The Paper's reporter Hu Jie
From the World Preliminary Tournament to the Asian Cup, and back to the World Preliminary Tournament, the Chinese men's basketball team experienced 66 days of overseas drift, and unconsciously created the longest overseas training time in history.
If you count the official training camp that began on May 22, the Chinese men's basketball team spent a full 100 days in closed conditions.
In the summary of the post-match press conference, Du Feng said: "This summer, only the people in the team know how difficult we are, and I think everyone has persevered, which is very good. ”
However, if the scorer is given to the fans, the result is completely irrelevant to the three words "very good" - just like the fans wonder, "When did the Asian dominance of the Chinese men's basketball team begin to disappear?" ”
Zhou Qi is the last card face of the Chinese men's basketball team.
Brother I tried my best, and that's how capable I was
In the second half of the game against the Bahrain men's basketball team, the topic called "Why does the Chinese men's basketball team always suddenly lose power" quietly climbed the Weibo hot search.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Chinese men's basketball team was played by the opponent in four and a half minutes to play a 10-1 offensive climax. The sudden power outage has become the epitome of the entire summer of the Chinese men's basketball team.
In the second game against Australia, the Chinese men's basketball team scored only 3 points in the final quarter of the collapse; Against Kazakhstan, the Chinese men's basketball team scored only 7 points in the third quarter; In the two games against Bahrain, one relied on Jiang Weize's 12 points in a single quarter and Gu Quan's supplementary basket to win by 1 point, and only scored 1 point in a four-and-a-half minute.
The players are tired, the fans are looking bad... So the national team players were denounced one by one, from Hu Mingxuan to Sun Minghui, from Guo Allen to Zhao Jiwei, no one could escape.
So much so that Zhao Jiwei broke the jar under the comments of the fans, "Brother, I tried my best, and the ability is like this!" You sue me. ”
Zhao Jiwei replied to the fans.
Looking at the 11 games this summer, the Chinese men's basketball team is not without outstanding performances - the first game of the World Preliminary Round against Australia, and the Asian Cup against the host Indonesia, the performance of the Chinese men's basketball team is enough to be satisfactory.
Against Australia, although the Chinese men's basketball team lost 7 points, the team still retained suspense from trailing by 16 points to the last 3 minutes, showing their spirit and competitive state, which made people look forward to their performance after that.
In the Asian Cup against Indonesia, the Chinese men's basketball team won 50 points, the whole team sent 25 assists, and scored 18 three-pointers, and Du Feng described the whole game with "pleasing to the eye" after the game.
Zhao Jiwei replied to the fans.
But every time the fans were hung up, they were pressed by the team in the next game. In the second game against Australia, the Chinese team suffered a 23-point crash in the final quarter; Two days after playing in Indonesia, the Chinese team was eliminated by Lebanon led by Alaki...
If the Asian Cup stopped in the quarterfinals because of the sudden epidemic, then in the fourth window of the World Preliminary Tournament, the players' physical condition was restored, and the shortcomings of the squad were made up in time, but the two games with Kazakhstan and Bahrain were still stumbling.
It should be emphasized that the Chinese men's basketball team only participates in the competition in the Asia-Pacific region, and a team like Bahrain has lost an average of 42.7 points per game against the Chinese men's basketball team before this.
The supremacy of the Chinese men's basketball team in Asia is no longer stable.
Hu Mingxuan (left) has been criticized too much this summer, but he is already one of the best players in Chinese basketball.
When did the Chinese men's basketball team lose its dominance?
When the Chinese team was able to beat Bahrain, many people stressed that Asian basketball as a whole was improving, but Australia gave a sullen stick.
Before the World Preliminary Tournament between China and Bahrain, the latter had just finished playing against Australia, and Bahrain scored only 50 points in the whole game, losing to Australia by 54 points. Against another Asian powerhouse, Iran, Australia won another 30 points against their opponents.
Australia is no longer a question of winning or losing for Asian teams, but about how many points to win. Once upon a time, such a dimensionality reduction blow was also exclusive to the Chinese men's basketball team, but it suddenly disappeared at some point.
The last Asian-level basketball event, the Jakarta Asian Games, when the Chinese men's basketball team competed with a half-set national team lineup, still won the championship as desired.
In five games, although the Chinese men's basketball team is not as absolutely dominant as before, except for the first 2-point narrow victory over clarkson's Philippines, the other games have hardly encountered too many obstacles - 17 points to win Kazakhstan, 35 points to win Indonesia, 17 points to win against Chinese Taipei, and 12 points to avenge Iran in the final.
At that time, the Chinese men's basketball team did not focus on the Asian level, but on the men's basketball World Cup a year later. The national team has also emerged young players such as Sun Minghui, Abdul Salam, shen Zijie and so on.
In 2019, the Chinese men's basketball team lost the World Cup.
But after the men's basketball World Cup group stage was out, Chinese basketball came to an abrupt end, both in terms of industrial development and player promotion...
Before the Men's Basketball World Cup, the most discussed topic was whether Shen Zijie deserved a 12-man roster seat - at that time, Shen Zijie not only had outstanding frame protection ability, but also had unique talent.
But now, three years later, although he has entered the national team roster, he has never had a chance to play - it is not that Du Feng is unwilling to use him, it is too hot to foul in 4 minutes.
What is even more ironic is that Shen Zijie was the best defensive player in the CBA last season - the best defensive player in the domestic league, but because of defensive problems, he could not play in asian-level games...
That is, in just three years, Chinese basketball was instantly pulled apart...
Coach Du Feng's tactics are also debatable.
CBA is still a simple mode
Throughout the summer, the Chinese men's basketball team suffered from "Zhou Qi dependence".
Once Zhou Qi came off the field, the team's offensive and defensive level immediately dropped sharply. So after each game, there will be a scene of Du Feng "fancy blowing" Zhou Qi.
After the Asian Cup, when Zhou Qi was asked in an interview why there was such a promotion, his answer was: "What I feel more deeply about myself is that it has little to do with the increase in the ball, and after you play in a high-level basketball league, you are more accustomed to this state of play." If you play a lot during the season, then you meet these players internationally, and your form is different. ”
Zhou Qi did not emphasize the improvement of technology, and even frankly said that "the basic skills of the members of the national team have been fixed", but the difference in physical state has created a completely different result of the game.
In the past few years, when the CBA has gradually reduced the role of foreign aid, domestic players have indeed had more say, and the so-called "point guard boom" has been created.
But when the intensity of the game drops, the domestic league defenders come to the Asian arena, but they seem to be a little weak, which may be the greenhouse effect of the CBA.
When stars get used to the simple mode in the CBA and suddenly turn the difficulty to difficult, their play on the court also becomes difficult.
Du Feng said that the worst thing about the Chinese men's basketball team is the ability to resist.
Since the emergence of the epidemic, Chinese basketball has not participated in international competitions for a long time, in addition to a few sporadic World Preliminary Tournaments, players going overseas to exercise and improve has also become sporadic.
If you don't advance against the current, you will retreat, and now it is just a portrayal of the stagnation of the Chinese men's basketball team in the past few years.
The 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup will open in late August next year, and for the Chinese men's basketball team, it is crucial to press other Asian teams to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games.
But now that the Chinese men's basketball team has not shown its dominance in Asia, how can it play on the world stage?
It is worth mentioning that after the Chinese men's basketball team ended all international matches this summer, Zhou Qi, Guo Allen and Zhao Rui have not yet registered in the CBA League, and the transfer window is only three days away, and whether they can appear in the CBA arena next season is still unknown.
If they can't play in the CBA next season, can they go to a higher level of league to polish themselves?
Chinese basketball must learn to adapt to the intensity of others.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Yijia Xu