Since the US media exposed that the 28-year-old women's basketball national player Yang Liwei terminated his contract with the Spark team, domestic basketball reporter Song Xiang simultaneously broke the news that in addition to Yang Liwei, there are Han Xu and Li Meng are also communicating with the WNBA team, if all aspects go well, they will soon converge with the Chinese women's basketball team to reach the state of the strongest team to play in the Asian Cup.
Many fans are more curious, like the well-known men's basketball Asian Cup, almost not get the attention of the first Asian team, Australia sent three teams, New Zealand also sent a second team, the Philippines, Japan is also a similar situation, and China, Lebanon and other teams have become the few teams that play the main game, why does the women's basketball team reach the point of recruiting players to the United States?
It is reported that the qualification round of the Olympic qualifiers, originally scheduled for November, was cancelled and placed in the Asian Cup, and the top four can play the qualifiers.
The qualifiers are played in February 2024, with 16 teams divided into 4 groups, with the top three in each group qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
From the latest rules of FIBA, you can see that this year's Asian Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team wants to get a place in the qualifiers, it must reach the top four results, and the strength of opponents such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and other opponents cannot be underestimated, if Li Meng, Han Xu, Yang Liwei these players do not choose to play, Li Yueru was seriously injured, whether it is the Chinese Basketball Association, or the women's basketball head coach Zheng Wei, if it relies on the young team to play, the overall difficulty is obvious, once it overturns before the quarterfinals, then the women's basketball team will lose the qualification for the Olympic Games.
The women's basketball team of players collectively won the favor of the WNBA, which is essentially a very good exercise value, like Han Xu, who did not have much chance in the Tokyo Olympics, he has achieved a very good improvement in the WNBA, the World Cup in Sydney shows the strength of the world-class interior line, and has helped the Chinese women's basketball team to create advantages alone, if Li Meng, Yang Liwei these players can get the expected exercise value at the same time, the goal of the women's basketball team is on the podium of the Paris Olympics, to some extent is in line with the status quo.
But if you can't firmly get the top four of the Asian Cup, all this loses the expected exercise value, perhaps from the level of personal ability, this group of players who go to the United States can get the expected self-presentation opportunities, but the women's basketball team is ultimately a project with less attention and market value, especially compared with the men's basketball team, it is difficult to match the value between the two, you know, the Chinese women's basketball team is already a group with high attention in the world, and even many WNBA American players will go to the Chinese league to pan for gold during the window. There is even no shortage of some of America's biggest stars.
In this regard, it is a pity that these women's basketball national players left the WNBA, but compared with the Olympic qualification, it is completely unmatched value, Yang Liwei asked the Spark team for leave, the latter did not agree to terminate the contract directly, and Han Xu, Li Meng may be more communication-oriented, but once these WNBA teams do not agree, they are likely to face similar choices. It may seem like an incomprehensible decision in the US professional league, but with the conflict with the national team level, I believe that most Chinese players will consider the national team level recruitment priority.