Chapter Thirty-Six: Preparation

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The Northbridge Water Clock team left Tiger Gymnasium with their victory and departed Oakland.

As the bus pulled away from Fremont High School, the people watching from the roadside wore expressions of helpless calm.

The Water Clock players restrained their wild elation. For one thing, they were exhausted and sleepy; for another, they did not want to provoke the people around Fremont.

Only after the bus left Oakland and climbed onto the Bay Bridge did the team’s emotions truly explode and break free.

They rolled down the windows and shouted toward the Pacific waters outside, venting the mental pressure they had endured for more than two weeks, along with the joy of victory.

Spanning San Francisco and Oakland, the Bay Bridge bound the two cities tightly together. At night, the lights strung along the steel bridge outlined its silhouette, as though illuminating the open road ahead for the Water Clock team.

This iconic San Francisco bridge was often confused with the Golden Gate Bridge. The red Golden Gate appeared more frequently in the public eye and had once been the Warriors’ logo.

Many years later, however, the Bay Bridge would become a symbol of the Warriors as well.

Sitting near the front of the bus, Gan Guoyang felt the sea wind brush his face, and an indescribable joy seeped through his entire body.

He understood that this was the meaning of his love for basketball. It gave life a greater sense of fulfillment and bestowed an extraordinary mission upon an otherwise ordinary existence.

Basketball would grant him a second life.

The day after the game, the Water Clock team’s victory erupted like a bomb, its shock wave rapidly spreading across the entire Bay Area.

The San Francisco Chronicle devoted two full pages to the qualifying game. The photograph on the front page showed Gan Guoyang dunking over an opponent.

The headline, printed in heavy black type, read:

The Columbus Day Miracle—Chinese-American Team Northbridge Water Clock Defeats the Fremont Tigers to Earn Admission to the CIF San Francisco Section

The second page offered a more detailed account of Gan Guoyang’s sudden rise on the streets of San Francisco beginning in July, as well as the series of remarkable results he had led the Water Clock team to achieve after joining them.

The article was written by Karp-Lavin. As someone who had witnessed events firsthand, he included many details. He did not know about the relationship between Gan Guoyang and Nate Thurmond, however; otherwise, the article would have been even longer.

After the Chronicle hit the streets, it caused a tremendous stir in San Francisco. Circulation soared, and for a time the paper became nearly impossible to find. Printing presses worked overtime to meet the readers’ demand.

The Gan family restaurant became even more famous. Many people came because of its reputation. Some came in to order a meal, while others simply wanted to see the Chinese giant with their own eyes.

The punk band performing at the restaurant even wrote a song especially for Gan Guoyang and the Water Clock team. It was called “Columbus Day,” commemorating this victory, which felt like the discovery of an entirely new continent of basketball.

Because of the suddenness of Gan Guoyang’s rise, his Chinese-American identity, and the fact that he had only recently immigrated from China, a frightening rumor eventually circulated among the public: Gan Guoyang was a biologically enhanced human created by the socialist bloc.

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Chinatown, the Water Clock team’s home ground, was certainly not idle. The Chinese Progress Foundation organized a lion and dragon dance parade throughout the district to celebrate the Water Clock team’s admission as an official CIF member.

On the thirteenth, from ten in the morning until one in the afternoon, gongs and drums thundered through the streets while firecrackers exploded without pause. The scene was as lively as Lunar New Year.

At Northbridge High School, the Water Clock team received the highest honors. The players’ popularity with the girls rose in a straight line.

The two players who had quit earlier were filled with regret. If only they had stubbornly stayed with the team, they might have basked in some of its glory.

But by the time they wanted to return, it was already impossible. The Water Clock team’s victory had been hard-won, and no outsider could imagine the sweat the players had poured into it. How could deserters possibly have the right to enjoy such glory?

The Water Clock roster still had two open places. Karp-Lavin told Bellman that, if necessary, he could recommend several talented Black players to the Water Clock team.

After some thought, Bellman politely declined. In his view, the team’s chemistry and unity were excellent as they stood.

The Black players on the streets certainly possessed talent, but they were also more individualistic, more difficult to control, and often carried certain bad habits with them.

They already had one Franklin, whom Gan Guoyang could keep in check. If two more joined, three strong men would form their own faction, and the team’s balance of power would be shattered.

The Water Clock team would then change from a disciplined squad with clearly defined roles into a loose team lacking cohesion.

“One A-Gan paired with Franklin is enough. We’ll make something of ourselves in the CIF tournament.”

That was what Bellman told Karp. Karp said no more, though he too was eager to see how the Water Clock team would perform in the CIF tournament.

In late October, the CIF San Francisco Section released the schedule for the new season. The opening game would be played on November 13.

With the Water Clock team joining the San Francisco Section, the men’s basketball division now consisted of eleven schools. They would play a two-month regular season.

Each team would face every other team once. After the regular season ended, the playoffs would be held in February of the following year, during the new semester.

The top four teams in the regular-season standings would advance to the playoffs, where each game would be single elimination. The champion would advance to the final round of Division I in the CIF 1981–82 State Championship.

The runner-up would be evaluated by the CIF committee. If it passed the assessment, it could advance to the final round of Division II in the CIF State Championship.

The system existed because California had too many schools, with enormous differences in the number of schools among the various regions and major differences in their schedules.

The San Francisco Section had eleven schools, the Oakland area had six, while the Southern California Section had nearly five hundred schools spread across multiple counties and cities. Southern California’s schedule was therefore more complicated, and more schools would advance to the final rounds.

Because there were so many schools, the CIF had divided this year’s final rounds into Division I and Division II, with each division competing independently.

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As the number of schools increased in the future, more divisions would be added, eventually reaching six levels in order to reduce the complexity of the schedule.

After all, high school teams could not travel long distances for a single game the way professional teams did. Everything had to be arranged according to proximity.

The San Francisco Section had none of Southern California’s difficulties. All eleven teams were located within San Francisco, and ten games would determine the playoff berths.

The excitement surrounding the Columbus Day Miracle lasted for some time. Expectations for the Water Clock team grew higher and higher, especially for Gan Guoyang. More and more reporters and scouts began showing up at his door.

Outside the YMCA gymnasium, people could often be found smoking as they waited for practice to end. Then they would approach Gan Guoyang and press slips of paper bearing their telephone numbers into his hands, hoping to establish a personal relationship with him.

This inevitably affected the players’ training. Bellman did not want the boys drawn into the world of public opinion too early. It would do them no good.

A week later, Bellman decided to move the team’s practices to an underground skating rink near Fisherman’s Wharf. The rink could be used for basketball practice from three in the afternoon until seven in the evening; after seven, it became a roller-skating rink and bar.

Besides being discreet and difficult for outsiders to find, the rink also had an adjoining gym that the players could use.

Unlike many coaches of the time, Bellman believed that appropriate strength training would neither harm a player’s shooting touch nor hinder the development of his bones. On the contrary, it would improve the players’ ability to withstand physical contact and allow them to play more aggressively on the court.

Gan Guoyang approved. Franklin, however, refused to do strength training because he feared it would affect his agility. Bellman did not force him. He only required Franklin to stay away from his former street companions and forbade him from earning money by playing in pickup games.

The Water Clock team began a month-long period of intensive training, continuing to strengthen their zone defense and deepen their understanding of one another.

Everyone now had higher hopes for the year’s championship. Training consequently became especially grueling. Gan Guohui, once a pudgy boy weighing more than two hundred pounds, slimmed down to 160 pounds and became a sturdy reserve shooting guard.

For the first time in his life, he received a love letter.

Chen Xing bought himself a pair of sports glasses, the same model Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore.

Xu Xun’s father bought him a pair of Converse sneakers.

And on October 30, Gan Guoyang received a phone call from Nate Thurmond.

Thurmond invited Gan Guoyang to bring a few friends to Oakland Coliseum after practice to watch an NBA regular-season game. Thurmond would provide the tickets.

Gan Guoyang gladly accepted. As it happened, he had several questions he wanted to ask his mentor.