Despite the confidence and strict discipline in the leader's speech, the Chinese men's basketball team lost 1-4 in the World Cup, missed the Olympic Games, and was even deprived of the qualification for the qualifying tournament, and the loss to the Philippines was the first time that the Chinese men's basketball team lost to an Asian team in the World Series.
In the end, after five fierce games, the Chinese men's basketball team, like the Chinese men's football team, lost all face, the whole country was chilled, and even a little insensitive. For the tragic defeat of the World Cup, ** not only questioned the on-court performance of the men's basketball coach, but also generally believed that the CBA league had a certain responsibility.
In response, CBA officials immediately responded on September 6, announcing a major personnel change.
After the Chinese men's basketball World Cup fiasco, Zhang Xiong will be replaced by veteran Jiang Jian as Yao Ming's knife-carrying guard. The change has sparked much speculation, and the question of whether Yao Ming will continue to serve as president of the Chinese Basketball Association has also been widely discussed.
Although Yao Ming did not publicly express his attitude, the incident undoubtedly put him on the cusp.
On September 6, the news of the personnel changes at the top of the CBA was finally revealed, and Zhang Xiong's term will end on September 7, three years later, and he will not renew his contract and transfer the position to veteran Jiang Jian.
According to people familiar with the matter, Zhang Xiong has performed well in the three years he has served as the general manager of the CBA, and has been well received by the company and the Chinese Basketball Association. Although the Chinese Basketball Association and the CBA have ostensibly separated, Xu Jicheng, the designated successor of Yao Ming when he stepped down, is also the vice president of the Chinese Basketball Association, suggesting that the two are still closely linked.
Therefore, when the CBA dismissed Zhang Xiong, did it imply that Yao Ming took relevant action against Zhang Xiong?
Zhang Xiong began working at the Basketball Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of China in 2003, serving as the head of market development, the leader of the Chinese men's basketball team, and later the deputy secretary general of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Compared with others, he can be regarded as a veteran of the Chinese Basketball Association in front of Yao Ming, with more rich and profound experience.
Yao Ming was at the peak of his debut, not only was he directly promoted to the chairman of the CBA in 2017, but also served as the chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association. Zhang Xiong, an outstanding graduate of Shanghai University of Sport, has been Yao Ming's right-hand man.
In 2019, Yao Ming introduced Wang Dawei, vice president of NBA China, as the general manager of CBA, but Wang Dawei left the following year for some reason. In an emergency, Yao Ming took a fancy to Zhang Xiong's more than 30 years of industry experience and thought he was the best new candidate.
Despite his laudation in basketball circles, Zhang Xiong is widely recognized for his meticulous planning and teamwork skills. Under his leadership, CBA achieved an all-time high at the end of last season, bringing more than $33 million in dividends to teams, which was highly praised by investors.
However, despite the effectiveness of his work, the results of the Chinese men's basketball team have not improved in the past four years, but have declined. Therefore, there is speculation that Yao Ming may adjust the head of the CBA league responsible for the development and delivery of talents for the national team.
And with Jiang Jian announced as his successor, the news, although it came as a surprise to some, was also expected by them.
After CBA was established in 2017, Jian Jiang served as the general manager of business development. He and Zhang Xiong have always been old partners who have worked closely together, and the CBA at that time adopted the "dual general manager system".
The annual salary of each CBA CEO is more than one million, and the current reform, one less general manager means that each club can pay at least 50,000 more dividends every year, so that the operation and business of the league can be handed over to Jiang Jian alone, thus saving costs for the CBA.
Chinese basketball has fallen into a serious recession in recent years, especially the results of the men's basketball team. Not only did they fail to qualify for the Olympics in two World Cups, but they even lost to the Philippines in qualifying, a result that made fans ponder deeply, and at the same time raised questions about the management and players of the Chinese men's basketball team.
While the women's basketball team has been solid, it still can't hide the men's basketball team's woes.
This game has brought a heavy blow to the basketball world, and some people bluntly said that head coach Djordjevic must be responsible for this loss. However, the problem is not his responsibility alone.
In recent years, the CBA league has achieved great success in the country, and at the same time, it has taken on the important task of cultivating talents for the national team.
In the past four years, the performance of the Chinese men's basketball team has been the worst in history. Take Wang Zhelin as an example, he performed well in the CBA and was even able to score more than 60 points, but in the World Cup, he couldn't even compare with the water cooler athletes of other teams, which caused questions from the outside world.
Therefore, fans and ** agree that the confrontation of the CBA league is too low to send high-level players to the national team. Ma Jian, a former Chinese men's basketball player, pointed out that Yao Ming, as a manager, should also be held responsible, and some people even believe that Yao Ming is the reason for the regression of the Chinese men's basketball team.
Faced with the embarrassing situation of the Chinese men's basketball team missing the Olympic Games for two consecutive years, Yao Ming decided to resign from the two key positions of men's basketball team leader and CBA chairman.
Could it be that the failure of the men's basketball team should let Yao Ming bear all the responsibility alone? Fans' expectations for the men's basketball team are extremely high, which undoubtedly puts great pressure on Yao Ming, who is the president of the basketball association.
As chairman, he has actively carried out reforms and brought in better coaches, but his efforts do not seem to have paid off as they should be, so his resignation inevitably raises speculation that he is avoiding suspicion and shirking responsibility.
The Chinese men's basketball team was once the most competitive team in Asia, and Yao Ming played a key role in the Houston Rockets as a representative of Asian players. In the Olympic and World Cup competitions led by the three centers that year, the Chinese team was known as "the team that shoots standing and shooting, one of the best in the world!" ”
However, after Yao Ming became the chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association in 2017, the Chinese men's basketball team's performance in the Asian Cup was not satisfactory and stopped at the quarterfinals. Two years later, the Chinese men's basketball team hosted the World Cup at home, but the team led by Li Nan was reversed by the Polish team in the group stage and directly missed the Olympic Games.
In the 2022 Asian Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team played in the World Preliminary Tournament under the leadership of Du Feng, but the whole team suffered injuries and failed to break into the quarterfinals. Then in the game with the Philippines, the Chinese men's basketball team lost miserably, setting the worst result in history, and missed the Olympics again.
Therefore, these achievements can be said to be Yao Ming's performance after serving as the chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association. However, if we blame the local coach for his poor ability, we have brought in the world-famous coach Djordjevic; If you don't think it's okay to have no naturalized players, we have also brought in superstar Li Kaier.
However, the men's basketball team's performance has not improved, but has deteriorated. Now that the external factors have been exhausted, there is no excuse to be found, the problem is the lack of quality of our local players.
There has been a period of strolling on the pitch in Chinese football, and the "snickering" incident in the basketball world has revealed the irresponsible side of domestic athletes. In 2009, the Chinese men's basketball team hosted the Asian Championship in Tianjin, and as the host, they hoped to regain the long-lost title.
However, in the final, they lost to Iran by a margin of 52-70 and failed to win the title on their home turf. Losing the title that was supposed to be a must-win had put them on the cusp, but what happened next was unacceptable to them.
Although the Chinese men's basketball team unfortunately lost in the game and only won the runner-up, at the award ceremony, the behavior of Zhu Fangyu, Du Feng and Sun Yue attracted criticism from everyone.
They hid their mouths and snickered on this solemn and important occasion, causing dissatisfaction among the players, who felt that they lacked a sense of national pride. What's more, someone stopped them at their doorstep and questioned them for their actions.
This makes people wonder, don't they know that they have lost the crown? Their smiles seemed to be a celebration of victory, which was confusing.
After the "snickering door" incident, the Basketball Association only issued a notice of criticism, but this incident had a great impact on Guo Shiqiang. Eventually, he resigned as head coach and never had the opportunity to coach the Chinese men's basketball team again in his coaching career.
In fact, the fans' requirements are not high, and it is acceptable that they are not capable of doing so, but the reality is that once they have money, they will become very irritable, their football skills will decline, and they will even say some inappropriate things.
Now, from the youth academy to the professional league, a huge chain of interests has been formed, and there are many unknown things hidden behind it.
The second generation of football has an advantage in training, medical care and ** conditions with high-quality resources, which makes the field of professional players more and more closed. Some high-paid players even used variety shows to make a lot of money, although Yao Ming tried to change the situation through a salary limit order, but it did not achieve the desired effect.
This is also one of the reasons why players do not pay attention to the improvement of basic skills, resulting in a gradual decline in the level.
The failure of the Chinese men's basketball team is not just the fault of the players and coaches, according to Shao, a little-known detail is that technical analysis was outsourced to a company, which has raised doubts about technical analysis.
Therefore, the current fiasco of the Chinese men's basketball team has brought tremendous pressure to the management and players.