This poses a huge challenge to any team’s defense, let alone the Glory team, which is not known for its defense.
Therefore, to secure victory, Gan Guoyang brought the team early to Los Angeles to experience "collective life."
All expenses for accommodation, transportation, and meals are covered by Gan Guoyang.
He rented a small hotel in Palm Springs City, where there’s a basketball court nearby, and everyone practices here until the game day on the 26th.
This collective life experience is rare; this is the NBA, not the CBA. Everyone gathers to play basketball together, but life is separate.
Gan Guoyang knows that if they want to win in a series where the eighth seed faces the first seed, the demand for unity must be very high.
Gan Guoyang has always been rational about the wins and losses in basketball. He never pins his hopes on bursts of form, which is a vain fantasy, relying on miracles happening, like praying to gods before significant events.
The gods only send people to the world, but they often don’t care how you live your life.
Miracles are explosions triggered by a moment of brilliance after you’ve made all the efforts and laid all the groundwork.
Without the prior accumulation, a moment of brilliance is just a moment of brilliance.
No matter how the outside praises, that Glory can defeat the Lakers in the first round, that the Lakers have rotten luck meeting Glory in the first round, Gan Guoyang is not swayed.
He clearly knows the gap between the two teams and the reality that he is no longer at his peak.
If you blindly believe in this media praise, you’ll definitely end up dying miserably, and there’ll be backlash.
However, this panic created by public opinion is quite worth utilizing.
On the first day in Los Angeles, Gan Guoyang accepted an interview with local media, saying he wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Los Angeles early.
When asked about his view on the first-round series with the Lakers, Gan Guoyang said: "The Lakers bravely accepted the Western Conference’s first position to welcome Glory’s challenge, a commendable act. In the regular season MVP selection, I cast a vote for O’Neal. Scottie Pippen is always a worthy opponent, even though he’s almost as old as me. Additionally, I admire Fisher."
Gan Guoyang said a lot, praising the Lakers’ courage, complimenting O’Neal, mentioning Pippen, and even referenced Fisher, but he deliberately left out Tracy McGrady.
This will undoubtedly make the somewhat proud young man feel uneasy inside; while he might not say anything, he surely has thoughts.
McGrady’s regular season performance was quite remarkable; he was the second offensive option for the team after O’Neal.
He’s only 22 years old and has already averaged 25 points and 5.3 assists per game, a strong contender for the first team.
Since he also wears number 1, he’s often compared to Penny Hardaway, believed to be the second Penny beside the Shark.
Yet, the final outcome between Shark and Penny was not great.
Phil Jackson can certainly see that this is Gan Guoyang’s tactic of sowing discord.
Deliberately ignoring a core player in his remarks so that young people develop internal discord.
McGrady and O’Neal were not very compatible in the first place. Given O’Neal’s personality, it’s impossible for him to develop a heartfelt rapport with any guard, and Jackson has already seen this clearly.
That’s precisely why, faced with Gan’s kind of media warfare, Jackson doesn’t have a very good solution.
What can he do? Publicly express to the media that McGrady is an excellent guard, an important figure in the team?
Then O’Neal would be unhappy.
Or, praise O’Neal once too, which would be like saying nothing.
It’s not that Gan Guoyang is instigating internal discord within the Lakers, but rather there are already conflicts, and he just added some fuel to the fire.
After stirring up some minor discord with the Lakers, to ensure Glory’s players focus entirely on the game without being disturbed by Jackson, Gan Guoyang requested everyone to cut off communication, and prohibited watching television or reading newspapers.
For modern people, being away from communication, TV, and newspapers for four days is like returning to rural life, and it seems very difficult.
Yet, this is exactly what Gan Guoyang did. After checking into the hotel, he asked everyone to call their parents, wives, and children to inform them of the situation and that they wouldn’t be able to contact them for a few days due to preparation for the game.
Then, cell phones were handed over, and if there was an emergency, they could call the hotel’s phone, which would notify them appropriately.
The TVs in the rooms were disconnected from data and antenna lines, and newspaper service was stopped.
Newcomers like Arenas and Gerald Wallace, playing in the playoffs for the first time, were quite surprised, saying: "Is this the playoffs? No wonder they say the playoffs are different from the regular season; turns out it’s managed like a concentration camp."
Porter told them that normally it’s not like this, but it’s clearly not a normal situation now.
"It’s because Sonny, this fool, is afraid of losing. He’s scared of being eliminated in the first round. Don’t be fooled by his indifferent demeanor during the regular season, where he says he wants to give young players opportunities to train. When it comes to the playoffs, he’s terrified. Losing in the first round would be humiliating; he never even missed the West Finals in the past!"
"This guy is a control freak, a pervert, a dictator for victory—that’s his true face. Regular season is fine, he can accept not playing that well. Playoffs? No way in hell! They say it’s rigged for the Lakers, but I think it’s rigged for Ah Gan. Anyway, whether the Lakers lose or we lose, those guys will all be very happy."
"Play well, guys, don’t make mistakes, don’t mess up, train well and increase your focus these days; otherwise, during the game, it’ll be rough for you."
Porter, with extensive playoff experience alongside Gan Guoyang, knows exactly how Gan Guoyang operates.
The playoffs are fundamentally different from the regular season. Listening to him, Arenas and others broke into cold sweats, throwing away all unnecessary thoughts.
Gan Guoyang brought his teammates early to Los Angeles to get everyone into playoff mode, especially the younger players.
No high-intensity training was arranged, but Gan required everyone to act together.
Wake up early together, eat together, go to the training facility to practice tactics, return to the hotel together, and watch a movie together in the evening.
Training focused primarily on tactics, with simple fitness exercises, no strength training, and everyone ate well.
Tomjanovich developed several tactical plans targeting the Lakers, which were repeatedly practiced in Palm Springs.
The environment here is great; April’s climate is suitable, sunny and warm, with sea breeze blowing, making people feel very comfortable.
Back in the ’80s, Pat Riley loved bringing the Lakers players here for preseason training or training before the finals.
Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and soon it was game day. On April 26th, the entire Glory team was in great game shape.
In the morning, they gathered for breakfast, singing a song together, each day singing a different one for four days.
Collective singing boosts morale, and on the 26th, Gan Guoyang chose the song "California Dreaming," a classic from 1966.
It’s undeniable that African Americans have a natural talent for singing; Riddle led the group, and soon everyone joined in a harmonious chorus.
After singing, everyone tidied up, went to the training facility for an hour of shooting warm-up exercises.
After lunch, Gan Guoyang returned the phones to everyone, saying: "You can call your family now, tell them to turn on the TV tonight and watch the Las Vegas Radiance versus the Los Angeles Lakers game. We will take at least one win back to the desert and send the Western Conference’s first seed home."
Four days without touching phones, making calls, encountering women, gambling, or watching TV felt like a lifetime.
On the bus to the Staples Center, everyone was either on the phone or texting.
In summary, everyone’s spirits were very high, filled with desire for the game and victory.
Because they hadn’t been exposed to any external media information, there were no distractions in their minds, only the game and their teammates.
Glory had never been so united, with everyone only thinking about victory.
Except for one person, Terry Porter.
He had long seen through Gan Guoyang’s trickery, the master puppeteer.
"He’s tricking everyone into fighting for him again. But there’s no choice, we’ll always fall for it."