Gan Guoyang's earth-shattering dunk made the outcome of the game itself seem less important.
Just like when Gan Guoyang faced the Supersonics and performed that astonishing turn and evade dunk, many years later, people will only remember that dunk, while who lost or won the game and how it played out will not be much remembered by many.
On January 5, 1983, nearly exactly two years prior, Dr. J in a game against the Lakers at the Spectrum Arena, stole the ball and initiated a fast break, pulling off the "Rock the baby" maneuver, and the whole stadium plunged into a sea of joy, with fans too excited to contain themselves.
That became the most thrilling score of 1983 and this dunk even became more famous than the 76ers' championship that year, admired over and over by fans.
No one could perfectly replicate that dunk in a game, not even Dr. J himself later on; it was a stroke of genius, just like Gan Guoyang could not replicate the 360-degree spinning dunk.
