In Bristol, in the New England region of the northeastern United States, there is a small sound stage, which is the core area of ESPN, the American sports television station, because most of their TV broadcasts and recorded programs are done in this venue.

In 1979, ESPN was founded, which is a TV station with the purpose of "allowing everyone in the world to enjoy sports programs anytime, anywhere", of course, at that time they only had a small live broadcast room, but they dedicated all their channel programs to sports at 24 o'clock, which seemed extremely crazy at the time, because ABC, CBS and NBC have monopolized the broadcast and recording of most major sports events, ESPN wants a piece of the pie, the difficulty can be imagined.

At seven p.m. on September 7, 1979, ESPN began its first live broadcast, and host Leonard voiced ESPN's manifesto: "There is an infinite world of sports in the vast universe, and now, you are standing on the edge of the future." In the next minute, the next day, the year following and beyond, we will take you into the world of sports. ”

In 1989, ten years later, EPSN staggered to a new pace in the sports world, with more and more viewers tuning in to ESPN, from a few marginal sports events to 1987, ESPN signed a contract with the NFL, and for the first time had the rights to broadcast four major sporting events in the United States.

Subsequently, in Stern's strategy to expand the NBA market, ESPN also became a partner of the NBA, and the two signed a broadcast contract in 1988, and this time the strategy of the big market also directly led to a sharp increase in the salary of NBA players, and many superstar players and teams broke their contracts and re-signed contracts.

By 1989, ESPN's 10th anniversary, ESPN got a heavyweight, and that was Don Patrick, a well-known presenter in American sports.

Don Patrick, formerly known as Don Penn, worked as a sports announcer at WVUD, a sports radio station in the United States, before joining CNN in 1983 to cover the World Baseball Series (MLB), the NBA Finals and even the Winter Olympics, as well as hosting a talk show called "Wags-and-Elliot".

After coming to ESPN, Don Patrick began his career as a commentator at ESPN's "Sports Center", and on March 14, 1989, Don Patrick welcomed a special guest to the commentary, which was retired NBA star, Bill Wharton.

Wharton won a new lease on his life when he left for Boston in 1986, playing almost the entire season after suffering from injuries, winning the Sixth Man of the Year title and becoming the only player in NBA history to win both the regular season MVP and the Sixth Man of the Year award.

In 1987, Bill Wharton was once again plagued by injuries, but the arrival of Len Baias injected fresh vitality into the aging Celtics, and the team's veterans got more rest, and Wharton also won the 1987 championship with the Celtics.

After retiring, Wharton was not willing to be lonely, as early as his student days, Walton, who liked to play sports on the streets, also pondered reemployment after retirement, and in 1989, Wharton got an opportunity, ESPN invited him to the studio in Bristol, as a guest to participate in an NBA broadcast as an experience.

And tonight's ESPN broadcast is the Portland Trail Blazers' game, which will be at home against the Golden State Warriors, who have been gaining momentum recently.

Don Patrick didn't get word before the broadcast that tonight's partner with him was Bill Wharton, which was a make-motion decision, so Patrick was visibly a little uneasy before the broadcast began, and he didn't know what to expect on the broadcast with the big, red-haired man who was known for his eccentric temper.

However, when Wharton arrived at the broadcast room, after a few pleasantries with Patrick, the ice wall between the two sides was quickly melted, and Patrick found that Wharton was quite talkative, with a hearty smile and humorous words, not at all the rumored eccentric and tricky appearance, and the two quickly chatted.

Soon, when the show began, Wharton's performance was also very natural, he was able to cooperate with Patrick tacitly, and he didn't look timid in front of the camera, after all, he was once a superstar and has long been used to life in the spotlight.

The conversation quickly shifted to the two teams in the game, and Wharton naturally had a deep affection for the Trail Blazers, winning one of his championship trophies in Portland and the other by beating Portland.

For this game, Wharton is also optimistic that the Trail Blazers can win, but he thinks that the Warriors can cause big problems for the Trail Blazers.

Unlike the coach of the previous opponent Cavaliers, Lenny Wilkens, the head coach of the Warriors is Don Nelson, a future coach known for his tactical audacity and even madness, after leaving the Bucks, Nelson began his tactical innovation with the Golden State Warriors, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond became the spearheads under him, Mullin has played an excellent game this season, averaging 26.5 points per game, one of the best scorers in the league.

And Richmond also locked up the rookie of the season in advance, averaging 22 points per game, which has already indicated that he has entered the ranks of the league's top players.

The backcourt double guns composed of the two, under Don Nelson's open tactics, full of firepower, in the case of poor performance at the beginning of the season, the mid-term force, consecutive victories, the key is to be able to defeat strong opponents, giving the league a big surprise.

So, when the game actually started, Don Patrick and Bill Wharton were surprised to find that the Golden State Warriors and the Trail Blazers were not inferior at all in the offensive battle.

"The game was quite fast-paced, with Mullin and Richmond on the Warriors' side attacking strongly, and their only task on the court seemed to be to score, score, and score."

"That's right, it's just scoring, and of course I don't know what these two guys can do other than scoring." Bill Wharton began to show his talent for the "poisonous tongue" of the commentary class at this time, and of course what he said was not entirely wrong, because in Nelson's system, Richmond and Mullin are used to score, as long as they score more points than each other, the team can win, which is the philosophy that Nelson is instilling in the Warriors.

In comparison, the Portland Trail Blazers in the first half were almost the same as the Golden State Warriors, everyone was scoring, scoring and scoring, Drexler came back in the last game and got a quasi-triple-double of 14 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds, and he began to score like crazy in the first half of this game, scoring 20 points in the half.

At halftime, the Trail Blazers led the Warriors by four points, and the score was 70-66, and the score was scary, in Wharton's words: "I bet the two teams definitely didn't know that tonight was ESPN live, so it was like a warm-up game, and if they knew it was ESPN live, and it was me and Patrick who were commenting on the game, then they would have played like they were playing in the Finals." ”

Bill Wharton's words are naturally suspected of slapping ESPN's sycophants, but in the second half, both sides seemed to know that this was ESPN's live broadcast, at least the Trail Blazers knew.

In the third quarter, the Trailblazers reduced the fast attack and began to launch more positional offenses, at this time, the Trailblazers once again used Gan Guoyang's routine of blocking and dismantling in the high post, no matter who the final offensive finish, most of the offense was launched from Gan Guoyang's blocking and dismantling in the high post - the remaining half of Gan Guoyang played directly in the low post.

Then the Golden State Warriors found that they couldn't stand it, and Don Nelson began to try to trap Gan Guoyang, but in the position of the horn position, unless four people formed a circle to wrap him, there was no way to wrap Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang simply went to a place where it was easy to be trapped.

"Oh my God, I suddenly noticed that the Trail Blazers seem to have mastered a tactic that they can't solve, and then they've been using it all the time, and they're going to beat the Warriors to death!" As a player with a high ball quotient, Wharton's tactical interpretation ability is very strong, and the Trailblazers' tactics are not complicated, and many teams can use it, but it is used on Gan Guoyang, which is really powerful.

"Do you mean Gan, as a center, always blocks and picks up in the high post?"

"That's right, Patrick, you're such a genius, I recommend you to coach at UCLA. The Trail Blazers' tactics aren't complicated, but first, few teams are so fond of pick-and-rolls, and they block more in a quarter than any other team in a game; And then, Gan's threat in the high post was too great, really, his shooting was unexpected, and I remember those three-pointers from 1986 that really scared the hell out of me, and I thought this guy must have done something with the ball. I'm willing to bet that this deceptively simple tactic will definitely be the key to the Trail Blazers' success, even if they are successful enough. ”

Wharton talked about two key points, one is the number of Trailblazers' blocks, it is true that as long as Gan Guoyang is in a high position, he will definitely block and dismantle, and it will be repeatedly blocked; The second is Gan Guoyang's projection, which is relatively accurate in the front, and after Gan Guoyang receives the ball in this position, no matter how empty he begins to face the defender's strong shot, the shooting rate is very high and the threat is great.

In this way, when the vicinity of the horns has become the tactical core point of the Trail Blazers, the entire tactical situation of the Trail Blazers has been opened up at once, and the opponent cannot backhand at all, Gan Guoyang is like a whirlpool, attracting everyone's defensive attention, which also brings more opportunities for Cauchy, Williams and Sabonis.

The Warriors finally collapsed, a complete rout, 41:15, this is the score difference between the two sides in the third quarter, Gan Guoyang scored 24 points in a single quarter, leading the team to defeat the Golden State Warriors in one quarter.