What level of player is Rose now?

Last season, he played 51 games for the Bulls, averaging 9.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. He was the sixth man at the beginning of the season, but suffered an injury in the middle. After returning from injury, his position was taken away by Murray. After that, his playing time gradually decreased, and he spent most of the playoffs sitting on the bench.

All in all, he is now a substitute player who has outside shooting, is still a considerable threat in breakthroughs, is a reliable offensive scorer when healthy, but has injury risks.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that the Mavericks signed him to a two-year, $5 million contract with a player option in the second year.

Although he is no longer as brave as he used to be, he still has the strength to fight. More importantly, he is able to reunite with Xu Yong and his desire to compete is full, which is very important for him at this stage of his career.

Specifically, on the second day after arriving in Dallas, Rose enthusiastically joined Xu Yong and DeRozan's summer training camp.

Dallas is scorching hot in July, but it is not as hot as the heat in their hearts.

During their special training, a very interesting thing happened in the NBA free market.

The 2019 free agent market is arguably the most lively since 2014.

This year there are as many as nine star players, including superstars like Leonard, Butler and Irving.

Then at this time, James made some remarks.

He began to evaluate his former teammate.

The first person he commented on was Klay Thompson.

"I think Klay is the best 3D player in NBA history and probably the best off-ball scorer."

Then he commented on Irving.

"Kyrie is the reason why I chose to return to Cleveland. I used to think of him as a kid, but he has great talent. He has now proven himself to be the best player in the history of the NBA."

He keeps saying the best thing every three sentences, and the first thing he says is the most powerful thing in history. This really reveals his true intention.

That's right, Thompson's contract also expires this summer, and James is clearly expressing his recruitment of these former teammates in his own way.

This operation can be expressed in another way: After dating several girlfriends, looking back on the past, I found two good ex-girlfriends and wanted to see if I could get back with them.

As a result, Thompson quickly reached a contract extension with the Warriors the next day, even sacrificing part of his salary for it.

"I'm enjoying life in the Bay Area and I think I'm going to play here until I retire, and that's my plan."

Then two days later, Irving also announced that he had reached a five-year maximum salary contract extension with the Cavaliers, and joined the Los Angeles... Clippers through a sign-and-trade deal.

"I'm looking forward to living in Los Angeles and working with Blake (Griffin)."

This scene vividly depicts what happens when you fantasize about getting back together with your ex-girlfriend, but her ex-girlfriend replies that she is either married or has a new lover.

The key point is that although James did not say it explicitly, his obvious recruitment was slapped in the face.

However, when Xu Yong finished training and read the free market news, he was attracted by another key piece of news.

Anthony Davis changed his agent and joined Rich Paul.

It is very common for players to change agents in the NBA, but this change touched Xu Yong's memory.

Because in the history of James' Lakers career, in addition to the "hometown basketball" at the beginning, there is another very classic term: "agent basketball".

As the name suggests, when a player wants to come to the Lakers, they will first apply to Rich Paul, so that when a player signs Rich Paul later, the fans' first reaction is that this person is going to be a teammate of James.

The one who started this term was Davis.

So what can I say? Some things are really destined.

Although this has something to do with Irving's decision to leave the Cavaliers, whether it is Davis of the Pelicans or Davis of the Cavaliers, because the market where the parent team is located is too small, a place like Los Angeles is more attractive to him.

The Mavericks also completed their most important offseason reinforcement at this time, signing Taj Gibson.

Gibson had been playing for the Pelicans before. After his contract expired, which was the two years when Xu Yong retired, he joined the Timberwolves with a two-year contract.

His performance has been very stable, and he has been a qualified starter in the NBA since his time with the Pelicans.

But due to his limited talent, his ceiling is limited to this.

Especially as an older rookie, he entered the NBA in the same year as Xu Yong and is now 34 years old. His career as an inside player has reached the final stage.

But no matter how old Gibson is, his overall strength is stronger than Powell.

The Mavericks showed all their sincerity and reached a three-year, $28 million contract with him using the full mid-level salary (9.258 million U.S. dollars in the 2019-2020 season).

This means he will be the starting power forward for the Mavericks in the new season.

It is worth mentioning that Gibson received a higher offer from the Knicks, but he eventually chose the Mavericks.

The reason for the choice is also very simple, because the Mavericks have Xu Yong.

Then something interesting happened.

Although Gibson and Jokic are not from the same period, they have one thing in common: Xu Yong's former teammate.

Some people are disliked by their former teammates like ex-boyfriends, but Xu Yong’s former teammates come to join them from all directions like good brothers.

And if Mavericks head coach Malone is also counted, the Dallas Mavericks might be renamed the Dallas Bulls.

The choice of the Mavericks management is completely understandable. Although Rose and Gibson are no longer at their peak, they are familiar with Xu Yong and can make Xu Yong feel comfortable both on and off the court.

This operation, which can be called a "licking" to some extent, formed a sharp contrast with the previous Bulls operation.

Naturally, Xu Yong had nothing to hesitate about. He opted out of his original contract with the Mavericks and immediately reached a five-year maximum salary contract extension.

This means that he will play for the Mavericks until at least 2024.

And in this way, the Mavericks' core lineup for next season has been determined.

Starting lineup: Wright, DeRozan, Xu Yong, Gibson, Jokic;

Rotation: Rose, Dorian Finney-Smith, Powell, Poeltl.

This lineup, even taking into account the status of DeRozan and Xu Yong, Rose's injury and other factors, has greatly improved its competitiveness compared to last season.

Whether they can become a championship-contending team or even a popular team depends on the team's condition.

After all, the same player can produce completely different results in different states.

A team that won the park championship the previous year may be able to play in the play-offs the following year after strengthening its team, and vice versa.

On the same day, Leonard also made his final decision. He chose to renew his contract with the Raptors for a five-year maximum salary and stay with the Raptors.

They fell short in the finals last season, which made him choose a different history from what Xu Yong knew.

The Bulls, one of the Raptors' main rivals in the Eastern Conference, have basically gained nothing big this summer.

Your opponent is strengthening his team while you are not, so standing still means regressing.

After the end of this free market, the Bulls in the East have been eliminated from the qualification of the Raptors' strongest opponent, and this qualification has been given to the Celtics instead.

The Celtics gave up on renewing Isaiah Thomas' contract this summer and signed Porzingis instead.

With the twin towers of Porzingis and Horford, as well as the two top picks in Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics are so strong that they are even the favorites to win the championship in the eyes of many fans.

However, the changes in the free market did not affect Xu Yong too much. Apart from calling Gibson when he learned that he came to the Mavericks, he spent the rest of his time in the training hall.

In order to do this, he even postponed many business activities in the summer.

Last season’s defeat can be attributed to the fact that he had just returned from injury for a short time, but there is no excuse for the new season.

This training continued until mid-August, when Xu Yong flew directly back to China from Dallas.

This return trip is not for business activities or a China tour, but to prepare for the World Cup at the end of August.

This year's World Cup is held in the country.

For basketball fans, this is the first time that the country has hosted the largest-level basketball event since the 2008 Olympics.

So even if it is the World Cup, Xu Yong will come back. After all, there are not many opportunities to play games in front of his home town, and it may even be his last chance before retirement.

The Chinese team has attracted much attention in this World Cup.

On the one hand, it’s because they are the champions of the Rio Olympics, and on the other hand, it’s also because of the Dream Team.

After the failure in Rio, fans all over the world thought that the Dream Team would make a big comeback and avenge their previous defeat this year, but unexpectedly, the Dream Team suffered a huge setback.

Not only top stars like Durant and James will not participate, but even Westbrook, Harden, and George have also announced their withdrawal one after another.

Although the US team has never taken the World Cup seriously, this is the first time they have seen such a scene.

Finally, the strongest player of this Dream Team 13 is the Hornets' star Kemba Walker, followed by the Jazz's new core Mitchell, and the Celtics' young double picks Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Even rotation-level players such as Marcus Smart and Mason Plums were selected.

Although some fans have expressed the view that "although there is a lack of star power, the absence of big-name players can help each team perform its duties, and the overall strength of the Dream Team is stronger", and even listed the argument that "even NBA substitutes can be strong players in other national teams", this Dream Team is still viewed negatively.

After all, if you don’t even have the star power anymore, how can you be called the Dream Team?

Moreover, they lost so badly to the Chinese team in Rio, so how could they win by changing to a worse lineup?

With the Dream Team, China's biggest rival in recent years, performing so poorly, the Chinese team naturally became the favorite.

The day after returning to China, Xu Yong went directly to the national team's training base.

This time the national team did not go to Sanya, but chose the Beilun training base in Ningbo for closed training.

The Beilun training base is very large, and many national teams usually choose to train here.

When Xu Yong went there, he ran into some of them and was asked to take photos with them.

When he arrived at the national team, the men's basketball players were even more excited to see him.

For these players, whether young or veteran, their past brilliant achievements in the national team were all brought to them by Xu Yong.

Now that Xu Yong is back, they have a backbone.

"Brother Xu!" The first person to come up was Guo Ailun, who spoke in authentic Northeastern dialect. "Xu Yong, you are finally back. We really don't know what we would do without you!"

The truth is that if Xu Yong were still retired, it would be extremely difficult for the men's basketball team to reach the top at home.

Xu Yong smiled and hugged the little brother who used to be a teenager and now had a beard like Curry.

Then he looked around at the other people. Most of them were the same people from three years ago, except for a few new people.

And, of course, there was Kyle Anderson, standing there waiting, grinning idiotically.

Kyle Anderson's mother Susanna knew when she was a child that her grandfather was from China. When she grew up, she began to search for her roots through various means. Then she continued to search among the vast sea of ​​people, and finally found the grandson of her grandfather Samuel's brother.

Last year, she took Anderson to Shenzhen, China to trace their ancestry and wrote their lineage into the family tree. Kyle Anderson then had a Chinese name, Li Kaier.

Then Jeremy Lin faded out of the NBA due to injuries, and his strength could no longer meet the needs of the national team, so the Basketball Association took the opportunity to plan for Li Kaier this year.

Because the Basketball Association needs to consider blood factors in this regard, Anderson not only meets the requirement now, but has also played for the Bulls (the former first team of Chinese fans). There is no more suitable candidate than him.

If there weren't other people in the training hall, Anderson would definitely call out "Boss" like Jokic did.

After Xu Yong finished greeting everyone else, Anderson came up and gave him a big hug happily.

Anderson was officially announced to be included in the plan after the end of last season, and it took some time to go through the process.

He had played with the national team in the national team's previous warm-up matches, but the results were average.

In addition to Xu Yong not participating in the warm-up match with the team, veteran Yi Jianlian, who had just ended his contract with the Bulls, also suffered an injury and did not play.

Without them, Zhou Qi is not an offensive player, and the men's basketball team can only rely on Anderson to attack with the ball.

However, Anderson's personal offensive ability is not strong. He is strong in organization and defense, which made the Chinese men's basketball team's offense in the warm-up match look very struggling.

Playing in a way he is not good at not only makes the fans uncomfortable, but also makes him uncomfortable during the game.

But fortunately, Xu Yong is back, and he can finally concentrate on being Xu Yong's Pippen in the national team.

For a period of time afterwards, Xu Yong trained with the national team. Since most of the players were his former teammates, he basically did not need to spend too much time on getting acquainted with them.

As time flies to the end of August, the 2019 Men's Basketball World Cup is about to begin.

There are many firsts in this year's World Cup. For example, this is the first time that the intercontinental qualifiers are used to select teams. Another example is the first time that the scale of the event is increased from the original 24 teams to 32 teams. For the first time, World Cup ambassadors are set up, and they will be jointly held by Yao Ming, Kobe and Nowitzki.

In short, FIBA ​​is committed to expanding the influence of the World Cup, and the revival of world basketball brought about by Xu Yong's comeback has attracted maximum attention to this World Cup.

After adopting the qualifying method this year, FIBA ​​officials have created a real-time updated team strength list, ranking each team based on their performance in the warm-up matches.

In this ranking, the US team surpassed the Chinese team to take the top spot.

The third is the Serbia team led by Jokic, the fourth is the Greece team led by Antetokounmpo, the fifth is the veteran powerhouse Spain, the sixth is the French team which also gathers a number of NBA players including Gobert, the seventh is Australia, and the eighth is Argentina.

It was at this time that the official released a number of promotional videos, and the line in the short film shot by Kobe, "Team America, don't think you're safe," became the focus of heated discussion among fans before the World Cup.

Although theoretically, it is in compliance with the rules for the Chinese team to be ranked behind the American team due to their mediocre performance in the warm-up matches, but with this ranking, I am afraid that fans all over the world are waiting to see this Dream Team XIII make a fool of itself.

Some fans even started looking up information to see what the worst record in the Dream Team's history is. After all, this Dream Team XIII, or should it be called the American Team directly, could accidentally create new history.

On the last day of August, the World Cup officially kicked off. This World Cup was hosted by China and then hosted by eight cities, which means eight groups.

This year, the Chinese team is in the same group as Venezuela, Poland and Côte d'Ivoire, which is exactly what Xu Yong remembered.

Because according to the rules, the host team is already the first-tier team, regardless of their strength.

In the first match of the group stage, the Chinese team faced the Polish team.

The Chinese team's opening game was held at the Wukesong Arena.

The familiar venue, familiar opponents, and even familiar fans around, it is hard not to awaken the memories deep in Xu Yong's mind.

He had become a commentator at that time, and witnessed in the commentary booth this game that most fans would not dare to watch a second time.

Continuous mistakes in the final moments, sideline balls became a world-class problem, and Zhou Qi's game was changed to Polish by fans...

The men's basketball team was eliminated from the group stage at home because of this loss, and the basketball market suffered a severe blow and has never recovered.

Although the situation today is completely different from before, Xu Yong felt that his desire to compete was full before the game.

There is everything in this world except regret medicine, and no chance to start over. But for Xu Yong, living his life over again, the scene before him is really like starting over again.

Moreover, he is no longer a commentator like Wang Shipeng who can only cry on the sidelines, but a player in the game.

After the opening ceremony, starting players from both sides came on the court one after another.

Chinese team: Li Kaier, Ding Yanyuhang, Xu Yong, Yi Jianlian, Zhou Qi;

Poland: Slaughter, Ponitka, Searle, Waszynski, Hrikaniu.

In the two years since Xu Yong retired, Deng Huade resigned from the national team and the Basketball Association trained domestic coaches. At this time, the head coach of the men's basketball team was Li Nan.

However, this starting lineup was not his work, but Xu Yong's suggestion.

Anderson plays as No. 1 with the ball on offense, and plays as No. 3 on defense to guard the opponent's offensive spearhead, Ponitka.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the lineup is taller.

No one knows better than Xu Yong how weak the Dream Team is this year. Without Durant they are nothing.

So compared to the Dream Team, their bigger opponents this year are from Europe, including Serbia, Greece, Spain and France.

In addition to the team play, another characteristic of European basketball is that the players are tall and strong, especially the backcourt, who physically crush you, forcing you to assist in defense and then lead the offense.

However, this lineup also has a weakness, which is that the retreat speed will be slower, which requires the Chinese team to increase its success rate on the offensive end.

So at the beginning of the game, Xu Yong made a simple screen and received the pass from Anderson, then rushed directly to the basket.

There is no three-second defense in international competitions. At this time, Polish center Hrikaniu turned around and came to Xu Yong to assist in defense.

“Bang! Bang!”

The basketball hit the floor with a dull sound. When Xu Yong saw Hrikaniu coming, he did not slow down, but instead accelerated forward.

When the distance between the two sides was only half a meter, he jumped into the air and pulled the ball higher.

Hrikaniu's eyes widened. Of course he knew Xu Yong was the top star in the NBA, but was he going to play like this right from the start?

“Bang!”

Without giving him more time to think, Xu Yong blasted the ball into the basket like a bomb through him.

Under the huge impact force, Herikaniu was knocked to the ground.

The camera was focused just in time, focusing on the bulging blue veins on Xu Yong's fingers and his face full of murderous intent.

Then, the Wukesong Arena exploded.

What a groundbreaking opening!

And the key point is that even through the screen, they could feel the desire to compete in Xu Yong's eyes.

I don't know why, but the Polish team is a bit unlucky this year.

After completing the attack on the offensive end and retreating to target defense, the advantage of the Chinese team's tall lineup was also brought into play.

Xu Yong, Anderson and Zhou Qi, the three of them formed a defensive network for the Chinese team in positional warfare.

Moreover, the wingspans of these three players are very good, which means that this net can cover a large defensive area.

Ponitka, the man who once made the men's basketball team in Xu Yong's memory helpless and completed a steal and layup in the final moments of the regular season, broke into the inside with great effort, and his shot with a step forward was directly blocked by Zhou Qi.

This made the Polish team a little unsure about how to fight in the positional battle, and in the end they were forced to commit a 24-second violation.

When he turned around, Xu Yong continued his tactical receiving and attacking tactics.

As a former teammate of the Bulls, and having played together for several consecutive seasons, Anderson knows very well how to pass the ball to Xu Yong most comfortably.

To him, it was just a change of venue.

This time, Xu Yong received the ball from Anderson that penetrated the defender when he was cutting in. According to coach Zhang on the sidelines, the ball was fed to him at just the right time. One more point would have been too much, one less point would have been too little, prefect.

After receiving the ball, Xu Yong was like a tiger gathering strength. He took a big step into the inside and slammed the ball into the basket with one hand with a tomahawk in front of Hrikaniu's astonished eyes.

Herikaniu's expression was one of shock and helplessness, because he was completely powerless in the face of this situation!

At this time on the sidelines, Poland's head coach Mike Taylor couldn't help but scratch his head.

He also didn't understand why Xu Yong had such a strong desire to attack at the beginning of the game. It felt to him as if the Polish team had some grudge against him.

But this is clearly the first time in history that the two teams have met in the World Series, and they have never even played in a warm-up match.

It's a ghost!

Poland's positional attack still failed. This time, Botnica was not blocked by Zhou Qi, but the ball went directly over the bank under the interference of Anderson's long arms behind him.

The rebound was grabbed by Yi Jianlian, and the Chinese team launched a defensive counterattack. This time, Xu Yong used his offense to distract Ding Yanyuhang who followed up and assisted him to score.

The Chinese team started the game with a 6-0 lead.

This immediately excited the Chinese fans at the scene, as Poland is known to be the strongest team in this group except for the Chinese team.

"Defend! Defend!"

Moreover, under the defensive shouts of 20,000 fans in Wukesong, the Polish team made a coordination error on the offensive end and passed the ball directly out of bounds.

They all talk about home-field advantage, and this is the home-field advantage in the World Series.

Looking back, Mike Taylor waved and shouted on the sidelines, and the Polish team directly used a 2-3 zone defense.

There is no defensive three seconds in international competitions, and the court is smaller than that of the NBA, which tests the players' shooting ability.

This is why European teams have always been so strong.

Characteristics of European teams: teamwork, height, and basic skills.

Shooting and dribbling are the most basic skills.

But when they did so, Xu Yong immediately responded with a mid-range pull-up shot.

He didn't even hesitate.

“Swish!”

The basketball is shot into the pocket.

This ball made Yang Yi's eyes light up in the commentary booth.

As the number one Xu fan in the country, he has definitely done the most research on Xu Yong, otherwise he would not be able to hold this position.

Xu Yong took a lot of shots last season, but he would basically observe the defense before shooting, which was a sign that he had not recovered from his shooting.

But Xu Yong's current decisiveness only represents one thing, that is, his absolute confidence in his shooting.

In other words, Xu Yong's shooting feeling has been completely restored.

This is more important than the outcome of the current game.

Poland finally made a three-pointer by Slaughter after a pick-and-roll from the outside.

After realizing they couldn't break through, they could only look for opportunities on the outside.

This goal made the Polish players breathe a sigh of relief, as they had been outshot 8-0 by the Chinese team at the start of the game and had not yet scored a single point.

But before they had time to catch their breath, Xu Yong turned around and made another 17-foot pull-up shot.

Two consecutive mid-range shots were the price Xu Yong made the Polish team pay after they tightened their defense.

This time Taylor didn't just scratch his head, but could only smile bitterly.

Xu Yong's strength in the FIBA ​​arena does not need to be proven at all, or in other words, he has already established himself as the number one player in the FIBA ​​arena when he was in Rio.

Most of the time, the quality of his performance does not depend on his opponent, but on himself.

It is now clear that six months after his comeback, Xu Yong has returned to his pre-retirement level.

Although this recovery speed is a bit scary, considering Xu Yong's achievement of 5 championships in 8 years in Chicago, nothing is impossible for him.

Poland's attack failed and when Xu Yong received the ball, he was attacked by many people.

Taylor switched defense against Xu Yong at the beginning of the game because he was unsure of Xu Yong's current competitive state. Now that he has figured it out, there is naturally no need to hesitate. Not double-teaming would not be disrespectful to Xu Yong, but to his teammates.

Xu Yong passed the ball to Anderson during the double-team, then he broke through the double-team and attacked the basket again after receiving the return pass from Anderson.

This time Hrikaniu's defense was very resolute. After seeing this, Xu Yong raised the ball high with his right hand. Hrikaniu was blocked in front of him and felt a shadow, so he jumped up directly.

Seeing this, Xu Yong pulled the ball back, jumped over the opponent, and could have scored directly, but he threw the ball into the air.

Zhou Qi jumped up immediately and easily completed an alley-oop slam dunk with his long arms.

"Hey! Xu Yong is just having fun!" Zhang Weiping was grinning from ear to ear in the commentary booth.

On the court, Xu Yong took the initiative to high-five Zhou Qi while retreating on defense.

Although Zhou Qi failed to become a starter in the Celtics, he has remained in the team and has been trained into a rotation-level player. Many of his problems have been corrected, such as the biggest problem of concentration.

If it were the Zhou Qi he knew, he might not have been able to react immediately to the alley-oop.

Or to put it another way, Polanqi now exists only in legend.

Xu Yong's output only lasted half a game. He scored 24 points and made 4 assists in the first half, helping the Chinese team establish a lead of nearly 20 points.

By the second half, Xu Yong had become somewhat bored.

In my previous life, I thought Poland was very strong, but that was because the men's basketball team was too weak. Even Poland was able to become a dark horse later because it gained confidence in the group stage.

In fact, if it weren't for the expansion of the World Cup, Poland would not have made it to the World Cup and would essentially be a second-tier team in Europe.

However, Xu Yong was in a pretty good mood as he sat in the VIP seat on the sidelines watching the game.

The regret of starting over was made up, and now Kobe also came to chat with him, which felt pretty good.

"It looks like you're going to win the championship again this year." Kobe couldn't help but ask as he looked at the score on the court.

"I believe in the vision of FIBA ​​officials." Xu Yong replied with a smile.

Kobe was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. He was not Barkley.

"Five NBA championships, two Olympic championships, two World Cup championships, I can't imagine what these numbers will become when you retire." Kobe went on to say with emotion.

Xu Yong smiled. He didn’t know the answer to this question. Only time would tell.

But when he thought of this, Xu Yong suddenly looked up at Kobe's forehead.

After looking for a while, he looked away. He did not have the ability of a fortune teller and could not tell anything.

But he knows that the Kobe in history will no longer be there next year.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask again: "Are you still using helicopters?"

Kobe smiled and shook his head when he heard this.

"I finally accepted your opinion."

"Changed the car?"

"No, I bought a private jet."

“…That’s pretty good.”

Airplanes are definitely not as convenient as helicopters when it comes to airports, but they are the safest means of transportation.

"Kobe, I hope that the next time I step onto the championship podium, you will be there to present me with the trophy," Xu Yong continued.

Kobe pouted, then laughed, and finally nodded.

Bill Russell's body can no longer support him to continue to play, and the league is already considering his successor.

Jordan is now the boss and he definitely doesn't want to take on such a job, so as long as Kobe nods, he will be the most suitable candidate.

The Chinese team finally defeated Poland and got off to a good start in the World Cup.

This game was a huge confidence boost for the men's basketball team, after all, they struggled so much in their previous warm-up matches.

After a good start, the men's basketball team's subsequent World Cup journey went quite smoothly.

We won all three group matches and easily took first place in the group.

After entering the round-robin stage, they won two games in a row and eventually advanced to the quarter-finals as the top team in the rematch group.

On the other hand, although the US team encountered many setbacks during the competition, they finally ranked first in another semi-final group with a record of 5 wins.

If nothing unexpected happens, the two teams will meet in the finals.

Then something unexpected happened.

The Chinese team easily defeated the Czech Republic, but the American team eventually lost to the French team and missed the semi-finals!

With this, Kobe's words "Team America, don't think you're safe" officially went from being the focus of heated discussion to a hot meme.

Some fans in China even made comments about the World Heritage List: We couldn't make it to the finals before, and now we can't even make it to the semifinals. Will we not be able to make it to the quarterfinals in the future? Well, we can't even play in the Olympics next time. We really don't want to lose face!

Of course, this is just a joke from the fans. After all, there are two places in the Americas, and the only American teams that have made it to the quarterfinals are Argentina and the United States, so they can still play in the Olympics.

However, it was not just the United States that suffered an upset, Serbia also lost to Argentina in the quarter-finals.

Serbia is very strong, but its core players, including Jokic, are too young, which makes them lack experience in world competitions and they were ultimately defeated by the experienced Scola.

Before the World Cup started, two of the top three teams in the FIBA ​​official strength list had fallen, leaving only the Chinese team still standing.

China's opponent in the semi-finals is Argentina.

However, there will be a qualifying match for 5th to 8th place before the semi-finals.

Serbia and the United States, the second and third teams in the strength list, met on a narrow road.

As a result, Serbia suppressed the US team throughout the game and silenced those fans who still had illusions before the game.

What they said about there being no stars with clear division of roles, and NBA substitutes being the backbones of other national teams, is all nonsense.

The biggest problem of the American team has always been the lack of tacit understanding and team awareness.

Replacing a group of players with less talent does not mean that these points can be changed.

And although Silver has resigned, few of the NBA's top players trained in the years since he took office are really capable of playing.

To put it bluntly, competitive sports is the same as raising a Gu. If you are not ruthless, you cannot raise it.

Now that Tatum has taken office, although he has put things right, it will take time to produce results.

In the semifinals, Argentina showed their South American basketball and why they were able to beat Serbia and reach the semi-finals.

The ultimate team basketball and perfect execution make them difficult to stop on offense.

However, Xu Yong destroyed their defense. When the Argentine team's veterans invested heavily on the defensive end and saw no results, their offense was naturally greatly affected.

At this time, Xu Yong demonstrated what "attack is the best defense" means.

The final was between China and Spain.

Of course, there are still qualifying matches before the third and fourth place and the finals begin.

The American team finally won this time. They defeated the Czech team and got a good result of 7th place in this World Cup, setting the worst record in the history of the American men's basketball team.

The final was much more intense than many people expected.

The Spanish team also has a group of veterans. Rubio, the "golden boy" of 2008, is now a middle-aged man with a full beard.

However, they are at two extremes from the US team. They are the ultimate team basketball player, and the longer they play together, the stronger they become.

The Chinese team fell behind at halftime, but in the second half, they began to slowly turn the situation around.

Just like when the Mavericks played against the Warriors in the playoffs last season, physical fitness became the key factor in determining the outcome of the game.

Xu Yong played more and more vigorously, but Gasol and his teammates really couldn't run anymore in the end.

Moreover, Yi Jianlian, who has been in good form throughout the World Cup, is also in hot form.

In the end, Xu Yong and Yi Jianlian teamed up to launch a 13-2 personal attack wave at the end of the quarter amid the cheers of more than 20,000 fans in Wukesong, directly helping the Chinese men's basketball team win the championship trophy at home.

Xu Yong hugged Yao Ming and cried when he finally won the championship.

The difficulty of winning this championship is smaller than that of the Rio Olympics because of the successive revelations of the US and Serbian teams.

But the significance of this championship is greater than any championship they have won in the past, because it is a championship at home, a championship they worked hard for in 2008 but failed to win.

At this time, Yang Yi also started crying at the commentary booth.

It was not only because of the World Cup champion in front of him, but also because he saw Xu Yong's physical recovery tonight.

Taking into account Xu Yong's stable shooting in this World Cup, Xu Yong has now completely recovered to his pre-retirement state.

This means that in the next NBA season, Xu Yong's familiar dominance will return.

After finishing the World Cup, Xu Yong quickly returned to the United States and continued to join DeRozan and Rose in training.

During the time he was away, the two of them never stopped training.

DeRozan's condition has obviously improved a lot. It turns out that in competitive sports, the root of all problems lies in lack of practice.

Moreover, he lost weight during the offseason and will return to his original No. 2 position next season, which is also very important.

Time flies and it is already late September. The formal training camps of various teams have started one after another.

However, before the Mavericks' training camp officially begins, there is a very interesting thing. The Chinese translation of the Mavericks' name will be changed from "Mavericks" to "Mavericks".

This actually cannot be called a change, because the English name of the Mavericks, “Mavericks”, has nothing to do with the Mavericks. It was just that the translator forcibly translated it into “Mavericks” based on the graphic of the team logo.

Its original meaning is a person with a different opinion, a loner, or a more formal one, a lone ranger, so this is considered an official correction.

This change is a big deal for domestic fans, after all, the name Mavericks has been with them for so many years.

However, many fans also accepted this with pleasure, because changing the team name gives people a refreshing feeling.

The Mavericks will embark on a brand new journey in the new season.