The first 20+20+15 triple-double in the history of the CBA does not belong to the Big Yao who swept the strong forces in the early 2000s to cut the cap three-double consecutively, nor does it belong to the former four-double Mr. Hu Xuefeng, nor does it belong to today's three-double killer Jamal Franklin, this glory now belongs to the 35-year-old Hamad Haddadi.
Talk about wine, talk about the world, heroes cherish heroes, such a plot probably will not appear in the chapter of Haddadi, this Iranian star is not so popular in the Chinese fan base, prejudice has been formed when many fans first contact the CBA, in the story they learned, Haddadi is not a likable star.
As early as 2002, when Yao Ming stepped into the NBA as a champion, became the glory of the whole of Asia, and supported the Roof of Asia in the highest hall of basketball, the 17-year-old Iranian big man Haddadi also began to compose his prologue.
In the 2002 Asian Youth Championship, Haddadi and the Iranian team reached the final historically, which was the beginning of the Iranian men's basketball team to mature and systematize, and the Islamic countries that have always been in harmony with developed countries in Europe and the United States have taken a step in basketball, and Iran has hired high-level coaches from the United States, Serbia and Montenegro and other countries since this year to help build a youth training system, and has since jumped to the top asian team.
Haddadi is one of the beneficiaries, and his basketball talent is not buried between deep oil fields and towering mountains.
After Iran's national youth unfortunately won the runner-up in 2002, it quickly began to threaten the position of the Chinese men's basketball team in Asia. In 2004, Haddadi led Iran to win the U18 Asian Youth Championship, and Iran later won the tournament in 2008 and 2016, showing the country's basketball level gradually accumulated, but before that, Haddadi was the groundbreaking founder.
Since the 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese men's basketball team has gradually become the leader of the Asian basketball world, and once reached the height of the ruling level, Hadadi and his Iranian team to achieve any honor, inevitably have to face the Chinese team. This is the beginning of his feud with the Chinese men's basketball team, and it is also an inevitable competition at the level of national honor.
In the Yao Ming era, the vision of the Chinese men's basketball team has long been not limited to Asia, and has begun to look at the world, although in the future, relying on the aura of giants, such an vision is inevitably a little out of touch with reality. In the 2007 Asian Championships, the Chinese men's basketball team, as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, had no ticket pressure, so it only sent two teams to participate, and finally lost to the Philippines, tragically taking a 10th place.
The giant's momentary relaxation was an opportunity for the spring shoots to emerge, and iran, which was pressed under the boulder, moved its body to turn over.
By the time of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Iran's golden generation had already begun to emerge, with Haddadi and his teammates finishing third. A year later, the relaxation of the Chinese team gave Iran a chance, Haddadi scored 31 points in the final, Iran defeated Lebanon to win the first Asian championship in the history of the men's basketball adult national team, and thus broke into the Beijing Olympic Games.
The Beijing Olympics were the stage for the Chinese men's basketball team, with Haddadi and Iran losing all their group stages. However, Haddadi's personal performance is obvious to all, has long been noticed by the NBA on the other side of the ocean, before the Olympic Games, David Stern invited the 2004 draft and the Iranian men's basketball team to participate in the Rocky Mountain Summer League, and the Grizzlies finally shouted in Beijing that he wants to join the NBA!
Soon after, Haddadi landed in the NBA, wearing the Memphis Grizzlies No. 15 jersey, and fulfilled the Iranian basketball dream.
People are accustomed to praising Haddadi as Iran's first center, comparing his significance to Iran with Yao Mingzhi to the Chinese men's basketball team, in fact, Haddadi's achievements in Iranian basketball are mostly groundbreaking, from Asian level champions to the NBA, from scratch, laying the foundation for Iran's basketball glory for more than a decade, until today. Although haddadi and Yao Ming cannot be compared in Asia or the world, at the national level, Haddadi's achievements are never inferior to Yao Ming's.
Unfortunately, Yao Ming was like a summer flower after the Beijing Olympic Games, and he could not survive the ruthless destruction of time after all. In 2009, after the first game of the playoffs with the Lakers, Yao Ming was reimbursed for the season and decided that he would miss the next Asian Championship, and then came back injured again, hurriedly retired, and ended the basketball career that did not know whether it had reached its peak.
At the 2009 Tianjin Asian Championships, this was the moment when Haddadi and the Chinese men's basketball team "did not wear the sky together".
In the history of Asian basketball, China and Iran met for the first time in the final of the top competition, but this time, China did not have the blessing of giant Yao Ming, and Haddadi has long been not only the first center of Iran, he wants to be the first center of Asia (the No. 4 position of the UAE). In the final, there was a scene where Haddadi made a provocative gesture to the UAE, signaling "you vote", a look of arrogance that pleased himself and did not care.
This is the performance of Iranian basketball's impact on Chinese basketball when it reaches its peak, and the Chinese basketball that is eager to rush out of Asia is not a harvest of golden wheat fields after Yao Ming falls, but a majestic and invisible mountain, from the Chinese border to the west, to the mysterious city of Tehran in the foothills of The Elbus.
The UAE League finally lost the ball, and the Chinese men's basketball team failed to prevent Haddadi from leading the team to complete the two consecutive Asian Championships. Although a year later at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, veteran Wang Zhizhi killed four parties and regained the championship, but at that time, there was no UAE League. In the next 13 years, the Asian Championship lost to Chinese Taipei, and the Chinese men's basketball team and his leader UAE Could only lick their wounds in the dark.
The real revenge will be left to Changsha for 15 years, in the land of Marshal He Long's protection, the UAE League angrily pushed Hadadi, the partition buckled Bahrami, and the Chinese men's basketball team made a comeback in Asia.
Haddadi's NBA career is far less brilliant than his in Asian basketball, and he has similar problems with the UAE League, with fatal weaknesses in their respective positions. At that time, the UAE League did not have stable low-post technology and rebound protection in the fourth position of the NBA, and haddadi, although he was tall and conscious in the fifth position, could not avoid falling into the huge trouble of slow movement and unable to keep up with the rhythm.
Iran's no. 1 center's NBA career spanned Memphis, Toronto and Phoenix, culminating in 2013, at the age of 28.
Since then, Haddadi joined the CBA new Sichuan team, traveled to Qingdao and returned to Sichuan, and in 2016, with the advantage of three foreign aides, the "DengHaha" combination defeated Liaoning to win the championship. Haddadi was awarded the CBA Finals Most Valuable Player for his central position and outstanding performance in the Sichuan team, when he was 31 years old.
In recent years, Haddadi stopped at multiple teams in the CBA, and Xinjiang briefly held hands after terminating the contract, although Tongxi won the rebounding king and the block king, but in the end failed to succeed, and even failed to play the playoffs. Last season, when the UAE's Guangdong met Tongxi, the situation of the "enemy of a lifetime" was not what it used to be, and the UAE gave the old opponent enough respect, and repeatedly entangled with Haddadi in the block and single defense to the three-point line.
Haddadi is of course old, he is 35 years old. Who does not envy youth, but years are ultimately a ruthless pig-killing knife.
But Haddadi, who had reached the twilight of his career, was still able to compete last summer, and he led a large number of young Iranians to compete in the competition, and finally became the quota for the Tokyo Olympic Games. To this day, he can still kill in the CBA, scoring 3 triple-doubles in 6 appearances, and the most recent game is 21 points, 22 rebounds and 16 assists, which is the only one in CBA history.
Lian Po was still able to eat, and Zhang Bow still didn't have a feather sword. Haddadi's 6 games at the beginning of the season, except for the rapid counterattack against Guangdong, he was overwhelmed by the rapid counterattack of the ten champions, the other 5 games, statistics and victories, he always had to take the same, sometimes both.
Against Guangsha, under the combination of foreign aid Miroslav Radulica and Hu Jinqiu, Haddadi scored 28 points, 20 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals, and Sichuan finally lost by 1 point. In the duel with Wang Zhelin, Haddadi easily cut 18 points, 17 rebounds and 7 assists, 10 of 13 free throws, only 1 turnover, and also took away the victory.
The battle with Beijing was even more shocking, Withdadi grabbing 19 rebounds, while Beijing and the 5 interior players who played outside only grabbed 15 rebounds. In the final moments, Lao Jianghu used an understated foul, and the free throw won the game, giving a loud slap to the inside.
This season's data explosion, averaging 18.2 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.7 steals and 2.7 blocks per game, And Shen Zijie, who shot 60% of the time, also failed to stop the old haddadi. Playing against Fujian to grab 20 rebounds of the "Big Bird of China", and finally did the background of Haddadi's achievement of the first 20+20+15 triple-double in CBA history.
In the CBA, these young inner lines of the Chinese men's basketball team rarely have the upper hand against the veteran Haddadi, last season the UAE League and his Guangdong were invincible, Zhou Qi took 33+10 against Hadadi last season, not losing the opponent's 20+20, recently at the peak of Han Dejun and Liaoning to meet Haddadi, the data can also play a five-to-five.
To know that Haddadi is 35 years old, the giant of 218CM, his career has been unexpectedly long, after returning to Sichuan this season, his stats are currently a staggering 22.5 points, 17.3 rebounds, 9.5 assists, 1 steal, 1.2 blocks, he has played in 6 games, Sichuan 4 wins and 2 losses, and the last 4 appearances are all wins.
You have to admire this veteran, in the basketball world, the undead veteran adds a mysterious light to the sport, attracting young people to run hard, inspiring dreamers to be proud.
Today's 35-year-old Haddadi has long worn away the edges and corners of his youth, his style of play is simple and unpretentious, and every point of strength is just right. Some people say that Haddadi playing is to pass and shoot, there is no extra fancy, I can't feel the four seats of skill, but this is exactly what seems easy to do in basketball. As a veteran continues his illustrious career, there is no doubt that this is a blessing in basketball.
However, from the perspective of Chinese basketball and CBA, looking back at the confrontation between Haddadi and his Iranian men's basketball team and the Chinese men's basketball team in the past 18 years, looking back at the young Haddadi's waiting in the Yao Ming era, looking back at the story of the lifelong enemy of the UAE League and the peak Haddadi, today, this veteran has become the touchstone of another generation of Chinese insiders Hu Jinqiu, Shen Zijie and others, which really makes people have to sigh.
One thing that needs to be noticed by everyone is that Haddadi is currently averaging 40 minutes per game this season, ranking fourth with Zhai Xiaochuan in the league, while no one in the top three is over 25 years old. In the center position, he is in the first place alone, followed by Wang Zhelin, and his Fujian team has not won any game of the new season at this time.
After the change of foreign aid rules, the CBA showed a great deal, but the overall intensity of the league has declined.
Haddadi is able to effectively preserve his fitness in today's game rhythm, and the four people in the four quarters are just right for him at this time, and his last three games have been 46 minutes, 44 minutes and 45 minutes. That's the main reason he's been so strong this season.
From this point of view, the old Haddadi's excellence in the league is the misfortune of the CBA and Chinese basketball, which means that our league is far from a good time. The rhythm of the game and the intensity of confrontation have declined, and the ability of domestic defenders and forwards to punish the tall interior line with slow footsteps has not improved, and these are precisely the weaknesses exposed by the Chinese men's basketball team in the past when facing world opponents, and it is precisely the defects that Haddadi and his Iranian team grasped when facing the Chinese men's basketball team.
The sincerity of the elderly Haddadi basketball and the future direction of Chinese basketball, its luck and misfortune will be a footnote of history, but I don't know which chapter it is written in. Just like the CBA record set by Haddadi today, while applauding, our brows can't help but frown a little.
You respect or you hate, Haddadi is there, still testing generation after generation of Chinese insiders.