The Chinese Basketball Association today announced the list of basketball five-a-side and three-a-side national teams. The roster, which was meant to expand the basketball talent pool and prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics, sparked controversy as soon as it was announced.
So how did this list come about? What are the criteria for selecting people? Why is it controversial?
The original intent of the list
On February 24, the Chinese Basketball Association issued a notice. The content can be summed up as "according to the requirements of the corresponding documents of the General Administration of Sports, in order to expand the talent reserve of the national team five-a-side and three-person system, and create a national team that can recruit good fighters and have a good style," for this reason, the Basketball Association deliberately studied the construction plan of the relevant talent pool.
For the purpose of the talent pool list, the Basketball Association said: "This plan applies to the selection of national team candidates during the Paris Olympic cycle." In other words, the early inspection of players for the Paris Olympics is also one of the purposes of this list.
In order to highlight the importance of this list, the Basketball Association deliberately emphasized that "national team athletes and coaches are strictly selected from the candidate pool, and must not be arbitrarily selected outside the alternative pool." "If there are special circumstances that need to be selected outside the talent pool, they need to report to the General Administration of Sports for approval."
Talent pool selection criteria
Since we choose people, we must have criteria for selecting people. In addition to putting the interests of the motherland first and the image positive, another important criterion for the selection of the Chinese Basketball Association is "to refer to the indicators recognized by the world powers in the ball game", so as to ensure that "technical ability and political style are equally important".
The accepted metric for basketball in this world is called "Cumulative Contribution Value (VORP)", which is also a screening algorithm for athletes. The specific formula is = (evaluated athlete BPM value - the marginal rotation level athlete BPM value of the evaluated athlete's event) × (the cumulative playing time of the evaluated athlete / the total cumulative time of the evaluated athlete's team during the season) × the number of games that the athlete's team has played during the season. The BPM calculates the net winning score value that the athlete brings to the team every 100 rounds based on the situation of teammates and opponents. In other words, the formula evaluates the difference between a player's cumulative win contribution value and a marginal player.
The size of the five-a-side basketball talent pool is 50 people (excluding overseas league players), mainly selecting players with the highest cumulative contribution values this season and last season. The maximum number of players this season is 30, and the minimum number of 15 last season is enough, which is in line with this season + this season = 45 people.
The controversy of the list
The Basketball Association finally selected the talent pool list released today according to the above formula, but there is a lot of controversy about the list.
The first controversy is that the division of some players' positions on the field and the impression of fans are very different. For example, Guo Allen is defined as a shooting guard, Zhou Peng's position is a big forward, and the veteran Han Shuo's position is also a shooting guard... They do make cameos in these positions on the pitch, but their main position on the pitch is not a defined position.
The second controversy is that many veterans have been selected into the talent pool, which is also the most controversial place. Like veteran Han Shuo, he is the CBA's oldest local player this season (almost 36 years old). In addition, Zeng Lingxu, who is almost 35 years old, has also been selected into the talent pool, which obviously surprised him. When interacting with Tencent Sports editor Li Yinan, Zeng Lingxu said: "Surprise! "This talent pool is to strengthen the talent reserve and prepare for the Paris Olympics, with the age and injury of many veterans, they are basically impossible to compete for the national team, for this reason, their selection also makes the outside world very emotional." Yang Yi, a famous basketball commentator, said: "In the national men's basketball talent pool, there are old Zeng Lingxu, old Han Shuo, old Xi Re, old Li Xiaoxu, old Zhou Peng, old UAE, I can't help but be a little sad to see ..."
The third controversy is that some new stars have been selected for the three-person basketball national team, such as Guo Haowen, Li Tianrong, Zhu Mingzhen, and Wang Shaojie, who are widely believed to have better cultivation value and should participate in five-person basketball. There are also young Yu Jiahao who have not even been selected for the talent pool.
epilogue
Of course, this list is not the final list. As the season changes and the values change, the list of players in the talent pool combined with the formula calculation will also be updated. At the same time, the players who enter the talent pool are only eligible for alternative qualifications, and in the end, it is the head coach who chooses the best or most suitable player for his system, and the selection category of the head coach is basically fixed.
However, after the vigorous preparation, the talent pool list combined with the formula calculation has appeared in many places that fans do not understand, which naturally leads to controversy. After the controversy, the Chinese Basketball Association may also need to "listen to the opinions of the society widely and continuously improve the work plan" as they say.