Altai, a 31-year-old former CUBA player from Shihezi University in Xinjiang, died of cardiac arrest during the game. It's a pity that his name is heard by the public again in this way, may heaven also have basketball...
Altai is just a very ordinary member of the CUBA players, although he averaged 16.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in four seasons in the Northwest Division, although he was selected for the CUBA Dunk Contest and was considered a tough player in the Northwest Division, but the height of 192CM had to play 3-4, and it was already doomed to make it difficult to break into the professional arena in his career.
The love of basketball should not be based on the level of high or low, Altai's inspirational story was reported by Basketball Park 6 years ago.
People have the impression that basketball masters on college campuses are often as dashing and confident as Kaede Ryugawa and Akira Sendo in "Slam Dunk Master", but many people love basketball not because this sport can make him more handsome and charming, and become a handsome teenager sought after by thousands of people, but because in this sport they have found themselves, and basketball has saved their lives.
The 25-year-old Altai told his story with a smile on his face, and the huge birthmark on his face from the eye socket to the corner of his mouth once made him extremely unconfident and afraid to communicate with people. Not many people can really empathize with how much coldness the teenager has suffered before he learns to be relieved with the world.
It was basketball that saved him from the haze, and Altai on the court unleashed his basketball talents freely, so he found a foothold in social life, and people began to re-understand him from his performance on the court. Altai, who embraces basketball, throws away his inferiority and confusion, decorates himself with a knowing smile, and warms others.
Fans who have watched his game are infected by him, and they say that whether it is scoring, or fouling, whether it is a teammate's mistake or facing a controversial penalty, he always has a faint smile on his face. The one on the basketball court he was the most real, the happy, innocent, purest Mongolian teenager.
How much bitterness is hidden behind the smile, people can only taste one or two from his experience.
Born in Barclays Village, Forty-Mile Chengzi Town, Yanqi County, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, Altai lived in a place where he was not rich, and ten or even twenty years ago, when he was a child and a teenager, the poverty alleviation was far from ending the hard survival of people in this barren land.
Teenagers who like basketball can't be as carefree as children in big cities, dragging their parents to buy the best sneakers, the most handsome jerseys, and then wearing full-body equipment to go to the rainproof stadium for training classes. Children's love of sports and yearning for basketball in the poor deserts of the Northwest requires them to pay a price that most of their peers can't imagine.
In order to fill the family, in order to save money to buy a pair of favorite basketball shoes, Altai began to work outside early, to the hardest construction sites, to the crowded restaurants, with hard sweat in exchange for many peers can enjoy every day, and even abandon the life. The conditions are too poor, the academic performance is not ideal, Altai failed to be admitted to the university after the college entrance examination, his life has returned to the original track of part-time work, and the basketball dream can only be a luxury for him.
Basketball did not fail Altai, and when he was most confused, Hu Jiang, the coach of the Shihezi University men's basketball team, found him. Coach Hu, who has no children under his knees, treats the players as his own children, and he rescues a basketball teenager with excellent physical fitness from a frustrated life, so that he finally gets on the right track of CUBA after going through twists and turns. Shihezi University is not a strong team in CUBA, and Altai has not been able to lead the team out of the northwest to reach the national tournament in four years here.
Shihezi University did not achieve All of Altai's basketball dreams, but taught him gratitude and perseverance.
In 2017, before an ordinary competition in the Northwest Division, affected by the technical and equipment of the venue, the venue did not set up a link to sing the national anthem, but a team was neatly arranged to sing the national anthem in front of the national flag, that is, Shihezi University. A marginal team in cuba, a multi-ethnic team with more than half of the ethnic minorities, Coach Hu Jiang and the team management always ask them to help each other, learn to love, and know how to be grateful.
For the Shihezi University men's basketball team, it was not a special event, because before every game, they would unite like this, that is, the team that Altai grew up. Shihezi University men's basketball team with such team cohesion, from 2013 into the CUBA began to sprint all the way, two consecutive years to reach the quarterfinals, although Altai failed to rush to the national competition before graduating in 2016, but later, his Yanqi County fellow villagers, ye Zhengwen (now playing for the CBA Ningbo team), a member of the oratorio national anthem, finally completed this dream instead of him.
Basketball changed Altai's life, from a poor kid who couldn't afford shoes and had no chance to play, to a star who was highly regarded in the CUBA dunk contest. Because of basketball, he went to college and found a job before graduation, and he no longer had to worry about a pair of basketball shoes, nor did he have to worry about three meals a day.
"I didn't play enough", this is a summary of Altai's career in CUBA, which may be the regret of many college players, who do not have so much basketball talent, and even if they try their best, they may not be able to enter the professional league. After graduation, most people's basketball stories end here, replaced by bland commuting, leaving only one sentence after drinking and eating, thinking of that year...
"I will continue to maintain my hobby of basketball when I go to work, and I will definitely stick to it forever, because basketball is a part of my life."
The cruelty of life finally exceeded our expectations, and 6 years later, the teenager who once appeared in the public eye again was such painful bad news. The pain can't help but make us reflect on our own lives, many people are richer than Altai, but we always complain about the world, fill our lives with complaints, and use basketball as an outlet to vent, not knowing that this is tarnishing the dreams that those who really love basketball have spent their lives pursuing.
Life is greater than basketball, if time can be repeated, we will definitely prevent Altai from embracing his beloved basketball at that time, we never know which of life and accidents will come first, only cherish the present, live every day, and love every day to the fullest. Every day we are wasting, every opportunity to engage with basketball, may have been the future imagined by the young Altai.
Love basketball, love life, may heaven also have basketball, may bad news not come again, may you and I walk through half a life, do not regret that teenagers have dreams!