The InterContinental Hotel in New York is located near the famous Times Square, the most central location on the island of Manhattan and known as the "Crossroads of the World".

Although the Intercontinental Hotel is only a four-star hotel, the service concept and measures here are quite advanced, especially the staff here have foreign language skills, so the NBA officials also prefer to arrange foreign visiting players to this hotel.

At this time, in the welcome hall on the first floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, Gan Guoyang was sitting on a chair quietly waiting for the arrival of the Chinese national team.

Some time ago, after Muscatine confirmed the news of the Chinese team's visit, Gan Guoyang couldn't sit still, he didn't want to wait until the last stop of the Chinese men's basketball team's visit to return to Portland, but hurriedly said goodbye to Stockton and Hansen, and flew directly to Boston to meet David Stern.

On June 9, 1985, the sixth game of the finals was played in Boston Garden Square, and the Los Angeles Lakers, with a 3-2 lead, had a chance to lift the O'Brien Cup in Boston.

The last time the Lakers had such an opportunity was in 1969, in Bill Russell's final year, and the Lakers also led 3-2 in the first five games, with the sixth also in Boston, but they lost that game to drag the Finals into Game 7.

Game 7 was played on the Lakers' home court, and the team's owners had prepared balloons for the Lakers to release when the Lakers won the championship.

However, the Celtics, who were almost out of gas, burst out the last shred of energy, relying on Don Nelson's key shot, they won the championship 108-106 thrilling seven-game game, the Celtics won the championship for the 11th time in 13 years, and Russell retired wearing a ring.

This bad memory is etched in the soul of every player of the Lakers, and the head coach of the Lakers, Riley, always uses the history of the Celtics to "oppress" the Lakers to stimulate his players.

For the Lakers this year, Game 6 is the best chance, because if it drags on to Game 7, the venue of the battle is still in Boston, which is very bad for the Lakers.

Of course, Celtics fans are still convinced that their Green Army will level the score at home, and in their opinion, "There are countless possibilities in this world, but the Lakers can't beat us." ”

But? However, not everyone has a green faith, and Gan Guoyang, who sat in the front row with Stern, did not believe that the Celtics could equalize, not only because history is like this, but also because Gan Guoyang looked at it from the perspective of a professional player, and he could feel that the Lakers had a stronger belief in winning the championship, starting with Palm Springs.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang and Stern witnessed the historic moment when the Lakers lifted the O'Brien Cup in Boston Garden Square, and watched Abdul-Jabbar, who is 38 years old and his hair is about to fall out, pick up the Finals MVP trophy.

Now, the dust has settled on the finals, and Gan Guoyang is still sitting next to Stern, waiting for the arrival of the protagonists of this reception banquet in the evening.

"Gan, they're already here." At this time, Stern turned his head and said to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang nodded after listening, he didn't know why he was so nervous, it stands to reason that according to the level of basketball, he would have dumped the players of the men's basketball team a few streets, and there are no Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi in the current men's basketball team, maybe Gan Guoyang doesn't know any of them at all.

"Maybe it's a bit of 'closer to home, more timid'......" Gan Guoyang thought in his heart, although it was not his return to China this time, but there were people from the same industry from the motherland coming over, which was enough to make Gan Guoyang's heart surge.

For any Chinese, the plot of "hometown" can never be erased.

Even if it comes from the future time and space, Gan Guoyang still believes that his soul still haunts the country on the other side.

Although Gan Guoyang has achieved success in the United States, he has always felt that he is a rootless person in basketball, of course, this has a lot to do with his special "talent value", and his potential is almost overnight.

In the United States, the experience of playing for Palo Alto High School and Gunzaga respectively did not give Gan Guoyang a strong sense of belonging.

No matter how great his success was, what unprecedented honors he brought to both schools, and how his name would inevitably be engraved on the school's honor roll in the future, Gan Guoyang knew that he was still a foreigner after all, a man of the least common yellow race in American sports.

Gan Guoyang has been in the United States for so many years, and he has never changed his nationality, and he has always worked hard in the NBA as a foreign player.

Now, the arrival of the Chinese players will undoubtedly make Gan Guoyang have a strong sense of identity, even if he doesn't know any of them.

But when the door to the welcome hall opened and the first Chinese player walked in under the guidance of the hotel staff, Gan Guoyang found that the face of this man was very familiar to him.

"This man...... It's so cooked... Is it the former head coach of Bayi, Wang Fei! Gan Guoyang looked at the player who walked in front with a handsome face, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that he was the head coach of the CBA Bayi team.

Gan Guoyang guessed right, the first one is Wang Fei, after Wang Fei retired and became a coach, his body maintenance has been very good, and he basically has not made a fortune, so the difference between his appearance in his forties and twenties is really not big.

In addition, when Gan Guoyang watched the CBA at that time, Wang Fei, as the head coach of the super strong team Bayi team, often appeared on the TV camera, so he was very impressed by Wang Fei.

"Welcome, friends from China!" Just when Gan Guoyang was stunned, Stern had already stepped forward to shake hands with Qian Chenghai, the coach of the Chinese team wearing a suit and a red tie.

At the same time, the band in the hall also played soft blues music, and the whole hall suddenly became lively.

Gan Guoyang also hurriedly greeted him and shook hands with Qian Chenghai.

"Hello... Qian, Qian instructed ......" Gan Guoyang and Ramsey were not so nervous when they spoke, but stammered in the face of this legendary sect leader from China.

For Gan Guoyang, the name Qian Chenghai is really a bit old, but it is still thunderous, but anyone who has a certain understanding of Chinese basketball should know how much this old coach has made great contributions to the development of Chinese basketball and how many outstanding talents have been cultivated for the Chinese basketball industry.

Qian Chenghai in 1985, not like the white hair later, he looked full of energy and sharp eyes in his prime, he stared at Gan Guoyang who came forward to shake hands with him for a while, held Gan Guoyang's hand tightly, and said: "Hello, I have heard the name for a long time, Comrade Gan Guoyang!" ”

Since the last time he met a Chinese delegation in Muscatine, this was the second time Gan Guoyang had heard others call him "Comrade Gan Guoyang" in pure Chinese, and a sense of cordiality hit his heart again.

Listening to Qian Chenghai's loud voice, Gan Guoyang felt a little embarrassed and couldn't help scratching his head.

At this time, the other players of the Chinese team were also looking at this "first Chinese to play in the US professional league".

"It feels similar to us, and we don't have three heads and six arms!" Lu Jinqing thought in his heart.

Most of the other Chinese players also have this idea, everyone is a young man in his early twenties, and he is also a top basketball player in China, seeing that Gan Guoyang's height is not too outstanding, and his body size seems to be relatively ordinary Chinese, he will naturally feel unconvinced.

After greeting Qian Chenghai with the director, Gan Guoyang shook hands with the players and translators of the men's basketball team one by one.

The men's basketball team has a group of 15 people, one head coach, one assistant coach, one translator, and the other 12 are all players.

When greeting each other, the players introduced themselves, and Gan Guoyang found that in addition to Wang Fei, he also knew only Min Lulei, Sun Fengwu and Song Tao, and the others Gan Guoyang had not even heard of their names.

Afterwards, everyone was seated, and Stern began to take the stage to give a welcome speech for the men's basketball team, introducing the visiting Chinese team to the guests, and hoping that this visit would promote exchanges between China and the United States in basketball.

Of course, in the NBA, a business league, everything will be linked to the economy, and even the naming rights of this visit were sold by Stern, a businessman, and Kaliber beer was given, so this men's basketball visit to the United States is also called "Kaliber Tour."

Although the American event was full of commercial flavor, compared with the politically smelly Chinese large-scale events, his advantage was that it was simple, clear and efficient, so Stern did not chatter on the stage, and after the relevant people made some simple welcome speeches, he entered everyone's free time.

Like the NBA's All-Star Game, Stern arranged a buffet this time, which was more free and conducive to people-to-people communication, which was really good for young and energetic players.

At this time, China was still in the stage of reform and opening up, and the living standards of the people had not been qualitatively improved.

The abundance of food soon attracted the boys who had been hungry all afternoon, and they began to feast like monkeys entering the peach orchard.

Only the old man Qian Chenghai also paid attention to Gan Guoyang, and after a little exchange, he found that Qian Chenghai found that Gan Guoyang was different from the vast majority of Chinese athletes, he spoke decently, used appropriate words, and had less athlete momentum and more calm atmosphere.

During the conversation, after learning that Gan Guoyang studied in college in the United States and then entered the NBA, Coach Qian Chenghai also nodded as if he suddenly realized, you must know that China was a professional sports school system at that time, and many athletes' cultural courses were not taken seriously.

The welcome party lasted for more than two hours before it ended, and Stern also invited a famous local band to perform for the Chinese team, which also gave the boys of the men's basketball team a good look at what is called the "sugar-coated cannonball" of imperialism and the "glamorous sound" of capitalism.

At the welcome meeting, due to the long time of running around, the national team went back to the room early to rest.

"Eh old money, what do you think of that Gan Guoyang?" On the way back, the team's assistant coach Lu Changxin asked.

"I don't know, I still have to go to the arena to take a look, but his hands are very big and his arms are very long, he must be a good seedling, a good seedling......" At this time, Qian Chenghai's mind couldn't help but think of a person, and there was a sigh in his heart.