On July 13, 1985, a large-scale rock concert called "Save Lives" was held simultaneously in London, England and Philadelphia, USA, and this charity concert initiated by Bob Gerdorf and Miz Yuri attracted nearly 1.5 billion television viewers.

More than 100 famous rock stars from around the world attended the concert, including Bobo Dylan, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Mike Jackson, who were part of the concert to raise money to alleviate the famine in Ethiopia.

On August 12, 1985, a month later, a Boeing 747 crashed in Japan on Japan Airlines Flight 123, and only 4 of the 524 people on board survived, becoming the deadliest aviation accident in history.

The living are still alive, and the dead are dead.

Gan Guoyang watched the newspapers and TV report the whole process of this aviation tragedy, and felt sorry for the lost life, and at the same time, when he thought of the various disasters that might occur in the future, he already knew the outcome, but he could not change it, and this sense of powerlessness made him a little dull.

He has been in Houston for more than a month, during which Wang Fuxi went to Houston to get a taste of Texas, and Michael Jackson once called to invite Gan Guoyang to attend a benefit performance in Philadelphia, but none of this disrupted Gan Guoyang's training plan for himself.

For more than a month, with the help of Coach Lewis, Gan Guoyang developed a complete training plan to comprehensively improve his fighting skills and allow him to better use his strength.

At the same time, he is also practicing small hooks, and now Olajuwang often falls into disadvantage when he is one-on-one with Gan Guoyang, because he doesn't know when Gan Guoyang will hook big and when he will hook small.

If Gan Guoyang perfects his turnaround jumper one day, then he is likely to become the league's most threatening interior lineman.

In the past month, Gan Guoyang has lived in Drexler's former home in Houston, living with Drexler's brothers and sisters.

Drexler's family relationship is complicated, his mother was divorced and remarried, and before her two marriages, she had a fiancé, a police officer who died in the line of duty, and gave birth to a son with him, Drexler's eldest brother.

In addition, Drexler's mother gave birth to six children in the next two marriages, and the family has a total of seven, which can be said to be very lively.

Drexler is right fourth in the family, and in the middle, his siblings are all already working in Houston, and his eldest brother is married and has children.

So on weekends, Drexler's home will be crowded with people, which makes Gan Guoyang, who has lived alone in Portland for a long time, feel the warmth of home.

But for a few days, the atmosphere in Drexler's home was not so hot, because Drexler was injured.

"Jingle bell~" The phone in the room where Gan Guoyang was staying rang, at this time Gan Guoyang was depressed after reading the news, as soon as he heard the phone ringing, he knew that it was a call from Drexler.

"Hi Clyde, how are you in Portland?" Gan Guoyang picked up the phone and asked directly.

"Hey Gan, how do you know it's me?" Sure enough, Drexler's voice came from the other end of the line.

"Of course, who else but you would call me at your house? Tell me how you're doing. Gan Guoyang asked.

Drexler trained hard at the University of Houston for nearly two months, and was beaten by Johnson's back-to-back singles because he defended Magic Johnson in the Western Conference Finals last season.

To this end, in addition to practicing various techniques, Drexler is also actively gaining muscle and weight, aiming to increase his weight from 210 pounds to more than 225 pounds.

As a result, Drexler's left knee was damaged, and Drexler had to call the team's team doctor, Cook, and fly back to Portland for treatment, leaving Gan Guoyang alone in Houston.

"It's not bad, but it's not good, and Dr. Cook diagnosed me and he said it was my fibula that was under too much pressure and cracked. But Dr. Cook said I don't need surgery, I just need to rest, but I can't gain any more weight, otherwise it will definitely be worse. Drexler said on the other end of the line, his voice a little helpless.

You must know that Drexler is full of confidence this summer, he has made sufficient preparations for next season's game, he wants to completely consolidate his starting point guard position next season, and this injury will obviously affect Drexler's condition to maintain and improve.

"And when will you recover? It's August, and then September is over, and it's October when the team's training camp begins, and I don't want to see you on crutches. Gan Guoyang's words revealed concern for Drexler.

Gan Guoyang understands that for professional players, losing, losing championships, and poor performance are inevitable and acceptable, but injuries may be the biggest obstacle in the career of professional players.

Gan Guoyang knows in his heart that in the past and in the future, I don't know how many talented players have finally been ruined by injuries, and the dream in his career has not been shattered on the field, but it has "ended before it starts" outside the field, which is really a sigh.

Of course, Gan Guoyang also knows that Drexler should have no problem, otherwise he will not have those achievements in the future.

"Luckily, good recovery. Dr. Cook fitted a bone stimulation recovery device to my leg that would help me get better faster. But this thing is so noisy, it buzzes every day, and I have to take this guy like an alarm clock with me when I go to bed. Drexler complained that the recovery apparatus was not very advanced at the time, and it was inevitable that there were many flaws.

"But I'm sure you're sleeping well, there's nothing stopping you from sleeping." Gan Guoyang smiled and said, Drexler has always had the title of "Sleeping God" in the team, no matter where and at what time, as long as he wants to, he will definitely be able to fall asleep.

Drexler was also happy to hear this, laughed on the other end of the phone, and said: "Gan, tell you a happy thing, I'm going to buy a big house near Lake Mountain Park in Portland, about 4,000 square feet, and the price is about $150,000, what do you think?" ”

When Gan Guoyang heard about "Lake and Mountain Park", he knew that it was a wealthy area on Portland's West Side, and the villas there were quite good.

Drexler just signed a two-year contract with the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer, and although it is not a big contract, Drexler is optimistic about his future prospects in Portland.

"I'm definitely going to celebrate you when your new home is completed, but you've only signed a two-year contract and are so confident you're staying in Portland?"

At that time, the NBA contract signing was not standardized, so there was a 25-year super long-term contract of 25 million US dollars for Magic Johnson, and with Stern's reform, the NBA contract will gradually become more complex and standardized, and the player's salary will be higher and higher.

This is also why Gan Guoyang is not in a hurry to discuss the contract with Portland, he wants to wait a little longer.

"I don't know...... But I love Portland, and I used to think about Houston...... By the way, Gan, did you know that Scheffler was cut by the team...... You're going to find a new sparring partner......"

The two people who were still giggling were silent a lot at once, especially Gan Guoyang.

In June and July, as soon as the season ends, the players take a break and the managers are busy planning for the next season's reinforcements or rebuilding the team.

Portland didn't make much of a move, first completing a small trade in early June, trading Bernard Sampson to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for an '87 second-round pick.

Then in the draft, Inman picked out Terry Porter from the University of Wisconsin with the 24th pick in the first round.

Obviously, such a player selected in the pick, of course, can't be as powerful as the champion Ewing, and Portland fans don't know where this Porter is sacred, but this draft will be another classic in the history of Inman's draft.

Then, in the second round of drafting, Portland had the option of the first pick, Inman took Canadian center Mike Smureck, but then Inman traded him to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Ben Colerman and Ken Johnson.

Of course, Inman didn't know that this would create a little trouble for the Trailblazers and Gan Guoyang in the future.

In August, the Trail Blazers laid off another soy sauce center, Scheffler, who was in his thirties and had no potential.

It should be said that the Trail Blazers' draft is still quite good, and the other few trades are small fights, and the cut of Scheffler is also expected, and his contribution to the team is indeed too small.

But Gan Guoyang's heart is very uncomfortable, although Scheffler's ability is not good, but his relationship with Gan Guoyang off the field has always been good, and he is also Gan Guoyang's royal sparring partner.

Compared with Olajuwon, Scheffler's sparring partner is really a bit lame, and he can't force Gan Guoyang to do his best.

But Gan Guoyang still misses this old center with a mustache and a polite appearance, he knows that this is a person with a dream, and he has never stopped working hard in order to enter the NBA.

"Gan, I know you're feeling bad, and I'm sad the first time I encountered this kind of thing. You know, last season the Trail Blazers traded for the Nuggets, and Leaf and Knight were very good friends to me, but they suddenly went to the Nuggets. And I played them seven times in the playoffs...... This is the NBA, this is the business......" Drexler comforted Gan Guoyang when he heard him not speak.

"I know...... Actually, I hope Scheffler can be traded, so that the next time I meet him in the ring, it will be easy for me to single-handedly him. It's just that I'm afraid that he may never be able to play in the NBA again. ”