Qian Chenghai had a face-to-face chat with Gan Guoyang before he was to leave China, deeply cherishing the extraordinary basketball skills that Gan Guoyang exhibited.
As he lamented that Gan Guoyang had become a professional player and could no longer serve the national team, Gan Guoyang spoke words of comfort to Coach Qian:
"Coach Qian, although I alone can bring good results to the national team, the true development of Chinese basketball still relies on a group after group of basketball enthusiasts to form the country's basketball soil. It's from this soil that we can nurture excellent new talent. Just like the Americans have Bird, and without Bird, they have Johnson, without Johnson, there's Jordan, there's Ewing, and before them, there were Jabbar and Russell. Generation after generation of outstanding players come forth to build a true basketball powerhouse."
