With 7332 points in 16 seasons, Ji Yanyan surpassed Miao Lijie to become the all-time scoring champion of the WCBA

Reporter | Joe Tudi

On the 9th day of the new season of the Chinese Women's Basketball League, a new record was born.

On October 9, 2020, Beijing time, the 2020-2021 WCBA League was played in Chengdu in the form of a tournament system, and the Heilongjiang women's basketball team narrowly defeated the Tianjin women's basketball team 79-76 and won the first victory since the beginning of the game.

In this game, Ji Yanyan played 45 minutes, cut 43 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, and the total career score reached 7332 points, breaking the previous record of 7299 points held by Miao Lijie, becoming the new WCBA historical scoring champion.

For the Heilongjiang team, this victory was not easy to come by, and the two teams fought until the extra time to decide the winner and loser.

After the game, Ji Yanyan could not hide her emotions: "It was a very good experience for me and for this young team. A lot of people shed tears and I was thrilled. ”

Born in 1985, Ji Yanyan is still playing in the field at the age of 35 and playing two roles at the same time - she is both a Member of the Heilongjiang Women's Basketball Team and a Head Coach.

Because of this, she is affectionately called "Ji Guide" by the players and fans.

She said a lot of people sent her messages before the game, telling her that she was 11 points away from becoming the new leading scorer, but she herself did not expect to get 43 points today. Moreover, she hadn't played the whole game in years.

In her childhood, Ji Yeon-yeon first practiced swimming, and then turned to basketball due to the dissolution of the swimming team. Ji Yanyan was a player in heilongjiang province in her early days, but her WCBA career began with the Zhejiang Far East women's basketball team.

And she also showed her excellent scoring ability early on - in 2006, Ji Yanyan, who had just joined Zhejiang Far East, not only led the team to successful relegation, but also won the season's scoring champion and all-star skills competition.

In 2008, she came to the Henan women's basketball team and won the title of season scoring champion again. In 2009, Ji Yanyan was selected for the national team.

In 2010, she returned to her hometown and joined the reorganized Heilongjiang women's basketball team.

In the 2014-2015 season, there were some episodes, Ji Yanyan originally played in Heilongjiang, but due to the team's strike incident in the season, the Heilongjiang women's basketball team was banned, and the Shanxi women's basketball team subsequently got Ji Yanyan through delisting. However, the midway change of team can not stop Ji Yanyan's play, under her blessing, Shanxi team completed a three-consecutive championship feat, and she herself won the title of Most Valuable Player in the Finals.

Ji Yanyan has many honors: three WCBA regular season most valuable players, twice the WCBA Finals Most Valuable Player, and twice the WCBA All-Star Full Game Most Valuable Player.

Today, because the national veteran Ji Yanyan set a new record, the WCBA once again returned to the public eye. In fact, last season, in order to fully guarantee the smooth progress of the CBA's resumption, the WCBA was the party that made concessions and cancelled the season - this was confirmed in an interview with Yao Ming, the president of the Chinese Basketball Association.

In June 2020, after a few months of suspension due to the epidemic, domestic events began to prepare for the resumption, but in the case of the Chinese women's basketball team in good shape, the WCBA faced season cancellation. Yao Ming explained that choices must be made with limited resources.

So, although the WCBA submitted a plan for a rematch with the CBA at the time, only the CBA completed the rematch. It was not until October 1, Beijing time, that the WCBA, which had been absent for nine months, finally announced its return.

Even so, in this special year, Chinese women's basketball players continue to show "women's strength" on the basketball court.

In February this year, the women's national basketball team won three battles and three victories in the Olympic Women's Basketball Qualification Tournament held in Serbia, and when the men's basketball team had little chance of entering the Olympic Games, the Chinese women's basketball team had already locked the ticket to the Tokyo Olympics early.

In August this year, Zhai Ruoyun, a member of the women's basketball team of Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, surpassed Ma Jianyi with a career total score of 1184 points in the CUBA rematch stage and won the historical scoring champion of cuba women's basketball.

In 2020, Ji Yanyan has reached the 16th season of her career, and she feels that becoming the WCBA's all-time scoring champion is an affirmation of her persistence for so many years.

However, she also said withdrew after the game: "Everything will start again, I may not play again after this season, this should be my last season, I hope they will grow up soon." 」 ”