"Jinlan", which blooms on the other side of the ocean, will bring more brilliance and excitement to the Chinese women's basketball team.
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Text / Li Jiajun
Edited / Guo Yang
The three finals battles of the Sichuan women's basketball team and the Inner Mongolia women's basketball team have not dissipated, and the sports circle has ushered in another major news.
On March 14, Beijing time, just one day after leading the Sichuan women's basketball team to win the first WCBA championship trophy in team history, Li Meng announced through his personal social media that all fans were excited - he will join the Washington Mystics in the summer to play in the WNBA.
Li Meng wrote on social media: "This summer, I will wear the jersey of the Washington Mysterious Man and compete in the WNBA!" I hope to bring more eyes from Asia and China to the WNBA, and at the same time train and improve in the WNBA."
And this also makes her the fourth active player to land in the WNBA after Han Xu, Li Yueru and Yang Liwei, and the ninth player to land in the WNBA.
Li Meng, who regrettably missed the Women's Basketball World Cup final, finally realized her dream this time.
After several twists and turns, the "dream" finally came true
Li Meng has a long relationship with the WNBA.
Born in Shenyang in 1995, Li Meng showed superhuman basketball talent from a young age, playing in the U17 Women's Basketball World Youth Championship at the age of 15, and led the Chinese team to win the third place, becoming the first Chinese player to win the MVP at the World Series at a young age.
But unfortunately, the injury caught up with Li Meng early. ACL reconstruction surgery that destroyed Derek Ross's career, Li Meng underwent twice at the age of 16.
"The recovery from the ruptured ACL was very painful and she suffered a lot. Often shed tears, or put the leather band on the waist to practice sliding and jumping. It takes 10 months for others to recover, but she is back on the pitch in less than 8 months." Li Meng's enlightenment coach, Zhan Shuping, once recalled.
After more than a year of adjustment, Li Meng played in the WCBA game for Shenbu women's basketball team, really started her career, and relied on her own step by step efforts to realize her talent - in the two WCBA seasons from 2017 to 2019, she won the highest honor of scoring champion and regular season MVP; At the same time, he averaged 11 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist per game in the 2018 World Cup in Spain, leading the national team to 6th place.
Li Meng, who proved himself in both the league and the international stage, also received attention from the WNBA for the first time. According to reports, the Minnesota Bobcats had invited her at the time, but because of personal family reasons, Li Meng chose to reject her highest dream as a professional women's basketball player.
Li Meng, who officially entered his peak, has been known to more and more people since then, and the name of "LeBron Dream" has also begun to play in the Chinese basketball scene.
"Her basketball thinking is American, her technique is also technical, her passing speed, fast and ruthless, is the style of the American WNBA, she was born like this." Sichuan Yuanda Meile head coach Wang Guizhi once commented on Li Meng.
In last year's Women's Basketball World Cup, Li Meng even played as the core of the national team with illness, averaging 16 points, 2.5 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game, and led the team to the runner-up in one fell swoop, equaling the best record of the Chinese women's basketball team in the World Cup.
After this battle, the WNBA once again extended an invitation to Li Meng. Initially, it was the famous Los Angeles Sparks, and then after the agency team had been in contact with a number of WNBA teams for a while, it was officially announced that he would join the Washington Mystic.
Signing is just the beginning, there are more challenges to stay in the ocean
However, staying in the ocean is by no means an easy task.
Athletes are not only facing a higher level of competition, but also integration off the field – the media environment, teammates, training methods, language issues, all have to be adapted and learned.
Last year, ECO Krypton's @Sports Research Institute talked to Han Xu, who was still playing for the WNBA New York Liberty at that time. Han Xu, who just lifted the championship trophy for Sichuan with Li Meng, has been fighting overseas for two years and has fought landmark battles many times, and has also gained many overseas fans during this period, and she may be the object that Li Meng can learn from.
"When I was on the team, I would write a daily plan, and then I would summarize the gains of the day before going to bed at night, and slowly I could see a lot of my shortcomings and then correct them, which also allowed me to quickly find my form and adapt to the new environment." Han Xu said.
During his two seasons at New York Liberty, Han Xu used his technical characteristics to quickly integrate into the team, continued to improve, and gained the trust of the coaching staff and an increasingly high tactical status. In the 2022 season, she averaged 8.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.5 steals and 0.9 blocks in 16 minutes of playing time, shooting an astonishing 44.4% from three-point range.
Off the field, Han Xu is a model for all players who stay in the ocean. "Who doesn't love Han Xu, she is a very good person with a smile on her face forever, but when she comes to the court, she is so aggressive, everyone loves her very much." Han Xu's teammate Sika Kone once said of her.
With his unique personality charm and cheerful personality, Han Xu quickly mingled with his teammates, and in the "Team's fav" team vote initiated by the official social media of Freeman, Han Xu won the most votes and was successfully elected as the "group pet".
In addition to individual efforts, the support of the team is also quite important. The meticulous support of Yao Ming by the rocket team in the documentary "Yao Next Year" is also an important reason why Dayao can succeed later. In this regard, according to Li Meng's agency Newleville Sports, the Mysterious Man signed a one-year season guarantee contract with Li Meng, and the coaching staff has guaranteed Li Meng's playing time and tactical status.
We also noticed that in the official announcement Weibo released by Li Meng, she also mentioned the contract with Klutch Sports Agency, which also updated social media as soon as possible to welcome Li Meng's arrival.
Behind Klutch is LeBron James' long-time friend and agent Rich Paul. If Li Meng can live up to her expectations and play at a high level, this signing will surely bring her more business resources and cooperation opportunities with brands, and her personal commercial value will also be enhanced to a certain extent.
Of course, whether you can stand firm or not depends on solid hard power.
According to reports, Li Meng may change to the No. 2 position after joining the team. This will undoubtedly add impact and projection to the Mysterious Man's guard line, refining his skills with the help of All-Star guard Ariel Atkins and Natasha Cloud with super organizational skills to maximize their potential; At the same time, I also believe that she can maintain her optimistic attitude and meet every challenge in her life in the best condition.
The Mysterious Ones are anything but weak, they have the league's top star, Elena Delle Donna, and just won the WNBA championship in 2019. According to a survey by overseas media in 2019, 8% of residents in the Washington D.C. area regard the Mysterious Man as their favorite team, and this data is the same as another local basketball team, the NBA Wizards.
While the business process of North American sports is obvious, for a WNBA team, such results are very impressive.
In addition to the Wizards, who have been considered "fish belly" for many years, whether it is the recent championship team MLB Nationals or the veteran NFL powerhouse Commander, they all have their own successes. And the mysterious man can carve a path in the middle of these giants and have a fixed audience of his own, which is enough to show his strong influence and importance among the local people.
Popular ranking of professional sports clubs in the Washington area
Facing one of the largest fan groups of any team in the WNBA, this will also bring a lot of pressure from the outside world to Li Meng.
But Washington itself is also a traditional sports city, if Li Meng can seize this opportunity to seize the hearts of the audience in the stands of ESA Arena and in front of the screen, he has every chance to become an athlete with good international influence like Zhang Weili, Zhu Ting, and Wang Shuang, so that the world can further feel the brilliance of Chinese female sportsmen.
Standing on the shoulders of the predecessors, Li Meng and the dream of the Chinese women's basketball team
From the runner-up of the "Fearless Cam Ranh" in the Women's Basketball World Cup last year to the current 4 players who have stayed in the WNBA, it is inseparable from the six-year reform of Chinese basketball.
It can be said that under the great importance of young basketball talents, a group of women's basketball talents such as Li Meng, Huang Sijing, Li Yueru, Han Xu, Yang Liwei, Li Yuan, Wang Siyu and other women's basketball talents have sprung up, making WCBA more exciting and intense, while enhancing the commercial value of female athletes, and returning the Chinese women's basketball team to its due position.
Looking back, the Chinese women's basketball team in the 80s and early 90s can be called the "golden generation", winning two silvers and two bronzes in the Olympic Games and World Championships in ten years. FIBA Hall of Fame center, the first Chinese player to enter the WNBA, Zheng Haixia, has phenomenal dominance on the inside, and Cong Xuedi, Wang Fang, Li Xin and others have also left a good memory for that generation.
However, near the beginning of the 21st century, with Zheng Haixia and other players retiring one after another due to injuries, age and other reasons, the overall strength of the Chinese women's basketball team will inevitably usher in a decline.
In the ten years from 1994 to 2014, in addition to winning the fourth place in the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team failed to rank among the top five in the world championships and the Olympic Games, fell out of the top ten in the 2006 and 2010 world championships, and from 2012 to 2016 was the trough of the women's basketball team, losing to Japan by 35 points in the final of the Asian Championship, and only finished 10th in the Rio Olympics.
Among this generation of players, Miao Lijie, Sui Feifei, Chen Nan, Shao Ting and others are outstanding, and they also continue the inheritance of Chinese players entering the WNBA. Unfortunately, their WNBA careers were short due to injuries and other reasons.
At the same time, the dependence on old players has also led to some lack of success in the women's basketball team: in the 2012 London Olympics, Miao Lijie and Chen Xiaoli were 30 years old; At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Chen Nan, who is 33 years old after giving birth to a child, still has to wear a battle.
Under such circumstances, talent training has undoubtedly become the top priority of the Chinese women's basketball team. Just when the predecessors were struggling to support, Li Meng and other young generations had quietly emerged.
In 2017, when Yao Ming became the chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association and Xu Limin became the head coach, the experience of young players became a top priority.
Under such attention, the Chinese women's basketball team defeated South Korea in the final of the 2018 Asian Games to regain the long-lost gold medal, and relying on this team, won the ticket to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and handed over a brilliant report card on the Olympic and World Cup stages, which became a clear proof of the success of China's basketball reform.
In the context of modern basketball, the Chinese women's basketball team is not out of touch with the times. They can play smooth defensive counterattacks and fast attacks through Wang Siyu, Yang Liwei, and Li Yuan, can play a lot of defense change and space basketball through big men with 3D and athletic ability like Huang Sijing and Han Xu, and can also create opportunities and protect the penalty area in positional warfare hand-to-hand combat through Li Meng, Li Yueru, and Pan Zhenqi.
This is fully integrated with international standards at the tactical level, which is also an important reason why many athletes can be favored by the WNBA today.
At the same time, not only the popular women's volleyball and women's football in the past, the commercial value of women's basketball players is also being more recognized by the whole society.
In 2020, Li Meng became the first Chinese women's basketball player to sign with Nike; After the Tokyo Olympics, Yang Shuyu, a three-man women's basketball team member who won the bronze medal, signed to become the first Chinese or even Asian female athlete signed by the Jordan brand, and the second Chinese athlete to sign Jordan after Guo Allen; In the summer of 2021, Li Yueru became the first spokesperson for the women's basketball team in Peak Basketball...
Under such heat, the Chinese women's basketball girls carry more of our expectations. Whether it is our own league WCBA, the upcoming WNBA of four women's basketball girls, or the performance of the women's national basketball team in the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Paris Olympics, it will undoubtedly attract more attention.
In 66 days, the WNBA 2023 season will officially begin.
If all goes well, Li Meng will make her WNBA debut on May 20, and her opponent is Han Xu's New York Liberty, and after Li Yueru competed with Han Xu last season, another derby belonging to China's Cam Ranh is about to be staged.
Coupled with Yang Liwei, who recently officially announced the signing of the Los Angeles Sparks, behind the more and more "Chinese derby" shining on the WNBA stage, there are generations of Chinese women's basketball players who have gone to follow each other and worked tirelessly to pursue their dreams.
"I hope more people can pay attention to female athletes and let the world see their hard work and persistence!"