On March 3, 2021, the CBA officially announced the best team selection in history, and Wang Zhizhi was selected as the best team in the 1996-2000 era and the 2011-2020 era.
With the core identity to lead the Bayi Men's Basketball League for six consecutive championships, led the Chinese men's basketball team to win the Asian championship for many times, two of the world's top eight good results, the first Chinese and even Asian player to play in the NBA, Wang Zhizhi is definitely a military career, with great achievements, and has made great contributions to the development of Chinese basketball.
Wang Zhizhi, who has been called one of the greatest athletes in the history of Chinese basketball, is supposed to have a perfect career, but why do many fans think that Wang Zhizhi is full of regrets?
There has even been a discussion that the young Dazhi can be better than Yao Ming, and if he had not been delayed by the Basketball Association for two years, his basketball achievements would have been higher and better.
Today we will talk about how powerful the young Wang Zhizhi is?
About a year or two after the end of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the domestic media at that time particularly liked to compare Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, two young talents, and even opposed supporters "quarreled".
Then Yao Ming's mother, Ms. Fang Fengdi, later answered this question specifically: Yao Ming was worse than others in all aspects, and the two people did not have to fight on the field.
Moreover, Yao Ming himself has answered this question: I have been beaten and crushed, and technically and spiritually, I have been completely defeated by Dazhi. (However, The elder Yao Ming is three years older, which is a significant age difference in the early stages of his career)
But in any case, if this matter is put into the present, it is that the young Wang Zhizhi pressed Yao Ming, who later became the first basketball superstar in Asian history, to the ground and rubbed.
In fact, throughout his career, even if he later became famous in the NBA, Yao Ming was full of respect for Dazhi, and he also had a high praise and recognition for his basketball strength.
Personally, I have always thought that Wang Zhizhi's comprehensive basketball skills are the best in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team, but he has some untimely taste, resulting in this power not being fully amplified.
In the late twentieth century, although Dazhi, who followed the Bayi men's basketball team to win the championship for many years, grew up very quickly and very strongly, there were indeed too many big brothers in the team at that time, and there was such a thing as Liu Yudong, the "God of War"; after Wang Zhizhi grew up completely, Yao Ming behind him grew up like a rocket and became the strongest basketball star in Asia. So in a way, the big one in the middle does lose some enough attention.
Coupled with the fact that Dazhi was an inside player at the time, although the playing style was dexterous but not strong enough, the Chinese fans who had just come into contact with the NBA had a new understanding of basketball actions in the videotape, flying in the sky, and the powerful dunks were really eye-catching, so at that time, Dazhi was not very in line with the pseudo-definition of "playing strong" by the audience who simply watched the ball.
So it will lead to many ordinary fans when talking about Dazhi, always open their mouths to come: August 1 seems to be like that, Liu Yudong is not the big brother; he looks a little soft when he plays, if he goes to the NBA, it is definitely nothing, as if he did not see how powerful it is.
But is this really the case? The answer is definitely no, because the young Dazhi is really super powerful.
In the early one or two years of the twenty-first century, what kind of "monster" Yao Ming of the CBA was, I think old fans should still remember it.
In the 00-01 season, Yao Ming can average 27 points, 19.4 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game, winning the rebounding king and the block king, averaging "27 + 20 + 5 blocks", it is estimated that foreign aid can not play this data.
In the 01-02 season, Yao Ming averaged 32.4 points, 19 rebounds and 4.8 blocks per game, he was in the CBA at the time, has become an unbeatable kind of "monster player", and the basketball dominance is estimated to be the strongest in the history of the CBA.
But it is such a Yao Ming, who seems to have been able to reduce the dimension of the CBA, but was picked up by Wang Zhizhi in the finals of the 00-01 season.
In that round of the Finals, Yao Ming's offensive end was significantly limited by Dazhi, averaging only 21.7 points per game, which was a significant decline for the regular season, but fortunately, the data of 18.3 rebounds and 5 blocks per game was still very eye-catching.
At that time, Wang Zhizhi of the Bayi team handed over an average of 36 points, 15 rebounds, 2 blocks and 4.7 steals per game, and also led the team to sweep the Shanghai men's basketball team.
Personally, I feel that Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming in those two years belonged to the existence of "mutual explosion", and no one could prevent anyone anyway. (But if you can match Yao Ming to this level at that time, wang zhizhi alone in the country)
Secondly, we also need to know that Yao Ming was a player with "unlimited firing rights" in the Shanghai team at that time, and the Bayi men's basketball team needed too much ball rights, and Wang Zhizhi could get such data in the case of part of the ball, which was really great! (Liu Yudong was also a big guy with an average of close to "30+10" in those years, and the ball rights needed a little more)
We can actually take the time a little further and look at Wang Zhizhi before the age of twenty.
Many fans who watch the game late may have most of their impressions of the Chinese players in the NBA focused on Yao Ming, completely ignoring that Wang Zhizhi was the first person in the NBA in the history of Chinese basketball, and even the first person in Asia.
Dazhi was selected by the NBA Dallas Mavericks in 1999, and as a result, because the Chinese Basketball Association did not release anyone at that time, Dazhi's NBA dream was postponed again and again, and he did not go to the United States until the end of the CBA season in 2001.
But even so, Wang Zhizhi still became the first player in the history of Chinese basketball to land in the NBA, and the first in Asian history.
Although Dazhi's four or five years in the NBA were indeed average, it was indeed the best young athletes in the world at that time to be selected in the draft, and also one of the best athletes in the world. (The entire NBA has more than 400 players per season, representing almost the world's strongest basketball player collection in the same period.)
In recent years, Chinese basketball has regressed significantly, and if the younger generation can go to the NCAA in the United States to play, it is likely to be named "men's basketball future hope", but who knows that Wang Zhizhi, who was seventeen or eighteen years old at the time, received invitations from several American colleges and universities.
And if you only consider the performance of the seventeen or eighteen-year-old period, the expectations or evaluations of Wang Zhizhi in the Western media are even much higher than that of Yao Ming in the same period.
After Wang Zhizhi participated in the U18 Basketball World Championship in 1996, the management of the NBA Celtics at that time once commented on Wang Zhizhi:
He is so talented that this is not a level that can be achieved by hard practice. He himself understands that he is currently the player in Asia who has the best chance to play in the NBA and will have a lot of achievements, and I am talking about the only one in Asia.
Secondly, the famous NCAA coach McCarthy at that time also commented on Wang Zhizhi, and compared it with his proud disciple Ewing:
The only thing Ewing has in common with Wang Zhizhi at the age of 17 is that he is tall, but Wang Zhizhi's shooting and foot skills are better than Ewing's, and I didn't think that China could have such an inside player.
Guys, McCarthy's comparative evaluation of Wang Zhizhi and Ewing is quite convincing, to know that even 16-year-old Ewing is already the only player in American history to receive a trial invitation to the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team as a high school student; Ewing in high school is famous all over the United States, and is called "a player who has been targeted by basketball coaches in colleges all over the United States", and has been featured in sports times and The New York Times many times in high school; when he participated in the NBA draft, he was even more suspenseful. Even in order to get his supposed draft at that time, it was manipulated behind closed doors; as for the future, the Ewing who said in McCarthy's mouth that 17 years old might not be as good as Wang Zhizhi became one of the greatest stars in NBA history, a great presence inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame...
Of course, you can say that people are just polite, but why is this kind of politeness not evaluated to other Chinese players? Even when Yao Ming joined the NBA as a champion, he may not have dared to have such high expectations for his future.
Speaking of which, I have to go back to the previous sentence, that is, it is a pity that Dazhi was delayed by the Basketball Association for two years, and if he entered the NBA in 1999, his career may be really much better.
At that time, in order to get him, Nelson lobbied back and forth between the United States and Beijing many times, just in order to bring the talented Dazhi to the NBA as soon as possible.
Even though Dazhi was delayed for two years, even though he was 24 years old in 2001, the Mavericks still did not give up on this Chinese player with outstanding basketball talent.
epilogue
I watched a lot of ball games, such as Dazhi's, Yao Ming's, Yi Jianlian's and many other outstanding Chinese basketball players' games, but the most obvious thing that gave me the feeling of "stability" was Wang Zhizhi.
It is when the ball comes to The Big Zhi's hand, it will feel stable, or you know that he will not make mistakes, you can believe him, this feeling even Yao Ming, who later grew into a world-class star, I have not felt it too strongly.
——
Later, Yao Ming retired, Dazhi retired, and even Yi Jianlian, who was still called "Space Easy" at the time, also came to the end of his career, and the youth basketball memories belonging to that generation seemed to be coming to an end.