Time: October 30, 2001, the NBA welcomed its regular season opener.
The league scheduled 13 games, proceeding from east to west, and the highlight arranged as the last game was the Las Vegas Glory hosting the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the original schedule, today’s last game was supposed to be the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Portland Trail Blazers, with the game set to start at 7:30 PM Pacific time.
The sudden emergence of the Glory Team interfered, stealing the Lakers and Trail Blazers’ heavyweight season opener, forcing the Lakers to move their first game location from their home in Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
As the time approached the starting point, Wang Fuxi, the owner of the Glory Team, was in the MGM Grand Hotel’s lounge entertaining invited guests for the game.
She specially organized an opening game party, inviting both celebrities from the entertainment circle and local well-known sponsors, business owners from Las Vegas, some season ticket holder fan representatives, and fortunate ordinary tourists selected by chance.
The purpose of the party was not to particularly entertain the wealthy but to allow representatives of different groups who came to Las Vegas with various purposes and thoughts to feel the fun and excitement of watching games in Las Vegas.
However, this party got a bit too lively, and twenty minutes before the game was set to start, people forgot to leave and go to their seats in the stands.
Wang Fuxi had to find a way to remind them one by one that the game was about to start and they needed to go to their seats.
Out of politeness, she couldn’t broadcast it loudly or order people to leave; she had to personally remind them.
Fortunately, by 7:30 PM, just before the live performance was about to start, most people were seated, filling the MGM Grand Hotel’s arena to capacity.
The Glory Team invited the famous singer Mariah Carey to perform the national anthem on-site as a big surprise for the opening game.
Initially, the Glory management wanted to invite Michael Jackson; if he had agreed, it would have been his third appearance at an NBA event, the previous two being in the Finals, both for Ah Gan.
But Gan Guoyang didn’t want to, because he felt embarrassed; the previous two times Jackson performed were because of Gan Guoyang, once for the first three-peat, and once for the so-called last battle in 2000.
Especially the last battle, it was like Michael Jackson was singing a funeral hymn for you, giving you a grand send-off.
And then, the next year, you come back to life like some resurrected soul, inviting him to sing and dance again; wouldn’t you feel guilty?
Gan Guoyang certainly felt guilty; he knew Jackson was happy about his comeback, but truly couldn’t ask him to perform again, though attending as a spectator was fine.
However, Michael Jackson now prefers to stay reclusive and doesn’t like attending large events; as a friend, Gan Guoyang didn’t want to keep consuming his fame.
So, they replaced the opening game’s singer with Mariah Carey, which was also an excellent choice.
In another secondary venue, the Glory Team also invited the emerging band Lincoln Park to perform live and broadcasted it live, elevating the game atmosphere to a new height.
But the peak was still the player introductions for the Glory Team; when Gan Guoyang appeared last, the familiar opening of the symphonic piece "Also Sprach Zarathustra - Sunrise" played as usual.
Amidst the familiar, invigorating music, Gan Guoyang stepped onto the court, waving to the fans.
David Stern, among the applauding audience, had without suspense chosen to attend this opening game and participate in the pre-game event party organized by the Glory Team.
He was there to evaluate the Glory Team’s pre-game organization capacity, promotional sales ability, on-site game control and management, the situation with the cheerleaders, staff working conditions, fan enthusiasm, peripheral sales, event excitement, and other details.
This was considered a summary evaluation of the Glory Team’s work in the brief one and a half months since its establishment.
So far, Stern felt content with all aspects; it seemed they were well-prepared, allegedly for a month, but actually, they had prepared for over a year. And secondly, Gan’s wife is quite formidable, a person who dares to threaten death to the FBI is undoubtedly a tough character.
Now, it’s time to see the Glory Team’s combat strength, Stern hoped that the Glory Team wouldn’t be too weak, but not too strong either.
Ah Gan, you’ve already got ten championships under your belt; it’s time to excite the market, serve as a stepping stone for young players, and help the bosses make more money. That’s the right path. Don’t be greedy and win so many championships; both hands aren’t enough to hold them all.
Stern was thinking this way, hoping that the Glory would become a mid-tier Western Conference team.
A little trouble for the Lakers’ championship advancement path, but ultimately getting overcome by the Lakers, allowing them to head to the finals to meet the Celtics, would be the ideal situation.
The first game of the season hadn’t started yet, and David Stern was already devising the script for next June’s Finals. In his position as Commissioner, Stern was becoming increasingly far-sighted.
On the court, Tomjanovich indeed fielded a very young lineup.
Starting center Brad Miller, power forward Gan Guoyang, small forward Gerald Wallace, shooting guard Raja Bell, point guard Gilbert Arenas.