"Shougang and Liaoning will have an epic finals", Stephen Marbury suddenly typed this sentence on social media late at night on March 22, returning to his home in Beijing for 10 hours, and the devastated North Control manager in Foshan finally ignited the pride of the past in these four nine cities.
Seven years ago, on this day, the 38-year-old Marbury couldn't wait to fly back to Beijing, and he had just led Shougang to a narrow victory over Liaoning at the Benxi Stadium to win his third title in four years. The champagne in the away team's locker room is only enough for a moment of pleasure, and the rich do not return home, it is not a night trip in brocade.
On this day 10 years ago, 35-year-old Marbury flew from Beijing to Guangdong with great enthusiasm, and the new army Shougang in the finals repelled Guangdong's four consecutive championships at the Wukesong Stadium, taking the first victory in the finals of the team's history. A day later, Shougang trailed by 10 points in the second leg into the final quarter, and Marbury led the magical reversal with 17 points in the single quarter, laying the first crown feat.
Marbury, who changed out of his suit, thought about that year, the years urged people to grow old, time was the most merciless, and it has been ten years since the cup was changed.
Outside Wukesong Basketball Park, the statue of Marbury's "Lifting Moment" waited for the wind and rain, and the gorgeous chapter of Shougang's four-year triple crown was hastily concluded, and the 2015-16 regular season 7th and 2016-17 season were blocked out of the playoffs. Min Lulei guided the mountain to retreat, Marbury turned into The North Control, there is no great saint Sun Yue on the field, Qin Xiaowen takes over the management, and Shougang will eventually say goodbye to the past.
The "post-Marbury era" of Shougang began in the three-year term of the iron-fisted strong woman Qin Zong, returning to the playoffs three rounds in advance in the first year, and put forward the goal of "three years to compete for the championship" in the context of the reform of Shougang Sports. But on March 22, 2018, Shougang was eliminated by Liaoning Vengeance on the third crown anniversary, 72-75, which was a flagging battle of Coach Yannis Christopoulos.
The following year, Yannis's Shougang has a distinctive characteristic, the third fewest points lost in 100 rounds, and the combination of Justin Hamilton and Aaron Jackson completed four consecutive wins in the playoffs, and Shougang seemed to see the dawn of reconstruction and revival. But in the blink of an eye, the flame was extinguished in Shenzhen's historic 0-2 backward flip, Shougang's internal line was weak, and foreign aid was weak.
The fans miss the omnipotent Marbury, but he has taken off his jersey and picked up the coaching whip, and Qin Zong continues to look for her Marbury with a big wave. On September 25, 2019, at the Capital Airport, General Manager Qin Xiaowen and Head Coach Yannis made a high-profile appearance with Jeremy Lin, and fans flocked to everywhere "Lin Crazy" went, just to see the style.
Averaging 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.8 steals per game, Jeremy Lin helped Shougang break into the top four of the regular season again after five years.
Will Jeremy Lin and Aipai Youdu become the "Mamo combination" of Shougang's new generation? 32 points to win Fujian to reach the semifinals, and then meet the defending champion Guangdong, Shougang seems to remember the four years of triple crowns in the smoke of the flames, they are the league's first giant Guangdong's playoff nemesis, they once led by 19 points in the first game.
The Beijing-Guangdong War in 2020 was tragic and magnificent, and the suffocating defensive battle, but this scenery did not belong to Shougang after all. Zhou Peng's key three points, Sony Weems 2.3 seconds to suppress the whistle, the next year's re-fight, Jordan McGrey's key free throw missed, and it was Weems who met Fan Ziming to win the blow. Feng Shui takes turns, Marbury's last quarter reversal, Zhu Yanxi's kill, the script is still the script, but the main supporting role has long been changed.
This year is the 5th year that general manager Qin Xiaowen has been in charge of Shougang, Shougang has also been infinitely close to the first finals trip of the post-Marbury era, and the three-year championship competition is not a nonsense, even if it is destroyed by old enemies, but Shougang has never stopped. They constantly tried and made mistakes on foreign aid, constantly recruiting reinforcements against lineup flaws, just like the extradition of the generals from Aushin that year, spending thousands of dollars to save the thickest lineup since Marbury left.
Since Monk-Battle, Shougang has not produced a local interior star, and even in the years of winning the championship, Beijing's average rebounds per game were still the bottom of the league. Last season, Fan Ziming parachuted in and scored in double figures and 5 rebounds in 17 games since Yannis's return, scoring 20 points and 12 rebounds in the playoffs in Shenzhen and 21 points and 9 rebounds against Guangdong.
Xiao Fan's mid-range projection has the charm of Randolph Morris.
Averaging 14.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, the 23-year-old young interior played his career best, was selected as an All-Star, and entered the second team in the regular season, becoming the new core of Shougang. In addition to becoming the biggest man in the league who can pass the ball, he solved the long-standing foul problem on the defensive end, and he has never made 6 fouls in 35 games this season, 2.7 fouls in 30 minutes, and he can finally keep himself on the field for a long time.
Compared with the Beijing-Guangdong War two years ago, Shougang not only had Fan Ziming and Li Muhao, who were thinking of chaosi, but also reinforced Raymond and Tian Yuxiang outside the local twin towers. Bayi's resilience on the defensive end is Yannis's favorite, and they complement the vitality that Shougang needs most when it is aging.
Unconsciously, the young player who broke out of the Marbury era has long been the main backbone and veteran of the team, and Zhai Xiaochuan, who scored 22 points in the final game of the Beijing-Guangdong War Finals and 27 points in the sixth game of Liaoning, has played to the 11th year of his career, and this season has delivered the worst regular season performance since the championship season due to injury.
The 32-year-old Fang Shuo, devastated by injuries, has played just 22 games and averaged 9 points per game at a new low since he became famous. Zhu Yanxi, also 32 years old, is old and strong, more and more accurate, 47% of the three-point shooting rate is still the same as before, but the average data per game is also the lowest value in 5 years.
Even so, Shougang still reached the top eight of the league in this season of the crowd.
Unlike previous years, which relied on Zhai Xiaochuan, Fang Shuo and others indefinitely, today's Shougang lineup has better depth, and the defensive system established by Yannis is also quite mature. With an average of only 87.1 points per game, Shougang has become the team with the fewest points for four consecutive years, which is also the lowest value since the 10-11 season in Xinjiang. Even if two games are released in the closing round, Shougang's defensive efficiency is 100.9, still ranking first in the league.
Since 1999, the CBA's no. 1 defensive efficiency team in each season has reached at least the semifinals, reaching the finals 18 times in 22 years, with the exception of Guangdong in 14-16 and Shougang in the 19-20 season, all of which fell in front of the final champions.
Offense wins games, defense wins championships, and in the hand-to-hand fights of the playoffs, tough defense is the first priority, which may be the real reason why Marbury is optimistic about Shougang. His three years in charge has also brought the defensive efficiency of North Control from the bottom to the top of the league, whether it is the former champion hero or today's North Control manager, he is optimistic and supports the defensive team.
With excellent overall defense, Shougang constantly drags opponents into positions, relying on slow-paced turn-based play to consume the opponent's sharpness. This season, Shougang has continuously proved in the strong dialogue that they have the ability to snipe strong opponents and have the opportunity to fight any opponent in the playoffs.
Shougang of the all-China class first beat Shanghai with a combination of inside and outside, and then gave 11 champions Guangdong the second lowest single-game 67 points in the history of the team, defending Zhejiang from 33 points and shooting 5 of 33, making last season's MVP Wu Qian 10 points 10 points. Shougang, who has double foreign aid, easily beat Liaoning without Guo Allen, leaving the running bomb team Shanxi with only a new season-low 90 points.
In the closing stage, Shougang ushered in the return of injured soldiers one after another, although it only ranked 7th in the league, but this is a team that is rich enough for Fang Shuo and Raymond to play as a substitute, and the local inner line can fully support the lower half of the penalty area, which is a force that no team dares to despise. Shougang is also the only four-sided team this season, with Jeremy Lin, Jonathan Gibson, Barry Brown Jr. (below) and Justin Hamilton all eager to try.
Jeremy Lin and Gibson have been playing with the team for a long time, and hamilton, who has just returned, has quickly improved his personal defensive efficiency to no. 4 in the league, and he is also a trusted foreign aid of Shougang. Brown was injured after playing five games, but now returns from injury, 25 years old, 1.90 meters, the former core of kansas State University's backcourt, once beat the NCAA giants Kentucky with a swift breakthrough.
Two years of local player reinforcement and large-scale external invocation, Shougang should have been the favorite to compete for the title, but how can only Marbury wave the flag?
After defeating Shanghai, Shougang only scored 11 points in the first quarter of the battle against Shenzhen, and was successively avenged by Liao Yue, and Zhan Guangsha scored only 9 points in the first quarter. Not only that, the second stage allowed Tianjin to shoot through 21 three-pointers in a single game, and was taken away by Aszia Booker's quasi-triple double, and the third stage allowed Shandong double foreign aid to score 52 points with super efficiency of 28 shots and 17.
In contrast to the excellent offense of Marbury's era, Shougang today averages only 86 rounds per game, the slowest league, averaging only 98.3 points per game, 14th in the league, mainly positioned for positional attack but averaging only 22.2 free throws per game, ranking 12th. The Yannis era paid great attention to defense, but there was no super foreign aid shougang, and the attack was really difficult.
Defense is Shougang's magic weapon, but compared with Li Xuelin, Sun Yue, the young Zhai Xiaochuan and others, Shougang, who is now the first in the league's defensive efficiency, has only one person in the top three of the best defensive players, but it is still Zhai Xiaochuan, who has become a veteran. Yannis's team basketball philosophy seems to have been successful, but there is a lack of arrow characters on both offensive and defensive ends.
The 33-year-old Jeremy Lin's experience in the past year has inexorably accelerated the downward trend of his career, and even though Gibson has played a rare offensive efficiency in his career, he is not the candidate for the offensive and defensive organization in Yannis's heart, and Hamilton's conscientious diligence does not have the domineering spirit of the headwind ball. The lottery ticket has not been completely scratched, Brown may be Shougang's last expectation, they really need Mr. Key.
Since 2017, when the core heroes of the championship were released and the reconstruction was started, Shougang finally has a solid system, a thick lineup, no matter what kind of trouble they encounter in the regular season, they can win in the playoffs every year. But a thousand sails crossed, and looking closely at this dynasty, Shougang seems to be one big banner away from competing for the crown.
In 2019, the G3 at the Wukesong Stadium held the opportunity to kill, the fierce tug-of-war between Beijing and Guangdong in 2020, and the penalty line of fate in Guangdong in 2021, Shougang soldiers did not see the flag erected, and they had a moment of hesitation between the line of life and death at a critical moment, which was a fatal moment. As Marbury once said after the Battle of Beijing and Guangdong, the champion can only be struck with a heavy blow, not tripping him.
Marbury's prediction may come true, and Shougang's local lineup today may be far better than that of that year, but he may have forgotten that since him, Shougang has never put up the banner that cannot be put up.
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