In the first game of the men's basketball world preliminary round, the Japanese team lost to the Chinese team by 16 points. From the perspective of data on the field, lineup and spirit, the Chinese team undoubtedly occupies an overwhelming advantage. In contrast, the Japanese team that plays at home, the whole team is stateless, the players are completely out of the system, and the combat effectiveness is obviously not as good as before. In fact, behind the loss of the Japanese team, there is actually an unknown story.
This time, the Japanese team did not send the strongest lineup to play, and losing was actually expected. After all, their strongest big three, Hachimura, Yuta Watanabe and Yudai Baba, have not returned to the team, which has greatly reduced the strength of the Japanese team, and even the level of half of the national team cannot reach the level, and the strength of their lineup is at best the level of the middle and lower CBA teams.
However, in order to form such a second-rate team, the Japanese team coach still spent a lot of effort to barely make up the Japanese team's 12-man roster. Compared with the super lineup at the Tokyo Olympics, this time, it is far less than Hachimura, Yuta Watanabe and Yudai Baba, and there are also 5 fewer fierce players.
So why did these players decide so unanimously not to play for Japan? All this also starts from the Tokyo Olympic Games, when playing in the Olympic Games, the Host Japan team can be described as full of ambition, boldly threatening to impact the strongest record, and even reach the Olympic Quarterfinals. However, after the three games of the Olympic group stage, they lost to Spain, Slovenia and Argentina in succession, and they were at the bottom of the group.
It was also this fiasco that completely disappointed the Japanese players. There are even many players who directly have the idea of retiring. After the Olympic Games, Japan's new coach Khovas sought out Japan's main player Daiki Tanaka, but the latter, because he could not accept the fiasco of the Olympic Games, directly said that he would announce his retirement. Subsequently, Kosuke Kanemaru also made it clear that he would not represent Japan in the World Preliminary Tournament.
As for the three naturalized players of the Japanese team, they also found various reasons to refuse to play for the Japanese team. Fazekas is old and injured and unable to play, and Rosit is still sulking because he did not qualify for the Olympic 12-man list, and also refused to play. As for Edwards, edwards' reason is even more straightforward, the Japanese team's Olympic performance is too bad to play again.
If the five members of the Japanese team finally choose to refuse to play due to the fiasco of the Olympic Games, then it is undoubtedly a huge blow to the Japanese team. Although they have already taken advantage of the hosts to lock in a World Cup place in advance. However, if these main players are lost, they may not be able to achieve a revival. Of course, this is a good news for the Chinese team. Asia will have one less rival.