Losing in the regular season is not a big setback for the Water Bell team. On the contrary, it helps them discover problems and find solutions.
From mid-November to late December, the Water Bell team played a total of 7 games and achieved a record of 6 wins and 1 loss.
Except for the loss to the Washington Eagles, no other school in San Francisco was a match for the Water Clock.
Gan Guoyang's data declined in the next four games, and his offensive rebounds decreased.
In order to deal with well-trained opponents, Gan Guoyang reduced his frontcourt rush and devoted more to retreating defense.
Maintaining the stability of the joint defense and reducing the opponent's counterattack is Gan Guoyang's most important task.
On the offensive end, Gan Guoyang suffered more double-teams. In order to avoid mistakes, he reduced the number of low-post attacks.
Franklin takes on more offensive tasks, shares Gan Guoyang's scoring pressure, and makes it harder for the opponent's defense to deal with it.
With most schools taking the team route in offense, the Water Bells embarked on the dual-core model of a professional team early on.
Although he is known as a dual-core, Gan Guoyang far surpasses Franklin in terms of role and popularity.
As he played more games, his reputation grew in the Bay Area and throughout California.
Fighting in an away stadium or Kezar Stadium is undoubtedly a huge waste of Gan Guoyang's reputation.
Starting from the fourth game, with the efforts of Huang Shaohua, the team's game was able to be held at the War Memorial Stadium at the University of San Francisco.
This place can accommodate 5,000 spectators with extra seats, and the revenue from ticket sales is considerable.
People came from all over to watch the game, not just San Francisco locals.
Some are from Sacramento, some are from Los Angeles, and some are even from next door, Nevada.
It’s not a big deal to drive for three and a half hours.
Many of them are Chinese living in the United States and want to come to San Francisco to see this Oriental biochemical warrior with their own eyes.
Gan Guoyang did not disappoint these fans who came from afar during the game. He used his focused and dominant performance on the field to win the victory for the team and win cheers for himself.
In San Francisco, he didn't encounter any center player who could compete with him one-on-one - California is not rich in centers.
It is said that there are young big men in Houston, Boston, and Pennsylvania who are as talented as Gan Guoyang, but they have not yet been able to meet on the court.
In addition to selling tickets, the school also sells caps, T-shirts and posters signed by Gan Guoyang. A Wilson basketball signed by him sold for $500 before a game.
Before the game, students will set up stalls at the entrance of the stadium to sell Chinese snacks to raise funds to support the team’s training expenses and equipment purchase.
Part of the remaining funds will be deposited into the China Endeavor Foundation to be used as activities and rights funds for Chinese groups, and part of it will be distributed to the players of the Water Bell Team as subsidies.
Of course Gan Guoyang can get more. It can be said that all this money is earned because of him.
He was not polite about egalitarianism, but after he got the money, he gave half of it to Gan Youwei, and the other half was used to treat guests to dinner and spend it cleanly.
The school has also made plans for future competitions. It would be best if it can enter the CIF state championship.
If they cannot enter the state championship, they can play other invitational tournaments next semester and travel to other states, such as Ohio, Indiana and even Florida.
In short, in the United States, where the basketball market is developed, if you have a good team and a famous star, you don’t have to worry about not having games to play, and you don’t have to worry about making money. There are many people who are willing to spend money to watch the games.
At that time, the NBA was not all of American basketball, not even the majority of American basketball, just a small part that was still somewhat influential.
Just in December, NBA President Larry O'Brien held a press conference and announced: "We have just signed the largest television broadcast contract in the history of the league." This ended the embarrassing situation of no television broadcast for more than a month after the start of the NBA season. .
O'Brien did not lie. This political figure famous in history for the Watergate incident knows best the devastating consequences of lying.
But not lying does not mean that he truly reflected the situation. The NBA's new broadcast contract is 88 million U.S. dollars over four years. During the negotiations, the TV station bluntly stated that it was impossible to give a price of more than 100 million U.S. dollars.
The average annual contract price of $22 million is the same as the last year of the previous contract, without a penny increase.
Taking into account the high-inflation economic environment in the United States at that time, the amount of this contract was actually reduced.
And it lasted only four years. By the end of the 1984-1985 season, it was obvious that the TV station was not very optimistic about the future development of the NBA.
For comparison, MLB, which had just ended its strike, received a $184 million contract.
NCAA college football league, the contract value reached 260 million US dollars.
NCAA college basketball league contract values are also rising, rather than staying still.
Not to mention the NFL, which has taken the top spot among the four major leagues. Their new broadcast contract is US$2.1 billion.
NBA contracts are less than a fraction of those in the NFL.
Under such a general environment and contrast, anyone with a discerning eye can see how much moisture there is in "the biggest in history" in O'Brien's mouth.
In the new broadcast contract, CBS TV's regular season broadcasts have been reduced from the previous 41 games to 28 games.
Fans can only watch 28 NBA games a year on TV. The official explanation given by the NBA is: Less is more.
They will give fans the best games instead of boring, unspectacular games to maintain the league's good image among fans.
How much self-deception this theory contains, we can only ask the NBA executives themselves.
The reduction in television broadcasts has also made it difficult for Gan Guoyang to watch live broadcasts of NBA games in his free time.
Until December 25, Christmas Day, the NBA’s traditional Christmas game, the TV station broadcast the Nets vs. Knicks game.
During the school holidays, Gan Guoyang can watch the game live at home.
The game was held in the famous Madison Square Garden. As a result, the attendance rate for this highlight of the New York Derby was only 50%.
It can be seen from the TV cameras that many seats at the scene are empty because there are really no popular stars in the two teams.
The game was scheduled for the afternoon of Eastern Time. When Gan Guoyang watched the game, it was noon of Pacific Time.
After Gan Youwei finished working in the kitchen, he found Gan Guoyang who was watching TV and said, "Guoyang, I have something here, please help me send it back."
Gan Guoyang asked curiously: "Thing? What thing?"
Gan Youwei took out a large iron box and handed it to Gan Guoyang. He opened it and saw that it contained a stack of high-end restaurant coupons, many supermarket shopping cards, three watches, two rolls of high-end ties, and a Montblanc gold pen set.
"Dad, what are these? Did you buy them?"
"No, someone gave it to me, someone from the University of San Francisco."
"University of San Francisco? Why are they giving you these?"
"Of course it's not for me, it's for you. You never accept other people's things, so you gave them to your uncle and then to me. I'll put them all away and you can return them all when you have time. "
Since Gan Guoyang became famous, countless people have wanted to give him things.
Reporters, agents, scouts, and college basketball recruiters all want to build closer relationships through gifts.
However, Gan Guoyang knows that he can be short-tongued and soft-handed. As long as he plays basketball well, he will not be short of money in the future and there is no need to use people's things to make excuses.
When it comes to giving gifts, Americans and Chinese are the same. If you don't want to accept them, then you have to go the extra mile to save the country and take the route of family members.
Gan Guoyang's closest relative is of course his father Gan Youwei, but Gan Youwei is also an upright and honest person.
Gan's restaurant became famous through Gan Guoyang. He relied on his cooking skills to make money and attract customers, and he relied on his ability to eat.
Accepting property as a gift from others changes its nature. Gan Youwei knew that this would bring trouble to his son, so he refused to accept it.
So some people took a roundabout way and found Gan Youtang and asked him to hand it over to Gan Youwei, so the things still came into his hands.
Of course Gan Youwei didn't know how to use it, and he was afraid that talking to his son every day would disturb him in his playing and studying, so he simply collected all the things.
When the Christmas holiday came, all was given to Gan Guoyang and asked to deal with it.
After understanding the cause and effect, Gan Guoyang agreed with his father's approach, but to whom should he return these things?
After thinking for a while, Gan Guoyang thought of Mr. Cap LaVine. He called Cap LaVine and made an appointment to meet at Rochambeau Stadium in the afternoon.
The game between the Knicks and the Nets was still going on, but Gan Guoyang was not interested in watching it. There was really nothing to watch.
When he left, he suddenly remembered something and said to Gan Youwei: "Dad, I won't be back for dinner tonight."
"You won't be back tonight? Do you have a date?"
"No, an old friend of mine invited me to dinner."
"Okay, please be careful and don't play around."
Watching his son leave, Gan Youwei muttered to himself, "Old friend, how long have you been in the United States and you already have old friends?"
He didn't know that the old friend Gan Guoyang mentioned was really an "old" friend.
