Recently, men’s basketball European Championship is in full swing, and the performance of many team naturalized players has also aroused heated discussion among fans: Does China men’s basketball, which has been increasingly weak in recent years, need to introduce naturalized players?
Fans who do not support domestication believe that the introduction of naturalized players is not conducive to the development of local players, nor can it solve the fundamental problems of China’s men’s basketball. The reason for supporting the planning is: since the local players are not powerful, why not make up for the shortcomings through domestication?
Whether to naturalize
In the world basketball and even the world sports arena, domestication has become common. Taking the European Championship as an example, it can be seen everywhere that among the weaker teams, there are Bost in Bulgaria, McFadden in Georgia and Robertson in BiH. Among the strong teams, there are brown who once played for Zhejiang in Spain, the Greek team also has a Taylor-Dorsey…… Weak teams use naturalized players to close the strength gap between strong teams, while strong teams also use naturalized players to make up for the team’s shortcomings. In fact, in Asian basketball, besides Iran and Chinese team, other teams have also introduced naturalized players.
In terms of internal factors, Chinese men’s basketball need to be naturalized. Since the men’s basketball World Cup in 2019, China’s performance in men’s basketball has become more and more popular. Now it has no dominant position in Asia. This year’s Asian Cup is even defeated by Lebanon. Specific to the team staffing, the current situation of the Chinese team is that Zhou Qi, who is in the inner line, has Intercontinental-level combat effectiveness. The front line is not as characteristic as before, but it can still compete with the world’s second-rate strong teams, even the Asian level is no longer dominant. Just imagine, if the Chinese team had a core defender like Lebanon team Alaki in the Asian Cup, why would they be led by their opponents?
Affected by the epidemic, CBA has been struggling in the past three years and has little effect on the training of national hands. Defenders such as Guo Allen, Sun Minghui and Zhao Jiwei have already encountered bottlenecks. In fact, Du Feng, the head coach of China’s men’s basketball, also accepted when talking about the issue of naturalized players. He thought that the strength of the national team’s lineup declined too seriously. Apart from the strong support of Zhou Qi from the inside, the strength of the rear guard line and the front line are not enough to challenge the world’s top teams. “There is still a big gap between all our defenders and the high-level defenders in Europe and America. They need to improve their personal offensive ability, we should also be able to send the ball to the center in the first place.”
Domestication of one or two players really cannot fundamentally solve the problem of insufficient reserve talents in China’s men’s basketball, but in the short term, it is still necessary to use naturalized players to complete the World competition task. China will have a World Cup mission next year men’s basketball, and the World Cup results are related to the Olympic qualifications. There is no need to lose-the Chinese team has missed the Tokyo Olympic Games. If we miss the Paris Olympic Games again, then the damage to Chinese basketball will be huge. Besides, now that the international basketball arena has become a trend of domestication, there is no need for China men’s basketball to be “independent”. Domestication drives the whole team to improve, and gets twice the result with half the effort.
Who can be naturalized
Naturalized players can definitely improve the team’s strength, which is proved by many world competitions. However, a highly capable naturalized player is also obvious to the improvement of China’s men’s basketball combat capability. Naturalized to a strong scoring point, whether it is a defender or a forward, it can immediately solve Du Feng’s urgent need. However, the International Basketball Federation stipulates that each team can only introduce one naturalized player. If it is to introduce, what kind of player should China men’s basketball introduce?
It is understood that the Chinese Basketball Association also intends to introduce naturalized players, and has reported the naturalized plan to the State Sports General Administration. As for the standard of naturalizing players, first of all, the level must be enough to drive the whole team; Secondly, it is best to have a certain Chinese lineage and have a sense of identity with Chinese culture; Finally, it is to be younger, able to play for China men’s basketball for many times. Yang Yi, a famous basketball commentator, said that there is no need for naturalized players to find big NBA players. It is enough to find excellent foreign aid in CBA league. After all, they are familiar with the national players, such as Jones of Jilin team, brooks of Guangdong team and Gordon of Fujian team are all suitable candidates, but they are not of Chinese descent, and some fans may be emotionally unacceptable.
From the perspective of lineage domestication, Carl Anderson, who currently plays for NBA Timberwolves, is a good candidate. Anderson has Chinese ancestry. His great-grandfather Li Chongxin is a pure Chinese, and Anderson also agrees that he is a mixed-race identity in China, he also returned to Shenzhen with his mother in August, 2018 to recognize his ancestors, and his Chinese name Li Kael was also written into Li’s genealogy. In terms of personal ability, Anderson is a stable rotating player in NBA. He has very good ability of holding the ball, passing control and shooting. He can connect the whole team and score points at critical moments, in addition, his defense is also very good, which is all needed by China’s men’s basketball. In terms of age, Anderson is 29 years old this year, which is at the peak of his career. If the domestication is successful, he can at least represent China’s men’s basketball in the two Olympic Games.
Of course, even if China has introduced naturalized players men’s basketball, it can only improve the team’s performance temporarily, which is a way to cure the symptoms but not the root causes. If Chinese men’s basketball want to be truly strong, they must find their own reasons and do a good job in youth training. This is the long-term solution.
(Xinmin Evening News)
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