The Golden Age of Basketball

"Sonny!"

A familiar voice echoed in the stadium, causing Gan Guoyang to stop his movements.

"Jerry!"

It was the team manager, Jerry West. He somehow found his way to the training facility.

West embraced Gan Guoyang; ever since the Chinese National Team started its Olympic journey, West had returned to Los Angeles.

He had been staying in Los Angeles, working on his recruitment and trade activities for the new season—Los Angeles has the most free agents and the richest network of information in the Western Conference.

For West, this summer has not been easy because the roster for the three-peat is under tremendous pressure to renew contracts, and the salary cap has long been exceeded.

Sabonis, Jerome Kossie, and Cliff-Robinson are all facing contract renewal issues; they all have Bird rights, but if they sign with big money, the team's spending will be enormous.

Owner Tang Jianguo verbally says "fully support the team to win a fourth consecutive championship", but in reality, he privately demands West to control expenses as he's been using the money earned from the Trail Blazers to subsidize other businesses.

Such as casinos, real estate, hotels, airlines, etc. The fame from the three consecutive championships is enough for him to brag about for half a lifetime, and whether they can win a fourth seems not very important.

After all, from 0 to 1, and from 3 to 4, the feeling is completely different.

The management, represented by West, is also exhausted; the journey of the three-peat was glorious and honorable, but also exhausting.

What he couldn't achieve with the Los Angeles Lakers, West accomplished with the Trail Blazers.

In the 1992 finals, the Trail Blazers went to Chicago for the sixth game; West didn't follow the team but stayed home to sleep.

On the court, he had a big heart; off the court, he couldn't withstand such pressure and didn't even dare to watch TV when the game ended.

It wasn't until Buckwalter called him to tell him the Trail Blazers had won and were preparing to return to Portland to celebrate that he spiritedly crawled out of bed to change clothes and go out.

Then what? He feels like he lost a purpose, finding a veteran substitute for Ah Gan? There are options, but no money, no space.

The draft? West left it entirely to Buckwalter, lacking the energy to pick rookies one by one, as he was getting old.

Instead, his interest shifted to the young players of the Chinese National Team, like Hu Weidong, though Hu Weidong would only participate in the draft next year.

Part of the reason for this was commercial considerations, as the Trail Blazers wanted to fully capture the potentially huge East Asian market.

All in all, the Trail Blazers from top to bottom couldn't focus so intensely anymore; their players remained united and striving, but some objective factors were hard to change.

West came to see Gan Guoyang to tell him something and chat with him to see what the team's leader really thought.

"Sonny, have you heard about that trade?"

"Trade? What trade, you're not planning to trade me away, are you?" Gan Guoyang was clearly unaware.

West thought that if Portland sent away the Trail Blazers for another team, they wouldn't trade you away.

"The Miami Heat have traded for Hakeem Olajuwon; the trade was submitted to the league office for approval this morning."

Gan Guoyang was stunned; the rumors about Olajuwon's trade had been circulating since mid-season, and now it had finally come true.

That guy Hakeem has finally left Houston to reunite with Drexler.

Gan Guoyang shot a three-pointer, made it, and said: "Great, that's just great."

"We have a stronger opponent now, you know, Riley has always been contemplating revenge against you and the Trail Blazers. It's been so many years, but I know him; he's a very persistent person."

"I know, but doesn't that give us more motivation for the new season?"

Gan Guoyang shot another three-pointer, easily made it again.

"But things are not looking good. I can't keep the championship roster intact. Cliff-Robinson was snatched away by another team, which offered a higher salary."

"Who?"

"Hmph~ guess."

"Was it the Heat again?"

"That's right, Pat really moved quite a few things over from Portland."

Cliff-Robinson's two-year rookie contract had expired, and the Trail Blazers couldn't offer him a big contract.

The Miami Heat lured away this future star with a 4-year, 9 million US Dollar contract, averaging over 2 million US Dollars per year.

This was after they had earlier poached Anthony Mason; Riley once again "picked scraps" from Portland.

Gan Guoyang had nothing to say about Riley's behavior and asked West: "By the way, who did we get in the draft this year? Are they usable?"

"Buckwalter's pick, PJ Brown, should be a decent inside player, prepared as a backup for you."

"Sounds good, but be careful, don't let that guy Riley snatch him away again."