* * Yao Ming commented on Li Meng: She is the leader and core of the women’s basketball team in China. I hope more players can play abroad * *
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China women’s basketball team won the championship again in the 2023 Asian Women’s Basketball Cup, continuing its dominance in the Asian arena. In this competition, one player performed particularly well, and she was Li Meng. As the leader and core of the China women’s basketball team, she scored 24 points, 8 assists and 5 steals in the final, leading the team to a 73-71 victory over the Japanese women’s basketball team, thus achieving revenge on the Japanese team. After the game, Yao Ming, President of chinese basketball association, spoke highly of Li Meng, and expressed the hope that more players in China women’s basketball team could go abroad to play and improve their level and competitiveness.
Li Meng is the first player in the history of women’s basketball in China to enter the WNBA League. She was selected by Chicago Sky in 2022 and officially landed in WNBA in 2023. The experience of playing in the United States has benefited her a lot, and her skills, physical fitness and psychology have been greatly improved. She showed her strength and talent in the WNBA League and became an important member of Sky Team. In the regular season, she averaged 9.4 points, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals, which helped the team reach the playoffs. Her performance was also recognized by the WNBA. She was selected for the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game and was nominated for the best rookie.
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As a legend of China basketball, Yao Ming was also the first China player to make a name for himself in the NBA. He is very gratified and proud of Li Meng’s achievements. He thinks that Li Meng is the leader and core of the women’s basketball team in China, and her experience and growth in the WNBA League have a very positive impact on the development of the women’s basketball team in China. He said that Li Meng has always performed well, and her performance has become more stable and mature after this year’s WNBA tournament. He hoped that more China women’s basketball players would choose to go to the United States and play abroad to improve their level and competitiveness.
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Yao Ming revealed that the China women’s basketball team will have the task of Asian Cup and Asian Games next summer, and the Basketball Association needs to make a choice. He said, "What if we encounter this problem? I don’t know the time of our Asian Cup next year, but it is basically in June or July. Our Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou after a year’s delay, which should be held in the middle and late September. Do we still have a mentality of letting athletes go out and promoting a group of young players, or do we say that at this stage of our national team, this cup is also very important, and we still have to call back the national team members to make sure that nothing is lost. So I said at the beginning of the interview that we should have a goal, and our goal is not the Olympic Games. Or what kind of goal, then we should make our plans selectively. Any plan needs to be chosen, and it is impossible to completely cover everything. "
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According to Yao Ming, if the General Administration of Sports and the Basketball Association think that the Asian Cup and the Asian Games are also very important, then Li Meng, Han Xu and Li Yueru’s study abroad will be affected. If the top management thinks that the Asian Cup and the Asian Games are not so important, then they can let the players go to the WNBA and promote the young players to join the team. In addition, China women’s basketball players are unlikely to study abroad in 2024, because to prepare for the Olympic Games, China women’s basketball girls need to train and play games. This situation can be seen by referring to Zhu Ting’s way of studying abroad. In order to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, she stopped studying abroad and returned to the domestic league. Coupled with injuries, Zhu Ting chose to study abroad again this year.
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There is no problem with the strength of the girls in China’s women’s basketball team. For example, Li Meng is definitely not worse than whitcomb, who can start in the WNBA, and Li Meng can of course, but there is still suspense about whether she can go abroad as she wishes in the last two years. But in any case, we should be proud of Li Meng. She is the leader and core of the women’s basketball team in China, and she is the light of basketball in China.
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