The funeral industry has beco Gan Guoyang’s largest business venture outside of the basketball court. Together with Calvin Natt, they founded "Gump-Natt International Services Limited", which alongside SCI, Alderwoods Group, Stewart Enterprises, beca one of the top four giants in North Arica’s funeral service industry.
Gump-Natt is the youngest among them, yet it’s the fastest-growing. Riding on the economic boom of the 1990s in Arica, they started the big fish eating small fish’s capital acquisition ga. Over the next few decades, these four giants waged a turf war in the cetery business, eventually going public on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming titans monopolizing the deaths of Aricans, but that’s a story for later.
During the day, he spent the whole ti playing with his son and at night, after washing up, prepared to go to bed.
Gan Guoyang lay on the extended super king-sized bed, watching his wife taking care of her skin.
Wang Fuxi’s skin was as smooth and delicate as silk, shining with a faint glow from certain angles, like moonlight.
This skin quality was inherited from her mother, and certainly couldn’t be separated from maintenances afterward. After giving birth to a child, her skin didn’t deteriorate but beca even more radiant and plump due to hormonal reasons.
Ah Gan had always been fascinated by this, and over the years, he has never been able to appreciate the coarse pores and rough skin of European and Arican won. Often, it was black people who had delicate skin, but the skin color of black people... Only Asians tend to have both advantages.
Gan Guoyang moved to the edge of the bed, gently stroking his wife’s beautifully curved back. Wang Fuxi wriggled her body and slapped his hand away, saying, "Sleep by yourself tonight."
Gan Guoyang was stunned, "Why? The playoffs are about to start, shouldn’t we let off so steam? The playoffs are going to last over a month."
How long the playoffs last depends on how far the team can go, but for Gan Guoyang, the playoffs always stretch until June.
During the playoffs, Gan Guoyang would practice abstinence to ensure his condition, not allowing any underperformance.
Wang Fuxi continued to pat her face, saying, "It’s a no-go... because... "
With that, she pointed at her stomach.
"Your Aunt Flo visited?"
Wang Fuxi shook her head, "Not Aunt Flo, it’s... sothing else."
"You’re possessed?"
Wang Fuxi, annoyed, threw her skincare product and tugged Gan Guoyang’s ear, "I’m pregnant again, pregnant!"
Only then did Gan Guoyang realize his wife was pregnant again. He rembered the last ti she was pregnant, it was also during the playoffs.
It seems that just before and after the playoffs, his attacking power is indeed quite formidable, good conditioning there.
"Not bad, not bad." Gan Guoyang thought wildly and absent-mindedly nodded his head.
"Not bad my foot! Go sleep by yourself!"
Gan Guoyang willingly went to sleep in the study, another tranquil night.
Compared to the unease he felt when he first learned they would have a child, Gan Guoyang felt much calr this ti, also filled with a lot of contentnt and anticipation.
He thought to himself, since there’s going to be another child, why not add a championship trophy for him/her as a birth gift.
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On April 26, 1991, the journey of the Portland Trail Blazers in the playoffs officially began, with their adversary being the Seattle SuperSonics.
This year the SuperSonics went through a major shuffle, and the team that battled with the Trail Blazers in the semifinals of the 1987 season had vanished.
Tom Chambers went to the Washington Bullets, McDaniel went to the Miami Heat, Dale Ellis went to the Milwaukee Bucks — the forr stalwarts of the SuperSonics had all migrated to the Eastern Conference.
Bickerstaff, who had produced results, resigned, temporarily leaving the NBA coaching circle. KC Jones, who took over, couldn’t recreate the glory he had with the Celtics.
The Seattle SuperSonics now didn’t lack potential, with players like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Derek McKey, Nate McMillan, all being young and talented.
It’s just that KC Jones was still using his old Celtics experience from the 80s to coach, hoping to build a team-oriented basketball approach, completely ignoring that this group was nothing like the Celtics of the 80s.
From playing style to technical characteristics, the SuperSonics were never the typical "Team of Royalty." They have always been a team with a unique, even quirky, style.
The SuperSonics team that won the championship in 1979 might be one of the most low-key and least known NBA champions in history, precisely because they looked too peculiar.
As a youthful team on the younger side, Jones’s coaching style and principles were a bit too rigid.
For example, it was 1991, yet he still disliked players shooting three-pointers — when Dale Ellis was around, the SuperSonics were quite good at threes.
This season, the SuperSonics’ average three-point shots per ga was only 5.2, far below the league’s average, aning Jones didn’t design any three-point tactics, and the shots were taken in an improvised manner.
Also, as a relatively weak offensive team, the SuperSonics still had one of the highest turnover rates in the league, not only because of the players’ youth but also because Jones’s tactics were too complicated and not clear-cut, too many rules and not enough tolerance for errors.
For a well-experienced team that’s played in sync for many years, a complex system could be well managed, bringing out the utmost team performance.
For a young team, getting the ball and just doing it is often the best choice.
Of course, while Jones’s coaching was not up to par in the regular season, the playoffs are a different battlefield.
So teams just scrape by in the regular season, reaching the top eight by a low margin, yet beco quite tenacious in the playoffs.
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