Time flies fast, February is just around the corner, and the third phase of the CBA League is about to start. During the month-long offseason, the CBA window of the season also reopened.
Although there are not many players in the free agent market this year, only 2 players have found a new home in this window period, and these 2 players are Tang Jie and Zhang Chunjun.
Tang Jie, who was abandoned by the Fujian men's basketball team this season, finally joined the Guangdong men's basketball team after more than half a season of unremitting efforts. After being bought out of the contract by the Shanghai men's basketball team, the 35-year-old veteran Zhang Chunjun also got the favor of his former mentor Yang Xuezeng and joined the Shanxi men's basketball team.
In addition to the 2 free agents mentioned above, there are currently as many as 29 free agents on the market who have not found new jobs, and they also lost their last chance to return to the CBA this season after the second window of the CBA closed.
In this list of 29-man CBA unemployed players, there are some people who have been in the league in the past. Li Gen, He Tianju and Gao Shang have all won CBA championships with their parent team.
This situation was very rare in the CBA in the past, and this proves from another level how fierce the competition between CBA players is today, and some veterans have not yet fully passed, and have been squeezed out of the CBA by young up-and-comers.
As we all know, in the context of the league's continuous reforms, today's CBA league is becoming more and more NBA-oriented. The team's salary cap, transfer terms and draft are all very close to the NBA league.
Especially in the draft conference, in recent years, all CBA teams have attached great importance to draft talents, and the CUBA league has continuously provided the CBA league with many high-quality college players.
In such a situation, the speed of replacement of players on CBA teams has been greatly improved, and some old players who rely on the past to contribute to the team are difficult to continue to "live" in the team as in the past.
One of the most typical examples is Li Gen, an All-Star player who has won three CBA championships with Beijing Shougang and the Xinjiang men's basketball team, relying on super strength, once received a huge contract with an annual salary of more than 10 million.
However, with the increase of age and the accumulation of old injuries over the years, Li Gen has now reached the point where no one cares.
Similar to Li Gen's situation is Liao's He Tianju, who was injured unexpectedly at Guo Allen's birthday party, which made the former CBA's most talented forward player go downhill. From the main force to the substitute to the complete unemployment, it took only 5 short years.
The situation is different from Li Gen and He Tianju, who is 28 years old and has not suffered any major injuries before. His unemployment was mainly due to the lack of strict requirements for himself and the waste of his basketball talent.
In fact, referring to the situation in the past few seasons, these players can still stay in the CBA league if the salary requirements are not high.
But the situation in the CBA is no longer what it used to be, and teams that do not pursue league results are certainly not willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to sign a player who is not very competitive.
Teams that aspire to results will not sign them, and it is obviously much more cost-effective to use the positions left by the first team to develop young players.
As a result, today's CBA is no longer the domain of veterans, and more and more young players are beginning to dominate the team. And this also makes many fans can't help but sigh an old saying: "Youth is gone forever".
Finally, we also want to send heartfelt blessings to these veterans, and if they are willing to persevere, they must continue to work hard and prepare for their return to the CBA next season. If you decide to retire at this point, I hope they can still stay in the basketball circle and continue their basketball career in another way.......