Li Qiuping finally left class, leaving the oath of "I am out of class, but also to play team basketball".
From May 25, 2018 to the Shanghai men's basketball team on January 18, 2020, when the team officially announced the end of class, in the 76 CBA games led by Li Qiuping, the Shanghai men's basketball team only won 31 games, with a winning rate of 40.79%, which is the report card left by Li Qiuping.
In fact, Li Qiuping originally signed a two-year contract with the Shanghai men's basketball team, and in the season when he returned to Shanghai, he also stressed over and over again that "the team can not only look at short-term victories, but seek long-term development", but it is clear that the team management and fans can't seem to wait.
From the cheers and applause of the fans in the Yuanshen Stadium more than a year ago to the "Li Qiuping class" that reverberates throughout the stadium today, what did the coach, one of the most successful coaches in the history of Chinese professional basketball, go through in the 603 days of "going home"? Is the "team basketball" he insists on really wrong?
Behind Li Qiuping is the phrase "sharks return to the peak, and then cast brilliance."
Reunion, he was once a "little Zhuge Who brought back hope"
"It's still relatively happy to return to my hometown for Shanghai basketball." At noon a year and a half ago, Li Qiuping's remark standing outside the basketball training hall of the Shanghai Sports Vocational College seemed to many reporters and players who were present at the time, as if they had happened a few days ago.
Holding a thermos cup in his hand, wearing a sportswear, and greeting every old reporter he knew, Li Qiuping, who was 59 years old at the time, looked quite relaxed. But in the heart of the meritorious coach who once led the Shanghai men's basketball team to the top, he was full of pressure, and between words, he did not try to hide this state:
"Originally my idea was to bring a team that had a chance to win the championship, but going back to Shanghai is also an option, and now the three big balls in Shanghai are in the top three in addition to the men's basketball team, we can't drag our feet, we have to raise the level."
After nine years of leaving home and returning to his homeland, in addition to the familiar training hall, the players in front of him have basically changed their faces, but what has not changed is Li Qiuping's dedication and love for basketball. So the old coach returned to his familiar dormitory, set up the once familiar furnishings, and then studied his team's tactics and play style day and night.
The change in the team is obvious - foreign aid has been given a more reasonable schedule, the new team has been given more opportunities to play, and the old players are still the team's metronome.
The Shanghai men's basketball team carried out personnel reinforcement in the new season, but the results did not rise but fell.
In the game that defeated the then "defending champion" Liaoning men's basketball team last season, Li Qiuping's command of "using soldiers like gods" in the last quarter made Shanghai fans see the hope of the team returning to the ranks of the championship:
When the Liaoning men's basketball team frantically countered, he suddenly replaced fredette, the core of the score, replaced Lu Wei, who did not play for a second in the first three quarters of the game, and let him form a three-guard with the young Tang Zihao and Luo Hanchen.
It was Lu Wei who scored a 3-pointer and a long two-pointer in just 6 minutes to help the team stabilize the lead, and then he was the "lonely god" who had enough rest on the pie and finally directly "killed" the game.
When leaving the stadium, the fans shouted "Little Zhuge Ge" on the sidelines, and when Li Qiuping walked into the press conference hall, the scene remembered the long-lost applause. But Li Qiuping did not show much joy - "Whether it is 'three guards' or 'three highs', or 'double point guards plus three highs', I am adjusting according to the opponent's lineup." ”
When reviewing the whole game, Li Qiuping constantly used various data to analyze the team's strengths and weaknesses in the process, which is a habit left by his coaching career for so many years, and it is also a scene that the Shanghai men's basketball team has not had in the past few years.
It was the sweetest time between the Shanghai men's basketball team and Li Qiuping in this year and a half, when Li Qiuping was looking forward to "retiring in Shanghai" and "I want to cultivate more young players through this season." We must not only play well this season, but also make some preparations for the future development of Shanghai basketball. ”
Li Qiuping coached the players.
Grades kept falling and smoking more and more
In the first season of the Shanghai men's basketball team, the team won a regular season record of 23 wins and 23 losses, although 0-2 stopped the first round of the playoffs, but Li Qiuping's platoon deployment and on-the-spot command still left enough imagination space for the future of the team.
However, the sudden injury gave the Shanghai men's basketball team, which changed its new owner and increased its investment, an unexpected blow.
"Injuries and illness are something like that, and sometimes there's really no way." Since the losing streak at the beginning of this season, the problems surrounding Li Qiuping have almost all been related to injuries and losses, and coach Li Qiuping has not avoided:
"At this time, it is not interesting to find objective reasons, the reality is like this, the team's performance is not good, and such criticism comes." We don't shirk our responsibilities, the team doesn't play well, the responsibility is always the coach. ”
Zhang Zhaoxu's unexpected injury in the physical test made the Shanghai men's basketball team's inner rotation stretched, the team's re-invited Li Gen missed at least 15 games due to knee injury, and the state of new signings Ju Mingxin and Zhang Chunjun also fluctuated.
"We originally expected Li Gen and Ju Mingxin to average at least 25 points per game, and if they can play normally, even if they can contribute a steady contribution of more than ten points in one game, this is not the case for the team now."
The huge gap between ideals and reality is particularly glaring in Li Qiuping's interviews. Another detail more intuitively reflects his heart.
Li Qiuping supervises the training of players.
Li Qiuping likes to smoke, but this season may be the most fierce period of smoking in the past few years. In the road trip that has repeatedly suffered failures, Li Qiuping often stands on the bus and frowns, and the cigarettes between his fingers are one after another; and when he returns to Shanghai, standing outside the training ground, when he chats with reporters he knows the team, he also can't leave his hand...
Li Qiuping has always stressed that he hopes to cultivate more competitive players for the future of the Shanghai men's basketball team. Unfortunately, when the team's record plummeted, fans didn't want to wait for the future.
"Li Qiuping, don't insist on your team basketball anymore, or find a good foreign aid..."
This is the Shanghai fans shouting on the sidelines, the volume is so loud that the whole audience can hear it, and Li Qiuping, who is standing in front of the bench, can certainly hear it, but whenever he hears such a question, he does not react too much, only occasionally wipes the sweat off his head with his hands, or directly supports his forehead to block the tight frowns.
Wiping sweat, scratching his head, frowning and covering his face, Li Qiuping's actions on the sidelines are enough to explain the problem - even a veteran with enough experience, he has lost control of the team on and off the field.
According to people familiar with the team, sometimes after the game, Li Qiuping will leave young players alone to teach; the team will also have some contradictions in training, causing players to question the coaching staff; and even management problems caused by the team's consecutive losses, which will cause some players to be directly excluded from the big list...
"Now everyone is under pressure. We now not only represent Jiushi, but also represent Shanghai, who has no pressure to fight like this? This is Li Qiuping's sentiment in an interview with Xinmin Evening News before leaving office, "The way to solve the problem now is to dig for potential, hoping that the wounded will get better quickly, rather than changing direction as soon as they encounter difficulties." ”
Li Qiuping and Cai Liang exchanged.
What's wrong with "team basketball"?
The "direction" in Li Qiuping's mouth refers to the most discussed contradictory topic of the team in the losing streak - "team basketball" vs "superstar basketball".
In this game, Coach Li Qiuping has never changed his basketball philosophy from beginning to end.
603 days ago, when Li Qiuping first stepped into the training hall of the Shanghai men's basketball team, he said such a thing in front of the reporter's long gun and short cannon, "We want to play team basketball, we can't rely too much on foreign aid."
At that time, Fredette was still the most important scoring weapon in Li Qiuping's hands, but Li Qiuping already hoped to change this "undesirable way of playing", "Fredette is a very good player, with strong personal ability and smart playing." But sometimes he scored forty or fifty points and the team still lost; and sometimes he only scored twenty or thirty points and we won, and that's the result of the whole battle. ”
This season, Fredette left the Shanghai men's basketball team, but whether the "replacement" is Nanali, McCollum or Cunningham, it seems that they have not been able to reach the state of Fushen's pre-season state.
Then, more and more fans and reporters mentioned Fredette in front of Li Qiuping, mentioning the team's record at that time, while Li Qiuping was particularly determined, "If Fredette continues to play in Shanghai, the short-term results may be better, but what is our goal?" The goal is to go in the direction of the championship, but he will never reach this goal in his words. ”
Fredette, the name that can't be bypassed.
At least from the concept of "cultivating local players", Li Qiuping is considered from the development of Shanghai basketball. However, the cruel reality of competitive sports "achievement is justice" finally crushed Li Qiuping.
"This season, we have focused on Motel in the tactical system, one is attacking, the other is attracting defense, creating opportunities for other teammates. If that's blocked, we're not very strong in our ability to score on the outside. ”
Luck also made a joke with Li Qiuping. The team's tactical core Motai Yunas was injured before All-Star Weekend, which caused Li Qiuping to design the "team basketball" tactical system this season to lose its pivot and starting point, even if it was replaced by "double small outside" in the latest game, the change was still insignificant.
In the home loss to Shanxi a few days ago, the fans did not shout "Li Qiuping is out of class" because they had begun to leave the game when they were halfway through the fourth quarter. After the post-match press conference, a reporter chased after Li Qiuping and asked, "When will Motai come back?" ”
Li Qiuping laughed and said, "Anything is possible" (anything is possible).
And this "maybe" eventually turned into Li Qiuping's departure.
"No regrets, it wasn't my worst experience." When Li Qiuping gave an exclusive interview to Shanghai Five Star Sports after leaving office, he was calm. But only Li Qiuping himself knows that compared with the expectation of "successful retirement in Shanghai", this result is too unsatisfactory.
"From the very beginning back to the Shanghai team, I am ready and the final result may be like this. This is a high-risk profession in itself, and anyway, I work here for a day, and I am fully committed to it. ”