On September 14, 2008, the then 59-year-old Mu Tiezhu prepared to go out for a run as usual.
As a famous basketball player, Mu Tiezhu's physical fitness naturally needs no more words, but on this day, he just lifted his feet to go out, and suddenly felt a sense of exhaustion fill his body.
After feeling unwell and unable to go out, Mu Tiezhu did not insist, but chose to go home and began to pedal the bicycle on the fitness equipment at home.
When Mu Tiezhu was exercising, his son Mu Tong stayed by his father's side. According to Mu Tong's recollection, he only saw his father's tall body gradually become slower, and then sink and spread out on the fitness equipment.
Seeing the scene in front of him, Mu Tong was greatly nervous, and he rushed forward to hug his father's body, trying not to let his father fall to the ground, and then beckoned his family to call the hospital emergency number.
However, although everything has been done in a very timely manner, unfortunately, it has happened.
A few hours after being sent to the hospital for rescue, the hospital staff solemnly informed Mu Tiezhu's family of a tragic news, and Mu Tiezhu died in vain.
20 basketballs for super center
For the older generation of basketball enthusiasts, Mu Tiezhu is definitely an unavoidable name, once upon a time, this name once ruled the Chinese basketball world for a full decade.
Mu Tiezhu once played for the Bayi basketball team, served as a center member in the team, and at his peak, he was also known as the "first center in Asia" and was a world-renowned star player.
Mu Tiezhu's name bears the word "Iron Pillar". On the pitch, he is indeed like an iron pillar.
Mu Tiezhu was two meters tall and three-eight, and his body was as strong as an ox, standing on the arena like an iron tower, with a kind of pressure aura.
However, if you say how optimistic people are about Mu Tiezhu, it is not entirely true, almost every year all over the country will select hundreds of "big tall", but there are only a few who can really stand on the field and stand firm.
Can Mu Tiezhu do it?
The first time Hee-roi Mu Tiezhu caught everyone's attention, and after the game began, Mu Tiezhu quickly showed his strength. Within his arm span, no one can physically confront him.
At that time, someone made this comment on Mu Tiezhu: "He stood on the field like a flock of chickens."
Due to the height advantage and the players in line with Mu Tiezhu, they often face huge psychological pressure, and the man in front of him is as tall as a mountain, as long as the other party is willing, he can even block all his actions, plus all his vision.
Playing with Mu Tiezhu is very uncomfortable. This became the common feeling of all of Mu Tiezhu's opponents.
As long as Mu Tiezhu appears, then the opponent will not be able to grasp the initiative at all, and every time he falls into passivity, with the blessing of Mu Tiezhu, his team can always play a crushing level score.
After the coach's training, the wooden iron pillar has long been completed, and although the last rebound on his body is huge, his flexibility on the field is no worse than that of other players, and at the same time, his shooting accuracy is also top-notch.
Even many times he doesn't need a header, he just needs to "pinch" the ball and stuff it into the box to complete the score. In the inner line, Mu Tiezhu was undoubtedly the king of that era.
On top of the team cooperation, Mu Tiezhu also has a strong sense of consciousness, whether it is an assist or a pass, he can do it with ease, in the face of Mu Tiezhu's huge size, the other side will often adopt the tactics of multi-person envelopment, but Mu Tiezhu is not afraid of multi-person siege, and The Mu Tiezhu on the court can always miraculously turn danger into disaster, decay into magic.
Mu Tiezhu's average score per game is around 20 points, and in a municipal competition, Mu Tiezhu even achieved a staggering score of 80 points, which is still the highest result in the history of mainland basketball and has not been broken.
However, what really made Mu Tiezhu famous in the world was because of a Sino-US friendly match in 1979.
In 1979, when diplomatic relations had just been restored between China and the United States, and there was a competition between the two countries, the United States sent a team to China to play, and the People's Liberation Army Bayi Basketball Team was ordered to go out.
At that time, Mu Tiezhu was just 30 years old, in the golden age of his career, and in this game, he showed extraordinary skills.
The U.S. basketball team is recognized as the number one in the world, but in this friendly game, they broke Beijing twice in succession.
Mu Tiezhu on the field is like the god of war possessed, killing all sides like a no-man's land, successively cutting down many balls, after the end of the game, Mu Tiezhu's fame resounded all over the world, everyone knows that the People's Liberation Army Bayi basketball team has a giant.
This game was not the end of Mu Tiezhu's basketball career, in the days that followed, he also led the Bayi team to step onto the stage of the first Basketball Club Championship in Asia, and after competing with more than a dozen countries in Asia, the People's Liberation Army Bayi Basketball Team once again won the championship trophy, and Mu Tiezhu's own reputation also reached the extreme.
Mu Tiezhu has been fighting in the professional arena until the age of 38, which can be said to have squeezed out the last bit of potential in his body. Because of his excellent performance, after retiring from the army, the Chinese Basketball Association officially awarded him the "Basketball Outstanding Contribution Award".
After retiring, neither child played basketball
Because of the basketball game, Mu Tiezhu also gained his love, and his wife Wang Zhuanghong was once a fan of him, because the two were able to get to know and fall in love with each other.
In addition to Mu Tiezhu's excellent performance on the field, people can't help but wonder another question, that is, whether Mu Tiezhu grew so tall because of individual differences, or because of genetic advantages?
Mu Tiezhu married in 1979, and his wife Wang Zhuanhong is a factory employee, in the factory, Wang Zhuanhong is also a main member of the women's basketball team, with a height of 1.7 meters.
The two gave birth to a son and a daughter, named Mu Tong and Mu Rong respectively. Perhaps due to the strength of genes, Mu Tiezhu's two children are very outstanding in height, the son Mu Tong is as high as one meter eight, and the daughter Mu Rong is also one meter 72, although it is also tall, but compared to the father, this height can be said to be a lot normal.
Although the height of the children is not very outstanding, but this height wants to participate in professional basketball, with the reputation of Mu Tiezhu, it is also easy.
But Mu Tiezhu did not overly encourage his children to participate in basketball, but let them follow their own inner choices and freely choose their own path in life.
Neither of Mu Tiezhu's children later embarked on the basketball route, but the family still loved basketball and often sat together to watch the game.
When talking about his favorite star, his son Mu Tong's answer was Jordan, while his daughter and wife both liked O'Neal, and no one said that it was Mu Tiezhu, to which Mu Tiezhu once smiled helplessly and said: "The reason why this mother and daughter like O'Neill should be because we are very similar to each other." ”
In addition to watching games on TV, the family occasionally goes to the stadium for activities and envy others.
Mu Tiezhu's children have not been affected by their father's star aura, whether it is life or study and work, Mu Tiezhu has not worried, his daughter Mu Tong graduated from college, became an office worker white-collar worker, working in the bank.
Although I don't earn much, I am good at stability and have been married and have a family for many years.
Mu Tiezhu's son Mu Tong, born in 1988, graduated from Beijing Union University, majoring in foreign languages, Mu Tiezhu had planned to send him abroad for further study, but his son did not have that idea, so he let him go.
At present, Mu Tong is struggling in a company, is a white-collar worker, and should also struggle to the middle level in the company, belonging to the old employees in the workplace.
After Mu Tiezhu retired, he did not want to quit the basketball industry, and his biggest wish was to find a team to be a coach.
But unfortunately, when he retired from the medical examination, he was found to have congenital heart disease, and finally failed to realize this wish, which became the biggest regret in Mu Tiezhu's life.
But he soon found his new hobby, which was making movies.
As a top basketball player, Mu Tiezhu himself is not short of money, and the reason why he will participate in film shooting is mainly to have fun.
On the road of film, Mu Tiezhu's figure has also brought him a huge advantage, and many directors have invited him to make a cameo in the film.
Usually, the role played by Mu Tiezhu is not a good role, for example, in "Silly Hat Manager", Mu Tiezhu plays a security guard, and in "One Night Singer", Mu Tiezhu plays an underworld thug.
Although there is no only villain in the movie, Mu Tiezhu still loves this job.
Unfortunately, his love did not last long in the end, and he had to leave because of physical reasons.
In later life, sickness is thrown away to retain optimism
In his later years, Mu Tiezhu's physical condition was very bad, and years of basketball games made him full of pain, and almost every inch of his skin had been injured.
When you are young, you can still carry it, but when you are old, these injuries are the most fatal.
The most serious problems on Mu Tiezhu's body were herniated discs in the waist and vein embolism in his legs, and every time he had a seizure, it would always make his pain unbearable, and he collapsed on the bed, and it took a long time to come over.
In order to be able to recover his body as soon as possible, in the days that followed his doctor's advice, he quit smoking and drinking for many years and insisted on exercising every day.
At this time, Mu Tiezhu could no longer pick up the basketball again, and his favorite activity was to meet with three or five friends and go to the nearby mountains to climb or fish.
When he is in good shape, he will continue to jog, 10,000 meters a day.
However, perhaps because the physical overdraft was too serious when he was young, Mu Tiezhu's physical condition in his later years was still worse day by day.
Outside the stadium, Mu Tiezhu is also a well-known caring person.
The problem of employment life after the retirement of athletes has always been a problem, and Mu Tiezhu once organized a charity sale to help other retired athletes who could not find employment and difficulties.
He also drove to the west to participate in public welfare activities in order to spread love many times, and he also founded a basketball school with Zheng Haixia, Li Yulin and others, and continuously provided equipment to schools with poor conditions.
Until September 16, 2008, Mu Tiezhu collapsed in his home...
After Mu Tiezhu's death, CCTV News once issued a column to report on the memory of the Chinese basketball star.
Mu Tiezhu died during the Beijing Olympic Games, and when the news came, countless sports elders wept for it.
Mu Tiezhu's era came to an end on this day.
After the diagnosis report of the 309 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, the cause of Mu Tiezhu's death was sudden death due to a heart attack, which is very rare, and it is even more regrettable that it happened to such a basketball player.
On top of Mu Tiezhu's funeral, countless of his friends and colleagues rushed to the scene, and the athletes and coaches of the Bayi Men's and Women's Basketball Team, the athletes and coaches of the Bayi Sports Brigade, and the social masses from all walks of life spontaneously came to see off the giant.
Mu Tiezhu's body was placed in the farewell hall, and at this moment he was covered with the August 1st Army flag.
Because he once played for the Bayi basketball team, Mu Tiezhu himself had a military rank, so his funeral was held at the Babaoshan East Auditorium in Beijing.
At the funeral scene, Zhang Bin, the leader of the old teammate and old comrade-in-arms, suppressed his inner grief and personally came to send the veteran on his last journey. After the funeral, Zhang Bin said: "Last night I also dreamed of this big brother. ”
Also coming to the funeral site was Li Yulin, a teammate of the Bayi team, and the two were also very good friends in private.
"The news came so suddenly, it was unbelievable, and I really didn't want to remember what had happened before us. When the iron pillar left, I not only lost a big brother, but also lost my role model and role model. ”
"We learned a lot from Director Mu."
After attending the farewell ceremony, Wang Zhizhi said: "We have inherited the glorious tradition of the Bayi men's basketball team from him, and now we want to continue to carry forward this tradition." ”
At the funeral scene, Mu Tiezhu's wife and daughter cried bitterly, and their emotions quickly infected the people around them, including former Chinese women's basketball center Zheng Haixia.
Mu Tiezhu's relationship with Zheng Haixia was very good before his death, and the death of his old friend this time was a huge blow to him, and he did not accept an interview due to his grief.
In the crowd, there was an equally tall figure named Yao Ming.
Years later, some people commented on Mu Tiezhu and Yao Ming, saying that they were the top centers of the two eras in China, and perhaps it was at this moment that the two changed the baton of the new and old eras.
Above Mu Tiezhu's funeral, a reporter once interviewed Yao Ming.
For the predecessor Yao Ming showed heartfelt admiration: "Mu Tiezhu and I are two generations of big centers in the Chinese basketball world. In the past, if you mentioned a real big center, you would think of him first. It was a look of admiration, an admiration, and I had contact with him, but I had never spoken to him, because at that time, after all, I was not qualified to talk to him. ”
Resources:
- Asia's No. 1 center Optimus Prime is gone, once hailed as China's no. 1 longest man (pictured) Sohu Sports
- Chinese basketball world bad news The old national player Mu Tiezhu died of illness at the age of 59