play more comfortably themselves, and make it more difficult for the opponent.
It’s like long-distance running, seemingly just a contest of endurance and speed; in fact, it’s a battle of speed and rhythm.
Whoever controls the rhythm well and disrupts the opponent’s breathing can win in the final sprint.
But Ah Gan was an exception; this guy was a typical 5000-meter runner, sprinting right from the start.
When you laugh at this guy for "sprinting at the start," in the end, you realize that this guy could sprint all the way through.
Especially when Gan Guoyang didn’t need to worry about defense, and when he unleashed his offense, his touch couldn’t be stopped, and his stamina was astonishing.
Jordan watched as Gan Guoyang started gaining momentum in the second quarter, with one mid-range shot after another, making Jordan feel itchy; this guy had a built-in aiming scope.
It was even more exaggerated by the third quarter; the Spurs were utterly clueless about how to defend because it went in regardless, one mid-range shot after another. Catch and shoot, shoot and it goes in, fouling was useless, and on the free-throw line, Gan Guoyang’s accuracy was astonishing.