Wanli went to the plane, and Guan Shandu flew.
In the summer of 2021, the Chinese women's basketball team that expeditioned to Tokyo flew over Guanshan, but after three perfect group performances, they lost 70-77 to The St. 77 European champion Serbia in the just-concluded Tokyo Olympic Women's Basketball Quarterfinals, and rubbed shoulders with the final four of the Olympic women's basketball team.
During the Olympic Games, you may have heard that the Chinese women's basketball team won a bronze medal in the first Olympic games in 1984; in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, they even reached the final battle; including the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games held in China, the Chinese women's basketball team also reached the final four - this is enough to prove that the Chinese women's basketball team is a team with a fine tradition, and parents who watch with you in front of the TV may laugh and talk about Zheng Haixia's name when mentioning the women's basketball team.
But this does not mean that the Chinese women's basketball team missed the Olympic final four this time and failed. Because over the years, they have crossed the mountains and the sea, but they have also fallen into boundless darkness. They came out of a trough that is now unimaginable, and in 2021 they became the last representatives of China's three major balls on the Olympic stage, and the journey of nirvana that the Chinese women's basketball team has taken in the past few years is even more legendary than the result of missing the Olympic final four.
The beginning of this legend begins with two photographs.
As you can see, the two photos hang in a stadium. This place is located in the Beijing Temple of Heaven near the State General Administration of Sport Training Bureau, almost all the country's top athletes have experienced a long-term training life here, women's basketball players also have an exclusive training ground, these two photos, for a long time, was hung on the wall of this court, so that women's basketball girls can see when they look up during training.
If you don't get closer, it's hard to even find anything out of the picture, a group of girls with black hair and yellow skin cheering for victory, but the protagonist of the photo is not the Chinese women's basketball team - that is, the Japanese women's basketball team celebrating the victory of the photo, from the 2015 Asian Women's Basketball Championship held in Wuhan, the final battle of the tournament, the Chinese team defeated Japan 50-85.
Xu Limin, as the assistant of tom Mach, the then coach of the Chinese women's basketball team, felt the pain of the skin on the sidelines. Therefore, when the Chinese women's basketball team experienced another defeat in Rio, after organizing a new competition for the Chinese women's basketball coach in 2017, Xu Limin walked to the front of the stage, he used 12 pages of competition materials to tell his plan, and was appointed as the new helmsman of the Chinese women's basketball team.
The first thing he did after taking office, Xu Limin decided to hang up the two photos.
"I just hope that in this way, I can stimulate everyone's enthusiasm and motivate everyone to work hard," Xu Limin said, introducing the purpose of hanging the photo, "I hope that the team members can fully mobilize their enthusiasm and potential to meet all challenges." ”
When Director Xu speaks to the media, he uses his usual idyllic tone. But you can imagine that when he made such a decision, what kind of face was like a flat lake but had thunder in his chest, Xu Zhi was hanging two needles in mid-air, piercing his own and the girls' hearts day after day.
Head overhang, tapered strands. He does not teach, but is self-diligent.
I don't know how many fans still remember what kind of state the Chinese women's basketball team was in before Xu Limin took office.
In addition to the 2015 Asian Championships being hit head-on by the Japanese team, the 2016 Rio Olympic Games is also a past that the Chinese women's basketball team does not want to look back on: Chen Nan, the main center who has been retired for two years, returned to the field as a mother, leading the Chinese women's basketball team to obtain Olympic tickets through the losing tournament, on the one hand, Chen Nan's fist to repay the country is moving, but on the other hand, it also exposes that the Chinese women's basketball team is in the predicament of no successor.
In Rio, the women's basketball team is even more difficult, the group stage only defeated the African representative Senegal team with limited strength, and the other collisions with European and American teams all ended in fiasco, four games against Canada, Spain, Serbia and the United States, the Chinese women's basketball team lost an average of 23.5 points to the opponent.
In the end, the Chinese women's basketball team only finished 10th in the Rio Olympic Games, which was also the worst result achieved by the women's basketball team in the Olympic finals. Of course, like the previous Asian Championships, Xu Limin is also a witness to the Fiasco in Rio, the coach who has led the Beijing women's basketball team to build a championship dynasty in the WCBA, when he knew the year of destiny, but there was still an immortal fire burning in his chest.
When the Chinese women's basketball team finally gave up the foreign coach strategy in 2017 and decided to select a new coach from the local league, it also specially drew two reference conditions: 1. Served as the head coach in the corresponding provincial and municipal first-line teams or WCBA professional clubs for more than 3 years and won the top 3 in the national competition; 2. Served as the head coach of the national team for more than 2 years, won the Asian championship or the world's top 8 results, and trained many outstanding athletes for the national team.
The first condition of this, many people think that the name of Xu Limin has been directly pointed, this senior coach who has competed for a women's basketball coach as early as 2009, this time with a more brilliant resume, more experience, and finally took over the national women's basketball team.
At the time of competition, Xu Limin pointed out four major problems in his mind that the women's basketball team had: first, the team lacked leaders; second, it lacked experience in the competition; third, the quality of the superior reserve talents was low and the number was small; fourth, the players' basic skills were not solid, and the physical confrontation was weak.
The next four years became a long journey to solve these four major problems. But fortunately, the first problem is relatively the easiest to solve, and the leader of the Chinese women's basketball team has the most suitable candidate in his heart, that is, Shao Ting, who was playing under him at that time.
In the Chinese basketball world, Shao Ting is a different kind of national hand, whether it is a men's basketball and women's basketball team, it is difficult for you to see a "true and hegemonic player" like Shao Ting, who has grown all the way to the top level through campus basketball and has always adhered to the double study of academic skills. Shao Ting walked out of Jianping Middle School, a famous women's basketball school in Shanghai, and in the years of studying at Beijing Normal University, she not only led the team to dominate cuba and the Super League, but also pursued the next degree after another. When Xu took over the Chinese women's basketball team in 2017, Shao Ting was a national player who had competed in the Rio Olympics, the FMVP who led the Shougang women's basketball team to win the WCBA championship, and a second-year student majoring in education at Beijing Normal University.
The special experience gave Shao Ting a psychological quality that was different from that of ordinary athletes. At the age of 24, she joined the professional league to make a name for herself, not only has a trick on the field to eat all over the world, but also has a maturity and patience that far exceeds her peers, when Miao Lijie and Chen Nan, the two eldest sisters, completely faded out, Shao Ting has become the natural candidate for the leader of the women's basketball team. Xu Limin said more than once in the interview that Shao Ting is a player with leadership temperament, and the tacit understanding established by the two people in the Beijing women's basketball team has also become a bridge between Xu's coach and the players.
The second and third questions in Xu Limin's heart are to some extent found at the same time, and the Women's Basketball World Cup held in Tenerife, Spain in 2018 has become a turning point for this new Chinese women's basketball team.
The first time the women's basketball team went out under Xu's guidance was in the 2017 Asian Championship, the Chinese team encountered the old enemy Japan in the semifinals, Shao Ting scored the highest 16 points of the whole team, and although the women's basketball team only lost by 3 points, it also made the photos hanging on the side of the training ground still dazzling, and also made Xu Limin further determined to change the blood of the women's basketball team.
In 2018, the women's basketball team expanded the selection scope of the training list, and among the 12 people who finally went to the World Cup, not only did they change half of the players compared with the lineup of the previous Asian Championship, but even two names that were very unfamiliar to everyone: Li Yuan and Han Xu - even fans who have been concerned about WCBA for many years can't help but ask, where did these two children come from?
Li Yuan was a small defender who had just emerged in the Shandong women's basketball youth team at that time, and Han Xu, who was 2 meters 07 tall, had just received a high school diploma from Tsinghua High School, which was two children who had not played a professional game, but Xu Limin decided to take them to the World Cup, and even more than just meeting the world. Because of Li Yuan's special passing vision and awareness of the ball, she was even directly appointed as the starting point guard of the Chinese women's basketball team, Xu Limin hopes to improve the women's basketball team's fast attack ability in this way, and also leave Wang Siyu and Yang Liwei on the bench, so that the strength of the Chinese women's basketball team and the bench is more balanced.
Han Xu was given greater expectations, as the daughter of former Hebei men's basketball main center Han Fashun, Han Xu's talent conditions are extremely prominent, she has a fairly amazing ability to move players of the same height in the women's basketball team, Xu Limin directly called her into the national team, and formed a Rotation of No. 5 position with another young center, Li Yueru.
You must have found out: isn't this the way the Chinese women's basketball team deployed at the Tokyo Olympic Games, more precisely, this is the game strategy that the Chinese women's basketball team has been adhering to since the 2018 World Cup, 10-man rotation, emphasis on conversion offense, and always maintaining a big center, these things are almost familiar to every player in the Chinese women's basketball team.
The 2018 World Cup trip became the beginning of the initial success of this young team, with 2 wins and 1 loss in the group stage, including a high score of 88-100 against the United States, although the defeat was still a wonderful performance, in which Han Xu, who was a fledgling and regarded as a defensive center, scored 20 points.
Therefore, the Chinese women's basketball team after the group qualified, and the Japanese team in the quarter-final narrow encounter, the previous Asian Games, the Chinese women's basketball team has actually defeated the opponent, but Xu Limin because the Japanese team only sent two teams to participate in the battle, but also insisted on keeping the photos on the training hall. Until this time, the real showdown came.
The only three players who have played in the Rio Olympics, Huang Sijing, Sun Mengran and Shao Ting, have almost shown a state of excitement in interviews with the media, and Sun Mengran bluntly said that the players know that they want to play Japan, and their hearts are actually happy. Shao Ting said: "We finally have a chance to pick up photos, everyone also cherishes it, we have always been eager to defeat Japan, to be able to really take the photos in the museum." ”
Tenerife, narrow road encounter, the start behind the Chinese women's basketball team more and more courageous, Xu Limin even let 12 players all appear, but the Japanese team lost their characteristics, they rely too much on two naturalized and mixed players, defender Honbashi Naoko is difficult to support, the main striker Miyazawa Yuki played every second of the 40 minutes - so you can imagine that the Chinese women's basketball team in the second half of the game more and more courageous, before all the fiasco li witnesses, Shao Ting scored the team's highest 16 points in 8 of 11, Huang Sijing killed the game at the last minute with a cover.
Perhaps the Japanese women's basketball team will be surprised on that day, why this Chinese women's basketball team will burn with such a fierce war will. 87-81, the Chinese women's basketball team finally completed the revenge of the old enemy, Xu Limin finally grew a breath after the game: "Can be taken off, this small wish can finally be realized ..."
The Chinese women's basketball team has since found a clear direction, and they certainly did not become an invincible division. In the 2019 Asian Championships, the Bayi women's basketball team, including Li Meng, was absent because of the absence of the preparation for the Military Games, and the Chinese women's basketball team lost to Japan by 3 points in the final, but Xu Limin did not have to hang up the photos he took off.
Because defeating Japan is no longer the only goal of the Chinese women's basketball team, we want to become a team with world competitiveness. In February 2020, the opportunity came and the challenge came.
At this time, the women's basketball qualification tournament for the Tokyo Olympic Games will be held, and the Chinese Basketball Association originally won the right to host the sub-station losing tournament, but the epidemic shrouded the Chinese women's basketball team from Foshan, Guangdong Province, to Belgrade, Serbia. This is not only a geographical transfer of thousands of kilometers, but also means that the Chinese team has lost its home field advantage and will play against a group of strong teams in an unfamiliar environment.
86 to 76, the first battle broke the United Kingdom, 64-62, this battle defeated the powerhouse Spain, in the case of having obtained the right to qualify, the Chinese team in the final battle of the losing round 100 to 60 hit South Korea, the girls have written "Wuhan refueling" and "China refueling" words on the shoes, this period of time when the people of the whole country are stopping at home, the women's basketball team's successive victories have become an exciting force, especially their persistent pursuit of "100 points" in a battle with South Korea, like a spiritual symbol, inspiring the Chinese people, Metaphorical to the world.
The global spread of the epidemic has made the Olympic ticket obtained by the women's basketball team be postponed for a full year before it can be cashed, but this team obviously will not waste this year, because every little more time, the fourth problem in Xu Limin's eyes, "the basic skills of the players are not solid, the physical confrontation is weak", it will get a little more improvement.
So in Tokyo, what you can see is that Li Yuan, who was originally better at passing and scoring, is not only confident in three-point projection, but also has a lot more power to break through and cut than in the past.
Li Yueru, who has long been an ace center in the WCBA, has also completely overcome the problem of being affected whenever a strong opponent plays, her confrontation has become more solid, her defense has become more sensitive, and she has developed a sense of strategy and axis ability.
Of course, there is more impressive, the Chinese women's basketball team is full of integrity, continuity of defense, no matter facing any opponent, the women's basketball girls' defensive rotation can be retracted freely, they have limited the opponent to a single quarter only 9 points and 10 points in the game against Australia and Belgium.
And the only defeat in the end, against Serbia, you can see the opponent's coach, Marlena Markovic, who has been coaching in the WCBA for many years, laid out a very aggressive defensive strategy, and they used the confrontation advantage to create 23 mistakes of the Chinese women's basketball team - so what if our confrontation can be better and the basic function is a little more solid?
The Chinese women's basketball team has ended their journey in the Tokyo Olympics, because in the group stage of ranking all the teams first, the Chinese women's basketball team will return to China as the 5th place, which is a little higher than three years ago in Tenerife, we have finally improved a little; and from the world's final four, the Chinese women's basketball team is only the last layer of window paper distance.
In the case of entering the fourth quarter and leading by 9 points, in the end failed to keep the victory, the decisive moment encountered the opponent reversal, such a game is not regrettably impossible, after all, with the final mission of the three major goals, the attention of the Chinese women's basketball team seems to have become different from the past.
But I hope that everyone who has come to visit will not leave because of this defeat of the women's basketball team, because in every game in Tokyo, they can play competitive against any opponent, which is something that was unimaginable in Rio 5 years ago. So if we are sure that the Chinese women's basketball team has walked on the right path, we will slam on the accelerator all the way and continue to rush forward.
I hope that Xu Limin's guidance can persist again, this time he is still coaching with a ruptured Achilles tendon, in fact, he is destined to guide the Chinese women's basketball team. Xu's lover He Jun is the main player of the Chinese team to win the silver medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games, and the tough and flexible Xu coach will not only continue to strictly demand the players, but also experience the difficulties of women's basketball players more than other coaches.
I hope Shao Ting can stick to it again, and the battle of Servy, she is still the most outstanding athlete on the field, although now the year has passed, but the next Women's Basketball World Cup is just around the corner, the Paris Olympic Games are only three years later, the Chinese women's basketball team still needs her as a leader, not only her ability to charge the front, but also her arrogance to lead the three armies;
I hope that all women's basketball girls can insist on it again, this time the training of the Chinese women's basketball team is close to half a year, how much everyone has paid for it, sweet and bitter, but the joy of victory, the joy of growth, why not be beautiful?
After the group stage, many fans heard Xu's speech through the broadcast: "This step always has to be crossed, and it is better to cross the future than to cross now, I believe you, the Chinese women's basketball team must be OK." ”
Unfortunately, we haven't crossed the border yet.
But we still believe in you, because you, but the girls who represent China.