The Golden Age of Basketball

"Maybe you should take a break too, Coach. Not everyone has nuclear energy."

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Looks like you’re quite satisfied with rest, even though you were saying you wanted to keep playing before."

"I’m just used to it, instinctively... I’m accustomed to playing through injuries. Now that I can rest a bit, I feel good."

As Sabonis spoke these words, he took another drink of vodka, the 1.5-liter bottle was nearly empty.

Since officially joining the Soviet national team, as long as Sabonis was physically able, he hardly ever missed a game – no matter if it was important or not.

Logically speaking, someone as crucial as him, with injuries lurking, should have been conserved for critical moments. He should’ve skipped the inconsequential games if possible.

But the national team still made him play as much as possible, which led to frequent injuries. He was often forced to play before fully recovering, causing wounds that couldn’t heal properly.

It is said that the main reason for this is that Sabonis was not Russian but Lithuanian.

The head coach of the Soviet national team, Alexander Gomelsky, was also the head coach of Central Army in Moscow.

Central Army had long dominated the Soviet men’s professional basketball league. However, with the emergence of Sabonis, the Lithuanian team Zalgiris overturned Central Army’s rule.

Therefore, Alexander Gomelsky let Sabonis participate extensively in the national team games to drain his energy, preventing him from giving his all for the club’s performance.

Even so, Sabonis still had great respect for Gomelsky and was proud to be a member of the Soviet national team – until this year, that is.

After finishing the 1990 World Championships, Sabonis was unwilling to play for the Soviet national team anymore, as Lithuania was fighting for independence, and he considered himself Lithuanian.

The conflict of identity had been troubling Sabonis since the summer. Seeing Divac being traded due to the Yugoslav conflict made his spirits sink even lower.

Playing basketball hard was his only way to escape the confusion and physical pain. If he couldn’t play basketball, all that was left was nicotine and alcohol.

After finishing a 1.5-liter bottle of vodka, Beelman and Sabonis sat together in the yard, smoking and chatting.

Sabonis was curious about Beelman’s high school and college experiences, and he asked, "Bobby, I heard that you won championships by clinging onto Ah Gan’s coattails, is that true?"

After drinking, Sabonis became somewhat tactless, probing into Bobby Beelman’s "scars."

Beelman exhaled a smoke ring calmly and said, "Basketball is about mutual achievement; there’s no such thing as clinging onto someone’s coattails. Of course, Sonny’s coattails are indeed thick; he’s born for basketball."

Sabonis also nodded and said, "He’s like a basketball machine. I’ve never envied anyone before him because I thought I was perfect. But after meeting him, he made me feel inferior."

"Such a perfect person should get more playing time to refine him, don’t you agree?"

"Haha, if that’s really possible, I could rest at ease for a while... How about I rest until Christmas?"

"That’s a great idea. On Christmas, we can have Ah Gan cook for us. He’s really good at cooking, able to prepare many dishes by himself. You know, he’s got great stamina."

"He really is versatile, Coach. No wonder you’re willing to coach him all this time, a perfect player."

"Yes, yes..."

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The absence of Sabonis left a void in Trail Blazers’ frontcourt.

However, Beelman did not actually increase Gan Guoyang’s playing time to fill Sabonis’ absence but gave the rookies a chance to get on the court.

Antonio Davis, Cliff-Robinson, and Mark Bryant divided up the playing time left by Sabonis.

Gan Guoyang’s playing time was still strictly controlled by Beelman to under 38 minutes, sometimes even reduced to 37 minutes.

This required Gan Guoyang to find his rhythm faster and establish dominance earlier in the game, otherwise, it left a lot of opportunities for the opponents.

The absence of Sabonis still caused significant damage to Trail Blazers’ combat power. Coupled with the players entering their first phase of victory fatigue and with Christmas approaching in December, Trail Blazers lost several games in succession.

Including an away loss to the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, where both teams were scoring fiercely, and in the end, Warriors used their hot outside shooting to fend off the Trail Blazers for a precious victory.

On December 11th, they lost at home to the Indiana Pacers. In this game, the Trail Blazers suffered a cold streak, including Gan Guoyang. They were edged out by the Pacers led by Reggie Miller with a score of 110:108, having the match stolen from them.

On the 13th of December, the Trail Blazers visited Sacramento, assuming it would be an easy victory. However, the Kings’ bench erupted unexpectedly.

Anthony Karl came off the bench to score 20 points and grab 16 rebounds, Anthony Bonner scored 16 points, and the Kings’ bench scored 52 points, surpassing what the starters managed.

On the Trail Blazers’ side, Bobby Beelman gave the bench plenty of playing time for the second unit. By the time the starters were called back to turn the tide and catch up, it was already too late.

101:105, The Trail Blazers lost the away game by a deficit of 4 points, enduring their first consecutive defeat of the season.

By Christmas, the Trail Blazers’ record had changed from a leading 12-1 to 22-5.

They were still at the top of the Western Conference but were unexpectedly surpassed in the overall League rankings by one team.

Not the Chicago Bulls, not the Detroit Pistons, nor the Los Angeles Lakers.

It was the Boston Celtics.

As of December 23rd, their record was a staggering 23 wins and 3 losses.

A truly commanding lead, as if returning to their most glorious days in the ’80s.

The Trail Blazers were about to travel to Boston after Christmas to challenge the Celtics on their home court.

Sabonis was nearing his return from injury, soon to rejoin Ah Gan and form the Twin Towers, facing the Celtics’ frontcourt "White Trio" comprised of Divac and the duo of Kevin McHale and Bird.