Farewell to the men's basketball team: Please don't pretend to know the result at this moment

Or write something and say goodbye to this year's Chinese men's basketball team.

On September 2, China lost to the Philippines 75:96, ending the final match of this World Cup and declaring that it was completely out of the Olympic Games and the Olympics.

It was the first time in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team that it lost to an Asian team — to the Philippines, which we once disdained, and by more than 20 points — bringing the already overwhelming criticism on the Internet to a peak.

Yes, I understand that this result is difficult to accept.

However, I would like to say: "Please don't pretend that we only know at this moment that Chinese basketball is so bad." ”

Honestly, in the first half against the Philippines, the Chinese team played well, and when Zhou Qi only played 8 minutes and left due to injury, the Chinese team still blasted out a half-time output of 40 points, leading the Philippines by 1 point, and we all know what happened in the second half - Clarkson single-handedly exploded the Chinese team.

After the game, many people accused Qiao Shuai of his defensive strategy and rotation selection, and these accusations were not unreasonable, but I always thought that this was not the main reason for the Chinese team's defeat - it is a fact that pinching or delaying Clarkson requires subsequent rotations, but after Zhou Qi's injury, we really have no one available inside. Pinching him is easy to leak everywhere, and without pinching him, there is really no one in the Chinese team who can not be caught in the case of Clarkson - testing Clarkson's shooting is actually a helpless move (not to mention that he didn't shoot well in the first half).

There is little point in talking about competitions anymore. We think about something deeper - on the surface, the defeat of the Chinese men's basketball team happened the day before yesterday, they lost to the Philippines, lost to Clarkson's "dimensionality reduction blow", disappointed all Chinese fans...

But in reality? Did the men's basketball team's "failure" really just happen suddenly yesterday?

In fact, everyone who follows the men's basketball team should know that we lost long ago.

When we face an opponent like Serbia, which is only about 10 in the world power list, we are not ashamed to think that losing 20 points is considered a win, we have already lost;

When we feel that there is little hope of victory against an opponent like South Sudan, which only has a Development League MVP and blue-collar fringe rotation, we have already lost;

When we are comfortable accepting that the Chinese team has scored less than 70 points in 4-5 consecutive games and is not surprised, we have already lost;

Count further.

When we had to pin all our offensive hopes on Lee Kyle — a player who is only in the middle of the average rotation in the NBA, we have already lost;

When after Yi Jianlian in 2007, China had not had a player selected in the NBA's first round for more than a decade, and no player had been selected by any of the world's top leagues, we had already lost.

When we are accustomed to any NBA fringe rotation being able to kill all sides in the CBA as an outside aid, we have already lost;

Count further.

When the "Shanghai Sharks" became a label that replaced "rotten" in foreign forums, we did not feel offended in the slightest; When fandom has been tirelessly ridiculing players who play badly as "CBA teammates" since a long time ago – we have already lost.

When we ourselves have tacitly acknowledged that our league and our players are "rotten" signs;

When we ourselves have tacitly acknowledged that the NBA is an unattainable existence, foreign aid high local players first;

Why should we expect to win the World Series?

Perhaps, it's just that we should have sobered up a little longer.

Three feet of ice, not a day's cold. How can the current situation of the Chinese men's basketball team be changed by a coach's defensive arrangement and a rotation selection?

Clarkson, just tore the last fig leaf of the Chinese men's basketball team - and just Clarkson's level of stars + the Philippines can form a "dimensionality reduction blow" to the Chinese men's basketball team, which actually means more...

In addition to the sadness of losing, I always feel that it is better to expose the problem than to be covered by "cloth". As Mr. Lu Xun said: "Chinese's temperament always likes to reconcile and compromise, for example, you say, this room is too dark, you must open a window here, everyone must not allow it." But if you advocate tearing down the roof, they come to reconcile and are willing to 'open the window'. ”

The problem of low level of CBA league and long-term "enclosure self-sprouting has been around for a long time, and everyone has always been silent or still has illusions in the past, and this time after losing to the Philippines, Zhao Rui finally poked the problem in the post-game interview:

"Our league intensity is not strong enough to support our level of play on the international stage."

This sentence is far more deafening than Qiao Shuai's responsibility and Li Kaier's regret.

Qiao Shuai and Li Kaier don't know about China, but we do; Similarly, Qiao Shuai and Li Kaier can't save the Chinese men's basketball team, only we can save ourselves.

And this starts with the league.

Of course, how to improve the intensity of the league is also a difficult problem.

At present, our CBA league has many restrictions on the use of foreign aid (4 players in the 4th quarter, only one foreign player can play in the fourth quarter, two foreign players cannot be present at the same time, etc.).

The essential reason for restricting foreign aid is to allow local players to have more opportunities, but at present, it seems that the effect is counterproductive - the guarantee of playing time and the guarantee of the team's status have led to many domestic players not wanting to move forward and prefer a corner of the country.

However, for the release of foreign aid, there can be no "one-size-fits-all" policy - in addition to the low level of the CBA league, another serious problem in Chinese basketball is the small basketball population.

This basketball population does not refer to people who play basketball on the field court, but people who are really willing to go on the path of professional basketball - if you want to delve into this question, it is really a long story. But we only need to know one thing - in the long run, the continued decline of the basketball population compared to the poor performance of the national team is also unacceptable for the development of Chinese basketball.

Then, how to find a balance between "foreign aid to improve the league level" and "foreign aid squeezes the living space of local players" is the hard work that the basketball association needs to complete next.

It can be expected that this balance will not be found in a short time, and after it is found, it will take some time to show its effect.

But I think. Although the road is long, we should still choose the right direction - if we do wrong, we must correct it, and if we find it, we must correct it, this is a natural truth, and no one can prevaricate with "it has always been like this".

This road, the Japanese men's basketball team that we all envy today, has also traveled for many years to get through, and they are now just coming to our starting point - what reason do we have to be afraid to go on the road?

Finally, although many people are now dissatisfied with him, I would like to quote Yao Ming:

"As long as the direction is right, you are not afraid of the long road."