Just when the men's basketball team rushed to Turkey, two extremely impactful things happened.
The first thing is that fiba has developed a team strength rating this year.
The Chinese team scored 89 points, directly ranking first in the rating list!
In other words, fiba is optimistic that the men's basketball team will win the World Championships this time!
Why is there such optimism?
This has to start with participation in this World Championships.
I mentioned before that the Dream Team does not pay attention to the World Championships.
That's a common practice, but this time it's not just the U.S. team, but all teams.
Spain's Pau Gasol and Calderon, Argentina's Ginobili, Germany's Nowitzki, France's Parker, Russia's Kirilenko, Australia's Bogut, Brazil
Nene...
Basically all the top players from these teams didn't come.
The fundamental reason is that NBA teams have very strict control over players this year.
Olympic players have a strong desire to go to the competition, and the NBA teams reluctantly agreed, but they won't play with you in the World Championships.
As for the Chinese players, like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, the team also disagreed, but in the end they persisted before letting them go.
So in this context, as the bronze medal team in the 2008 Olympics, and with all members playing, if it doesn't rank first, who ranks first?
Of course, even this still caused huge controversy, especially in North America.
Although many big names didn’t go, they were still better than the Chinese team!
However, fiba is obviously not randomly arranged. A little trivia: the American team has not won the World Championships for 4 consecutive years and 16 years!
Nowadays, with a group of new recruits and a lineup with only one genuine center, how can we win the championship?
In fact, this Dream Nine team has never been favored in history. If it weren't for Durant's nuclear-weapon performance, they wouldn't be able to win the championship in the end.
The second thing is related to the first one, and is also related to the rise of Weibo.
What Weibo can be related to men’s basketball?
This matter is rather complicated and even a bit tortuous.
When Weibo became popular before, Lin Ying asked Su Feng to register one.
It was at that point that Sister Feng and Brother Sharp became the first batch of internet celebrities who quickly became famous.
Under this background, some people will naturally want to leave the country.
Moreover, there were still very few network restrictions at this time, so when the men’s basketball team went to Türkiye this time, Han Yifei, the actress from Beijing Film Academy, posted a status on Weibo.
"If the men's basketball team wins the championship, everyone will leave the country!"
This is the internet celebrity operation of this era and the originator of hype.
When most people see this, their first reaction must be: What does this person look like if she is a school beauty? Her popularity immediately rises.
It's this kind of pattern that has already made her famous even before it works.
Well, when we arrived in Kayseri, Zhu Fangyu was already talking on her cell phone.
"This looks good, we must win the championship!"
Men, that's all.
However, we can also feel from this atmosphere that this time the team members are relaxed and have ambitious goals.
This time, just for the world championship.
…
The World Championships in Türkiye are divided into 4 groups, each group has 6 teams, for a total of 24 teams.
Group A: China, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Puerto Rico, Angola
Group B: United States, Slovenia, Brazil, Croatia, Iran, Tunisia
Group C: Serbia, Türkiye, Greece, Russia, Jordan, Cote d'Ivoire
Group D: Spain, Lithuania, France, New Zealand, Lebanon, Canada
*Due to changes in the strength of the Chinese team, the grouping of seed teams is different from that in history.
Although there are few big names, a major feature of the World Championships is that there are many teams and many competitions.
This is another reason why many players are reluctant to come. The more games there are, the greater the chance of injury.
Talking about the competition system, the groups play against each other, and the top four advance to the top 16.
Then group AB is divided into the upper half, and group CD is the lower half.
16 to 8 is an internal competition, like A1VSB4, but 8 to 4 is an upper and lower half competition, such as A1VSD2.
The rules are a bit complicated, but this is also the operation of the organizer.
This doesn’t mean we have to mention the Japan Olympics again. After the women’s basketball group stage, they can still rely on drawing lots to reach the lower limit.
This wave in Türkiye is already relatively normal.
It is worth mentioning that the group matches of this World Championship are held in four cities. For example, the Chinese men’s basketball team’s Group A is in the central Turkish city of Kayseri, while Turkey’s Group C is in the capital Ankara.
In other words, the teams in each group cannot meet each other before the knockout rounds begin.
Originally, Lin Ying planned to go to Turkey to meet Durant to see how he and Curry got along, but it was time to get to the knockout rounds.
The opponent in the first game of the men's basketball group stage is Argentina.
The lineup sent by Yunas is: Chen Jianghua, Zhu Fangyu, Lin Ying, Yi Jianlian, and Yao Ming.
It was in this game that the men's basketball team almost overturned.
Due to the rankings and the absence of Ginobili, the men's basketball team underestimated the opponent and was slow to enter the state.
On the contrary, it was Delfino from the Argentine team who came to earth and hit 6 three-pointers in a single game, almost beating the men's basketball team.
Fortunately, Yao Ming's advantage in the paint, coupled with Yunus replacing Zhu Fangyu with Sun Yue in the second half to strengthen defense, and Lin Ying's fatal block on Delfino before the end, allowed the men's basketball team to pass the final 81-80 in a thrilling manner.
Everything has two sides. This game almost turned upside down, but it also put the players of the men's basketball team in a right mindset.
In the World Championships, they have no capital to underestimate their opponents.
After correcting their attitude, the men's basketball team also showed its due strength.
They beat Germany 81-62, beat Australia 85-58, and then defeated Puerto Rico and Cote d'Ivoire.
After the group stage, the men's basketball team successfully achieved a record of 5 wins and 0 losses and ranked first in Group A!
After playing in the group stage, the men's basketball team immediately transferred to Ankara.
All subsequent matches of the 16 teams that have entered the knockout rounds will be played at the Ankara Stadium in Ankara.
At this time, I have to talk about the magical format of this World Championships.
In the group stage, there was one game a day, and the competition was very intense. However, in the knockout stage, there were only two games a day.
There are a total of 8 groups of 16 going into 8, and we have to play here for 4 days.
Moreover, the first place in Group A is relatively miserable. They have just finished the group stage and have two days of rest before they have to play the knockout round.
The team that advances will then have four days off.
In terms of the schedule alone, the Chinese team is a bit miserable.
Of course, this is not a matter of arrangement. After all, there are always four teams competing on the first day.
Therefore, Yunus did not arrange training on the day he returned to Ankara, and directly took the team members on a one-day trip to Ankara!
Ankara is the capital of Türkiye. It is a standard historical city, with Roman temples, Byzantine castle cemetery, Turkic Aladdin Mosque, Ottoman market, etc.
Then while visiting the temple, they met a group of familiar strangers.
Dream Team 9!
The American team's game was two days later than the Chinese team's. The men's basketball team came out to relax, but they were simply bored.
However, when the two waves of people met, except for Durant and Curry who came up to say hello, everyone else walked over on their own.
Some players even looked back at the men's basketball team with a hint of hostility in their eyes.
After chatting for a while, I realized that it turned out to be a matter of previous rankings.
fiba ranked the Chinese team ahead of the American team, which made many people in the Dream Nine team unconvinced.
Young and energetic, the Dream Nine team is now waiting to beat the Chinese team.
But according to the current grouping situation, the two teams can only meet in the finals.
"Don't be eliminated."
Durant said.
Since Lin Ying said something about Kobe Bryant last time, Durant has stopped saying that you can't win.
But it can be seen that he is still looking forward to meeting the Chinese team in the final and beating Lin Ying once.
"the same as you."
Lin Ying replied.
The dream team is the boss of the World Series, who doesn’t want to win once!
After Durant and the others left, Lin Ying turned around and saw Yao Ming looking at their backs for a long time.
From the look in his eyes, he must be eager to play against the Dream Nine Team.
…
The next day the men's basketball team went to Ankara Stadium for training.
When they arrived at the entrance of the stadium, they discovered a very interesting thing.
On the promotional poster at the entrance of the arena, both Yao Ming and Lin Ying are present, and they are the only team with two of them.
It may be a bit strange to say it, but they are really the top team in this World Championship!
…
The opponent of the men's basketball team in the quarter-finals is the Croatian men's basketball team.
The Croatian men's basketball team performed well in the Beijing Olympics and finished seventh.
However, their performance in this World Championship was a bit dismal, with 2 wins and 3 losses in the group stage, and their form was not good.
But in the knockout rounds, the Croatian played his best form in the World Championships.
Although there are no NBA players in the lineup, the smart European style of play is pleasing to the eye.
Especially by relying on quick defense, they successfully limited Lin Ying's misplaced singles.
Facts have proven that international competition comes much faster than the NBA.
They once led the Chinese team at halftime.
Then in the second half, Yunus used the pick-and-roll tactics of Lin Ying and Yao Ming.
This left Croatia completely unable to cope.
The improvement of Lin Ying's ball-handling skills, coupled with Yao Ming's flexibility after losing weight, this is the classic choice of drinking twice the poison.
And the key is that these two people are also incredibly capable of dislocation.
Under the leadership of the two of them, the men's basketball team launched a crazy 18-0 attack wave, directly ending the suspense of the game early.
According to statistics after the game, there were only two people on the Croatian side who scored in double figures. One was Mark Popovich who scored 16 points, and the other was Bojan Bogdanovic who had not yet landed in the NBA and scored 13 points.
.
For the Chinese team, Yao Ming scored 20 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists, while Lin Ying scored a game-high 24 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists.
The Chinese twin stars dominate the game.
After the game, the Croatian head coach shook his head with a helpless expression, which became the most realistic portrayal of this game.
But the most interesting thing was that after the game, Lin Ying was asked by Mark Popovich to take a photo and sign an autograph.
Here is a hot NBA fact: Popovich of the Spurs is an American of Serbian and Croatian descent.
Therefore, anyone with qi in their name belongs to them.
The morale of the 16-to-8 men's basketball team was greatly improved, especially after Yunus discovered that Lin Ying was stronger than in the 2008 Olympics, and developed the pick-and-roll tactics between him and Yao Ming, showing off the style of a famous coach.
After defeating Croatia, the men's basketball team met Spain in the quarterfinals four days later.
It was at this time that the fans suddenly discovered that the schedule of the Chinese men's basketball team was not a bit miserable, it was the most difficult road to promotion!
Spain is as slow as ever. With 3 wins and 2 losses in the group stage, they easily defeated their old rival Greece after entering the knockout round.
Although Pau Gasol did not come, Marc Gasol carried the team's inside banner; Calderon did not come, and the "golden boy" Rubio played more smartly and brilliantly.
However, the Chinese team was also in good condition, and the two sides played a close match.
The game lasted until 30 seconds before the end, when the score was 91 to 89, with the Chinese team leading.
In the Spanish team's last attack, Navarro cut in and received Rubio's pass, facing Yao Ming's early shot and drawing a high parabola.
This is a Spanish depth charge, heading straight for Huanglong.
And Yao Ming didn't have time to take off.
But just when the Chinese fans were despairing, a familiar figure jumped up from Yao Ming's side.
Lin Ying!
"Crack!"
A shot directly turned the Spaniard's hope into despair.
My hero will come one day riding on colorful auspicious clouds, and this is the moment!
Lin Ying was finally sent to the free throw line, and he made two steady free throws to end the suspense of the game.
The Chinese team is close to the semi-finals!
And their opponent in the semi-finals is the host Türkiye team!
The performance of the Turkish team in this World Championship is impressive.
Ranked only fifth in the fiba rating, they won the first place in Group C under the leadership of the team's trident Turkoglu, Ilyasova and Asik, and have not lost a single game so far.
The home whistle is definitely a bit lacking, but their own performance is also outstanding.
Compared with the previous games, the intensity of the competition in this game was obviously more intense, and conflicts also broke out during the game.
Turkoglu elbowed Yi Jianlian during the game, and was later elbowed back by Lin Ying in the same way.
The two sides even almost broke out into a full-scale conflict.
Obviously, the only chance for the Turks to take the cards may be now, and they are not easy at all.
The game got very intense and there were constant disputes and penalties.
However, at the critical moment, Lin Ying showed MVP-level psychological quality. After being called for defensive and offensive fouls in succession, he began to go berserk. He made three consecutive three-pointers from the outside, and the last one was a 3+ shot against Turkoglu.
1!
The entire Ankara Stadium fell silent.
It’s not that we don’t have enough power, but the enemy has Gundam!
In the end, Turkoglu's pent-up emotions finally broke out, pushing Lin Ying to the ground and being directly expelled from the game.
Lin Ying was lying on the ground. For the first time, he had no intention of getting up to fight. Instead, he smiled and watched Turkoglu leave the field.
When Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian came to pull him up, he also let out a long breath.
Hey, you’re mature!
81 to 68.
In the end, the Chinese team, led by Lin Ying's 25 points, defeated the host and reached the finals of the World Series for the first time in history!
Their opponent will be the winner between the United States and Lithuania.
Chapter completed!