The Golden Age of Basketball

James trusts his ears, but he chooses not to listen.

Take down Ah Gan? James may not read much, but documentaries and various NBA stories are something he’s heard a lot about.

An important rule in "Forrest Gump’s Law" is never to think about taking down Ah Gan one-on-one.

Anyone who attempts to do so ends up miserably; one must approach it from a holistic standpoint, using team tactics.

James understands this as relying on the power of teammates, rather than thinking heroically about one-on-one battles with Ah Gan in offense and defense.

In one-on-one battles, Gan Guoyang has always been the ceiling in the League’s history, a perfect combination of physical fitness, technique, and duel experience.

Stories of Gan Guoyang humiliating opponents in one-on-one matches are countless to every NBA fan.

Those famous figures in NBA history have all been thoroughly suppressed by Ah Gan in one-on-one offensive and defensive confrontations.

He’s now 42 years old, no longer invincible, but in one-on-one confrontations, he is still an irresistible existence.

Especially his defense, with strength reaching the peak, skills and experience being perfect, but his speed and explosiveness are lacking.

James is not confronting Ah Gan for the first time; he knows he must play actively, leveraging the power of teammates and tactics to attack Ah Gan’s weaknesses.

Going head-to-head with Ah Gan? Isn’t that asking for trouble?

Look at those videos, highlights; searching "Sunny Gump one on one" on the latest video websites like YouTube, fans have edited content of Ah Gan’s one-on-one plays, both offensively and defensively, with hours of material without repetition.

In the sports section, Ah Gan’s game videos are significant content for the development of this emerging website.

Many fans were attracted by Ah Gan’s highlight videos and discovered YouTube, becoming users of the video site.

By October 2006, Google acquired YouTube for 1.65 billion US Dollars, just a year and a half since its establishment.

If you go to search for videos of Ah Gan being posterized or blocked, relatively speaking, there are very few.

It’s not to save face for the eminent, but there really aren’t many.

Of course, the most acclaimed are the fight videos of Ah Gan back then at the Silverdome and The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Among them, the one with the most clicks is the blurry footage of Ah Gan being sneak attacked and beaten.

According to this footage, some have analyzed that in the 1984 game between the Rockets and the Trail Blazers, the person who punched Ah Gan might have been Drexler.

James doesn’t want to be part of the highlight reel, but he also doesn’t want to reject Carl’s request face-to-face; that’s not his style.

He decides not to cooperate, appearing to nod in agreement on the surface, but when the game comes, he will play how he sees fit.

In the second quarter, Gan Guoyang remained on the court, while James rested on the bench; Carl asked him to observe Ah Gan’s offensive strategy and details.

"Ah Gan now primarily finishes from mid-range, breaking through less, but you still can’t defend too closely; he still has breakthrough capability. You need to exhaust him more, create a physical challenge for him; your fitness should be superior to his now."

Carl painstakingly imparts these defensive tips to James, but James seems to be listening from one ear and letting it out the other.

For him, prolonged physical clashes with the opponent’s arrowhead on defense are absolutely a losing game strategy.

Energy is consumed, and no statistics are showcased; it also won’t be in highlights, nor is it beneficial for attracting fans and increasing popularity.

What do fans like to see? Dunking, breaking through for dunks, alley-oops, powerful blocks, and scoring while charging into the basket like a football player.

Why does football have a greater influence and market in America compared to basketball? It’s because the sense of violence is something basketball cannot match.

In Nike’s strategy for James, it’s about bringing the whirlwind style of football into the NBA, triggering a new visual spectacle.

Ah Gan and Jordan are like traditional, artistic commercial films that strike a good balance from plot to production to spectacle.

Like Terminator, Jaws, Titanic, they thrill the audience, sometimes provoke thought, and even pioneer genres; their basketball style is imbued with supreme skill and wisdom amidst violence and passion, with a touch of elegance.

However, as the market expands, film producers find that these movies are hard to come by; they can’t be made just because one wants to.

But companies need profits, so they readily invest in films that don’t require much thought, no need for artistry, genre, or elegance, just thrilling and violent, made with special effects and big productions; Hollywood blockbusters emerge accordingly.

Basketball is the same; Nike realizes Jordan and Ah Gan are hard to replicate. Since James is physically so good, they might as well fully leverage his aggressive style, bring football’s passion to the basketball court; many audiences will buy tickets.

This tactic indeed works well; James has risen dramatically in the past two years, his popularity continues to climb; his style of play is very popular in America.

Just raise his shooting skills a bit more; with increased game experience, his physical abilities will always deliver entertaining matches, making fans buy tickets and audiences pay.

As for those overly detailed things and the work role players need to do, of course, they should be left to others; investing James’s energy in this is a losing proposition.

Carl’s teachings passed by James’s ears like a mantra; he didn’t think about how to defend Ah Gan alone, but rather how to cope with Ah Gan’s defense, how to cleverly avoid him, he needs to charge forward; he can’t fall into a set battle with Ah Gan, he must play fast.