In the past decade, more and more Taiwanese players have landed in the CBA League, the most famous of which is undoubtedly Lin Zhijie, but the nickname "Treasure Island Beast" compared to the "Taiwan Jordan" Zheng Zhilong who played for Shanghai more than 20 years ago, the nickname has already reflected the gap between the two.
Zheng Zhilong has fair skin, deep eye sockets, a high nose, and a proper handsome embryo, which is related to his mixed blood, it is said that his father is an American soldier and his mother is an Ami. It is precisely because he is too handsome, Zheng Zhilong has been famous for his scandals, even if he is married, of course, this is the last word.
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Zheng Zhilong's height of 1.92 meters, the swing man who plays the front guard on the field, is exactly the same as Lin Zhijie.
After engaging in basketball, Zheng Zhilong quickly showed outstanding basketball talent. Zheng Zhilong has a good bounce, and NBA star Julius Owen is more famous for bouncing, nicknamed "Dr. J", so some people call Zheng Zhilong "Basketball Doctor". But in terms of personal status, Zheng Zhilong is definitely the Jordan of Taiwan's basketball industry, with countless fans, and "black" Chen Jianzhou is one of them.
Zheng Zhilong's bounce strength is recognized, but his real strength lies in his super ability to stay in the air and continuously jump, whether it is facing a strong opponent in Asia, or in a higher level of CBA league, through those less clear game videos can be seen, aerial pull, continuous point to grab the front court board, for Zheng Zhilong is commonplace, which is enough to make up for his height disadvantage.
Zheng Zhilong began to represent the Chinese Taipei youth team in intercontinental competitions at the age of 16, and was selected for the Chinese Taipei men's basketball team at the age of 19, becoming the youngest player to be selected for the Chinese Taipei adult team at that time. In the 1986 and 1988 Asian Youth Championships, Zheng Zhilong was the top scorer of the Chinese Taipei team, leading the team to the third and second places. At the 1989 Asian Championships, Zheng Zhilong helped the Chinese Taipei team win the third place, setting the best result of the Chinese Taipei men's basketball team to participate in the Asian Championship so far. In 1997, the Chinese Taipei men's basketball team led by Zheng Zhilong won the gold medal of the East Asian Games men's basketball team. In addition, Zheng Zhilong participated in the Asian All-Star Game, played with ease in a strong hand, and was elected to the event MVP award.
Because his performance in the Asian Youth Championship in the Philippines was so top-notch, when Zheng Zhilong went to the Philippines to play in the 90s, local fans shouted at him: "tony cheng", tony is Zheng Zhilong's English name.
In the professional leagues in Taiwan Province, Zheng Zhilong is even more god to block the killing of the god, Buddha to block the Buddha, "three points king", mvp and other glory to get soft. One year in the finals, Zheng Zhilong's Hongguo team once fell behind the Tairui team 1-3, and almost everyone thought that Hongguo had lost, but Zheng Zhilong had to complete the big reversal by himself and help Hongguo achieve three consecutive championships.
Zheng Zhilong reversed a battle
Zheng Zhilong's efforts to turn the tide have left some gamblers with no return, and the heartbroken people have made threatening phone calls to try to affect Zheng Zhilong's play, but he is not moved.
Taiwan's famous basketball media Ren Dapei commented that Zheng Zhilong is "super smart in playing, Liu Zheng, Lin Zhijie, Chen Xin'an have their own characteristics, but Zheng Zhilong is the most comprehensive." Wen Dapei said: "Throughout the 90s of the last century, Zheng Zhilong was synonymous with Taiwanese basketball. ”
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It can be seen that Zheng Zhilong had already fought all over Taiwan at that time, and if he wanted to go further, he could only go to a higher stage. Hongguo team foreign aid Ma Kai once gave Zheng Zhilong's game highlights to former Bucks coach Terry Porter, Porter has a high opinion of Zheng Zhilong, and even believes that Zheng Zhilong has the potential of the first round of the NBA, but for various reasons, Zheng Zhilong has not had a deeper connection with the NBA.
By chance, the Taiwan Basketball League was shut down in the 1998-99 season due to financial problems, "at that time, I tried to think about whether I could leave Taiwan and go to other leagues." "Zheng Zhilong wants to go to Japan, South Korea, or play in the Philippine League where he has special feelings.
A chance to go to Guangzhou to watch the ball, the atmosphere of the scene shocked Zheng Zhilong, but also let him open his eyes, "Wow, there are so many fans here, the venue is so big." So Zheng Zhilong told himself from the bottom of his heart that he must go to CBA.
Under the guidance of enthusiastic person Jiang Fengnian, Zheng Zhilong intersected with Shanghai, he recalled that although the process of joining was somewhat twisty, he still "drilled a loophole", and with the help of people in the sports circles on both sides of the strait, he joined the Shanghai men's basketball team and became the first Taiwanese player to play in the CBA. ”
Standing on the stage of the CBA, everything is strange to Zheng Zhilong, "Very shocking, at that time in Taiwan to play the tournament system, CBA played the home and away system, so from the traffic, environment, climate is different, the humanities are also different, to Guangdong, the whole audience is speaking Cantonese, to the northeast is the northeast dialect." Feeling is to say, this is the feeling of home and away, the audience in each place is different because of that place personality, maybe Shanghai is more Sven, maybe to the northeast, northwest, the fans are very fierce, so then it is to adapt to these things. ”
During Zheng Zhilong's spelling of the CBA, his head was "opened to flowers"
The bigger change is still a personal role, in Taiwan, Zheng Zhilong is the core of the people, the Asian arena, he also played with "Asian Jordan" Hu Weidong back and forth, but in Shanghai, Zheng Zhilong is a full-fledged "rookie", "I have not matched with such a high (Yao Ming) center in the past, so the playing style is a little different." ”
So when he first came to Shanghai, Zheng Zhilong didn't play well, and a Shanghai reporter told him after the season, "At first I thought you were a 'parallel cargo'. ”
Fortunately, Zheng Zhilong was very adaptable, quickly recognized by fans, selected into the 1999-00 CBA All-Star team, and also helped the Shanghai men's basketball team reach the finals for the first time in history, and finally regrettably lost to Wang Bayi and ranked second. Zheng Zhilong personally won the "Sportsmanship Award".
After playing cBA for the Shanghai men's basketball team for only one year, Zheng Zhilong returned to Taiwan to join the Daxin team until his retirement in 2001.
However, Zheng Zhilong's love affair with the CBA was not interrupted, and he later received an invitation from former Shanghai coach Li Qiuping to become an assistant coach of "Little Zhuge Ge", coaching in Qingdao and Xinjiang successively, and becoming one of the heroes of Xinjiang to win the 2017 CBA championship.
In 2017, Zheng Zhilong became the head coach of the Shanghai women's basketball team, and returned to Shanghai Beach after 18 years, "I discussed with Li Qiuping and felt good, this matter (coaching the Shanghai women's basketball team) was so settled." In my basketball career, it was a rare opportunity for me to jump to another angle and level to see basketball and understand basketball, so I have a very fresh memory of the decision and that memory of playing in Shanghai until now. After taking over the Shanghai women's basketball team, Zheng Zhilong said in an interview with the media.
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In 1999, Zheng Zhilong and Yao Ming, who was still in the "juvenile stage", became teammates, and at that time, the "little giant" had already received the attention of the NBA.
Zheng Zhilong was 30 years old at the time, and his competitive status and peak period were not the same, but the shooting skills he learned from head coach and "former Asian first shooter" Li Zhongxi when he was in Hongguo, as well as a high degree of professionalism, made Yao Ming very respectful, and Yao Zhilong called Zheng Zhilong "Dragon Brother" when he opened his mouth and closed his mouth.
Zheng Zhilong also had a high evaluation of Yao Ming, and at that time, some media asked him if Yao Ming could play the NBA in the end? Zheng Zhilong gave a positive answer, "I said, what I saw on the training ground and the competition field was that he was very serious about training and competition, very dedicated, very focused, at that time he was only 19 years old, his thinking was no different from the average young person today, he had more than 2 meters and 20 meters, so I think he has hope (playing NBA). ”
When the NBA team threw an olive branch at Yao Ming, the Shanghai Basketball Association said that Yao Ming would consider letting him play in the NBA if he won a championship trophy for the Shanghai men's basketball team. "In any case, Yao Ming was cultivated by the Shanghai team from a young age, and everyone took it for granted, so Yao Ming also seriously wants to win a championship for the Shanghai team." Zheng Zhilong said, "It is true that he helped Shanghai win a championship and then went to the NBA, and he did make a very good result." ”
Zheng Zhilong praised Yao Ming's high emotional intelligence, "Yao Ming himself is a very delicate mind, very fast moving person, he often uses his humor to face his advice, criticism or good, this is also a confident performance, basically he ignores these criticisms." His whole mind is, I want to win the championship, because if he wins the championship, he will have a future, so other things are not important to him at all, and he will not pay any attention to the sneer, because that is not the energy that makes him go to the NBA, nor is it the obstacle to going to the NBA. ”
From Yao Ming's body, Zheng Zhilong saw the qualities that an excellent player should have, "so in fact, many excellent players have this characteristic, he knows very well what he wants to grasp now, and will not be disturbed." ”
Today, Zheng Zhilong has returned to Taiwan to contribute to the newly established Taiwan P Basketball League and the original SBL League, hoping to cultivate more talents for Taiwanese basketball, and his connection and story with the CBA are far from over. One day in the future, maybe we will see Zheng Zhilong's handsome figure again on the sidelines of the CBA.