China women’s basketball recently announced the latest training list for 27 people, including the main players such as Han Xu, Li Meng and Yang Liwei. Before that, Han Xu renewed his contract with the WNBA Free team and Yang Liwei signed a contract with the spark team. At the same time, as far as I know, many Chinese women’s basketball players, including Li Yueru, Wang Siyu and Li Meng, have plans to play in WNBA. On March 5th, I interviewed Zheng Wei, the coach of China women’s basketball, and she said: “because some women’s basketball players are going to play WNBA this year, and some players have injuries, there are 27 players in this training. We hope that these players who go to WNBA can improve their personal ability and experience as soon as possible.” Zheng Wei also said that China’s women’s basketball should further improve its strength and create a truly world strong team.
As far as I know, after the end of last year’s World Cup, many Chinese women’s basketball main players have the desire and plan to play in high-level league matches, including Han Xu, Li Yuelu, Li Meng, Wang Siyu, yang Liwei et al. Recently, Han Xu has completed the renewal of his contract with the free man. Yang Liwei signed a contract with the spark team for two years, and the Sky team also intentionally recalled Li Yuelu. Meanwhile, the brokerage teams of Li Meng and Wang Siyu are also actively contacting WNBA teams for them. However, the time for WNBA is in conflict with China’s women’s basketball preparations for this year’s Asian Cup and Asian Games. How to balance the relationship?
Zheng Wei revealed to me that there were 27 players in this training in China women’s basketball. The main reason was that many players would go to WNBA to play, and some players also had injuries. Zheng Wei also expressed his opinion about women’s basketball players going to WNBA to play: “from last year’s World Cup, it can be seen that Chinese women’s basketball mainly relies on the whole, and the game style is different from that of American women’s basketball. There is a gap in personal ability between us and our opponents. I hope that these players who go to WNBA can achieve these goals through hard work: “The first is to increase the ability to fight, the second is to improve personal ability, and the third is to increase experience.”
Many Chinese women’s basketball players went to WNBA to play, which also means they will miss this year’s Asian Cup. In this regard, Zheng Wei said: “this Asian Cup we mainly focus on training young players.” As for the Asian Games at the gate of September, it is still difficult to determine whether these players can return.
Zheng Wei said that all preparations for China’s current women’s basketball are aimed at achieving good results in the Paris Olympics next year. In the Paris Olympic cycle target set by the Chinese Basketball Association, China Women’s Basketball entered the top four, which is in line with the actual situation of the team. “We can’t think we are in this position just because we won the second place in last year’s World Cup. In fact, we must strive to be a truly world strong team. What is a world strong team? Look at women’s basketball in the United States and women’s basketball in Australia. Their competition results are very stable. For example, every world competition in Australia women’s basketball is the top three. We need to have a clear understanding of our position and strength, so we think the goals set by the Basketball Association are in line with the reality. The podium at the Paris Olympics is our ultimate goal.”