Photo by Zhan Shuzhen, reporter of Yangcheng Evening News
Wen/Yangcheng Evening News reporter Hao Haoyu Zhou Fangping Zhan Shuzhen
On July 2nd, at the Olympic Park Sports center in Sydney, Australia, Zheng Wei, the coach of China women’s basketball, was once again surrounded by the celebrating team members, smiling like a flower. Her team defeated Japan women’s basketball, the five-consecutive champion in the women’s basketball Asian Cup final that day, and China women’s basketball won the Asian Cup again after 12 years. At the same venue a year ago, Zheng Wei also enjoyed the joy of victory. She was thrown up by her team members Gao Gao. At that time, China Women’s Basketball defeated Australia in the semi-final of the women’s basketball World Cup, he tied the team’s best record since the World competition.
Just one year after she officially became the manager of China’s women’s basketball, Zheng Wei led China’s women’s basketball to win the World runner-up and Asian champion, but she still modestly said that this was a victory for the team. Three days after winning the Asian Cup in women’s basketball, Zheng Wei, who returned to Guangzhou, received an exclusive interview with the reporter of Yangcheng Evening News. Zheng Wei said that she did not expect the team to perform so well before the match. She also believed that the team had a brighter future. In an interview, the leading figure of China’s women’s basketball was wearing a white blouse with no extra decorations. The four scarlet letters printed on the left side of the blouse were particularly eye-catching: Fearless Golden Orchid.
Getting better and leading the team to the top of Asia
Before the opening of the Asian Cup in women’s basketball, Zheng Wei said in an interview that the goal of China’s women’s basketball is to reach the top four and get the qualification to participate in the Paris Olympic Games. And even now she has taken the Championship trophy into her arms, Zheng Wei still said that she was not modest before the game. “(Reaching the top four) is a realistic goal,” Zheng Wei said. “Our whole preparation process is very difficult, and I am very happy to achieve such a good result.”
Zheng Wei was right. This Chinese women’s basketball faced many difficulties before the start of the competition. According to the original plan of China’s women’s basketball, a group of young players would have provoked Liang in this competition, but in April this year, the International Basketball Federation announced suddenly: the results of this Asian Cup are linked to the Olympic qualifier-this means that China women’s basketball must break into the top four, and the deployment of the team before the match was completely disrupted. “It was very late when we knew the news, and the lineup of the Japanese team was relatively complete; The Australian team fought at home with strong strength; The South Korean team recalled Park Zhixiu, these teams are very competitive. If half of the players in our team are still young, I really have no bottom in my heart “. Zheng Wei said.
Therefore, after communicating with the WNBA team, China recalled core players like Han Xu and Li Meng women’s basketball. However, due to their late arrival time in the team, plus Li Yuelu, Huang Sijing, several conventional main injuries such as Wu Tongtong were unable to accompany the team. Compared with last year’s World Cup, China’s women’s basketball strength was indeed greatly affected. Zheng Wei recalled: “Before we participated in the Asian Cup, we practiced in Europe. Our opponents were very strong teams in Europe. For example, Belgium won the championship of euro women’s basketball. Before Han Xu came, we didn’t even have a real center, so we lost a lot of games. We didn’t gather until the Asian Cup began.”
In the three games of the group match, China won the Lebanon team and the New Zealand team first in women’s basketball, and then won the third consecutive victory by defeating the South Korean team in Canada. However, Zheng Wei thought that the performance of China women’s basketball was not good enough. In Zheng Wei’s view, the match between the semi-finals and the Australian team became the turning point of this Asian Cup. “Before the start of the Asian Cup, we had a warm-up match with the Australian team. At that time, we lost 19 points, so before the semi-finals began, everyone would have some psychological ups and downs.” So Zheng Wei mobilized the whole team before the semi-final.
“At that time, I told everyone that we could win the second place in the world, but we might not win the Asian Championship. If we missed this time, we would probably have no chance, now that you are here, you have to spell it. I asked everyone to say what they thought about this game and how to solve the problem. It was from this time that the whole team was completely unified.”
Zheng Wei’s mobilization received results. Facing the Australian team that had won 19 points, China women’s basketball in turn won 14 points in the semi-final. In the final, although Japan women’s basketball was in the lead for a long time, Zheng Wei thought that China women’s basketball grabbed the opponent’s door: “Before the match, we arranged not to let the Japanese team find the feeling outside the line, prevent their fast attack, and we did it.” In the end, China Women’s Basketball reversed its opponent at the last moment and climbed to the top of Asia again after 12 years. This seemingly not in the best state of China women’s basketball still regained the throne of Asian hegemony.
“I regard this team as my home”
During the interview, Zheng Wei stressed many times that she hoped the players could show the spirit of Chinese women’s basketball on the court, and it was under the guidance of the spirit of women’s basketball, china won this hard-won championship women’s basketball under such difficult circumstances. In Zheng Wei’s view, the spirit of China’s women’s basketball represents selfless dedication, unity and cooperation, tenacious struggle and never giving up. “The more difficult the moment is, the more it can reflect the foundation of a team”, Zheng Wei said, “like Han Xu and Li Meng, they have not stood in WNBA yet; Yang Liwei and Wang Siyu have been suffering from injury and illness, but as long as the country calls, they have no words.”
Speaking of which, Zheng Wei obviously moved his feelings: “They really overcome many difficulties, which are actually setting an example for young players. Collective honor and glory for the country are always the first, I think this is the inheritance of Chinese women’s basketball spirit.” In Zheng Wei’s view, it was the spirit of Chinese women’s basketball that supported Chinese women’s basketball to spend a long period of low valley. “We had a low ebb. We lost Serbia in the knockout of Tokyo Olympics and Japan in the last Asian Cup…… However, it is through these failures and lessons that the psychological endurance of the team members becomes higher and higher, and our strength becomes stronger and stronger. Although the staff is not complete this time, our spirit has always been there. I think this is a very valuable thing.”
Zheng Wei may be the most qualified person to evaluate the spirit of Chinese women’s basketball, and she may also be the person who knows this Chinese women’s basketball best at present. Zheng Wei has never left this team since he was the assistant coach of China women’s basketball in 2009. She said that she had already regarded this team as her own home. “Following this team for 14 years, I have experienced all the competitions, especially those failures, which impressed me deeply, so I have a lot of experience to pass on to these young people. When I received the task of letting me be the coach of China’s women’s basketball in 2022, I felt that I was duty-bound to lead this team.”
In some people’s view, Zheng Wei has been regarded as the representative of the best coach in the history of China’s women’s basketball, because she won two important honors on behalf of the team within two years; Some people also think that, zheng Wei was lucky because she met the best group of women’s basketball players in recent years. Zheng Wei’s answer to this question was not supercilious: “The achievements of China’s women’s basketball today must be the result of the joint efforts of several generations of coaches and team members. We have been inheriting the spirit of China’s women’s basketball. Of course, we have also overcome many difficulties in this process. It is not easy to keep up with the trend of the times in terms of style and style, and it is more and more suitable for international competitions, everyone has made a lot of efforts, so this is actually not much luck.”
China has the ability to become a world strong team women’s basketball
In 2022, China women’s basketball became the second place in the world; In 2023, China Women’s Basketball once again reached the highest podium in Asia after 12 years. Under the guarantee of such achievements, even conservative fans will sigh with emotion: this is another good era for China’s women’s basketball. But as the leader of China’s women’s basketball, Zheng Wei did not think so.
“From last year till now, I have been saying that this Chinese women’s basketball is not really a world strong team,” Zheng Wei explained, “What is a world strong team? It is in every world competition that your position and ranking are there. Through last year’s World Cup, we have proved that we can reach this height, but we have not done it for the second time.” In Zheng Wei’s view, winning the Asian Cup is another new beginning for China’s women’s basketball. “There will be the Asian Games after the Asian Cup, the Olympic qualifier after the Asian Games, and the Paris Olympics next year. If we can keep our results at this (very high) level all the time, only then can we say that China women’s basketball is a real world strong team.”
When talking about the future of China’s women’s basketball, Zheng Wei was cautious, but when asked whether these women’s basketball players could meet her expectations in the future, zheng Wei gave a positive answer quickly and confidently. There is no contradiction between these two points. As the leader of China’s women’s basketball, Zheng Wei cannot be satisfied with the team’s achievements now and must move forward carefully step by step; As the coach of these women’s basketball players, she is full of confidence in her fans. She knows every team member, and she also knows clearly that this team still has great potential to dig.
In Zheng Wei’s view, China Women’s Basketball has always been a team-fighting team, which is also the key for China women’s basketball to achieve such good results in the past year. “Even if you are a very good player, it is impossible to perform perfectly in every match. However, China Women’s Basketball has always been a team battle, and every player has his own characteristics, what I have to do is to use all my players in the right place according to different opponents.”
Speaking of this, Zheng Wei also specifically cited Han Xu as an example, the latter just won the double-material MVP of the whole competition and final in this Asian Cup. “In fact, Han Xu was in a bad state at the beginning. She didn’t play her due level when she played the first two weak teams in the group match. However, she has a strong ability to adjust, and the better she plays from the Korean team, which is also a sign of her maturity. Han Xu is already a world-class player, but the most important thing is that she can play its due role in our team.”
In order to maintain the teamwork of Chinese women’s basketball, Zheng Wei has been pursuing the balance of getting along with the team members inside and outside the stadium. When asked whether his teaching style was harsh or gentle, Zheng Wei smiled and asked, “What do you think?” Zheng Wei, who commanded on the sidelines, usually spoke in harmony, but she was very strict with the players during the training. “I think my team members and I can be regarded as teacher-student relationship, and I am willing to tell them some life principles; But as a coach, I will definitely have some sense of distance with my team members, because they will inevitably criticize them. Although sometimes they will blame themselves, there is no way. This is the responsibility of the coach.”
After finishing the Asian Cup, China did not have much time to celebrate women’s basketball. After a short 10-day break, Zheng Wei and her team will concentrate on preparing for the Asian Games, this is also the most important competition task for China’s women’s basketball in the short term. After looking at the long term, the Paris Olympics has become a topic that cannot be avoided. When it comes to the goal of next year’s Olympic Games, Zheng Wei first used a vague saying that she hoped that China would be the best in Paris women’s basketball. When asked whether the top four could be specific, Zheng Wei thought for a while and then smiled and said, “we must fight for it.”
