On May 18, Beijing time, the four golden flowers of the Chinese women's basketball team announced that they would converge with the national team as soon as possible and prepare to participate in the next women's basketball Asian Cup. Such a sudden situation also disrupted the plans of Wang Siyu, Li Meng, Han Xu and Yang Liwei, of which Wang Siyu was still in the injury stage, but still expressed his obligation to fight for the country.
After the Chinese men's basketball team won the runner-up in the Women's Basketball World Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team returned to the peak again, and the girls of the women's basketball team also paid too much, and this summer Li Meng, Yang Liwei, Han Xu and other players have played in the WNBA, but unfortunately now because they want to play in the Women's Basketball Asian Cup, the WNBA's dream building journey is temporarily coming to an end.
In fact, the return of these main players is not needed before the Chinese women's basketball Asian Cup, and Chinese women's basketball coach Zheng Wei also said that players can rest assured to play in the WNBA, because FIBA was determined to hold the Olympic qualification tournament (preliminary round) in November, which can fully allow Li Meng, Han Xu, Yang Liwei and other players to play in the WNBA league with peace of mind.
However, now FIBA has changed its format and cancelled the Olympic qualification tournament scheduled for November, which also means that this Asian Cup will replace the preliminary round of the Olympic qualification tournament, and only the top four teams can get the right to participate in the women's basketball Olympic qualification, so the results of the Women's Basketball Asian Cup are very important for us.
The 2023 Women's Basketball Asian Cup will start on June 26, when all Asian teams will gather in Sydney, Australia, and the Chinese women's basketball team will be in Group A with the South Korean women's basketball team, the New Zealand women's basketball team and the Lebanese women's basketball team. Since the Asian Cup has been linked to the Olympic qualification tournament, the Chinese women's basketball team must go all out, and the top players of the Chinese women's basketball team must also return as much as possible.
Wang Siyu has returned home from Melbourne today, and is expected to meet the Chinese women's basketball team on the 19th, although Wang Siyu's shoulder injury has not yet healed, but still said that it is incumbent on him to play for the country. Yang Liwei's side because of the meeting with the Chinese women's basketball team, the Spark team has cut Yang Liwei, which is really a huge loss. Han Xu is in close communication with his team's libero to determine whether to return to China to join the Chinese women's basketball team, while Li Meng will travel to Australia to join the national team in the near future.
Do you think the Chinese women's basketball team can go straight to the Olympics through the Asian Cup?