The olympic openers ended in Greece 91:97 Canada. Such a result can only mean:
When playing with Greece, the young Chinese men's basketball team needs to have a firm attitude of learning first, then challenging, and don't think about or try to think less about the Tokyo Olympics when they play, this Greek team is not necessarily weaker than Canada, from coaches to main players, are well-known figures with brilliant resumes.
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On June 28, local time, the FIBA website updated the 12-man list of the Chinese men's basketball team, Zhao Yanhao and Zhu Mingzhen were not selected, it was not too much of a surprise; the last Chinese men's basketball team 12-man list was the website to make a fuss, this time absolutely not, these 12 team members will represent the Chinese men's basketball team in the Olympic Games in Victoria:
Zhou Qi, Zhou Peng, Xu Jie, Hu Mingxuan, Ren Junfei, Lu Wenbo, Zhao Jiwei, Liu Chuanxing, Wang Shaojie, Zhang Zhenlin, Shen Zijie, Wu Qian.
To say that there was an accident is only a tidbit-level accident, Wu Qian's jersey number changed from 1 to 33.
The most experienced Chinese men's basketball team in front of him is undoubtedly Zhou Peng, who attended the media conference on the same day with head coach Du Feng, and was embarrassed to ask "China has qualified for the Olympic Games for 9 consecutive times before, which is the first time to participate in the Olympic Games", Zhou Peng said:
We missed the opportunity to directly qualify, but also learned from the experience and lessons learned, the first time to participate in the losing tournament, our whole team is also very confident, well prepared, I hope we play our own style, strive for better performance.
In the Victoria Division of the Olympic Games, a total of 6 teams competed for 1 place, the outside world is generally optimistic, is also China's first match opponent Canada, the East Asian Premier League has been fully reported and analyzed, I still think that canada's 12-man roster has a total of 8 NBA players, led by the all-bright planet star Andrew Wiggins, plus the head coach's golden resume - on June 14, 2019, it was Nick Nas who led the generally unpromissed Toronto Raptors to end the Warriors Dynasty. I won the NBA championship for the first time in my history - today I don't need to discuss the tactics of the other side, nor do I introduce the lineup and paper strength of the Chinese men's basketball team.
It is better to skip Canada directly and focus on the second opponent:
Greece.
There is no doubt that the young Chinese men's basketball team needs to hold a firm attitude when playing with Greece is still to learn first, then challenge, don't think about or try to think as little as possible about the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, don't have too many extravagant hopes but seek to have big gains - this team may not be weaker than Canada, the opening game will soon be witnessed; even if they lose to Canada, it does not mean that the gap between China and Greece is very small.
To introduce Greece, we must first introduce the Greek head coach, Rick Pitino, the new generation of Chinese fans may not know much about him, but he is a well-known figure, and the limelight of the year is not lost to Mike Shashevsky, who is known as "Coach K" today.
Pitino, who first took charge of the NBA team on July 14, 1987, won only 24 games in a single season before he took over, but they won the division championship for the first time in 20 years, and at the NCAA, he not only led the University of Kentucky to a championship in 1996, but was also the only head coach in the history of the league to send three different college teams to the top four, and was revered by American fans and media as Pitino the Great.
In view of his brilliant achievements, pitino was embraced affectionately by the Basketball Hall of Fame as early as 1996, and sadly, when the Emperor took charge of the Boston Celtics at the NBA's Second Entry Palace on May 6, 1997, he planted a huge heel, so he left the league with great disappointment and never returned.
After all, at the national team level, Shashevsky returned the US men's basketball team to the top in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and demoted the N-generation superstars from Kobe Bryant to LeBron James to Kyle Owen, and the achievements are obvious to all; Pitino's gap is relatively large, but he is more internationalistic than "Coach K": he led Mexico to the 5th place in the Copa America in 2015; began coaching Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos on December 16, 2018, and won the league championship in the same season. After that, Shunshi was invited to coach the Greek team, and the task was to lead the team to the Olympic games in Victoria.
Compared with the head coaches of the two sides, Du Feng can do magic, has strong practical ability, and cannot match Pitino's experience and huge reputation in the world, and the fundamental goals of China and Greece are not the same - the Greek side hired Pitino in order to be able to take a flight to Tokyo - I mean, Pitino should be one of the important elements of the Greek men's basketball team to participate in the Olympic Games, and its ability is strictly tested and unlikely to be played by Du Feng as a monkey.
Then there's the Greek list of 12.
From a realistic point of view, I would like to first congratulate the Chinese men's basketball team: Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has played in the NBA for many years and won the MVP for 2 years, is absent, and he is leading the Milwaukee Bucks to attack the NBA championship with all his might, and the national honor cannot be taken into account - otherwise, do you think that Chinese youth will easily solve this dude? Just like Yao Ming and Dazhi at that time, the Sino-US war at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games began with a lot of anger, but it was also difficult to solve James.
Then, Alphabet Brother's older brother Sanas Antetokounmpo is also out, and he is wearing the Bucks' No. 43 jersey to help his brother impact the final — you really don't think it's my black humor or mockery, the Bucks who lost the first game just won two consecutive Games against the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals, pulling the score to 2:1, the Antetokounmpo has played in 2 games, and the last 10 playoff games he has only been DNP 1.
Then there is Yao Ming's teammate Vaslith Spanolis in the Houston Rockets, the fibath official website sent a grand introduction on the front foot, and the back foot announced his retirement on social media, and his heart was unpredictable.
If Spanolis plays performance art and is truly black humor, then the 12 players who are willing to play for their country are not weak chickens:
Although Brother Alphabet's younger brother Kostas Antetokounmpo is playing soy sauce in the NBA, he is still an active los Angeles Lakers player after all, playing 15 games last season, not all relying on his brother's shade of vase, nor is it all "Angel City" used to put long lines to catch his brother's toad meat or shrimp;
Nick Carracsis, who played briefly with the Memphis Grizzlies, is now not mixed with the NBA, but in the 2019 Basketball World Cup, he still averaged 13.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, second in points and rebounds, second in the team, and 1st in assists, which can be said to be the quasi-core of this team;
Also in this World Cup, Kostas Slokas averaged 9.8 points and 4.6 assists per game, ranking second in the team in assists.
Kalassis + Slokas = Greek defender line.
The two veterans are 30+ years old, both are famous in the European League, are both capable and experienced, more troublesome is that the former is 1.98 meters tall, the latter is 1.90 meters tall, and the Chinese men's basketball team is always under pressure in the backcourt in the face of European and American teams, the team in front of them, Zhao Jiwei is 1.83 meters, Wu Qian is 1.88 meters, Hu Mingxuan is 1.90 meters, Xu Jie is 1.78 meters, and the height disadvantage is obvious.
Georges Papayannis, 34 years old, 2.18 meters tall, also played in the NBA for 2 seasons when he was young, first by the Sacramento Kings with the No. 13 pick, and then by the Portland Blazers, but his official departure from the NBA is only July 18, 2018, and it is not far away - since basketball fans all over China miss Yi Jianlian, there is no reason to despise or ignore Papayannis.
There is no need to introduce those who have been competing in Europe for a long time, here, I need to repeat what I just said: there is no need to introduce the lineup and paper strength of the Chinese men's basketball team.
As for the Greek tactics, to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to China in recent years, so I don't dare to talk nonsense, but their tradition is defense, that is, the team, with this magic weapon, they defeated the U.S. men's basketball team in the 2006 Basketball World Cup and finally won the silver medal.
Maybe they themselves didn't expect to fight for olympic tickets 15 years from now, but glorious history is always the most fragrant nutritious soup," my friends and I quickly took to the streets to celebrate, this is a very special moment, because there is a possibility that it will not happen again in the future." 」 ”
'There's no doubt this thing inspires us, it's special, everyone dreams of beating the best team in the world there, forever.' Slokas said.
Pitino, as head coach, is more focused on the present, "Most European countries are in front of football, greece is not like this." In Greece, basketball is popular and very important in their sports system. ”
'This team is young and dynamic and if they really accomplish their goals, the fans will absolutely love them to death.
"We're very excited about it and think it's a huge challenge." He is talking about the opening match of the Victoria Division, the opponent is Canada, and as of the time of this writing the two sides have ended the battle, Greece 91:97 Canada.
China is Greece's second rival, and now they have to win china in Group A in Victoria before they can think about the semi-finals, the final and the tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The same is China's second opponent, as the final battle of Group A, I don't know what kind of impact this game will have on the situation of Group A qualifying, and for this Olympic games, Du Feng's overall hope is that the young players can have better improvement and promotion, and make more contributions to Chinese basketball in the future, "We are in a period of transition, especially the old players..."
He also said there was no need to watch the opponent's game.
Tidbits
China playing the Olympic games? Canada can't get used to it
Story 1: The host of the press conference said that China was Japan twice, and after being reminded, the host understood: "It is China, I'm sorry." ”
Story 2: Because of the Raptors, the Toronto Star has always been the Canadian newspaper that covers basketball the most, and these days they have begun to cover the Olympic games intensively, writing that China is like this: It will be a very strange Olympic Games, if China is absent for the first time since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games for the first time. But the process of qualifying has changed, with host Japan getting an Asian seat that has always belonged to China.
epidemic situation
Victoria cancels mask orders for indoor public areas
At the media conference last week, Peng specifically mentioned the new crown epidemic, "Thanks to the organization of the competition, the epidemic prevention is done in place, so that our athletes feel very safe and secure." ”
Previous reports on the Chinese men's basketball team also mentioned that after arriving in Victoria, everyone strictly abided by the local epidemic prevention regulations, and the new crown test was all negative, but only in terms of the Canadian epidemic prevention strategy, it was really no coincidence, dr. Bernie Henry, the health official of British Columbia where Victoria was located, just held a media break conference to announce:
As the third step of the province's four big steps in the epidemic prevention strategy, more restrictions will be lifted on July 1 local time, allowing people to freely choose whether to wear masks in indoor public areas, although there are still 823 active cases in the province, and another 107 infected people are being treated in hospitals, of which 37 are admitted to intensive care units.
Canada's choice of such a time node is naturally not for the Olympic games, but for another reason - July 1, Canada's National Day.
Respect national conditions and protect yourself.
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