On March 14, Chinese women’s basketball player Li Meng announced on her personal social media that she will join the WNBA team Washington Mystics this summer. Li Meng said that she looks forward to being trained and promoted in the WNBA to show the demeanor of Chinese athletes. In the just-concluded WCBA finals, Li Meng helped the Sichuan women’s basketball team defeat the Inner Mongolia women’s basketball team and win the first top league championship in team history. After achieving success in the domestic arena, Li Meng will show his abilities overseas.
Up to now, there are already four Chinese players who will play in the WNBA in the new season. Han Xu and Li Yueru renewed their contracts with the New York Liberty and the Chicago Sky respectively; Yang Liwei also signed a contract with the Los Angeles Sparks not long ago. Coupled with Li Meng, who will now join the Washington Mystery, the Chinese women’s basketball team is setting off a wave of “studying abroad”.
The four girls who are about to play in the WNBA in the new season have all set their career goals in the WNBA. For them, being able to join the league representing the highest level of women’s basketball in the world is an affirmation of their abilities. As far as the Chinese women’s basketball team is concerned, more and more women’s basketball players are favored by WNBA teams, and they will be trained on higher-level arenas, which will help the team to launch an impact on higher goals.
Zheng Wei, the coach of the Chinese women’s basketball team, once said that the playing style of the Chinese women’s basketball team is different, and the Chinese women’s basketball team mainly relies on the whole. “There is a gap in personal ability between us and our opponents. I hope that these players who go to the WNBA to play can achieve these goals through hard work: the first is to increase confrontation ability, the second is to improve personal ability, and the third is to increase experience .”
In last year’s Women’s Basketball World Cup, relying on the overall Chinese women’s basketball team to win the runner-up, this allowed the whole world to see the capabilities of the Chinese women’s basketball team. The experience of losing to the US women’s basketball team in the group stage and the final also made the Chinese women’s basketball team see the gap with the world‘s strongest teams.
Today, four core players of the Chinese women’s basketball team will go to the WNBA to play in the new season, which will undoubtedly help improve the overall level of the Chinese women’s basketball team. In the latest women’s basketball world ranking released by FIBA, the Chinese women’s basketball team ranks second only to the US women’s basketball team.
The outstanding performance of Chinese players in the Women’s Basketball World Cup has become a stepping stone for them to knock on the door of the WNBA, and this also means that the channel for Chinese players to play in the WNBA has been further opened up. Walk the road to realize your dreams.
Li Meng revealed that he had been invited by overseas clubs twice before, but failed in the end. “This time my dream finally came true! I will definitely train actively and strive to serve my motherland better. I hope more people will pay attention to female athletes and let the world see their hard work and persistence.”
As Li Meng said, the four Chinese girls will play in the world‘s highest-level women’s basketball league, which will help them perform at a better level after returning to the national team. The improvement of the strength of the Chinese women’s basketball team has given the women’s basketball players the opportunity to play overseas, and these players will once again boost the development of the Chinese women’s basketball team after returning to the national team. Today’s Chinese women’s basketball team is undoubtedly on the right path , experience a virtuous circle.
Behind this round of “study abroad” set off by the four girls, the biggest beneficiary is undoubtedly the Chinese women’s basketball team.
Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Hao Haoyu
Editor: Nie Yue