Now when everyone mentions basketball stars, their first reaction may be Yao Ming. But in fact, before Yao Ming, there were also many excellent basketball players in China, such as Mu Tiezhu in the 20th century.
Like Yao Ming, he once won the title of "Asian Super Center". It is a pity that Mu Tiezhu died of a heart attack in 2008, but his basketball achievements in the early years were very surprising.
He has represented China in tournaments with the United States and Japan, defeated athletes from these countries, and won the championship. So what was this Mu Tiezhu's early basketball career like?
01 Mu Tiezhu is talented, and his teacher appreciates it very much
It was a very accidental circumstance that Mu Tiezhu became an athlete, Mu Tiezhu was born in Shandong in 1949, when everyone was suffering from famine.
There was really no money in the family, so when he was a child, Mu Tiezhu often wandered around with his family and begged for food for a living.
When Mu Tiezhu was seven or eight years old, the Yellow River in Shandong burst its banks and flooded. During the Chinese New Year, other people's families all had reunion dinners during the New Year, but Mu Tiezhu's family lived a wandering life.
He wandered all the way to Shanxi, lived in a very remote cave, and starved. At that time, the XPCC in Xinjiang was recruiting people from all over the country and wanted more people to develop Xinjiang.
The treatment given was also very good, including food and lodging, and a certain salary every month, which attracted Mu Tiezhu at that time. So at present, the Lord didn't say a word, and immediately went to Xinjiang to sign up.
After settling down in Xinjiang, he moved to Xinjiang with his whole family to settle down. But people are like this, once they have been away from their hometown for a long time, they will inevitably feel homesick.
At that time, Mu Tiezhu's family thought that the Yellow River flood in Shandong had gradually passed, and whether they should return to Shandong to take a look.
Mu Tiezhu thought that he had a certain amount of savings now anyway, since everyone in the family wanted to go home and didn't go home, if it really didn't work, he would rely on his savings to barely survive.
In 1968, the Shandong Provincial Sports Commission selected sports talents in Dongming County, hoping to revitalize the country's sports industry.
At that time, the survival of many people in the area was a problem, not to mention the more advanced things like sports. If you go to some big cities such as Tianjin and Shanghai, you may be able to find enough candidates.
But in a county, you may not find a good candidate. At that time, the county sports committee actually didn't expect to be able to find the so-called athletes, but just wanted to have the mentality of trying it out.
Can you find some talented players to become athletes, sure enough, when the county sports committee was shopping for vegetables in the market, he found Mu Tiezhu who was about to buy chickens at that time, and he was very excited and felt that he was very tall.
It must be suitable to be an athlete, so I walked over and grabbed him and said to him, "Young man, I have an athlete position here, do you want to be an athlete?" Want to play basketball? ”
At that time, Mu Tiezhu was very happy, Mu Tiezhu did not have a formal job at that time, and the family was worried about it, and someone actually asked him if he was willing to apply for an athlete, Mu Tiezhu must have been very happy and agreed.
But in the end, it is a pity that although Mu Tiezhu was introduced to the Shandong Provincial Sports Commission, he was returned to the county within a few days, a big reason is that Mu Tiezhu has not undergone formal sports training.
There was no way to represent the provincial basketball team, and at that time, the National Sports Commission allowed Mu Tiezhu to join the national team on a special basis after learning about this situation.
And Mu Tiezhu also met his mentor Yu Bangji here. At that time, everyone thought about such a person, although he was tall, his physical fitness was really bad, and he couldn't run a lap of the basketball court.
Every time he finishes running, he has to vomit for a long time, because of his poor physical fitness, so no coach in the national sports team is willing to really help Mu Tiezhu, except for his mentor Yu Bangji.
Yu Bangji doesn't think this is Mu Tiezhu's disadvantage. Because physical fitness can be trained, but there is no way to make up for the height advantage.
02 Mu Tiezhu's basketball career has reached its peak
Sure enough, in 1979, the American Collegiate United came to China to participate in a friendly match in the name of the U.S. national team.
For this game, the National Sports Commission also attached great importance to it and sent the Bayi team at that time. Bayi was the most powerful team in Chinese basketball at that time.
In this event, Bayi team won two consecutive victories. This incident caused a sensation in the Chinese basketball world at that time, and even Mu Tiezhu became famous in a fight.
The basketball players in the United States were very surprised by this, because they had set up all the inside and outside lines at the beginning, and the only thing they didn't expect was that there would be a player so tall, disrupting their layout.
As a result, the members of the inner line cannot see enough of the members of the outside line, and the inner and outer lines do not achieve a certain level of cooperation, which leads to the final defeat of the game. How tall was Mu Tiezhu at that time?
It was 2.28m. This kind of height is very burly, and basically belongs to that station, just like a wall that is slightly shorter than his height may be disturbed or obstructed by some vision.
At that time, Mu Tiezhu was also laughing at himself, saying that he didn't know what medicine he took wrong when he was a child, and he grew so tall. Mu Tiezhu's excessively high height also determines that it is much more convenient than others when shooting.
Basically, Mu Tiezhu doesn't need to jump up and directly pad his feet to hook the basket, and this height advantage leads to Mu Tiezhu's shooting rate is very high.
Later, when competing with the national teams of South Korea and Japan, Mu Tiezhu can also lead by thirty or forty points. After that, Mu Tiezhu's development became even more rapid.
In 1981, Bayi won the first Asian Club Championship at that time, and this event was won by Mu Tiezhu, and then qualified for the World Club Championship with this event.
Mu Tiezhu reached the peak of his career because of basketball, and also ushered in the peak of his love. Mu Tiezhu's wife was no one else, but a female fan who was obsessed with Mu Tiezhu's basketball at that time.
Mu Tiezhu became famous at that time with a friendship match with the United States. There are many female fans who have written letters to express their love for him. But he didn't think much about love and marriage at the time.
I simply forwarded the letters to my agent, and the letters gradually piled up in the office.
By chance, Wang Zhuanhong's manager met Mu Tiezhu's leader, and Mu Tiezhu's leader heard that Wang Zhuanhong liked Mu Tiezhu very much, so he joined forces with her manager and facilitated the meeting between the two.
At that time, Mu Tiezhu said that he was not very willing to participate in this meeting, but in the end, he couldn't resist the leader's request and still met. This is more strange at first sight, and suddenly it is love at first sight.
03 Retired until his death, and his family is living well now
It was not until the 6th National Games in 1987 that Mu Tiezhu officially bid farewell to his basketball career and officially announced his retirement, when he was 38 years old.
In fact, Mu Tiezhu should not have retired at this age, but because Mu Tiezhu himself had a serious heart disease and could not continue to participate in strenuous exercise, he retired early.
Not only that, but Mu Tiezhu was also unable to teach in the basketball team after retirement due to his own health, which was a regret for him.
In the first half of his life, he achieved the pinnacle of his career because of basketball, but in the second half of his life, he had no way to continue to engage in basketball-related careers because of his body.
Although he can't exercise vigorously, he can give some experience to later basketball players. Mu Tiezhu usually has nothing to do, but delves into the strategies, tactics and methods of some coaches.
And answer some young athletes' questions. In addition, I also pay close attention to some competitions to see if there are any good things for athletes from other countries to learn from.
At that time, he said directly, "Although Chinese basketball has gone through professionalism now, it is not enough, it is not enough, it is not good, the Asian Games did not play well at that time,
Many important competitions did not make it to the top few, and more professional and specialized training was required. He died of a heart attack in Beijing on September 14, 2008.
At that time, many people knew about Mu Tiezhu's heart disease, but they didn't expect the complication to be so turbulent. Mu Tiezhu's heart disease has a lot to do with the perennial strenuous exercise, and the heart is too large to withstand the load for a long time.
After Mu Tiezhu's death, his wife, Wang Zhuanhong, also moved out of the bungalow given to them by her previous unit soon after. felt that he would see things and think about people in this house, and couldn't help but think of Mu Tiezhu and his own life.
Mu Tiezhu and Wang Zhuanhong have a son and a daughter. The daughter's name is Mu Rong, and because of her height, she successfully inherited excellent genes and grew to 1.73 meters.
But Wang Zhuanhong's height is 1.76 meters. Looking at it this way, you will actually find that the daughter has not inherited the height gene that her parents are particularly good.
Now Mu Rong works exclusively in a bank, and his life is relatively stable, and he does not rely on the additional subsidies of his father's unit.
My son's name is Mu Tong, he majored in foreign languages in college, and now he works as a white-collar worker in a company.
It's a pity that Mu Tiezhu's basketball career is at such a peak, but none of his children inherit his will. But the good thing is that Mu Tong sometimes goes to the basketball association,
And the basketball association will also reserve a seat for him. Mu Tong thought that maybe this could comfort his father's spirit in the sky.
Let my father also see that the development of China's basketball industry is so thriving, and Mu Tong's participation in itself represents a part of his father's heart.
Mu Tong himself is very low-key, if the reporter and other participants do not deliberately introduce him, there is no way for others to find out that he is Mu Tiezhu's son, and they will not even care about such an identity at all.
This may be different from the offspring of other basketball stars. It can be seen that Mu Tong and his sister Mu Rong don't want to deliberately emphasize that they are Mu Tiezhu's children in public.
In some public places, he will not label himself as Mu Tiezhu's child, and even on social platforms, he will not deliberately use his father to fire gimmicks, which is different from the children of some basketball stars.
Wang Zhuanhong because her children have married one after another, and she also has grandchildren and granddaughters, so she is not as desperate as she was in her early years about the death of her husband, and she can gradually come out. Mu Tong and Mu Rong were very happy about this.
04 Summary
The sports world needs such strong, duty-based, and honest people, and now many people enter a certain field may be for fame or traffic, which is more impetuous.
I have broken away from the original honest atmosphere, and I hope that more people can stick to their ideals and never forget their original intentions.
Add color to your life, contribute to society, and get honor for the country, just like Mu Tiezhu.
Bibliography:
"Beijing Basketball" - "People's Daily"