After 21 years in the professional league, the 36-year-old Yi Jianlian chose to retire, and his jersey retirement ceremony will be held at the home stadium of Guangdong on December 29. The basketball training camp founded by the UAE is in full swing, and the UAE has also won an award to become the winner of the 2023 Sports Person of the Year.
At the award ceremony, the UAE also publicly explained why he retired for the first time, he knew that his personal strength was declining, and he could not contribute to the national team as in the past, which forced the UAE to germinate the idea of retirement, and finally bid farewell to his career.
Talking about the reason for retiring, Yi Jianlian said, "Not being able to contribute at the national team level as I used to is a very important factor for me. ”
In Game 3 of the 2020 CBA Finals, the UAE suffered a serious injury with a ruptured Achilles tendon, and then entered a long recovery period, missing the entire 20-21 season and not returning until the 21-22 season. In the 19-20 season before the injury, the UAE was also the MVP winner of the regular season, averaging 20.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.5 blocks per game, shooting 53.4%.
In the first year of his comeback after injury, Yi Jianlian's average data per game dropped to 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds, with a shooting rate of 50.2%, and in the second year, there were only 10.8 points and 6.5 rebounds left, with a shooting rate of 46.2%, and the top 8 in the playoffs this year were even more powerless in the face of Hu Jinqiu, averaging 9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, with a shooting rate of only 25%, as a comparison, Hu Jinqiu averaged 19.8 points and 17.3 rebounds per game in this round of the series, with a shooting rate of 65%.
Injuries have always been the biggest enemy of athletes, and even the UAE cannot defeat it, so the UAE resolutely chose to retire after knowing that his personal strength has not reached the national level.
Looking back on Yi Jianlian's entire career, he has fought in the NBA for 6 seasons, played in the CBA for 15 seasons and became the first person in history, won 7 championships and 5 CBA regular season MVP trophies, and is also the MVP winner of 3 finals, it can be said that the career of the UAE is good enough.
In the future, Yi Jianlian is also eager to help the Chinese men's basketball team cultivate a new generation of outstanding players, will focus on cultivating the next generation of basketball talents, and will focus on youth training, hoping to help the younger generation and create a world in basketball.
Perhaps the UAE will not assume the leadership role of the Basketball Association like Yao Ming, nor will it become a coach like Wang Zhizhi, Du Feng and Li Nan, but the UAE will help Chinese basketball in his own way, set up a training camp to tap talents, and deeply cultivate the youth training system is also a good choice.
Do you think Yi Jianlian is one of the best players in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team?
(Lin Xiaoxiang)