Gan Guohui successfully paved the way for Yao Ming's entry into the NBA, successfully signing this future potential second figure in Chinese basketball.
After successfully holding a press conference domestically, Gan Guohui called his brother to report the situation on his end.
"Everything is just as you predicted, all settled. Brother, you're truly like a living oracle, just like Sai Zhuge, a living legend..."
"Alright, alright, spare me the flattery. Signing him is a good thing, but there's still a lot to handle in the future. Now that you've resigned from Glory, take more trips to China and look into domestic basketball talent. Bring them to America, Europe, and other places more often."
"Go to Europe too?"
"American basketball experience isn't necessarily the best; Europe is more suitable for FIBA."
After a conversation between the brothers, although Gan Guoyang did not participate in this matter, he certainly provided some guidance and support from behind the scenes.
Regarding Yao Ming's path to the NBA, like Wang Zhizhi, Hu Weidong, and others, Gan Guoyang will lend a hand but not interfere too much.
Nowadays, Gan Guoyang is still focusing much of his energy on the Glory Team, and the team's current condition is significantly better than at the start of the season.
Gan Guoyang began to enjoy the fun of basketball games more, with each night's 48-minute competition, even if it has been repeated thousands of times, every game has new situations, new opponents, and new difficulties.
The joy is not solely in winning, but in every achievement and improvement gained in the pursuit of victory.
Gan Guoyang is still pursuing progress, learning new game knowledge, like the zone defense, how to make the game more efficient and less physically demanding, and he began to delve more into organizing fast breaks.
During Jack Ramsey's era, the Trail Blazers were an exceptionally strong team at fast breaks.
Ramsey's "Run Run Run" during every training and game is still echoing in his ear, something young Gan would even dream about at night.
After joining the team, becoming the team's core, the Trail Blazers had fewer fast breaks, as the center became the core.
In the many years that followed, the Trail Blazers were excellent in half-court offense, three-pointers were outstanding, fast breaks were decent but not that important.
In the 2001-2002 season, the League's pace of play reached its lowest point.
With a not-so-low number of three-point attempts, average team scores were just over 90 points.
Scores often read 9X:8X, 80:7X, and sometimes even 7X:6X, truly low scores.
Gan Guoyang and the Portland Trail Blazers, after over ten years of laboring in offense and three-pointers, brought a huge influence to the NBA, yet still couldn't change the big trend in offense and defense development.
After all, the real manipulators behind the scenes were the giant hands of the League, the will of David Stern and the owners. They hope for a more intense confrontation in basketball games, a lower score, a slower pace, highlighting the role of superstars in one-on-one plays.
Moreover, Stern dislikes a monotonous playing style throughout the League; he'd prefer new things every season and significant changes at every stage to give fans a fresh experience.
So, NBA games from the mid-1980s to the 1990s, and then to the early 21st century, have seen earthshaking changes over these decades in terms of game viewing experience.
New fans of this era, looking back at game footage from over ten years ago, would likely find it boring, uninteresting, and hard to understand.
Gan Guoyang is 37 going on 38, with a thick 40-year-old hairline but is still deeply interested in developing tactical plays and strategic strategies.
He likes standing on the crest of the times, at the cutting edge, being a leader.
He doesn't agree with the League's current trend of valuing defense over offense; he's always been an offensive advocate.
In the first month of 2002, the Glory Team's record steadily improved; after a three-game winning streak, they unexpectedly lost to the visiting Detroit Pistons, and then the Glory secured another three-game winning streak.
In the meantime, America, particularly Boston, exposed a church sexual abuse scandal. The Boston Globe's investigation revealed such horrific crimes within the American Catholic Church, victims mainly being underage boys.
Originally five scandals were uncovered, and as public opinion fermented, the impact spread from Boston to both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
More and more cases were exposed, not only in America but globally, with such crimes prevalent in the Catholic Church, with potentially as many as a thousand cases over dozens of years in more than ten countries and regions, and these are just those exposed.
As a father, Gan Guoyang was shocked and enraged by this, and he joined the outcry.
A wave of anti-Catholic sentiment swept across All-America, reportedly increasing followers of the Gump God Sect significantly.
Nearing February, as the All-Star Game approached, Glory Team's performance began to slip, with young players starting to fatigue.
The new players had already played the equivalent number of games they would have in college, enough to end the season and go back to school.
Yet in the NBA, they hadn't even reached halfway, and the rookie wall was about to hit.
Veteran players were slacking off as the All-Star Game approached, with various family matters affecting their performance on the court, including Gan Guoyang himself.
In the trade market, An Ji did not make any moves, not sure what he's pondering, perhaps there currently aren't any good targets.
Before the All-Star Game, Glory Team embarked on another away game journey. They had to travel to California, marking the start of a difficult schedule.
On the plane to the first stop in Sacramento, Gan Guoyang discussed the team's offensive issues with Tomjanovich.
Due to the hastily assembled team, temporarily put together, there was no clear direction in tactics.