Because the Chinese men's basketball team missed the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team has become the only hope for Chinese basketball, so the two cores of the Chinese women's basketball team, Li Meng and Han Xu, both gave up overseas and chose to return to China to prepare for the Paris Olympics.
On April 4, Beijing time, the first leg of the women's European Basketball Championship finals Besiktas women's basketball team defeated the London Lions 75-68 at home, making a good start to the final, which also gave the team the favorable conditions for winning the championship, and the Chinese women's basketball player Li Yueru, who played for the Besiktas women's basketball team, played a full 40 minutes and got 8 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals. Evans and Nokic, she didn't get many scoring opportunities, including only the fourth place in the team in the number of shots, you must know that the Besiktas women's basketball team only had 6 players in this game, and even Li Yueru's only 5 shots, basically relied on themselves to grab offensive rebounds, and then attack and score! The second leg will be held on April 11, and this game will also be Li Yueru's last game in Turkey, and then she will fly to Los Angeles to start her new season training camp with the Los Angeles Sparks, which is the main reason why Li Yueru revealed that she "refused to return to the team".
Let's take a look at Li Yueru's plans before the Paris Olympics, because there is a very important Paris Olympics this year, so the two cores of the Chinese women's basketball team, Li Meng and Han Xu, both gave up the opportunity of WNBA and chose to stay in China to prepare for the Olympic Games with the national team, but only Li Yueru made a different decision, she revealed to the public through social media at the end of March that the reason why she chose to go to the United States to continue her dream of staying abroad is that her inner idea is to hope to play for the country with a better competitive state
Li Yueru claims that winning glory for the country has always been her mission and glory, but at the same time, she also feels the importance of WNBA to her growth, especially Li Yueru has played overseas in the past season, which has allowed her to see a high level of world basketball, and Li Yueru also believes that fans have seen her progress through overseas training, but Li Yueru also knows that her current level is far from the standard she wants, so choosing to stay in the United States will be more helpful to her progress
In addition, Li Yueru also revealed that it was very difficult for her to make this decision, she also knew how important the national team training camp was, and thanked the national system and the coach during the training period for her training help, but people always yearn for a broader sky, Li Yueru hopes to use this summer to achieve self-transcendence and ability improvement, stand on the stage of the Paris Olympics in the best condition, and achieve the Olympic goal of the Chinese women's basketball team! At the same time, Li Yueru also claimed that the decision to go to the United States also has her own selfishness, that is, she is unwilling to admit defeat, although this is not Li Yueru's first time competing in the WNBA, but Li Yueru has been in and out of the WNBA twice, mainly because of her injury, and she has not really shown her most powerful self on the stage of the WNBA
So because she has performed well in Europe this year, and there are also many overseas teams paying attention to her, so Li Yueru hopes to seize this opportunity, even if she doesn't get too much playing time at the beginning, she will give 100% effort, and the most important thing is that Li Yueru revealed that this will be her last time to enter the WNBA, and she also goes to the United States with the determination to win, if she still fails to blossom in the WNBA, she will return to China to shine on other stages
It can be seen that Li Yueru's essential idea is very simple, that is, she hopes that she can improve herself in overseas high-level leagues, so as to win glory for the country in a better state, but at this point, many fans began to worry: Li Yueru made the decision to go to the United States and not return to the team, will she become the next Wang Zhizhi or Ma Jian?
In the history of the Chinese men's basketball team, Wang Zhizhi and Ma Jian were both "banned" by the Chinese Basketball Association because they wanted to go to a higher level of basketball in the United States , Ma Jian, born in 1969, entered the Chinese men's national basketball team as early as 20 years old, and also participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with the team, so because of his outstanding performance in the Barcelona Olympics, after the Olympics, Ma Jian won a full basketball scholarship invitation from the University of California, Los Angeles, which was a very precious and difficult to refuse temptation opportunity in the 90s, so Ma Jian did not think much about it and made the decision to go to the United States to challenge the NCAA, (give Amway a good place to watch the game: However, at this time, the Chinese Basketball Association issued a warning to him, claiming that if he went to the United States, he would be expelled from the national team! Then Ma Jian at that time had the same idea as Li Yueru today, he was a basketball teenager who wanted to chase his dreams, so he went to the United States alone despite opposition, and became the first Chinese player in the history of Chinese basketball to stand in the NCAA league in the United States, but at the same time, in exchange, there was no chance to enter the national team again
In addition, Wang Zhizhi's incident is known to everyone, compared with Ma Jian, Wang Zhizhi got a better opportunity back then, as early as 1996, Wang Zhizhi, who was only 19 years old at the time, shined "Nike Sharp" Basketball match, this is a well-known international event that basketball scouts all over the world will pay attention to, Wang Zhizhi was favored by NBA scouts with his excellent performance in that game, so 3 years later, Wang Zhizhi was selected by the Dallas Mavericks (Mavericks) with the 7th pick in the second round of the NBA draft
The Bayi men's basketball team and the Chinese basketball team announced their refusal to release him, so Wang Zhizhi could only follow the tripartite agreement, and after helping the Bayi men's basketball team win the championship in 2001, he finally got the opportunity to join the Dallas Mavericks, and thus became the first Asian player to land in the NBA in the entire Asian men's basketball history
In April 2002, Wang Zhizhi was once again selected for the Chinese men's basketball team led by Coach Wang Fei, because he was about to compete in the 2002 Busan Asian Championships, so Wang Zhizhi chose to stay in the United States and did not return to China, so Yao Ming alone led the Chinese men's basketball team to play the Busan Asian Games, but what was unexpected was that the Chinese men's basketball team suffered Waterloo in the Asian Championships, and was dragged into overtime by the South Korean team at the last moment of the final, and finally won the Asian Championship with a two-point advantage
Soon, the biggest person responsible for the defeat of the Chinese men's basketball team turned into Wang Zhizhi, who "refused to return to China", so in October 2002, the Chinese Basketball Association officially announced that it had made a decision to expel Wang Zhizhi from the Chinese national team! Since then, Wang Zhizhi has begun a four-year "wandering career" During this period, he did not go well in the NBA, first from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Clippers, and then after being abandoned by the Los Angeles Clippers, he switched to the Miami Heat, until April 2006, Wang Zhizhi returned to Beijing from Los Angeles accompanied by the national men's basketball team leader Kuang Lubin, and the door of the national team was finally opened to him
Editor: Tang Bohu