The Golden Age of Basketball

After Carl left the Trail Blazers, they promoted assistant coach McMillan to the head coach position. McMillan is a traditional type of coach, conservative in offensive and defensive design, with defense as the base, prioritizing team coordination in offense.

However, Kobe is undoubtedly an exception in McMillan’s system. His individual ability allows him to operate independently of the team’s system.

Dribbling past half-court on his own, facing Raja Bell at a 45-degree angle on the right side, Kobe made consecutive between-the-legs dribbles, stepped back, and forcefully shot a three-pointer, making it.

This is a technique Kobe has been practicing hard on in recent years, the step-back three-pointer, one of the most useful techniques he learned from Ah Gan.

A highly efficient scoring technique that ignores defense and tactical cooperation can play a crucial role at certain stages.

The Glory Team’s tactical coordination failed, Lafrentz disrupted Yao Ming’s catch, and Shawn Marion intercepted the ball.

The Trail Blazers launched a counterattack, passing to Kobe. Kobe caught the ball on the right baseline, maneuvering deftly as if deliberately luring the Radiant Players into a double-team.

This time, he didn’t fall into the trap of a triple-team. Instead, he easily escaped, moved to the top line with the ball, and, utilizing his wide vision, found Shawn Marion, who had run to an open spot in the left corner. Marion caught the ball and shot a three-pointer!

His shooting posture is truly peculiar, pushing the ball with both hands as if performing a weak woman’s shot.

Yet, female athletes shoot this way quite naturally, unlike him—it’s a true oddity on the basketball court.

Surprisingly, Shawn Marion’s peculiar shooting fashion is accurate. He consistently has over a 33% three-point shooting rate, averaging more than three shots per game, proving to be a very competent three-point shooter.

Additionally, Marion’s free throw percentage has always been stable at over 80%, reaching as high as 85% in his best season, indicating that a strange shooting posture does not affect his accuracy; the key is whether it suits him.

Marion’s unique shooting style mainly stems from a childhood injury to his left pinky that can’t straighten, along with his long arms, which forms this peculiar shooting stance. Refusing to correct it, after developing muscle memory, his shooting results are unexpectedly good.

Naturally, such a shooting stance has drawbacks, meaning Marion finds it hard to attack from the triple-threat position like other forwards.

In offense, he mainly relies on being off-ball, catching and shooting from set positions, and fast breaks under the basket, essentially scoring through piecemeal efforts without consuming much ball control.

From this perspective, he complements Kobe well, and Marion is extremely versatile on defense, with outstanding static and dynamic physical attributes that allow him to defend both inside and outside, even going so far as to single-handedly guard Ah Gan.

With two three-pointers, the Trail Blazers quickly closed the score gap, and McMillan indeed didn’t need to call a timeout.

The two teams entered a stalemate phase. Gan Guoyang received the ball in the low post, spun to the baseline, and Kobe came over to help on defense.

Facing the double-team, Gan Guoyang passed the ball to Yao Ming in the middle, who caught it and, with a deft hook shot, scored.

Kobe discontentedly said, "Sonny, don’t you have guts? Passing the ball when double-teamed? That was clearly a good opportunity."

As long as the time is long enough, the boomerang will always come back.

Gan Guoyang once ridiculed Olajuwon for his "gutless fadeaway shot," teaching Kobe that "a triple-team is a good opportunity."

Now, at 42, he increasingly resembles an ordinary superstar. Unless it’s a critical moment, when double-teamed, he still passes the ball to a better-positioned teammate.

Faced with Kobe’s sarcasm, Gan Guoyang merely laughed and said, "Fack, you little bastard, little black snake turned Black Mamba, has your mouth truly been poisoned?"

Kobe replied, "All trained by you, boss. But watching you play is really getting more boring, almost like a machine."

"You just told Outlaw to talk less."

"That’s them, not related to me. Kobe is Kobe."

Not bad, still quoting the classic Skyscraper advertisement slogan.

Both sides finished the first quarter in a relatively relaxed state.

Glory Team 23:22, leading the Trail Blazers by 1 point.

Kobe wasn’t wrong. Gan Guoyang’s play now indeed leans more towards mechanization.

This is an unavoidable choice after the decline of physical function, shutting down unnecessary features, leaving only the most core parts.

The previous state of "everything can be a sword," where all skills were used flawlessly, is an unattainable level for Gan Guoyang.

At this moment, Gan Guoyang has surpassed this level, entering a new state, not the strongest but the most suitable for him: making himself the sword.

He himself is the sword; everything has been simplified and discarded. Anything unrelated to injuring with the sword, fancy decorations, patterns, guards, or scabbards is unnecessary.

A bare iron rod, like the one in Fei’s hand in "Passionate Swordsman Cold Sword," without sharp edges or a ped, just using two pieces of softwood as a handle. This sword isn’t even very sharp, but it can kill.

On the basketball court, Gan Guoyang still enjoys joking around with young players, teasing them.

If he encounters someone blind like Chris Kaman, he doesn’t mind going up and giving him a punch.

This is the fun of his game, but his addiction to tormenting opponents psychologically isn’t as strong.

Some arrogant and unruly young players make Gan Guoyang just want to chuckle at their antics, then turn around and give them a lesson in offense and defense, and that’s it.

To systematically torment and implant psychological shadows into opponents like O’Neal or Duncan is something Gan Guoyang will no longer do.