When it comes to Ye Li, people may pay more attention to "she is Yao Ming's wife", a title that may make her own basketball story ignore.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > skilled and famous at a young age</h1>
Born in 1981, Ye Li was outstanding in height from an early age, much taller than the average child. And she also loved playing basketball, so her family sent her to the Shanghai Sports and Technical College.
Personal talent coupled with diligent training, 15-year-old Ye Li was selected into the Shanghai Youth Women's Basketball Team. Ye Li plays as a center on the court, the offensive running position moves fast, the close-range shooting is relatively stable, and she is good at grabbing rebounds in the card position. With her strengths, she was selected for the national youth team in early 1998 and played with the national team in major competitions. At the 14th Asian Junior Women's Basketball Championship, Ye Li, who was only 17 years old at the time, came to the fore.
But in the previous Asian Championships, the Chinese women's basketball team only won the fourth place, missing the Sydney Olympic Games, which is a big blow to Chinese basketball. In order to rebuild the women's basketball national team, then head coach Gong Luming immediately called Ye Li into the national team.
Since becoming a professional basketball player, Ye Li's dream is to do her best to win glory for the country. As a young player, she is very involved in every training session and sweats like rain. In an extreme training, the three-hour sliding action made many team members want to give up, and Ye Li, who suffered from myocarditis, was still gritting her teeth and insisting when she was tired and dizzy. Her teammates advised her to go down and rest for a while, but she didn't want to stop.
Finally, at the 2004 Japan Women's Basketball Asian Championship, Ye Li ushered in her own highlight moment. She averaged 12 points per game in the games she played, and in a key game, she scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, becoming the player with the most rebounds in the Chinese team. Ye Li won the first Asian Championship trophy and thus also received a ticket to the Athens Olympic Games. Although the Chinese women's basketball team only finished ninth at the Athens Olympics, Ye Li performed brilliantly on the field and was appreciated by coaches and teammates.
Next is the Beijing Olympic Games, to be able to win glory for the country "at her own doorstep", which is Ye Li's dream, but she did not get the favor of heaven and retired on the eve of the Olympic Games.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > retired due to injury and missed the Olympics</h1>
It turned out that Ye Li's right knee was born with two more patella than ordinary people, and if it was worn for a long time, it was easier to be injured, coupled with the daily large-intensity training and fierce confrontation of the game, resulting in her being injured and painful. After receiving treatment in China for a period of time, her physical condition did not improve significantly, and she had to go to the United States alone for surgery.
Fortunately, the surgery worked well, and after a period of cultivation, she was able to return to the field. In the years since, Ye Li has always been a regular visitor to the national team, but the haze of injury has always plagued her, and it is the norm to practice while treating, but she has never thought of quitting.
In January 2005, Ye Li's right knee grew bone spurs and she had to go to the United States for a second operation. The long period of treatment allowed her to miss out on the entire 2005-2006 season of the Shanghai women's basketball team in the WCBA.
It is even more regrettable that Ye Li also missed the 2006 Brazil Women's Basketball World Championship and the 2007 Asian Games due to injury, and then chose to retire. Since then, there has been no longer her name in the training roster of the Chinese women's national basketball team, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have become her eternal regret.
Ye Li's basketball career was forced to end temporarily, but her beautiful life had just begun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > and Yao Ming fell in love and were happy after marriage</h1>
Ye Li and Yao Ming's acquaintance is like the place where fate has gone, that year the Oriental men's basketball team and the Oriental women's basketball team trained in the same training base, they first met, Ye Li became Yao Ming's unforgettable person.
Later, Ye Li was injured during a training session and had to return to Shanghai for surgery. Unexpectedly, the results of the operation were not satisfactory, and the doctor admitted that the probability of her returning to the stadium was extremely small, and Ye Li was deeply desperate. At this time, Yao Ming gave her great strength and comfort, and he encouraged Ye Li during her trip to the United States to heal her injuries, and would send her text messages and greetings every day. And Ye Li also knew Yao Ming's intentions and attitude, and finally accepted Yao Ming.
After 7 years of long-distance running, the couple who were married by basketball finally came to fruition. In August 2007, Yao Ming and Ye Li, accompanied by some relatives and friends, officially received their marriage licenses and held a low-key private wedding. Only more than 70 close friends and relatives were invited to the wedding, because they only wanted to walk the road of life with each other with a simple and sincere attitude.
As it turned out, Ye Li's choice was not wrong. Yao Ming once showed his true feelings to Ye Li at the NBA Hall of Fame ceremony:
"Thank you for being my life partner, you mean so much to me." Although there are only two sentences, it is full of love.
There is no smooth life, although she has experienced ups and downs, Ye Li has come out of the haze and has always firmly grasped life in her own hands.