Talent is nothing more than a loan, and it can only be endured if it undergoes great hardships and can only be humbly and firmly tested – to use the words of 1964 Nobel Prize winner Jean-Paul Sartre to describe men's basketball guard Chen Jianghua, perhaps enough image.
Chen Jianghua appeared in the "New York Times" at the age of 14, and was considered by the Western media to be China's first world-class defender, jumped from the Hongyuan youth team to the national team at the age of 17 and played in the World Championships, and participated in the Beijing Olympics with the team at the age of 19.
Chen Jianghua's basketball career is full of regrets, but life is happy, he is rumored to wear slippers to collect rent, married his first love and gave birth to twin sons, after retiring as a "full-time dad", complained that kindergarten homework is too difficult, personally trained his two sons to play basketball.
Hello everyone, I'm Kong Yiji, who doesn't like to steal books, and welcome to read Chen Jianghua's story!
01 Appeared in the New York Times at the age of 14
Chen Jianghua, born in Panyu, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in 1989, their family's height is more outstanding in Guangzhou, his uncle Chen Baisong is 1.90 meters tall, once entered the sports school to practice basketball, Chen Jianghua's coach said: If his uncle continued to play basketball, he should also be very promising, and he played more performative than Jiang Hua.
Chen Jianghua began to watch his uncle play wild ball in the village when he was 5 years old, and then he picked up a basketball and refused to let go, even when he was sleeping, his uncle saw this scene and seemed to feel something, so he tried to recommend Chen Jianghua to his coach Yan Fulun when he was in Weilun Sports School.
In 1998, Yan Fulun led the team to Panyu to participate in the competition, Chen Baisong brought Chen Jianghua, who was less than 9 years old, to the side of the court, and boasted to the coach.
In 2001, 12-year-old Chen Jianghua has grown to 1.8 meters, his bounce, speed, and stagnation are very prominent, in a dunk game, Chen Jianghua staged an air change of hands and violent dunk, among the domestic guards, few players can stage such a stunning dunk, let alone a 12-year-old young player.
In August 2001, Chen Jianghua became famous in the Nike 3-a-side basketball finals held in Shanghai, and has since been brought to the Hongyuan youth team for training.
Because of winning the championship of the three-man basketball team, Chen Jianghua got the opportunity to visit the United States in 2002, and the team they went to was the Dallas Mavericks where Wang Zhizhi played at that time.
In the process of visiting, Chen Jianghua's talent was recognized by many American coaches, so he was invited to stay in the United States to train, at first with high school students, and later with college students, although he was only 14 years old at the time, but compared with those big players, the ball sense and speed are very outstanding.
In a game against the American college team, Chen Jianghua shook the team's defenders many times and made him fall a few times, and all of this was seen by American scouts, and they felt incredible about it.
Because of the huge repercussions caused by Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and others in the NBA, the American media also began to pay attention to Chinese basketball, so in November 2003 in the "New York Times", they opened a special column for Chinese basketball, but the strange thing is that they chose the protagonist is not Yao Ming, who played an All-Star level performance in the NBA, nor Wang Zhizhi, who is known as the "wind chasing boy", but Chen Jianghua, a 14-year-old young man.
In the report, the reporter was full of praise for Chen Jianghua, saying in the report: "This is probably China's first world-class defender and the one who passed the ball for Yao Ming in 2008." ”
Even today, when Yao Ming has been retired for more than 10 years, who will pass the ball to Yao Ming is still a hot topic, and it is conceivable how much of a sensation this 14-year-old boy caused at the time, and a basketball kid who came out of nowhere became the focus of fans' attention overnight.
02 The road to growth has been dragged down by injuries
After becoming famous in 2003, Chen Jianghua became a highly anticipated new star defender, a bit like Zhongyong when he was a child, what he wanted, whether it was Guangdong Hongyuan or the national team, Chen Jianghua was given great support.
But as mentioned in the first sentence of this article, talent is nothing more than a loan, and if you want to fully cash it out, it depends on whether you can afford to pay the interest and whether you can repay it on time.
Chen Jianghua's first overdue was in the summer of 2003, he could have followed the Olympic hope team coached by Zhang Weiping to the United States to train, but suffered a serious foot injury, missed this golden opportunity to learn Xi, you must know that a player like Sun Mingming, who is 2.36 meters tall, has a good opportunity in the United States, but unfortunately his talent is really not high.
In February 2004, Chen Jianghua returned to the Olympic Hope Team after recovering from injury, but in a confrontation match, Chen Jianghua suffered a broken leg and had to leave the team to return to Guangdong to recuperate.
In the summer of 2004, Chen Jianghua returned from injury and participated in the training camps of Adidas and Nike in Asia, where he shone brightly, with all kinds of 360-degree turn dunks, windmill dunks, quick breakthroughs, and ghostly passes that amazed NBA scouts and coaches who had never seen such a Chinese player playing.
Because of his outstanding performance, Chen Jianghua was given the opportunity to travel to the United States to participate in the training camp, but unfortunately, he was unable to make the trip due to passport problems, and once again missed the opportunity to improve.
In 2005, Chen Jianghua had booked the position of the first team of Hongyuan in advance, but the team felt that he was still young at that time, so they let him continue to play in the Hongyuan youth team, and at the same time let him return to the sports school to continue to practice.
In October 2005, Guangdong Hongyuan briefly transferred Chen Jianghua to the Hongyuan team, but could not bear to pull out the seedlings to help him, and soon sent him back to the Hongyuan youth team, in the subsequent national youth team winter training, Chen Jianghua led the Guangdong youth team to win the fourth place, and then led the Hongyuan youth team to participate in the Canadian National Youth Invitational Tournament and led the team to win the championship, won the MVP, and was called "the most outstanding player in the past 24 years" by the organizers of the event.
From December 2005 to January 2006, Chen Jianghua led the team to win the championship in the CBA Youth Team-CUBA Competition, ranking first in the team in points, assists and steals, becoming the brightest star among young players.
Such a dazzling performance made the Chinese men's basketball team, which is seriously short of people on the guard line, see hope, and directly transferred those who have not yet officially entered the CBA league to the national team, which makes Chen Jianghua the youngest national team player in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team.
In August 2006, at the Sino-US match, 17-year-old Chen Jianghua wore the number 18 jersey and boldly played heads-up in front of Chris Paul and Devon Wade, two super defenders.
In September of the same year, Chen Jianghua participated in the World Championships in Japan with the team, and in the game against the American Dream Seven team, Chen Jianghua used his high-speed one-stop layup to play the American team again, and the commentator of Guangdong Sports Channel couldn't help but sigh: "Andy's breakthrough flashed like a meteor in front of our eyes." ”
03 His wife helped him get out of the trough
After returning from the national team, Chen Jianghua was officially promoted to the Hongyuan first team, averaging 7.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game in the first season of his career.
In 2007, 18-year-old Chen Jianghua went to the United States again with the Chinese men's basketball team, and he was still relatively thin, unfortunately sprained his knee, and his right ankle had a tibial fracture, had to undergo surgery, and missed almost the entire 2007-08 season.
In the playoffs, Chen Jianghua ushered in a wave of small outbursts, averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 25 minutes per game, helping Hongyuan dominate the CBA again after 06, and he also returned to the national team to represent the men's basketball team in the Beijing Olympics.
Chen Jianghua is both a "devil" and an "angel" in the Beijing Olympics, on the one hand, his breakthrough is not available to players from other national teams, and he has successively shook Kobe, Bosh and other players to complete layups in the game against the United States. But on the other hand, because he couldn't keep up with the physical confrontation, he made a lot of mistakes, and Younas didn't dare to reuse him at all, plus Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian, Liu Wei, Zhu Fangyu, Sun Yue and others all played, so Chen Jianghua became the target of the Beijing Olympics.
Unfortunately, shortly after the Beijing Olympics, Chen Jianghua suffered another serious injury, his right wrist suffered a bone fracture, and he had to rest for nearly 4 months, missing almost all the regular season, and in the playoffs, he was unable to find his form because of the injury, which made him miss the 2009 national team.
At the beginning of 2010, Chen Jianghua suffered a ligament tear in the game with the Tianjin men's basketball team, and then the season was reimbursed, and he once again entered a long period of recuperation, and this is Chen Jianghua's fourth serious injury since he was pulled out in 2006.
After the operation, Chen Jianghua didn't know what the future was, but fortunately, his girlfriend Nie Huidan, who had been in love for many years, had been silently supporting him and helping Chen Jianghua survive the most difficult moment, and the two also got married during that time.
"At that time, my family really had a great influence on me, and during the injury, my family gave me a lot of encouragement and confidence to be able to recover and get back on the pitch," Chen said.
After getting married, even at the beginning of starting a family, Chen Jianghua began to think about more things, and his playing became more mature and calm, and his overall view was stronger, and his performance on the court was getting better day by day.
In 2012, Chen Jianghua, who missed the national team for three consecutive years, was selected for the national team again and was successfully selected for the London Olympic squad.
Hearing that his wife gave birth, Chen Jianghua immediately asked the head coach Deng Huade for leave to go home, and after his wife gave birth successfully, Chen Jianghua immediately rushed back to Qingdao to participate in the training camp, he said: In the past few years, we must play hard, after all, as a man, we must fulfill our responsibilities, and we all say that we want to support our families."
Chen Jianghua performed steadily in the London Olympics, averaging 7.4 points, 2.2 assists and 2 rebounds per game, and Chen Jianghua gave his own views on the men's basketball team's defeat in the Olympic Games: "It is not easy for the Chinese team to participate in the Olympic Games, and the gap with the opponent is mainly in terms of confrontation. ”
After the London Olympics, Chen Jianghua and Nie Huidan held a wedding at the Hongyuan Hotel in Dongguan, Chen Jianghua's teammates in the Guangdong team, Dong Hanlin and Shi Hongfei gave Chen Jianghua as the best man, Li Chunjiang, Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng and others also came to the scene to congratulate them, and Chen Jianghua's twin sons also appeared on the scene, adding a lot of color to the wedding.
04 Retirement life is colorful
After suffering several major injuries in a row, it is not easy for Chen Jianghua to continue to return to the court, and his role on the court has also changed, from a young, fast, and strong breakthrough player, to a defender who controls the whole field and stabilizes the morale of the army.
"Basketball is a hobby, it's a job, and being with your family is a happy life. ”
With the upgrading of a family to a father, Chen Jianghua feels that every moment of life is interesting, everything is interesting, as long as he can watch his wife and children, even if he listens to the voice, it is very comfortable.
After every away game, Chen Jianghua will be the first time to video with his wife and two sons, although he is exhausted in the game, and his knees are tied with thick ice packs, but as soon as the voice of his family comes, he is instantly happy.
In 2017, 28-year-old Chen Jianghua chose to retire due to injury, ending his professional basketball career.
After retiring, Chen Jianghua entered the Hongyuan men's basketball coaching staff, although he was very valued, but Chen Jianghua was fed up with the hard work and distance from his family during the playing period, and wanted to give more company to his two sons when they were growing up, so he resigned as an assistant coach of Hongyuan soon after, and chose to return to his family.
After resigning as a coach, Chen Jianghua first traveled with his wife and children, and when the children were about the same age, he founded a monitoring system company related to basketball training courses, using his basketball knowledge to continue to contribute to basketball.
Although Chen Jianghua has been taking his son to practice, he has not strongly asked his son to take the basketball road, his attitude has always been: no constraints, no limitations, no hurry, but love sports!
He often shares videos of his two sons' basketball training on his personal Weibo, takes his son to practice dribbling in pajamas before going to bed, and runs to his own court every day after school to personally take the children to train, cultivate the children's enthusiasm for basketball, and enrich his spare time.
With the help of doctors, Chen Jianghua healed the knee injury that had plagued him for many years and regained his health, in addition to taking care of his family, he joined Yi Jianlian's basketball training camp with former Bayi men's basketball player Zhang Bo, serving as the role of basketball youth training recommended champion, although the salary is not high, but he is not short of money, just to do his part in the basketball he loves.
On December 29, 2023, Chen Jianghua and Li Chunjiang, Du Feng, Zhu Fangyu, and Wang Shipeng appeared together at Yi Jianlian's jersey retirement ceremony, with Li Chunjiang as the head coach.
On January 8, 2024, Chen Jianghua came to the scene of the 3V3 basketball finals in Guangdong Province as a youth training recommendation officer and personally presented awards to the champion players.
Now it is 2024, Chen Jianghua, who has been retired for many years, is actually only 35 years old, but he already has a complete family, his wife is getting more and more beautiful, and his two sons are getting older and more handsome, showing good basketball skills.