The story of this game is the epitome of Yi Jianlian's entire career

In September 2020, the Chinese men's basketball team carried out training, and Yi Jianlian wrote a letter to the young brothers of the national men's basketball training team, which contained the sentence - "The national team is a place where you want to play with your life".

This sentence is the best summary of Yi Jianlian's career.

There is a game that is also deeply engraved in my mind - in the 2019 Men's Basketball World Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team lost to Nigeria, and for the first time in history, it missed the Olympic Games.

The Chinese men's basketball team lost completely, even to the present time four years later - but Yi Jianlian did not lose.

He faced Nigeria alone and scored 27 points, and the story of that night was the epitome of Yi Jianlian's entire career.

Violent dunks, three-pointers, every ball must be contested

It is impossible to imagine how Yi Jianlian overcame the pain in his ankle and fought the court for 25 minutes.

In the first quarter of that game against Nigeria, Yi Jianlian did not play until 3 minutes and 38 seconds left, and the opening game rested for more than 6 minutes, Li Nan's arrangement undoubtedly sent a signal: let the UAE preserve physical strength, and must fight in the key moments of the second half.

In the 2019 World Cup, Yi Jianlian played against Nigeria four alone.

But after his debut, Yi Jianlian never spared half a point. The first time he touched the ball, Yi Jianlian pulled to a high position to receive Zhao Rui's pass, and after breaking through the face frame into the inside line, he carried the defender and caused the opponent to foul. The first point, it's so hard.

As soon as the second quarter began, Yi Jianlian, who had always been silent and silent, began to frequently take the initiative to communicate with the referee, and when the opponent missed a layup but the referee awarded a penalty for the ball in the front court, the UAE rushed to the referee with a big stride, and his hand continuously gestured to the opponent's touching the ball.

Immediately after the next offensive round, Allen Guo broke through the free throw line with the ball, and Yi Jianlian came to the referee again, communicating with the other party, and every time he made a penalty, Yi Jianlian was trying his best.

Break through to create kills, pressure the referee to find a whistle... Yi Jianlian played the most brilliant game of the 2019 World Cup and even the national team's career, twice hitting three points from the outside when Nigeria was about to open the point gap, maintaining the momentum of the Chinese men's basketball team.

If basketball is a one-man sport, Yi Jianlian must have won, but this game the UAE is facing almost a 1-on-5 situation, but whenever he takes a break, the Chinese team is in the offensive power outage, only Fang Shuo can still hit a few unreasonable three-pointers, struggling to support.

Yi Jianlian has already taken out all his weapons, staged Kobe-style low-post back-back mid-range jumpers, feint point flying defenders, flanking straight to the basket and throwing his arms to the dunk... After each difficult score, he was the first to quickly run back to the back, direct his teammates to land, and throw themselves into defense.

But the iron-clad UAE also had helpless times, with 2 minutes and 57 seconds left before the end, Yi Jianlian ignored his injured ankle and fought for a backcourt rebound in the human slit, but because there was no one to answer, he was snatched by the opponent and dunked - the UAE spread his hands towards his teammates, leaned down and slapped the floor hard.

It was the moment when the Nigerian team killed the suspense of the game, and Yi Jianlian's back looked so lonely and desperate.

Until there were 47 seconds left in the game, instead of letting the UAE League wait for time to run out on the field, Li Nan also made the decision to replace him.

"A veteran like him shouldn't have to go through that kind of ordeal on the court, he should be allowed to silently return to the bench," Yao explained after the game, giving veteran Yi Jianlian the greatest respect.

Yi Jian League is livid behind the color.

"This game means a lot to the Chinese men's basketball team, especially for me, and I treat this game like the last game of my career, trying my best to help the team get a win. We tried hard but we couldn't win the game. ”

After the game, Yi Jianlian's statement sounded full of regret, unwillingness and powerlessness.

And in the first time after that game, the topic of "Yi Jianlian too fighting" rushed to the first place on the Weibo hot search list, netizens felt sorry for Yi Jianlian, tribute to Yi Jianlian, although the Chinese team lost to Nigeria by 13 points, but Yi Jianlian who scored 27 points on 10 of 14 shots did not lose.

Even netizens will discuss whether Yi Jianlian's achievements can be regarded as the second person in the history of China's men's basketball team.

Since Yi Jianlian was first selected for the national team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, when he was surrounded by Battle and Yao Ming, the 17-year-old UAE did not have much playing time, averaging only 2.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, and the main task was to learn from his big brothers.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the Chinese team was called the "death group" in the grouping with the United States, Germany, Greece and Angola, it was because Yi Jianlian hit a late-minute shot in the game against Germany that the Chinese men's basketball team made a historic glorious moment of breaking into the Olympic top 8.

But in the 2012 London Olympics, the Chinese men's basketball team lost all 5 games, losing the world's top 8 position, and even in those four years, the Chinese men's basketball team led by Haddadi let the Iranian team led by Haddadi explode in the Tianjin Asian Championship, and even the status of Asian hegemony was not guaranteed...

The UAE's career has been carrying on from top to bottom, but the memories of these 10 years are too sour.

"To say leader, I am a failure"

But the cruel reality is not always like fairy tales have a beautiful turning point, at least in the world basketball world, the Chinese men's basketball team led by Yi Jianlian is still at the bottom, sinking again and again.

In 2014, the men's basketball world championship was renamed the first event of the World Cup, and the Chinese men's basketball team failed to qualify directly, because at the previous year's Manila Championship, the Chinese team lost to South Korea, Iran and Chinese Taipei, and the record was miserable, which was the darkest moment in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team.

The remarks questioning the Chinese men's basketball team have made a lot of noise, which naturally includes questions about the leader Yi Jianlian: How can a silent leader lead the Chinese men's basketball team out of the haze?

He never defended himself, even if he explained a few words, but used day-to-day training, strict self-discipline, and gave his best performance on the field to respond to those who were skeptical.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Chinese men's basketball team once again experienced 5 defeats, Yi Jianlian averaged 20.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, personal points accounted for one-third of the team's scores, rebounds, steals and blocks ranked first in the team, and even averaged 1.4 three-pointers per game, ranking first among all players in the Chinese men's basketball team.

Young players were unable to pick the big beams, and Yi Jianlian personally became the last "fig leaf" of the Chinese team.

Finally, after the final game of the Chinese men's basketball team at the Rio Olympics, Yi Jianlian said those thought-provoking words.

'We need to accept criticism when we don't play well, we are really far from the goal, we have to make a lot of changes, especially some young players, we have to calm down, accept some criticism, accept some harsh requirements, recognize ourselves.

"Everyone says that the road is still very long, but seriously, a section of the road passes quickly, how to grasp every day..."

The following words, Yi Jianlian swallowed into his stomach.

He wanted to lead the Chinese team back to the ranks of the world's top teams, but the record of losing again and again seemed to make him a little discouraged.

"If you want to take the leader to set me up, I feel very defeated, I haven't won a game for so many years, I still do relatively poorly in all aspects, those years are still quite ups and downs for me, I have been trying to figure out how to win, but I see some gaps with other strong teams."

Pulling the corners of his mouth, Yi Jianlian's smile was a little bitter.

Now, at the moment of his retirement, this bitterness has been added a little more - especially after witnessing the Chinese men's basketball team lose two games to Serbia and South Sudan in this year's World Cup.

Like the UAE, we are full of nostalgia for the Chinese men's basketball team in 2008.

"I was very impressed in 2008, playing the first game on your doorstep, leading the whole team into the stadium in the tunnel, and hearing the shouts of the fans at that moment, you will really remember it in your mind for the rest of your life, because it was a beautiful moment."

Good, when will it come again?