25 years ago, the famous comedian Teacher Zhao left a classic line on the Spring Evening, "Laborers are the most beautiful people." Today, Teacher Zhao has long since retired, but this sentence is still widely circulated, and it has become a beautiful talk on May Day.
In the basketball world, there are also many "labor models", whether it is for the national team, CBA clubs or local sports bureaus, they are all under one order and have no regrets. In the past year or so, there have been many players in the league, the National Games and the national team, among which Zhao Jiwei of the Liaoning men's basketball team is the most prominent.
Last year's national team window, the Chinese men's basketball team has counted such a set of data, from the beginning of the 2020-21 CBA League (including pre-season, regular season and playoffs) to the end of the first stage of the 2021-22 CBA regular season (November 14, 2021), counting the CBA, national team matches and the 14th National Games (2021) preliminary and regular matches, Zhao Jiwei is one of only two players with a total appearance of 90+ games. With a total of 2619 minutes, he ranked second among all nations. Playing more than Zhao Jiwei (90 games) and playing more than Zhao Jiwei is his Liaoning teammate Zhang Zhenlin (91 games, 2823 minutes).
But the young Zhang Zhenlin is only a 23-year-old second-year player, still alive and well. Zhao Jiwei is different, almost 27 years old he is no longer a young player, from the 2013-14 season into the CBA "vinegar slip" has played the ninth season of his career. From the youth team period, Zhao Jiwei began to represent the Liaoning team and the national youth team to participate in various competitions, and after entering the CBA, he also participated in many competitions such as the CBA League, the National Olympic Team Competition, and the National Team Competition. At the same time as the honor was added, Zhao Jiwei also suffered two serious injuries.
In the 2015-16 season, Zhao Jiwei accidentally suffered a shoulder dislocation in the preseason and Xinjiang matches. After the regular season began, Zhao Jiwei again dislocated his shoulder and eventually had to undergo surgery resulting in a season reimbursement after only three games. In the summer of 2018, Zhao Jiwei was accidentally seriously injured again during the men's basketball red team training camp, suffering ankle fractures, three fractures and two ligament fractures and re-operation. Despite his early comeback in the 2018-19 season, as a player with a height of only 1.83 meters and not outstanding physical fitness, Zhao Jiwei is like what he said: "I love basketball very much, but basketball may not love me!" I am so careful and caring for you, but you are so cruel to me! I know this is a problem that all athletes face, but I bear too much. ”
However, such an experience, Zhao Jiwei has still become a well-deserved "labor model" of the CBA in the past year or so. This season, Zhao Jiwei played 37 of the 38 regular season games, and the only one off has even become news, and Zhao Jiwei's absence from the game is rare. Throughout the regular season, Zhao Jiwei's appearance was second only to fu Hao, who was full-time. In the playoffs, he played in all 9 games. In terms of regular season playing time, Zhao Jiwei averaged 29.2 minutes per game, behind Zhang Zhenlin (32.2 minutes per game) in Liaoning Basket. Last season, he played 51 regular season games (54 in total) and six in the playoffs.
From the 2020-21 season to the end of the season, spanning two seasons spanning one and a half years, Zhao Jiwei played a total of 123 games including CBA games, National Games games and national team games. As a short defender who plays a key role in Liaoning and consumes huge amounts at both ends of the attack and defense, it is not difficult to imagine the amount of zhao Jiwei's consumption.
During the window period of this season, the Chinese men's basketball team traveled 5,060 kilometers from Zhuji to Beilun and Xi'an, and then to Tokyo and Sendai in Japan, counting the training in Beilun and Japan and returning to China for 21 days, the chinese men's basketball team was closed for a total of 37 days. After this set of data was exposed, the outside world widely lamented the hardships of the Chinese men's basketball team. But last summer, Zhao Jiwei has already experienced a more painful journey with some of his national team teammates. From the motherland to the Philippines to participate in the Asian Cup qualifiers, and then flew to Canada to compete in the Olympic games, and finally returned to China to experience 21 days of isolation, Zhao Jiwei and others at that time the journey was far more bumpy than the window period of this season.
It is worth mentioning that Zhao Jiwei was already a model worker in the CBA in the earlier 2019-20 season. In the regular season, he only missed one game, and his total playing time was only 5 minutes less than Han Dejun.
The continuous rotation of the game is a test for Zhao Jiwei, a "veteran" who has experienced hundreds of battles, he said: "There is not much time for athletes to reserve physical fitness in such a situation now, and can only do some recovery as much as possible and do physical training under the guidance of physical fitness coaches." He also said: "It's work, there were too many injuries in the first two years, affecting the game, and these two years have been made up." It's busy, but it's a lot to be gained. ”
But Zhao Jiwei, like any player, is eager to rest to relieve fatigue and eager to go home to meet his family. He has mentioned this many times on social media. After adhering to the tournament system and closed training games for more than two seasons due to the epidemic, Zhao Jiwei, like all CBA players, is more eager to "recharge" and relax in the offseason.
But because he knows the responsibility on his shoulders, Zhao Jiwei has always insisted. Whether it is when Gao Shiyan was not on loan, or when Liaoning Basketball focused on cultivating young players in the past two seasons, Zhao Jiwei is the most indispensable part of the team. When other main players are absent or rested due to injury from time to time, Zhao Jiwei is always one of the leading chargers on the field. At the beginning of the second stage of the regular season this season, Zhao Jiwei, who had just returned from isolation for the country, was the only main player in Liaoning Basket, and in that game, Guo Allen, Han Dejun, Li Xiaoxu and even the young Zhang Zhenlin were arranged by Yang Ming to take a break.
At present, Zhao Jiwei can finally get a short rest. There will not be too much buffer time left for him, for the World Cup qualifiers at the end of June and the beginning of July, the Chinese men's basketball team is bound to start a new training preparation early. At that time, "labor model" Zhao Jiwei will also throw himself into a new battle.