"It's been five years, looking at the current atmosphere, such a big scene, I am really envious, your current era is too good." 」
Two days ago, Guo Kai, the main internal lineman of the CBA Guangzhou Dragon and Lions, stood in the spotlight and issued a heartfelt sigh, just 28 years old he said that "your era" was a violation of the law, but he only strongly felt the changes in the world.
5 years ago, he was the leader of the CBA draft, but he was selected in a conference room, the small room was squeezed by a group of big men, and Where Guo Kai was at the moment was Qingdao's famous Guoxin Stadium, which is not only a top stadium in the country in terms of infrastructure, but also a witness to the history of the CBA:
It has witnessed the whole process of superstar Maddy's visit to the CBA. In the 2012-13 season, it was in order to meet the desire of more fans to enter the field to watch Maddy play, the Qingdao men's basketball team entered the newly completed Guoxin Stadium for the first time;
It has witnessed the determination of the CBA to resume the game after the epidemic in 2020. When the new crown epidemic swept the world and sports events were all suspended, the CBA became the first major event in the Chinese sports industry to resume, and the Guoxin Stadium was the main stadium of qingdao division;
It even recently proved China's stage victory in the fight against the epidemic. The 2021 CBA All-Star once again appeared at the Guoxin Stadium, with 6,000 spectators watching the game, and the CBA players finally heard the long-lost shouts from the fans.
Wait, we seem to have missed something, there must be something important that has not been said...
Yes, in the 2019 CBA All-Star Game also held in Qingdao, there was a special Star Sharp Game, when the College Star United team composed of CUBA players narrowly defeated the CBA Star League team with a score of 90-88. Zhao Baiqing and Li Zhanglin, who were standing on this floor that day, returned to the familiar place.
July 18, 2021, the history of Chinese basketball, will remember this day.
This is the seventh draft in the history of the CBA, and it is also the first draft year in the history of the CBA - perhaps you will question such a statement, people in the NBA evaluate a draft year, what 1984, 1996 and 2003, how can not spend ten years and eight years, until the players who were selected in that year have achieved fame one by one, in order to give their draft year such a definition. Switch to the CBA, two days can name a big year?
In fact, two days are not needed, we really do not know how this batch of CBA selected newcomers can play on the professional field, but the "CBA Draft" itself, in this year, completed a historic breakthrough, no matter from any point of view, this is a draft that has never been seen in the past.
"When we were drafting, we remembered that there was a little bit of shabbiness," Guo Kai recalled the scene 5 years ago, and now he can easily joke, "That year was in Shanghai, in fact, to be honest, many of the processes in front of us were still very grand, please stayed in a very good hotel, took us on the Huangpu River cruise ship, ate buffet on it, and then the Huangpu River was not lit up at night, and the neon lights said 'Wish the CBA Draft a complete success' and so on." But on the day of the draft, it was done in a conference room. ”
Looking at the old photos of that year, you will find Guo Kai, who is 2 meters 05 tall, standing in front of the background board (below), and his head is not far from the ceiling. Therefore, when he looked at the open area of the Guoxin Gymnasium, he could not help but feel emotional. In particular, this year's CBA draft has a very humane change, the players are no longer sitting in the theater as in the past, sitting in a dense row, but to a round table, they have parents, coaches, agents, every young person when called by name, can finally be the first time to hug the family.
"My parents actually came here 5 years ago, but because the conditions at the venue were limited, they had to wait from a distance." Guo Kai's parents often live in Suzhou, a stone's throw away from Shanghai, and naturally went to the draft scene in 2016, Guo Kai felt the affection brought by his relatives, but it was indeed warmer and more powerful than a hug.
In addition to this, Guo Kai also found a surprise, that is, the figure of fans also appeared in the stands of the Guoxin Stadium that day. Interestingly, Guo Kai did not know that these fans bought tickets to enter the stadium.
According to reports, the draft conference opened a total of 500 seats on the day, open to the public to sell tickets, this proposal was proposed by the Qingdao club, and each ticket priced at 200 yuan was quickly sold out, such a market response exceeded everyone's expectations, it is reported that the total number of fans who entered the field on the day eventually exceeded the 500 mark.
This means that the CBA draft broke through internal barriers on this day, and it became a social event with market value.
If you are familiar with the NBA Draft, I am afraid that you can think of some classic pictures: in the grandstand of Madison Square Garden, the young New York fans covered their faces and wept because the team selected Porzingis, whom he had never heard, and then the child became good friends with Boshin - if it were not for the audience to witness it, these beautiful and wonderful stories would not have happened. On July 19, in the stands of the Guoxin Gymnasium, a special shout was already bursting out: "Tongxi, no matter how badly you played before, you chose Wu Tingjia (below), you are the main team of all our mine lords!" ”
Although I don't know how Huo Nan, the general manager of Nanjing Tongxi, felt at the time, they at least gained a new batch of fans. Such a shout will also make the CBA draft open to sell tickets, and there is a chance to normalize in the future.
In contrast to the NBA, the draft has played an unusually important role in the history of American basketball. It debuted early in 1947 and witnessed the rise and fall of the NBA as a professional league almost entirely, and according to the NBA's official data, the draft was not open to the public until 1979, during which a long period of 32 years was also experienced.
Although the CBA stands on the shoulders of giants, it takes 5 years to complete the leap from a conference room closing the draft to the public ticket sales of the 10,000-person stadium, which is already a big stride forward. What's even more gratifying is that all these external elements have evolved to keep up with the CBA Draft's evolution in nature — and now you may not believe it, but just 6 years ago, no one in the CBA world thought that college players could play professional leagues.
Looking back at the relevant reports of the 2015 draft, the "grand event" in which only Fang Junlei was selected was almost described as an absurd drama at that time. The original champion from Northwestern Polytechnical University only played 1 game in total in his CBA career, not even a meteor, and disappeared into the public eye.
"So when we were drafting, one thing was better, that is, there was no pressure, at that time, everyone didn't have much expectation for what kind of performance you played in the CBA," Guo Kai recalled when he entered the CBA at the beginning of 2016, saying that he had a more relaxed public opinion environment, "The team is also more tolerant of you, the first year I can't play for a long time, sometimes I can't even report the name, and no one will scold you for 'parallel goods' or something." ”
What's more interesting is that not only did the fans 5 years ago not care whether Guo Kai was a "parallel goods champion", but even Guo Kai himself did not care whether he was a "champion" or not.
In the past three years, the CBA Zhuangyuan Show, Wang Shaojie, Ou Junxuan, and Wang Yixiong have successively raised banners of "Zhuangyuan and Di", and Ou Junxuan's hometown of Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, even held a dragon and lion dance last year. Guo Kai's winning election was just 5 years ago, and he didn't care about such a heavy title as "Champion"?
"Because according to my original idea, I didn't want to go to the CBA, and even tried it out." Guo Kai said that five years ago, even though he participated in trial training for CBA teams in Fujian and Guangzhou, he still agreed with his parents that he would return to the campus of Peking University to continue his master's degree and play wild ball in his spare time, which was enough to earn a lot of income according to his competitive level.
But the Guangzhou team sent a staff member to Beijing to find Guo Kai again, and after painstaking persuasion, it finally aroused Guo Kai's ambition to challenge the professional arena, "So when the Guangzhou team decided to want me, I also knew that I would be the first to be selected, and there was no surprise on the day of the draft." ”
According to Guo Kai's recollection, although 8 players were selected in the 2016 CBA draft, basically everyone knew where to go before the election, "But this year is different, I and Lao Wan sat there that day to guess which player will go, so much to the scene can not guess, after the selection said, yo yo yo who went to this team." "Lao Wan is Wan Shengwei, on the day of the draft meeting and Guo Kai came to the scene as a past representative, the north master brothers are already CBA insiders, but this year's favorite people of various teams are also in the clouds.
This is precisely a huge breakthrough in the core level of the CBA Draft.
If sports are a war without smoke, then the draft is a military deduction that is not carried out on the sand table. The 2014 American film "Draft Day" starring Kevin Costner used the art of film to show what an important role the draft plays in North American professional sports, the players look forward to the moment when the dream comes true, but the managers have always had to play their own small calculations - this is not an ordinary corporate recruitment, the draft is an occasion full of conspiracy and calculation, it should have transactions, unpopularities, and stories.
And these, the 2021 CBA draft, have been available overnight. According to the official announcement of the CBA, clubs have completed a total of 7 transactions for this draft, involving a total of 10 draft picks and 12 teams.
Some of these transactions have been completed long ago, such as Zhejiang Guangsha's change from Tongxi to Feng Xin last year, which gave away two signings in the first and second rounds of this season; but there are also some transactions that have recently occurred, like Beijing Shougang, which was changed from Tianjin to the First Round No. 5 sign 2 days before the draft.
When there is a deal, the cold door will follow.
Guo Kai and Wan Shengwei now play for Guangzhou Dragon Lions and Nanjing Tongxi, the former is the big winner in the history of the CBA draft, and the latter is the team that has hoarded the most draft picks in the past two years, and they have a deep network of contacts in cuba. If they can't guess the draft policy of each team, it is very telling in itself.
If the selection intentions of the CBA team a year ago were still relatively clear, then the battle in 2021 was really still filled with smoke until the last moment, Huo Nan, the general manager of Nanjing Tongxi, said on social media, "Four draft picks, each player I have to understand as much as possible to investigate, a hundred phone calls and WeChat are always there, and I have also gone to the live game that should not go." But until the last moment, he was still hesitating between Peking University interior lineman Zhao Baiqing and NBL Henan main defender Cui Xiaolong, and Huo Nan finally chose the former. So a few minutes later, Shi Linjie, the general manager of the same provincial team Jiangsu Kendia, became the happiest person on the scene, although the Jiangsu team was not very lucky in the previous draw, but in the 4th pick to get Cui Xiaolong, who was known as the "next Jiang Yuxing", Shi Zong still had reason to laugh and blossom - when the Americans described the Warriors in the 7th pick in 2009, Curry, and the Bucks in the 15th pick in 2013, they would use the special verb "Steal". Apparently, the Jiangsu team also thought they had "stolen" at this moment.
Cui Xiaolong and his Henan teammates Jia Hao and Lu Junhu were all selected in the first round of the day, and Henan won all the places for players exported to the CBA by the NBL. But what really led the draft to a climax was the star players from CUBA, who had historically defeated Zhao Baiqing and Li Zhanglin of the CBA Star Rui team on this field 2 years ago, ranking in the top three of the draft, becoming the first two CUBA players selected on the day, and Luan Licheng, who was selected behind them, was the founder of another cold goal.
Luan Licheng joined Beijing Shougang with the 5th pick, which was the draft pick that originally belonged to Tianjin. At the beginning of the Beijing team transaction, there were speculations that Shougang's favorite was Li Weihao, a talented frontman from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, who did not think that the speculation was all in vain, and shougang Chen Cang was dark.
In the sea breeze of Qingdao, a total of 17 CUBA players jumped on the dragon gate and put on hats from various CBA teams, and a total of 30 players were selected to create a new record in the history of the CBA draft - the original record was the 2020 draft, a total of 19 players were selected, and in Qingdao, 19 of the 20 first-round draft picks were used.
What does this mean? The picture of the CBA team holding up the cards one after another and "abstaining" may never appear again. When Guo Kai grew into the absolute main force of the Guangzhou team in 5 years, when his two disciples Wang Shaojie and Zhu Mingzhen entered the big list of the Chinese men's basketball team, the competitiveness of CUBA players has been completely recognized by professional teams, no one will doubt whether the ivory tower can get out of the CBA players, and the value of draft rights has been generally recognized by all teams.
Of course, a total of 30 players were selected, which has a lot to do with the addition of Ningbo Fubon. CBA held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting a few days before the draft, specifically to discuss how to help the new army Fubon complete the construction of the team through the draft, Guangdong Xinjiang and other strong teams also showed considerable grace, ceded their first round of draft picks to Fubang, so this new team selected 6 players including Ma Zhenxiang, one of the "three masters of the mine", on the same day.
However, for the legendary "All-China Class Program", it has also promoted the vigorous selection to a certain extent, and some CBA insiders have different opinions on this. The insider said: Can you imagine that five or six years ago, you did not recognize the strength of CUBA players, even if you want to play the all-Chinese class, you will take college students as the main direction of reinforcement? But once you think they can play in the CBA, you will still choose them even if you have foreign aid, the difference is only how many opportunities they can get on the CBA team after they are selected.
The insider also admitted that the CBA draft has developed faster in recent years than previous internal expectations.
There are many reasons for the growing popularity of CUBA players in the CBA, Guo Kai and Wang Shaojie not only proved their combat effectiveness on the court, but these young people who have been educated by institutions of higher learning also showed many unexpected advantages:
First, they are more mature and more experienced. Compared with the players cultivated by the CBA youth team itself, CUBA's draft players are older and have experienced many years of baptism on the college basketball court, often bringing plug-and-play surprises to CBA teams;
Second, cuba players' hospitality has been well received. In the past, Chinese sports were used by sports schools and sports teams as the main talent training channels, and it was inevitable that they would neglect to educate athletes on cultural quality, but CUBA players had obvious advantages in this regard. "When you were studying at Peking University, you were surrounded by academic bullies, it was difficult for you not to be affected by them, and you were embarrassed to drag your feet when everyone studied," Guo Kai was also quite aware when talking about this aspect, "Last year, William (Zhu Mingzhen) came to our team, and the first thing I told him was that the graduate school should not fall behind, remember to keep in touch with the tutor." ”
Guo Kai, who wanted to stay in school for graduate school, finally switched to a career in 2016 and made his most important and correct life decision: stepping on the CBA game proved himself and proved the excellence of college players. But at the same time, he did not give up his studies, in the distant NBA world, Suns player Cameron Johnson played the Finals while completing his master's thesis was rumored to be a good story, but in fact, the same story is happening all around us.
Guo Kai joked that his serious injury in 2020 was "a blessing in disguise", and it was during his recovery that he completed his master's thesis. If many CBA teams will believe in the ability of CUBA players because of Guo Kai; then nowadays, those CUBA players can also believe because of him: playing professionally does not necessarily delay their studies, and it is normal for people to cherish the opportunity of Tsinghua Peking University, but as long as you work hard enough, you can even do both.
July 18, 2021, this is a worrying day for Chinese basketball.
We can hear the wind whistling, the Japanese men's basketball team after the return of the three overseas players, defeated the European powerhouse France team in the warm-up match, the world began to wonder about their performance at the Tokyo Olympic Games, and the chinese men's basketball team and the Olympics' love affair stayed in Rio in 2016.
At that time, Yuta Watanabe had just finished her sophomore season at George Washington University, averaging just 8.4 points per game; Yatsumura was just a graduate of Sendai City's Amenari High School, not even studying in Gonzaga; and Baba Yudai was working hard to dominate the country at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. 5 years is not long, but it is enough to make the sea into a mulberry field.
In the past 5 years, Chinese basketball may not have gotten better in many things, but at least what happened in front of Guo Kai's eyes represents our most significant and gratifying change: the CBA draft will never be held in a conference room again, and the diamond-like shape of guoxin gymnasium seems to imply the best blessing that every rookie can shine, just like Guo Kai today.
At the end of the chat with Guo Kai, I couldn't help but ask him, "Oh yes, what is the specific writing of your graduate student's thesis, and what is the title?" ”
Guo Kai replied: "What I wrote is the "Research on the Growth Path of CBA College Players". Unfortunately, if I write this year, I can use more data. ”
After listening to it, I laughed loudly, in this summer when the Chinese men's basketball team did not qualify for the Olympic Games, our best young players had no ball to play to apply for arbitration, and the CBA League may not even have foreign aid, this should already be the most pleasant answer I have heard from the world of Chinese basketball.
Rest assured Guo Kai, after your paper is written, there will always be someone to record everything on July 18, 2021.
Not only have I written them here, but many people have already taken them to heart.