Gong Luming: Foreign coaches are not the lifesaver of Chinese basketball The initiative should be in the hands of local coaches
"The Chinese men's basketball team has accumulated a little family base through generations, and the whole industry needs to cherish it, pay hard, the family base is lost, and the whole industry suffers losses."
The 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup came to an end on the evening of September 10, and Germany, who reached the final for the first time, continued to perform miracles, defeating Serbia 83-77 and finally crowned. Serbia failed to win the final match, but their World Cup victory in the absence of several top stars made it to the final, proving once again the amazing strength of this veteran European powerhouse.
The Chinese men's basketball team ranked only 29th out of 32 teams, and the coach was none other than Aleksandar Jordjevic, who holds the Serbian Basketball Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award, for him and the Chinese men's basketball team, the trip to the Philippines World Cup was full of frustration and depression. The first game of the Chinese men's basketball World Cup was defeated to Serbia 63-105, which happened to be the 56th birthday of Old Joe, and before the game, many members of the Serbian team sent blessings to the legend, but the birthday star could only shake his head after the start of the game.
On November 16, 2022, the Chinese Basketball Association made adjustments to the head coach of the Chinese men's basketball national team, announcing the selection of Jordjevic as the head coach of the Chinese men's basketball national team. His task is to lead the Chinese men's basketball team to play in the sixth window of the 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup Qualifiers and the 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup, and strive to lead the team to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Heavy money invited world-class coaches to lead the army, plus naturalized player NBA star Li Kyle joined, the largest investment in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team in exchange for a win and four losses in this World Cup, setting the worst record in history while losing the Olympic ticket again and falling into the abyss.
The Chinese men's basketball team, which did not perform well in the last Olympic cycle, failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, and this time it is not qualified for the Paris Olympics, which means that a generation of players cannot compete at the highest level in their own competitive prime.
In the past, the flag bearer of the Chinese delegation to the Olympic Games would be a tall and handsome Chinese men's basketball player. Now, the Chinese men's basketball team, which has missed two consecutive Olympics, has even lost the standard-bearer who can guide the direction - Yi Jianlian, a veteran who failed to travel with the team, announced his retirement before the final game of the Chinese men's basketball group stage, and fans lamented that the glory of the Chinese men's basketball team has completely faded from the first eight to eight years of the Olympics.
How should the Chinese men's basketball team continue to move forward? "Southern People Weekly" interviewed Chinese basketball coach Gong Luming. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the 39-year-old commanded the Chinese team to finish in the top eight for the first time, the best record ever unbroken, and this group of players is also known as the "golden generation of 96". When the Chinese men's basketball team fell into a trough in 2014, he was ordered to go out of the mountain and bring the Chinese men's basketball team back to the first place in Asia a year later. The legendary guard, who is only 1.72 meters tall, is known as the "fire master" of Chinese basketball. In 1999, he served as the coach of the Chinese women's basketball team at the lowest point of losing qualification for the Sydney Olympic Games, and through a major change of blood and all-round team building, he created a young and courageous golden generation of women's basketball, winning two consecutive championships in the 2001 Women's Basketball Asian Championship and the 2002 Asian Games, and won the sixth place in the 2002 World Championship.
The following is the self-report of Coach Gong Luming:
▲On October 3, 2015, Changsha, Hunan, the Chinese men's basketball team won the 2015 men's basketball Asian Championship, and Gong Luming held the trophy high to celebrate Photo/Visual China
I personally agree with Chinese basketball to strengthen international exchanges, the Chinese Basketball Association to hire foreign coaches, especially foreign famous coaches to coach is a good thing, whether in confrontation, concept, method can bring us a lot of good experience. However, how to reasonably match the coaching team and how to give full play to the role of foreign teachers still has to take into account some practical factors.
The specialty of foreign coaches is high professionalism, focus and seriousness, and their coaching level must have reached a considerable height before being selected by the Chinese Basketball Association, which is beyond doubt. Most of them grew up in a highly professional basketball environment and felt that they had enough professionalism throughout the team, including themselves. After assembling a national team, foreign coaches rarely think that the construction management of this team and the improvement of athletes' skills are also one of the priorities of the head coach.
They are more accustomed to focusing on the field, such as the tactical system, lineup configuration, opponent research, etc., and many other things, he will think that it is your athlete's own business, or a mature professional athlete himself should have solved it a long time ago.
When foreign coaches are head coaches, although they will be equipped with excellent Chinese coaches as assistants, basically foreign head coaches rarely have in-depth exchanges and active communication with Chinese coaches. To be honest, they don't necessarily look at our Chinese coaches, so we see that foreign coaches are very engaged and very daring to work, but there are few opportunities for formal exchanges of views or exchanges between Chinese and foreign coaches.
From our past experience, if the foreign coach is used as a teaching assistant, he will take the initiative to communicate with the head coach, and will actively communicate with the Chinese coaching staff about the various information he sees, collects, and how to deal with it.
Over the years, whether it is a national team or a local club, our basketball industry has formed such a coaching environment: unless the Chinese coach is very active, actively cooperates with the foreign coach and asks the foreign coach for advice, he may talk to the Chinese coach a little more, if you don't do this, you only follow the foreign coach, he will not actually give you any help. But if the Chinese side is the head coach, the foreign coach will take the initiative to communicate with you with his experience and knowledge or methods, which is a very realistic thing, and such a coaching culture has been formed for so many years.
Another point, even if there is no foreign coach, the coaching staff are all local coaches, and there is an unwritten rule in our coaching circle, accustomed to following the arrangement of the head coach, simply put, if you don't arrange things, I won't do it, the head coach speaks, arrange me, I will do it again. If the manager doesn't ask for it, then the assistant coach won't give his opinion easily.
These are our "basketball culture", foreign coaches must consider these practical factors, in fact, there is a consensus in the circle for a long time, that is, foreign coaches can be used, the ball can also be lost, but the initiative must be in our own hands, that is, to lose, but also to let our own coaches lose understand.
▲September 2, 2023, Manila, Philippines, 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup 17-32 place group stage, Chinese men's basketball team lost 75-96 to the Philippine men's basketball team, head coach Jordjevic withdrew after the game Photo/Visual China
The most taboo thing about hiring foreign teachers is to treat them as a lifesaver and expect them to turn stones into gold and produce results in a short period of time. Can foreign teachers really save Chinese basketball? Not necessarily! To this day, the best records in the history of China's men's and women's basketball teams are still played by our own local coaches. Collective projects have their particularity and complexity, and it is not so easy to make a breakthrough through a foreign teacher, which is what we must think about in team building.
Invite foreign teachers in, you can't throw away all your things. Your own things are accumulated over generations, suitable for your personal characteristics and specific environment, and these experiences have been tested by concrete practice. You can't run completely after others to succeed. Making up for our shortcomings and developing our own strengths is fundamental.
Some of the words may sound outdated, but I still want to say that I have always insisted that the building of the contingent should attach importance to ideological work. The so-called ideological work is not an empty tirade, and it can be combined with many things in daily work requirements and business learning.
The foreign coach does not care about team building, he will not do this kind of ideological work, before the game he went to that station with a jersey and said that you must be worthy of the national flag on it, this is the ideological work he did for the team members. A person's mind is not so simple, why do you play basketball? What are the basic literacy requirements for you in this profession? Further on, what specific understanding do you have about your time? What requirements does this specific era put forward for yourself and the sports industry? You can't take the ball with an empty head.
It's not just that the national team lacks quality ideological work, but in our current professional league, will anyone do ideological education work? What social role should a basketball professional play in today's environment? How many people are able to answer? We are professional, the salary of the players is up, but the ideological understanding has not kept up. Athletes need guidance, and hearing people criticize the "men's football" of China's men's basketball team makes our basketball and football work look bad. As the old saying goes, "one day for the teacher and the father for life", "the son does not teach the father", from the club to the national team, have our coaches and leaders fulfilled their responsibilities to influence and educate young people? The problem of the team members must be in the management education, no one in the national team educates him, and no one educates him when he returns to the place, he is dangling every day, and even begging him and coaxing him, right?
Our own coaches must actively grow, and we cannot say that it is unrealistic to sit and wait for high-level foreign coaches to serve as assistants, and it is impossible to win the true respect of peers and team members.
Don't underestimate a team, its content is not just technical stuff. The manager itself needs a level of maturity, subtlety, leading by example, and what kind of atmosphere you say and behave creates is important.
The coach is actually an ascetic. To be a good coach, you have to be focused and give up a lot of hobbies. You usually have nothing to make a group of friends, training here, what to do at night there, where to succeed? As a coach you have to think about the whole team, and the whole team is not a matter of two things. Team formation, communication up and down, parent communication, ideological problems, technical problems, the construction of the team's offensive and defensive system, opponent research, you can't be busy 24 hours a day, and you still have time to go elsewhere? Not focusing will not solve these problems at all.
One has to respect one's job, which is what you live on or who you eat. When I took the Chinese women's basketball team, I always used a porcelain bowl to eat, that is, to remind myself that you have to take care of your own rice bowl, don't fight, there will be no food after the fight.
Whether it is a star athlete or a coach, they should abide by their duties, and cannot sacrifice the core values of sunshine, health and positivity in sports in order to highlight their individuality. In the past, before the national team completed training or competition tasks and the players returned to the club, we all had to make requirements for them, and after going back, you should reflect the level and value of the national team members, set an example, and take the lead in all aspects, rather than go back to play big names. Everyone in the league also has a technical problem to solve, and we have to check it when we come back.
Wang Chen, president of Union Medical College and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in his 2023 opening speech, "We must take the world as our responsibility, have real skills, and reflect the nobility of life, the nobility of the industry, and the nobility of health in simple labor." "Every industry must have its own professional beliefs, the Chinese men's basketball team has accumulated a little family base by several generations, and the whole industry needs to cherish it, pay steadfastly, the family base is defeated, and the whole industry suffers losses."