After Gan Guoyang went back to the past and came to the United States, the most powerful center he met on the basketball court was Abdul-Jabbar.

In the confrontation with Abdul-Jabbar, Gan Guoyang realized what it means to be "powerless to resist", he was repeatedly sloped by this 7-foot-2 soft big man, from 17 feet to the basket, basically there is nothing he can do.

It wasn't until later that Gan Guoyang finally found some tricks to be able to fight against Abdul-Jabbar, at least the death was not so ugly, and he was appreciated by Abdul-Jabbar.

But Abdul-Jabbar is a superstar who has played in the NBA for 11 years, and Gan Guoyang, who has just graduated from high school and entered college, is naturally not an opponent at all.

And in his street, high school, and college basketball career, he has never faced a truly evenly matched center.

The long legs of the "cancer team" - not worth mentioning; Antonio at McClaude High School – he's a power forward; Greg Foster of Skyrim High School - he made Gan Guoyang a little uncomfortable, that's all; UCLA's Gray - has long been beaten out of by Gan Guoyang.

The rest of the other centers were all run over by Gan Guoyang one by one, and there was basically no power to resist, after all, Gan Guoyang's strength was indeed too dominant, and his hook hand was really unstoppable in the college game.

But on March 20, 1984, at the Great Western Forum Arena, which Gan Guoyang is familiar with, he will meet the most formidable opponent of his basketball career so far, Patrick Ewing from Georgetown University.

"Gan, are you scared?" Anderson asked suddenly.

At this time, the two were doing warm-up training on the court, and Anderson walked up to Gan Guoyang and asked after scoring a goal.

"Why are you asking me this?" Gan Guoyang continued to shoot the basket with an expressionless face.

"In the past, you always talked and laughed during the warm-up, but today you are very serious, and it is not the same as usual." Anderson said that he has become accustomed to Gan Guoyang, who usually likes to gag.

"Oh, maybe I'm a little nervous, this is the Great Western Forum, I've watched the finals here before. Right now... I felt like I was playing in the NBA. Gan Guoyang replied.

The game of 16 into 8 is already very important, and the two sides are full of highlights, so there is still half an hour before the game, and the stadium is basically full.

It was like an NBA playoff game was about to begin.

"Hey, look at the big guy on the other side, number 33, Patrick Ewing, like a gorilla. He's going to hand it over to you tonight, but don't worry, I won't let you fight alone. Anderson said with a smile.

Gan Guoyang listened and looked not far away, the tall and conspicuous black sè giant tower, with a protruding mouth, like a silverback orangutan with infinite strength.

At this time, Ewing's face was full of relaxation, talking and laughing with his teammates, and he didn't seem to take the opponent seriously, compared to Gunzaga's face from the player to the coach.

"Don't be like that, Anderson, I used to say these things, but now it's you who encourage me." Gan Guoyang was a little uncomfortable listening to Anderson's words, he had always acted as a speaker in the past.

"Gan, you know, you're the only hope for the team to win, the rest of us are not as good as the opposing players. As long as you can fight, we'll keep fighting. Anderson said, and after the warm-up was over, everyone returned to the locker room to prepare for the entrance ceremony.

Walking back to the locker room, Gan Guoyang reflected on Anderson's words, and he suddenly felt that he had such a heavy burden on his shoulders.

Anderson said that this is not to evade responsibility and throw the burden of the game on Gan Guoyang, but he knows that he and other players have limited abilities, and only when Gan Guoyang plays his best, their efforts will be meaningful and bring victory.

The two sides are about to enter the stadium, and the members of the pit bulldogs are hugging in the players' tunnel, shouting slogans before the game, and making the final encouragement.

Gan Guoyang and all the team members stood shoulder to shoulder, he lowered his head and looked around at all his teammates, everyone was so serious, even with a hint of nervousness.

"In this world, there is only one pit bull, win or go home, there is no choice! Go-bulldogs！ Gan Guoyang shouted loudly.

“GO-bulldogs！”

The mascots of the Georgetown University and Gonzaga University basketball teams are a bulldog that represents fearless courage and never-give-up tenacity.

It's just that Gonzaga University is called Bulldogs, while Georgetown University is called Hoyas.

Gan Guoyang just saw this term for a long time and didn't figure out what it was, and he couldn't think of what it meant.

Later he learned that Hoyas was not an English word, but a slogan called Hoya-saxs by linguistics students at Georgetown University who had taken two words from Greek and Latin into a slogan.

Translated into English, it means "hat-rocks", and to put it bluntly, it means "stoneall", which means hindrance, delay, which also reflects Georgetown's basketball style - tough, iron-blooded, and defensive.

As a result, the old and meaningful slogan of Hoyas became the name of Georgetown University, which is also one of the most unique team names in the NCAA.

When running to the court in front of the lights and shouts at the entrance of the players' tunnel, Gan Guoyang felt like an ancient Roman gladiator, fighting to the death with each other on the big stage leading to the Colosseum.

The sixteen-in-eight game was really different from the previous two rounds, and the players of the Great Western Forum were also different from the Yangong Arena, as soon as he ran out of the passage, Gan Guoyang felt as if he had been washed by the sound waves, and the spotlight here was also like a fierce rì, illuminating every corner of the battlefield.

Before the game, the entire stadium sang the American national anthem, but two people in the audience did not open their mouths, one was Gan Guoyang, who is still a Chinese and uses a student visa in the United States; The other is Ewing because he is a Jamaican who is a citizen of the United States but does not want to sing the American national anthem.

Then, the introduction of the starters, everything was like an official NBA game, which also made the atmosphere before the game more and more tense.

Gan's heart beat fastest as he stood in the center circle against Patrick Ewing, a tension he hadn't experienced in a long time, and the last time he did it was against McLeod High School in his first warm-up game — three years ago.

"Hey Gan, come on, we're here." At this time, Stockton seemed to see something, stepped forward and patted Gan Guoyang's ass and said lightly.

"No problem, just wait and see the show." As soon as Gan Guoyang was told by Stockton, he immediately took a deep breath and calmed himself down, and at the same time, he was also wondering too much about the future.

Because in 1984, Georgetown would eventually win the NCAA championship, and now, if Gan Guoyang leads Gonzaga to victory over Georgetown, it means that he will completely change the big events in history - at least in the history of basketball.

If he loses, he is just a pebble under the wheel of history, thinking that he can overturn the car, but he didn't expect that it just made the car bump.

In addition, this time he is facing Ewing, Gan Guoyang knows that Ewing will be the four major centers and superstars in the future, how can he not be stunned.

These two things invisibly aggravated Gan Guoyang's worries, making him a little worried, and naturally a feeling of nervousness surfaced.

Stockton's reassurance suddenly made him feel better, and he thought about what Anderson had said to him, Gan Guoyang had decided to fight to the death in the three-second zone like a real center.

"Are you all ready?" The referee asked.

“Yes！” “Yes！” Ewing and Gan Guoyang replied at the same time and glanced at each other.

"Beep!" With the referee's whistle, the 1984 NCAA National Sixteen to Eight West Division competition officially began!

The contest between Gan Guoyang and Ewing was the first to start in the middle circle.

Gan Guoyang understands that in order to lead Gonzaga to win, he must have the advantage of momentum from the beginning and must take the lead.

Judging from this year's national university rankings, Bellman's pre-match analysis and Georgetown's game video, Gan Guoyang understands that Gonzaga is obviously a notch worse than Georgetown in terms of the overall strength of the team.

If you can't overpower the opponent in momentum, then the game is likely to enter the opponent's control from the beginning, and then it will not be easy to play.

Therefore, from the beginning of the scramble, Gan Guoyang has to fight for every inch of land!

Gan Guoyang does not have an advantage in height, he is 6-foot-10, while Ewing reaches 7-foot; Although Gan's arm span is outstanding, Ewing's arm span is not bad, and Ewing also has a weight advantage, he is nearly 10 pounds heavier than Gan Guoyang.

The first touch between the two in the air sparked, and Gan Guoyang could clearly feel the huge force from the other party, pressing towards him, and he couldn't exert his strength in the air.

But Gan Guoyang had a very good jump, and he almost did his best to stretch his arms to reach the ball.

The two of them touched the basketball in the air at the same time, and the ball was hit by two forces, and it didn't go anywhere, still in the center of the center circle.

At this time, Gan Guoyang and Ewing had already landed, but Gan Guoyang was shorter but more flexible, and the preparation time for the jump was shorter.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs get the right to attack!

"I-in (I won)." Gan Guoyang said to Ewing beside him as he ran through the middle circle.

Ewing was obviously stunned, in his opinion, it didn't matter if he won or lost the scrum, anyway, it was just a formality, and the serve would be exchanged in the second half.

He did not expect that the yellow boy who has often been seen in various newspapers and magazines recently would care about winning or losing the scrum, and he always thought that Gan Guoyang could be valued by the media just because he was a Chinese, full of gimmicks, and a little strength, but it was far from the top of the NCAA.

Ewing's sentiment is also the opinion of most American basketball people, although Gan's stats are very beautiful, averaging 26 points and 15 rebounds per game in the regular season plus two rounds of the NCAA National Game.

In comparison, Ewing only had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

But Gan's Gonzaga University is playing in the West Coast League, a minor league, while Ewing's Georgetown is in the mighty Great East League.

Moreover, Gonzaga faced Princeton University in the first game with mediocre talent and poor defense, and in the first and second rounds against the Texas El Paso Shakhtars, Gan Guoyang's score immediately dropped to 12 points.

In fact, these basketball people don't look at how low the score of the two sides was in the second game against the Texas El Paso Shakhtars.

Before this game, some media predicted that Gan Guoyang's score could not exceed 10 points.

The reason they made this prediction was not only because of Georgetown's super defense, but also because Georgetown had a super center, Ewing. He averaged 3.65 blocks per game.

"What kid did you win? Scrum? Then I told you I would win the game. Ewing came to the three-second zone and followed Gan Guoyang closely, he was ready to teach this yellow-skinned boy a lesson.

"We'll see." At this time, Gan Guoyang no longer had the heart to quarrel with Ewing, and the two had already started a close hand-to-hand fight on the inside.

At the moment of contact with Ewing, Gan Guoyang felt that this guy was not easy to deal with.

Not to mention Ewing's outstanding physical fitness, his agile skills and fierce defensive moves made Gan Guoyang feel different from the opponents he had encountered in the past.

In order to compete for a deeper position, Gan Guoyang desperately opened up an open space on the edge of the three-second zone on the right, and stuck Ewing behind him.

In order to completely block Ewing behind him, Gan Guoyang also kept making small movements in his hands, so that Ewing couldn't push him away.

Ewing didn't expect that this yellow-skinned No. 11, who looked thinner and shorter than himself, would have such great strength and so good card slot technology.

He was already trying very hard to stop Gan Guoyang from taking the position, and if he tried harder, he would foul and push people down, but he still couldn't invade Gan Guoyang's receiving space.

And Stockton saw that Gan Guoyang had occupied the territory on the periphery, hoisted the ball into Gan Guoyang's hands, and then immediately slipped the bottom line and took the defense away.

Everyone else also pulled away, and the first goal of the opening game was the duel between the two center forwards!

Bellman's pre-game arrangement is not so much a tactical arrangement as a dare to mobilize to the death, because Bellman knows that it is very difficult to defeat Georgetown by relying on tactics alone, and it must rely on the team's morale and perseverance to gain the momentum of the opponent, and then the tactics can play a role.

Bellman's advice to Gan Guoyang is, "Desperately play inside and seize every opportunity to score." ”

So at the beginning, Gonzaga handed the ball to Gan Guoyang, and they needed Gan Guoyang's goal to accumulate momentum to compete with strong opponents.

After receiving the ball steadily, Gan Guoyang tested the defense behind him and felt that the pressure was quite high.

Due to the excessive amount of power consumed in the position, the defender behind is very tight, and it is difficult to complete the action if you hook your hand at this time.

Coupled with the signs that the opponent stepped forward to wrap up, Gan Guoyang immediately passed the ball to Matthews on the outside, and he himself made a slight adjustment and arched inward.

When the center feels that the single game is not good, he will choose to pass the ball to the outside line, adjust it himself, and then continue to feed the ball on the outside.

The Georgetown team's bag was obviously pretentious, and they decided that Ewing alone could handle Gan Guoyang.

But this time, Gan Guoyang moved deeper after a slight adjustment, and at the same time, his left foot moved closer to the baseline and stuck a little back.

After Ewing passed the ball to Gan Guoyang, he felt the opponent's body push back, and Ewing lost his strength and moved backwards for half a point.

This loosening was immediately felt by Gan Guoyang, and at the moment when he re-received the ball, he turned around with his left heel as the axis, and turned his back as if the soles of his feet were oiled and directly turned to the basket!

Ewing's reaction was also extremely fast, and when he saw that it was not good, he immediately sealed it under the basket, squeezing Gan Guoyang's activity space.

Georgetown's big forward on the left side also immediately came back to make up for the defense, and wanted to pinch Gan Guoyang under the basket.

How could Gan Guoyang let the opponent attack, he jumped directly with one foot when he turned around and his body had not yet adjusted.

Such a jump is very inadequate because of insufficient preparation, and if he goes straight to the basket, Ewing will slap the ball off.

However, Gan Guoyang used his long arm to make a rebound before the opponent's big forward's palm was sealed.

Ball in!

Gan Guoyang was like a loach, and under the attack of the opponent's two interior men, he wiped the ball into the basket!

In the opening 20 seconds, Gan Guoyang used a beautiful turn to rebound and open the scoring for Gonzaga.

"I said, I'll win." After scoring the goal, Gan Guoyang looked at Ewing and said a word, and ran back to defend.

The war has begun.