After Tang Jie played the 5th game for the Guangdong men's basketball team, Du Feng once again talked about the "Net Red Defender" at the press conference, and the tone was still well-intentioned.
"Our team used to run the basket to warm up 3 minutes before the game, only Tang Jie returned to the bench, I asked him, are you here to play? He has been in the team for more than half a year, and when he comes to our team, he really gives him more playing time than the Fujian team, and he should cherish the opportunity to play in this team. He really should calm down, he's here to play, not to make an internet celebrity. At the press conference, Du Feng said.
This is not the first time Du Feng has talked about Tang Jie. On March 1, after Tang Jie made his debut in Guangdong, Du Feng said at a post-game press conference that "Tang Jie has tried many teams, including Ningbo (who just entered the CBA this year), but none of the teams want him." Why should I want him? I talked to him and I said that when I was a kid playing, I wanted to have a good team to achieve my dreams; but I had a lot of bumps and the door wasn't open to me. Then I wanted to give him a chance. ”
What Du Feng said is not false. Tang Jie, who once declared himself preparing for the NBA draft last summer, was finally judged to be just a "net red" hype. As a result, not to mention preparing for the NBA draft, Tang Jie did not even have a place to settle in the CBA in the end. The weak Fujian team no longer gives him a chance, and other teams, including Ningbo, who can basically only use draft players and marginal people from other teams to form new CBA teams, are not willing to give Tang Jie a chance. Cornered, Tang Jie faced the olive branch thrown by the Guangdong team, or the opportunity given by Du Feng, and also chose to try out with the team, and finally got the contract of the Guangdong team.
The reason why Du Feng is willing to give Tang Jie, who was rejected by the all-CBA, a chance is that as Du Feng said, he has encountered many ups and downs in the past. To this end, when he became famous, he was also willing to "do good to the world".
Today, Du Feng is already a famous brand in Xinjiang basketball and even Chinese basketball, but more than 20 years ago, Du Feng was a sports teenager who "no one wants".
Before practicing basketball, Du Feng practiced speed skating and high jump in elementary school, and it was not until middle school that he changed careers because he loved basketball. However, Du Feng, who applied for the basketball major of Xinjiang Sports School in the second year of junior high school, was only 1.78 meters tall, which was the shortest among all the students who applied for the examination, and even 2 centimeters away from the minimum height requirement of 1.80 meters of the sports school. At the same time, Du Feng was very thin at the time, and the recruiter even described him as a "bean sprout". The block is at a disadvantage, and Du Feng's physical fitness is not good. After an endurance run of 3000 meters, he ran at the end. He was unqualified in all aspects, and was eventually brushed off. His mother, who works at the Xinjiang Sports School, pleaded bitterly, and Du Feng was given an opportunity: to measure bone age. As a result, Du Feng's bone age was 3-5 years younger than that of his peers, which made Du Feng difficult to enter the basketball major of Xinjiang Sports School and start learning.
Du Feng, who had a difficult start, still couldn't play in the Xinjiang Sports Team. His father wanted him to enter the Xinjiang men's basketball team, but the Xinjiang team thought that he was "thin and could not play basketball" and did not give him a chance. In order to seek better opportunities, Du Feng, 15, packed his bags and took a train from Urumqi for several days and nights to Beijing on the eighth day of the Chinese New Year in 1996 to study at Beijing Sport University. There, Du Feng learned to open his eyes while also waiting for opportunities for other teams. At that time, Beijing had many teams such as Bayi, Beijing, North, Air Force, and Forward, but in the end, the Guangdong Youth Team chose Du Feng. In this way, Du Feng went south to start his career.
21 years later, in 2017, when Du Feng led the team to Beijing Sport University as the head coach of the men's basketball team, he once said with emotion: "I came here alone with a bag. It's actually very strange, but it's also full of excitement. At that time, it was my first stop to pursue my basketball dream. Twenty-one years later, I am back here again. The experience and process of the past twenty-one years come to mind, which is very emotional. But at that time, Du Feng should be far from his feelings in 2017, when he faced a lot of unknowns and confusion, fortunately, he seized the opportunity here.
In Guangdong, Du Feng gradually stood out through hard training, he began to become the MVP of the CBA, and also entered the national team and became a regular. In the face of the former men's basketball head coach Yunas's "too thin" question, Du Feng also proved himself again and again. But in the future, Li Chunjiang, the former head coach of Guangdong, did not forget to mention the past when talking about Du Feng and others: "The three of them (Du Feng, Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng), they were in the original provinces and cities, and basically no one wanted to go to which team. ”
To this end, when he is now successful and still achieves results after coaching, he is also willing to give young players and players with bumpy careers a chance.
"When I was young, I had the desire to learn and improve basketball, but at that time I really felt so difficult, called every day should not be, everyone will close the door", now leading the team, he is willing to give young people more opportunities, "I have the opportunity to win for you, you yourself do not care, do not pay attention, I will guide you, criticize you, if you do not change, it will be sad." ”
Over the years, Du Feng has indeed given many young people opportunities. The young Hu Mingxuan was brought to Guangdong by him from his training camp in Urumqi, Zhao Rui was recruited by him from the NBL league team to Guangdong, and Xu Jie played under him until he entered the national team... At the same time, Wang Xiankai and Zeng Fanri, who had no chance in other teams before, were also once valued by him. Even Zhang Mingchi, who was rejected by multiple teams, has also been given some opportunities to play this season. Now, he gave Tang Jie another chance. Du Feng does not ask for returns, and the only "return" he hopes for is that the players can cherish the hard-won opportunities and not let him down.
But now, Tang Jie had already disappointed Du Feng more than once. He plays with his mobile phone, does not concentrate, and still does not feel the atmosphere of the championship team after more than half a year with the team. When Tang Jie could not even meet these most basic requirements, it was difficult for Du Feng to be patient with him again and again, especially when Tang Jie played 5 games for Guangdong but had few bright spots.
This goes back to the scene at the beginning of the article where Du Feng advised Tang Jie, "He is here to play, not to engage in Internet celebrities." If Tang Jie can really listen to this sentence, I believe Du Feng will still give him a chance. Otherwise, Du Feng's "kindness" will not continue forever, after all, there are still so many people in Guangdong who are eager for opportunities, and such a Tang Jie is not worth Du Feng's repeated tolerance after all.