On October 5, 1981, the NBA's Pacific preseason officially kicked off. In Oakland, not far from San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors will host the San Diego Clippers (the predecessor of the Los Angeles Clippers).

Gan Guoyang, Gan Guohui, and Chen Xing took a bus to watch the game at the Oakland Coliseum (later Oracle Arena), the home of the Golden State Warriors, across the Eisenhower Bridge.

Because it's just an innocuous preseason game, a lot of tickets will come with it. The tickets for these men were obtained from Thurmond. But for Gan, it was still the first time he had come to an NBA game — albeit in the '80s.

Gan Guoyang once thought that he would definitely come to the United States to watch an NBA game in the future. But he didn't expect that he didn't come later, but "before".

He looked very excited on the bus, constantly asking Gan Guohui and Chen Xing questions about the NBA. Although he watched the game for many years, he didn't know much about the history of the NBA, for example, he didn't even know Nate Thurmond.

"What team do you both like? Are the Golden State Warriors strong? ”

"We're all Lakers fans! Although there are three teams in California, the Lakers fans are the majority, and the Golden State Warriors have a lot of fans, but their strength has been too poor lately, and the rest should be some diehards. Let's not talk about the Clippers, it's only been ten years since the team was established, it's only been three or four years since it moved to California, and the results are still so poor, how can there be any fans. ”

Gan Guohui said everything Gan Guoyang asked but didn't ask.

"Who's a Lakers fan like you! I'm a Celtic fan now! Since last year, I've decided to be a loyal Celtic diehard! Chen Xing heard Gan Guohui say "We are all together", and immediately retorted.

"Be quiet! I estimate that half of the people in this car are Lakers fans, you say you are Celtics fans, do you still want to go to Oakland alive to watch the game? "Since the '60s, the Lakers have lost to the Celtics in eight Finals games, and both teams have been bitter rivals, and fans are no exception.

"What are you afraid of! I speak Chinese, and no one can understand it. Chen Xing didn't care, and Gan Guohui forgot that they spoke Chinese.

"When did you become a Celtics fan? Isn't it because the Celtics won the championship this summer that you drifted to the Celtics? You're really far away, from the west coast to the east coast. ”

"You didn't become a Lakers fan because the Lakers won the championship last year? You're embarrassed to say me, and I don't know who took you to Los Angeles to watch the game, and people who don't even know Abdul-Jabbar are embarrassed to say they're Lakers fans......"

There is basically no time for two people to coexist peacefully, and they will start quarreling when they seize the slightest opportunity, and they will be uncomfortable if they don't quarrel.

From the quarrel between the two of them, Gan Guoyang knew that the champions of 80 and 81 were the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics respectively, and the meeting of these "double" rivals in 2008 can be said to have earned enough gimmicks and eyeballs.

However, in the midst of the bickering of the two people, the three of them also quickly arrived at the Auckland Stadium.

After checking in the ticket and entering, Gan Guoyang looked at the huge building and still couldn't calm down for a long time. Although this time was 1981, the entire stadium was made of concrete, steel and wood structure, which was much older than the glass fiber reinforced plastic structure of later generations.

However, such a large arena has not appeared even in China in the 21st century, and in the United States, the NBA professional league in the sixties had a large stadium that can accommodate tens of thousands of people. This has to make Gan Guoyang feel the development of this country.

Because tonight was just a preseason game against the weak Golden State Warriors and San Diego Clippers, there weren't many fans in attendance.

A sparse crowd of young people, mostly young men, some wearing Warriors uniforms, slowly descended the stairs. At that time, the Warriors' logo was a basketball and a map of the state of California.

"Huh? The number 30 jersey they wear? Gan Guoyang found that most of the Warriors' jerseys were 30, and Gan Guoyang remembered that 30 was the jersey number of Stephen Curry, a rookie from the Warriors. I don't know who the star of the Warrior No. 30 is at this time.

After entering the stadium, Gan Guoyang once again felt deeply shocked. The huge dome, which can accommodate more than 17,000 seats, is bright and even dazzling, although it does not have the large screens that NBA arenas have later, such a large indoor court still makes Gan Guoyang stunned.

"It's really different from watching it on TV and in person." Gan Guoyang thought so. I don't know what he would be surprised if he went to the NBA in the 21st century.

"Let's go, the seats are in front! Big cousin, you're really good enough to get such a ticket in front of you. It would be nice to have a ticket for the regular season, but the front row seat is very expensive. "In the past, Gan Guohui and Chen Xing could only buy the cheapest back-row tickets to watch the game, and they needed binoculars to see the specific performance of the players.

This time, the tickets for the three were given to Thurmond by the Warriors, and for this famous legend in the history of the Warriors, it is naturally the best front-row ticket.

At this time, some players have already started to warm up on the field. They all wore long tracksuits and did simple shooting drills. The Golden State Warriors wore the yellow tracksuit, while the Clippers wore the blue tracksuit.

"Look, that No. 21, Ward Fury, just moved from the Clippers this year. He's a great shooting guard. Gan Guohui pointed to a player wearing a No. 21 jersey, who was a defender based on his height.

He is a player who just moved to the Warriors from the Clippers this year and will face his old club in his first preseason game.

"I wonder what he thought of it?" Chen Xing sighed.

"What can you think, the NBA is a business league, and it's normal to change around." Gan Guohui has watched the ball for nearly ten years, and it is not surprising that the stars have changed their courts, and it is not surprising that Ward Fury, who has never heard of him, changed teams.

"Hey big cousin, you can see it very thoroughly. Can you watch the NBA in China? Gan Guohui asked.

"Uh... Of course, you can't see it, but you know that Mr. Nate Thurmond used to be the Warriors' number one star, and then he didn't move to another team. "The NBA only entered the vision of the Chinese after 1984, and only in the seventies * the Bullets visited China once, but other than that, the NBA and China basically had no intersection.

That's true. Oops, I see Tom Chambers! It's this year's No. 8 show, and I'm optimistic that he will be the best rookie of the year! Gan Guohui looked at the field of the clippers on the other side, pointed to a white man and said.

"Okay, in your eyes, you also predict the best rookie. Have you ever watched the Chambers game? I bet this year's Rookie of the Year is No. 2 Isaiah Thomas! Chen Xing quarreled with Gan Guohui again.

Gan Guoyang is not interested in listening to them talk about the NBA in 81, although as a person from the future, Gan Guoyang does not know much about the NBA in this era.

It's just that when he hears the name of "Isaiah Thomas", he is still very familiar, "Smiling Assassin", the biggest contributor to the Pistons' two consecutive championships in the future, but that's all he knows.

"Hello, can you play with your ball?"

Gan Guoyang, who didn't have the heart to listen to the duo's quarrel, heard the voice of a child coming from the seat next to him.

He turned his head to see that it was a black child who was only three or four years old, standing in a chair watching him and talking to him, and from time to time he lowered his head to stare at Gan Guoyang's basketball.

Gan Guoyang now takes a basketball with him wherever he goes.

"Of course you can, but are you okay?" Gan Guoyang looked at this little kid who was only more than 3 feet old and felt that basketball was too big for him.

"No problem." The little kid took the ball handed to him by Gan Guoyang, jumped off the chair, took the ball and began to slap it on the ground.

To Gan Guoyang's surprise, this kid actually shot the ball well. Although he was so short that a ball almost reached his knee, he still managed the ball well.

"Wow, you're awesome." Gan Guoyang couldn't help but sigh that basketball in the United States really started from a baby.

"Are you a fan of the Warriors?" Gan Guoyang asked.

"No, I'm not a fan of anyone, I'm here to see my dad." The child said as he continued to dribble with his head down.

"Look at your dad?" Gan Guoyang felt a little strange, came here to see his father?

"Well, Daddy plays here. Mom went buy me ice cream. ”

In this way, Gan Guoyang understood, it seems that this child is the player's family, and I don't know which star's son he is. But Gan Guoyang, the player here, doesn't know any of them.

"You see, the guy who got to the basket there was my dad." The kid looked up and pointed to a player practicing layups on the Clippers court. However, he was wearing a coat and I don't know what size it was.

Gan Guoyang couldn't recognize who it was, so he asked, "What's your father's name?" ”

The child glanced at him, apparently disdainful that he didn't even know his own father, and came to see what the ball was, and replied, "My father is Joe Brian." ”

"Joe Bryant?" Gan Guoyang has never heard of this player, it seems that he is an unknown guy in history, and it is normal that he doesn't know him. But Brian's surname felt somewhat familiar to him.

"Yes, my name is Kobe Bryant."

The child's next self-introduction really scared Gan Guoyang! No wonder I think the surname Brian is familiar, it turns out to be Kobe Bryant!

He knew that Kobe's father was also an NBA player, but he was a small role player, and he didn't pay attention. Unexpectedly, this little guy sitting next to him and playing his own basketball is the future super guard in basketball, Kobe Bryant.

"Hey, what's wrong with you, big cousin?" Gan Guohui, who had finished arguing with Chen Xing, looked at Gan Guoyang, who was a little stunned, and stepped forward to ask.

"No, nothing, why hasn't the game started yet?"

"It's almost over, don't you warm up, let's start with a player introduction."

Because it was just a preseason game, and there weren't that many NBA gimmicks in the 80s, after the warm-up, the sideline DJ gave an introduction to all the players, and the game was about to begin. There are no lights shining like the stars did in concerts.

However, Gan Guoyang didn't have much to watch the game at this time, and his attention was on the little Kobe Bryant next to him.

At this time, Kobe's mother had returned, and Kobe Bryant also returned the ball to Gan Guoyang and began to watch the game seriously.

The pre-season games were generally not exciting, because they had no impact on the results, and the players were afraid of getting hurt, so you just played back and forth, and the spectators just watched the fun.

And Gan Guoyang was thinking about a very important thing in his heart: whether his appearance would affect the path chosen by Kobe Bryant in the future.

Gan Guoyang also knows the butterfly effect, a butterfly flapping its wings once can cause a hurricane. And so far, the hurricane caused by the flapping of the wings of his little butterfly has not been seen. There doesn't seem to be any major change in history, but Gan knows that time is too short to form a hurricane.

And seeing Kobe Bryant this time, will it change his basketball life?

Gan Guoyang knows that Kobe Bryant will go to Italy in the future, where he will encounter football, what if he finally chooses football because of this meeting with him? Although he also felt that his words and actions had nothing to do with the selection of football.

"Luckily, I lent him basketball to play, otherwise he wouldn't like basketball anymore in a fit of rage, and then I would have really changed his life." Gan Guoyang thought happily.

"Wow! Three goals in a row, Bernard King is amazing! I think he and Fury's forward-guard combination will shine this year! Gan Guohui exclaimed on the side.

"Less, improvised combinations, not good defensively. I'm not optimistic about this year's Warriors. Chen Xing will definitely stand up against it at the first time.

"Then we'll see! Wow! Bernard King has scored again, what a fucking cow X! Gan Guohui praised again.

At this time, Gan Guoyang, who was thinking crankily in his mind, was also attracted by Gan Guohui's shout, and asked, "Who are you talking about?" Which is Bernard King? ”

"It's the No. 30, the scorer who just transferred from the Utah Jazz this year, and his turnaround jumper is really amazing!"

Gan Guoyang searched the court for a while, and soon found the No. 30, wearing a small vest and small shorts from the Warriors. But no matter how you look at it, he thinks this guy is very familiar.

"National character face!" Gan Guoyang then remembered that this No. 30 Bernard King was the national face who taught him to turn over and jump shots at the Union Square court last night!

This surprised Gan Guoyang again, but he didn't expect that it was the new star of the Warriors who taught him his jump shooting skills!

At this time, Bernard King once again took the ball with his back in the waist position, pushed back a few times, made a quick left turn, shot, and scored five goals in a row. This also made the originally boring game a lot more exciting, and the crowd on the sidelines began to cheer for him.

On the sidelines, Gan Guoyang found that wearing a sportswear and sneakers, he turned faster, jumped higher, and threw more steadily! And he was wearing bell bottoms and leather shoes last night.

"It seems that the gap between me and him is still very big." Gan Guoyang once again has an intuitive feeling of the level of the NBA.

Today is really a surprise for Gan Guoyang, first the NBA arena gave him a little shock; Meeting future superstar Kobe Bryant worries him about the impact on the superstar's basketball career; In the end, I found out that the master I met last night turned out to be the star of the Warriors!

On the bus back to San Francisco, Gan Guoyang looked at the sparkling sea under the starlight outside the car window, and couldn't help but sigh, "The ups and downs of life are so exciting!" ”

Gan Guohui silently recorded the classic quotations of his eldest cousin in a small notebook.