The Chinese Men's Basketball Team's training in Eugene lasted from late July to August, a full month.
For the basketball players, this month was both blissful and arduous.
The bliss was that the training center provided the best material conditions and training environment.
The scenery here is beautiful, the air is fresh, and every morning you can feel the tranquility of the valleys and forests, much more comfortable than staying in the city.
The facilities at the center are of NBA standards: the flooring, lighting, and equipment are way beyond domestic levels.
Playing on the courts here gives you one feeling: comfort.
The meals are rich and plentiful; Gan Guoyang specifically invited a Chinese chef from San Francisco to cook for the players.
Gan Youwei even came to the center personally to provide guidance, showcasing his unrivaled culinary skills.
In the small villas where they lived, each room had a DVD player and a large-screen TV, and the center provided many classic film discs.
After training each day, upon returning to their rooms, they could watch whatever they wanted, with all sorts of Hollywood blockbusters unavailable in China at their disposal.
The center also had a mahjong room and a game room to let players relax and entertain themselves after training.
In short, the logistical support and leisure life were very well arranged, eliminating the dullness of living in a closed training environment.
However, the more resources you receive, the harder you must fight in battle.
This intensive closed training for the men's basketball team was arguably the most demanding ever.
The training volume remained consistently high, while the learning content was unprecedentedly abundant.
Moreover, the most important point was that due to Gan Guoyang's presence, everyone was on edge, preparing for battle, not daring to relax even for a moment.
This entire month of high concentration and devotion to basketball training greatly boosted their improvement, but it was also quite torturous.
Fully focused on basketball, there was no room for any distractions; leaving the center for fun was out of the question, as was any behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
This was the pressure exerted by Gan Guoyang, affecting not only the national team players but even the veteran Trail Blazers who came to assist in training, making them practice diligently every day.
Originally supposed to be enjoying retirement, Mu Lin, Sabonis, and Barkley had their professional careers effectively extended by a month.
The environment of Chinese basketball is still in a semi-professional state, much like China's economy, transitioning from a planned economy to a market-oriented one.
This batch of players grew up under a nationwide system, selected level by level from local teams, and can be considered standout figures in their locales.
Upon joining the national team, they represent national honor; when they return to their localities, they are revered as court kings, so the players generally have quite the attitude.
Besides, the open and covert competitions between local sports bureaus mean that in places like the national team, power struggles are never few, and a spot on the national team often involves many aspects.
This also places great management pressure on the head coach, and any head coach excelling in the national basketball team must invest significant effort in player management.
Like Gong Luming, the coach of the 1996 Olympic team, who led the national team amid external skepticism; shortly after taking over, he had a conflict with main player Sun Jun.
In a warm-up match, Gong Luming requested that every player perform dunks during pre-game warmups to stretch their bodies and boost team morale.
However, Sun Jun, who rarely dunked as he aged, forgot Gong Luming's instruction and didn't dunk during warmups, leading to him sitting on the bench in the subsequent game.
This caused a rift between them, followed by a verbal conflict during training, leading Sun Jun to walk out, no longer engaging in training. This incident stirred a significant commotion, with media into it, suggesting that Gong Luming was too inexperienced to handle veterans and unfit to be the head coach, putting Gong Luming in a considerable crisis.
Eventually, through communication, the misunderstanding was cleared, Sun Jun stayed with the national team, performing excellently in training and games, stabilizing Gong Luming's position.
However, this doesn't mean Gong Luming was easy to sway; on the contrary, just like Jiang Xingquan, Gong Luming was tough. Regarding another team veteran, Adi Jiang, the core guard who won silver in 1992, Gong Luming showed no leniency.
Adi Jiang had seniority and during closed training, he violated rules by bringing his family into the training center; coupled with his failure to lead by example as a veteran, Gong Luming decisively removed him from the national team.
Despite various pleas from the outside, Gong Luming stood firm this time, and not even the fact that only Li Xiaoyong was left as a point guard on the team made him alter his decision, keeping Adi Jiang out of the national team.
With both discipline and relaxation in place, Gong Luming's authority was indeed established, and the national team's performance in the 1996 Olympics was actually quite impressive.
Later, when Gong Luming left the national team, with Zhang Bin taking over as head coach, the national team lost to Korea in the 1997 Asian Championships, failing to qualify for the 1998 World Championships.
It's known that the 1997 men's basketball team was even more mature than in 1996; every player was at the peak of their career.
Zhang Bin even brought back Adi Jiang, who had been expelled by Gong Luming, and just by looking at the lineup, the 97 team seemed stronger than the 96 team.
Media unfamiliar with the internal situation were also very optimistic about the men's basketball team before the match, expecting them to easily win the Asian Championship.
Additionally, Zhang Bin's gentle nature and lenient approach with players made the media believe that a good mentor-student relationship could boost player fighting spirit.
But the outcome was a surprise, even losing to the Koreans and missing the World Championship opportunity. Afterward, it was pointed out in the national team that Zhang Bin was indeed very gentle and nice to the players.