After the Chinese men's basketball team's fiasco at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, the men's basketball team underwent a major blood change. Song Ligang, Sun Fengwu, Li Chunjiang, Daniel Zhang Jun, Wang Zhidan and Ma Jian retired from the national team, and the young marshal Gong Luming succeeded Jiang Xingquan in charge of the Chinese team.
In 1996, the Chinese team finally fought a turnaround battle and reached the top 8 to achieve the best result in history. Therefore, this men's basketball team led by Hu Weidong, Wang Zhizhi and Liu Yudong is also known as the 96 Golden Generation.
The men's basketball team team played against the United States, Lithuania, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Argentina and Angola, and had to defeat two teams to qualify from the group. Therefore, the first non-state champion Angola must win.
The young Chinese players started out nervously, and the cooperation on the field was not tacit, but as the game progressed, the Chinese team gradually entered a better situation. In the first half, China was suppressed by Angola until the end of the half. In the second half, Angola took the lead first, and the Chinese team became a role of hard catching up. In the final period of the game, the young Chinese team, led by Hu Weidong, played several smooth attacks in succession to take the initiative into their own hands. The last shot of the Chinese team was handed over to Zheng Wu in the middle of the field, not hu Weidong or Sun Jun, which can be said to be a dangerous move. Young Marshal Gong Lu Mingyi was bold, and Zheng Wu's big heart withstood the pressure to shoot the fatal three-pointer to win the opponent 70:67. It was also the only goal Zheng Wu scored in the whole game.
In the group stage, China lost to Serbia and Herzegovina and Croatia and Lithuania. Again, he lost the game 70-113 again against the United States. In this game, Hu Weidong performed eye-catchingly and showed a super high level of technical competition. Hu Weidong scored a dunk in a counter-attack, the first time a Chinese player had dunked on the head of the U.S. team. CCTV commentator Sun Zhengping also praised Hu Weidong's wonderful performance at that time. After the game, the AMERICAN media hyped up and exclaimed that Hu Weidong was "China Jordan".
The Chinese team defeated Argentina to advance to the top eight and made a historic breakthrough. In a quarter of the matches, China lost 61:128 to Yugoslavia, and lost 85-99 to Croatia in the 7th to 8th qualifying matches, and finally finished 8th.
In this tournament, two players of the Chinese team averaged double figures per game, including Hu Weidong with 13 points and Wang Zhizhi with 11.1 points. In addition, Wu Qinglong scored 8.5 points, Liu Yudong 8.6 points, Sun Jun 7.9 points, Zheng Wu 7.6 points, Li Xiaoyong 7.1 points, Adi Jiang 7 points, Gong Xiaobin 5.6 points, and Li Nan 5.4 points. The list of entrants for this year is as follows.
Head Coach Gong Luming
Team members Hu Weidong Sun Jun Wang Zhizhi Wu Qinglong Gong Xiaobin Li Nan Liu Yudong Shan Tao Battle Zheng Wu Wu Wu Li Xiaoyong
Four years later, at the Sydney Olympic Games, Jiang Xingquan once again took charge of Shuaiyin, and in the case of Yao Ming, he wanted to wash away the shame of the total destruction of the army 8 years ago, and was ready to go further on the basis of 96 years.
The men's basketball lads only achieved a record of 2 wins and 4 losses. The group stage once again encountered the United States, and it was expected that they would lose 72-119, losing 64:81 to Spain in the battle for 9th place, and finally finishing 10th.
The three internal players of this competition have left a deep impression on the world. The "Great Wall of China" made its name from this point on, and all three subsequently landed in the NBA. Wang Zhizhi averaged 13.5 points per game, Yao Ming 10.5 points and Hu Weidong 9 points. In addition, Liu Yudong scored 7.8 points, Guo Shiqiang scored 7.5 points, and Battle 4.7 points. The list of Chinese teams in this competition is as follows.
Head coach Jiang Xingquan
Team Members Wang Zhizhi Yao Ming, Battle Hu Weidong, Gong Xiaobin, Guo Shiqiang, Li Nan, Liu Yudong, Sun Jun, Zheng Wu, Zhang Jinsong, Li Qun (To be continued)
The next issue will continue to talk about the Chinese team's Olympic journey
Stay tuned!