The 31st was the weekend, and Bellman gave the players a day off without training.
Gan Guoyang invited his three best teammates, Gan Guohui, Chen Xing, and Xu Xun, to watch the Warriors' home opener in Oakland.
To his surprise, he thought that the three of them would happily go there, but he didn't know that each of them had a reason not to go.
Gan Guohui said he was going on a date, Chen Xing was going to a math cram school, and Xu Xun was going to stay in the store to help.
Even if Gan Guoyang said there were people asking for free tickets, they didn't agree, obviously not interested in the Warriors' opening game.
The difference in influence of the NBA at that time can be imagined. There was no television broadcast of the season opener, no large-scale advertising, everything was quiet.
If Thurmond hadn't called Gan Guoyang, Gan Guoyang wouldn't have known that the new NBA season had started two days ago.
In the afternoon, Thurmond personally drove Gan Guoyang to Oakland. When he learned that none of his friends could come, Thurmond shook his head: "The situation in the NBA now is worse than in the 1970s. Young people have no interest in professional basketball. Not interested. The locals prefer college basketball games and high school games. Forrest Gump, you deserve a lot of credit and a great job. The news about you and the Water Bells in October completely overshadowed the news about the Warriors. Everyone I don’t have much interest in the Warriors anymore. In fact, the Warriors performed well last season.”
The popularity of the Water Bells in San Francisco led to a further decline in fans' attention to the Warriors. Gan Guoyang did not expect that the NBA would degenerate into this in the early 1980s.
In fact, in terms of lineup, the Warriors are very competitive. They traded Bernard King and Ward B-Flynn last season, drafted rebounding maniac Larry Smith, and in the battle with the Celtics In the trade, Parish and the third overall pick were given away, and in exchange for the No. 1 pick, the 7-foot tall center Joe Barry Carroll was acquired.
Although this transaction was later considered to have contributed to the Celtics' re-emergence - Auerbach used the third pick to acquire Kevin McHale, and formed a frontcourt triangle with Bird and Parish. In 1981, They won the championship.
But from the perspective of the Warriors, having Carroll is not a bad thing. Several young people performed very well in the 1980-81 season, and they were only one win away from the playoffs. (If the Warriors can keep the No. 3 pick and Parish and find a way to get McHale, history will change a lot, but Auerbach obviously won't let this succeed.)
In the new season, the Warriors maintain the complete lineup from last season. Only one player in the team is over 30 years old, and the core players are all young players around 25. Such a lineup full of potential should be very attractive to urban fans.
However, Thurmond told Gan Guoyang on the way that today's home opener, the second game of the new season, only had more than 7,000 spectators present, and the attendance rate was less than 40%.
"Is that why you invited me and my friends to watch the game? There are too many empty seats. Find some young people to make up the number." Gan Guoyang joked.
"I'm not such a wretched brat as you said, and you're talking more and more meanly now. I promised you before that I would invite you to watch the game. You can come to the scene and experience the atmosphere of the NBA. This will give you a concrete idea in your mind. Goal, you also want to play on an NBA court in the future, don’t you?”
"I know, thank you Nate, I was joking. In fact, I also have a lot of questions to ask you about the details of some offensive techniques."
Gan Guoyang trained very hard in the Water Bell Team, and Bellman's guidance was also very meticulous, but there was a problem. He could not find anyone who could play against him in the Water Bell Team.
This resulted in Gan Guoyang not being able to effectively train in certain offensive skills. Although Bellman has a wealth of knowledge, he is not an insider after all.
The training level of high school students can no longer meet Gan Guoyang's growing needs for golf skills, and he is thirsty for more high-end guidance.
"It's a good thing to be studious. Your progress is surprising to me. To be honest, I can't guide you. Offense is not my strong point."
"But you can average 20 points a game."
"There is a difference between averaging 20 points per game and averaging 20 points per game. Some people's 20 points per game are the 20 points the team gives them, while some people's 20 points per game are the 20 points they give to the team. I obviously It’s the former. I haven’t liked offense since high school, I prefer defense. But I can find someone to give you some pointers, free of charge.”
Thurmond drove over the Bay Bridge to the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Center, a sports complex built in Oakland in the 1960s.
The core venue is a large multi-functional stadium and a basketball stadium. This basketball stadium later had a well-known name-Oracle Arena.
Thurmond parked his car. It was past two in the afternoon, a few hours before the game started.
He led Gan Guoyang into the arena from the staff tunnel, and the journey was smooth, and Thurmond's face was the pass.
Gan Guoyang was led to visit the players' locker room, media center, and finally to the side of the court. The circular dome design inside the Oakland Coliseum looked simple but magnificent.
In addition to being the home stadium of the Warriors, it also hosts a large number of concerts and concerts. Frank Schinchner, Elvis Presley, Marvin Gaye, and Queen have all left their musical traces here.
This is Gan Guoyang's first visit to an NBA home stadium. It is much older than what he saw on TV. After all, it was a building designed and constructed in the 1960s and has not yet been modernized.
The floor was dull, there was no oversized LCD monitor installed on the ceiling, and there were metal folding chairs placed in the first row of the court, which looked very casual.
Thurmond took Gan Guoyang to find two special large folding chairs and sat down, telling him to wait patiently for a while, and someone who could answer his questions would be here soon.
At 3:30, the Golden State Warriors players arrived at the home court for warm-up training to adapt to the venue. Thurmond stood up and greeted Warriors coach Al Attles.
Attles is one of the earliest black coaches in the league, the second behind Russell. He was Thurmond's former teammate in the Warriors and was also Thurmond's coach.
He became a player-coach in the 1970-1971 season. After retiring, he served as coach until now. In 1975, he led the team to win the championship.
Thurmond introduced Gan Guoyang to Altus. Alters pretended to be surprised and said: "Wow, you are that Forrest Gump! You robbed all the popularity of the Warriors this summer! Should you compensate our team? , just come and play for the Warriors next year, and I’ll ask the boss to give you a big contract.”
"Don't be ridiculous Al, if you can get the boss to offer you a big contract, why not offer me one? I think I can still play."
The two old friends joked with each other, and Thurmond expressed his intention of coming, saying that children are very easy to learn and he wanted to ask for advice on some skills.
"Excuse me? Why don't you teach him about the center's skills?"
"It's not like you don't know that my offense is like shit."
"It turns out you know it yourself. I thought you didn't know it all the time."
Alters blew the whistle and called the Warriors players to gather together. Everyone looked at Gan Guoyang and looked up and down, a little curious about this tall Chinese teenager.
With so many professional players in front of him, Gan Guoyang became cautious. He nudged Thurmond and asked: "Nate, I just want to ask a simple question. There is no need for such a big fight, right?"
Thurmond said: "It's nothing. Professional players give guidance to underachieving students. It's no big deal. We are all players, just discussing and communicating."
In the United States, it is a long-standing tradition for professional players, amateur street players, and college players to compete and communicate with each other.
Many professional teams will go to local university venues to train, and when they meet NCAA players, they will play together and share their experience.
Seniors often provide support to those who are behind, and some of them may become colleagues and opponents in the professional arena in the future.
"Boy, what do you want to know? The Golden State Warriors coaching staff is here to serve you. Your performance in Fremont was praised to the sky, and we also want to see it, Forrest Gump."
It turned out that this was the Forrest Gump. Some of the Warriors players were excited and eager to try, while a few were dull and disdainful, expressing no interest.
Gan Guoyang said: "I want to understand the technique of turning over and shooting. I feel that my movements are not smooth."
Attles pointed at two people, "Larry, Bernard, you two, point him out. Others, warm up, or you can take a look if you are interested."
