Portland and Seattle are two cities that have detested each other, a sentint that began in the 19th century.
The competition between these two rain-infamous Pacific Northwest cities can match that of Charlotte and Atlanta, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Chicago, or San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The rivalry between the cities is comprehensive, ranging from the initial economic competition in mariti trade and rail transport vital to the cities’ developnt to later expansions into sports, culture, cuisine, and even legal statutes, each aiming to outdo the other.
As the flag and pride of Oregon’s sports teams, the Portland Trail Blazers have always been at the forefront of the rivalry between the two cities.
After winning the championship in 1977, the entire city of Portland went wild. They shot to fa across Arica, no longer mistaken for Portland, Maine, but recognized as Portland, Oregon; and they garnered this honor earlier than the Seattle team, which gave Portland people a sense of superiority.
Although the SuperSonics also captured the championship in 1979, Portland people have always felt they rely picked up the crumbs from the Trail Blazers’ injuries, with Seattle’s championship worth far less than Portland’s.
Fans from big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia can hardly comprehend just how important the Trail Blazers are to Portland, and what kind of status Gan Guoyang holds in this city.
Last year during the playoffs, tickets to the Trail Blazers’ ho gas beca a pass for the city’s elite society, hot currency on the black market, fetching three to four tis their face value in trade for goods and so intangibles that can’t be valued.
In a personal column of Portland’s "Willatte Week," there was an ad for companionship which bluntly listed what the man thought valuable about himself:
"I’m a 50-year-old, extrely wealthy, tall, divorced male, looking for a ’Dolly Parton type’ to share season tickets to the Trail Blazers, theater, music, dinners, travel, etc. Hope to et a lady between 35-50 years old, unattached, free to have fun with a sincere man who loves entertainnt, without being phony..."
Dolly Parton was a well-known country music singer at the ti, famous for her impressive bust.
Among the man’s listed criteria, having money ca first, but season tickets for the Trail Blazers followed closely behind, showcasing their importance to the people of Portland.
With only 12,666 seats in morial Coliseum, and 11,500 season ticket packages sold every season, so families could afford only one season ticket and had to share it between husband and wife.
The couple would decide who goes to which ga based on their family status; if it’s a wife-dominant household, then the wife would definitely attend the gas against the Lakers, Bulls, and Celtics, leaving the husband to watch the ga at ho on TV, listen to the radio, or head to Paramount Theatre for the closed-circuit broadcast.
If the husband held a higher status, then he would enjoy the high-stakes battles, and the wife could only go to less spectacular gas against teams like the King or Knights.
However, for many wives, which ga to watch wasn’t very important to them. They didn’t go to see the opponents; their purpose was to watch Ah Gan.
Ever since Gan Guoyang got married, his status among female fans seed to rise even higher, attracting more won to write him letters, leave ssages, and even slip love letters into his ho.
Because married n don’t need to be responsible for them.
So won with ulterior motives even knew that if a celebrity cheated while married, they would get hush money since the cost of a divorce was too high.
Gan Guoyang wasn’t very satisfied with the Trail Blazers’ ticket selling strategy, believing there were simply too many season tickets, leaving just over a thousand single-ga tickets for fans unable to purchase season tickets to scramble over.
He thought more single-ga tickets should be released, allowing more families of modest ans or younger fans lacking financial power to co to morial Coliseum to watch the gas, especially those who traveled from other places to Portland for a match.
"I want more fans to be able to see my gas live. For so, it might be their only opportunity in a lifeti. Not everyone can afford season tickets," Guoyang once said.
At Guoyang’s insistence, this year during the playoffs, the Trail Blazers reduced the number of season ticket packages to 10,000, leaving 2,666 single-ga tickets for ordinary fans, allowing more who had never been to morial Coliseum to experience the thrill of watching a ga inside the ’Glass Palace.’
Of course, Guoyang thought 2,666 was still too few, mainly because there just weren’t enough seats in morial Coliseum. If it could be expanded to 20,000 seats, more single-ga tickets could be released.
The semifinals had the Trail Blazers facing the SuperSonics, which was like a festival for Portland fans, everyone trendously excited as the two teams t again in the playoffs.
In 1978, the Portland Trail Blazers lost the Western Conference semis to the Seattle SuperSonics, Bill Walton suffered an injury that brought down the dynasty dream of Portland.
Almost 10 years later, they t again in the semis, and there was no better plot than advancing to the Western Conference Finals by stepping over the Seattle SuperSonics.
All 12,666 tickets were sold out long before the opening ga, let alone 2,666 standalone tickets -- they would have definitely sold out within an hour even if all seats were sold separately.
At 7 pm on May 2nd, the first battle between the two teams officially began.
The SuperSonics certainly knew the Trail Blazers were very strong, but having succeeded in the first round upset, they were full of confidence in themselves.
Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers, and Xavier McDaniel had respective averages of 29.5, 24.5, and 22.8 points per ga in the first round.
Their ultimate trio took the Dallas Mavericks and completely tore them apart.
Among them, Dale Ellis’s performance was the most dazzling, touted as an NBA classic tale of revenge.
In the regular season, Ellis exhibited outstanding performance, increasing his average points by a remarkable 17.8 points from the previous season, setting a record for the most improved scoring in NBA history.
This year’s Most Improved Player award was undoubtedly going to be Ellis’s easy catch, his MIP was much more certain than the MVP win, with no one even close to competing with him.
Clearly, in his three years with the Mavericks, Dale Ellis did not demonstrate his full strength and value, and he believed he was mistreated and underestimated by coach Dick Motta.
"This is my chance to slap him in the face, and I’m going to slap him hard," Ellis said unapologetically before the series started.
After all, he harbored a lot of resentnt over three years, so dia said his hatred for Dick Motta was like Iran’s for Iraq—as the Tanker War phase of their conflict turned extrely violent at the ti.
In the sumr, Ellis was traded for an almost-retired Wu De, and Motta stated to the press, "I didn’t spend much ti thinking about trading Ellis away. I said when Dale left that he could play in the NBA, but not in Dallas. No one on our team had any objections to the trade. We had congestion at his position. By trading, we got rid of Dale and Jay; we got better."
This statent undoubtedly added frost to an already icy relationship between the two.
And Motta was only half right: the Mavericks did get better, but only in the regular season.
In the playoffs, they were rcilessly struck down by the SuperSonics, experiencing the most ferocious revenge by Dale Ellis.
After eliminating the Dallas Mavericks, Ellis said, "This is the happiest day of my life; this is the mont I’ve dread of."
The entire SuperSonics’ morale was greatly boosted, and they feared not even the Portland Trail Blazers as their next opponent.
Before the ga, Xavier McDaniel was naked again, strutting back and forth with his erect stick, to pep up the team.
This ti, hanging on his stick wasn’t a towel, long socks, or a whiteboard, but Gan Guoyang’s number 11 jersey.
McDaniel also sought revenge, for the first ga of the season, when he was knocked out by a headbutt from Gan Guoyang.
That blow made McDaniel miss two gas and lie in the hospital for three days, his head still occasionally dizzy to this day.
Upon seeing this, Morris Lucas said, "How about you take over guarding Ah Gan?"
McDaniel hesitated for a mont before replying, "I think I’d better back you up instead."
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