China News Weekly: The NBA is Wang Junjie s goal, and we are now trying to win the main force of the University of San Francisco

Hupu, August 21, According to China News Weekly, the men's basketball team lost to Australia by 1 point to win the runner-up. From the start of this men's basketball Asian Cup to the finals, Chinese men's basketball athlete Wang Junjie was eye-catching. Whether it is its stable and guaranteed shooting percentage, its signature "Golden Rooster Independent" shooting action, or its practical effect of integrating into the team, fans are impressed. In the end, Wang Junjie successfully entered the best team in the tournament. After the finals, Wang Junjie told the media that he used the summer vacation of college to return to China to participate. After the holiday, I have to continue to go to school. Fans laughed at Wang Junjie as the "strongest summer worker" and kept sighing: Why is Wang Junjie, who does not belong to any Chinese professional club, and even has no experience in playing in a CBA, his ability is no less than that of some players who have been in the CBA for many years? How did he become the "big surprise" of this Chinese men's basketball team?

20-year-old "Nowsky"?

In this men's basketball Asian Cup, Wang Junjie averaged 23.5 minutes per game, scored 13 points, and averaged 9.5 shots per game, with a shooting percentage of more than 56%, and a three-point shooting percentage of more than 47%. Its signature action "Golden Rooster Independence" resembles German star Dirk Nowitzki. Today, in world basketball, strong low-post forward players in the traditional sense are becoming increasingly rare, and multi-functional big players between the front line and the inside line are being paid more and more attention. Wang Junjie's technical path is exactly in line with today's basketball trends.

Jiao Jian told China Newsweek that because he once played in the forward position, he was indeed "attracted" by Wang Junjie's performance during the Asian Cup. "At a glance, he can understand that he played very well when he was a child. He can comprehensively use strength, coordination and flexibility to show his solid basic skills. What's even more rare is that he has such good psychological qualities at the age of 20." Jiao Jian said.

In fact, before this men's basketball Asian Cup, Wang Junjie was still a relatively unfamiliar name to Chinese fans. The last time Wang Junjie attracted attention in China was the best performance of the school team of Hailiang Foreign Language Middle School in Zhuji, Zhejiang (hereinafter referred to as Hailiang Middle School) in the Nike High School League. At that time, Wang Junjie led Hailiang Middle School to defeat Guangdong Experimental Middle School, which was the youth training class of Guangdong Men's Basketball Team, to win the third place. Wang Junjie scored 27 points and 22 rebounds alone. After the Asian Cup, Zheng Bowen, head coach of Hailiang Middle School basketball team and former national player of the women's basketball team, told China News Weekly that the reason why Wang Junjie can form today's comprehensive abilities and characteristics is indispensable factors, his talent, personality, effort, resource allocation at each stage, and the competitive environment he is in.

"When Wang Junjie was young, his body had not fully developed, his running and jumping ability was relatively poor, and his hands were not strong. But when he played with a child three or four years older than him, his mid-range shots at receiving teammates were basically very stable, and most of them would make it when there was no defense." Zheng Bowen recalled Wang Junjie's talent in this way. When he personally led Wang Junjie to train, Zheng Bowen found that he had a very high understanding of basketball. "I teach the players some relatively complex footwork movements under the basket. Wang Junjie learned the fastest among children of the same age. He basically mastered it once. In addition, he also has a very fast understanding of tactics, can think and extend and innovate in practical application."

"In addition, since I have been observing his mentality and personality since I was a child, I have always been very sunny and cheerful." Zheng Bowen said. "At the same time, he is also very hardworking and enterprising. He always likes to find someone to accompany him to practice more and have ideas about his own improvement." After becoming the most valuable player in the National U15 Championship, Wang Junjie was given the opportunity to enter the NBA Global Elite Academy and go to Australia to train. It is worth mentioning that Wang Junjie is also the first Chinese high school student player to be shortlisted since the implementation of the plan.

Zheng Bowen revealed that Wang Junjie "developed" the "Golden Rooster Independence" action while in Australia. "In fact, our grassroots coaches generally do not recommend that young players do such movements, after all, their bodies are not fully developed." Zheng Bowen said, but when he was in Australia, Wang Junjie had already entered a more intense competitive environment ahead of schedule and had to do it in order to "survive". "Because, there are many athletes with particularly strong physical fitness. When the physical confrontation and bounce are not dominant, turn back and jump back and practice to avoid being blocked." Zheng Bowen observed that after Wang Junjie returned from Australia, his ability improved greatly. Especially when playing in the 2023 Nike High School Basketball League, the performance of the team has been significantly improved by performing technical movements. The acceptance letters from 7 American universities have been obtained in advance and afterwards, which is a very powerful "proof".

How to "copy" Wang Junjie?

While Wang Junjie gaining recognition during this Asian Cup, there are also many discussions in the basketball industry, whether Wang Junjie's growth experience can be replicated. Zhao Huanyu, who once served as a management position in a professional women's basketball club and has been investigating basketball youth training for a long time, told China Newsweek that if the Chinese basketball industry hopes to emerge more Wang Junjie, it is necessary to "train more comprehensively and less utilitarian mentality at the grassroots basketball." In Zhao Huanyu's view, many grassroots coaches in Chinese basketball actually want to lead the players to practice their basic skills. However, in actual leadership and teaching, it was found that when both academics were needed and training time was limited, the basic skills were "too slow to achieve results", which was not conducive to achieving some campus competition results in the short term.

Zhao Huanyu said, "For various realistic purposes, such as coaches need to win and championship trophy to evaluate professional titles, players get athlete level certificates through competition results, and some relatively short-sighted training methods have emerged at the grassroots level.. "There are many grassroots coaches who only cultivate big men with outstanding talents and lack patience with small men; some grassroots coaches have assigned children a certain position early, and each child only practices special skills in the corresponding position; in addition, some grassroots coaches spend a lot of time practicing the full-game press, hoping to grasp the weaknesses of young people in the game that are generally not solid in the foundation of young people... "The characteristics of this kind of training method are that only good seedlings can win the top, single characteristics, and single training may be more effective for short-term results, but they are not conducive to children's development towards higher platforms in the later stage. But often grassroots coaches can only care about the present and cannot control the future. "Zhao Huanyu said.

Many basketball industry insiders believe that Hailiang Middle School "played" grassroots basketball by cultivating Wang Junjie. As a big man with a height of 2.06 meters, Wang Junjie did not embark on the path of "single characteristics" early. Through the actual performance of different ages, it can be seen that even if Wang Junjie is tall, he still has very skillful dribbling skills and can carry the ball forward. There are also many changes that traditional inside players do not have, and they will stop shooting. Ability, defense is very difficult.

Zheng Bowen recalled that in Wang Junjie's middle school, he would only be able to practice his personal skills in the extra training session. When the coaching team of Hailiang Middle School organized the training of the entire team, he would require every child, including Wang Junjie, to lay a solid foundation for comprehensive "goal, transmission, and shooting". "Our small guard who is 1.70 meters tall will also use inside actions when he reaches the inside position. Big men like Wang Junjie also have rich outside skills. We hope that no matter where the children take on the basketball road in the future, at least the children who have gone out of Hailiang will have regular basic skills. "Zheng Bowen said.

Next stop, NBA?

Wang Junjie became famous in this Asian Cup, many fans began to look forward to his future prospects of entering the NBA through drafts. Some fans who are concerned about Wang Junjie's development are worried that his position at the University of San Francisco where he currently plays is not absolutely stable, and may not be able to make sufficient improvements and progress, and may even restrict his future development. The University of San Francisco where Wang Junjie is located is indeed not a "traditional basketball school" in traditional cognition in basketball in the field of American football, and has not achieved many highlights in history. Last time, San Francisco entered the "Crazy March" (NCAA First-level Men's The top 16 of the Basketball Championship) was still in 1998, and the famous NBA athlete trained by the University of San Francisco can be traced back to Bill Russell in 1956.

At the University of San Francisco, Wang Junjie's start was not smooth. When he was in his first year of college, Wang Junjie sat on the "cold bench" for a long time and could not get a stable playing time. Wang Junjie, who had experienced smooth sailing, also showed some negative emotions, believing that some of the coach's previous promises had not been fulfilled. When Wang Junjie's emotions fluctuated, Zheng Bowen was always comforting him and told him, "The world of competitive sports has no promise in an absolute sense. Only when you are strong enough can you make corresponding promises. "When I couldn't play the ball, Wang Junjie silently insisted on doing morning exercises, practiced very late at night, strengthening the body's muscles, reducing body fat, practicing hard to improve his core strength, and working hard to improve his shooting percentage. Finally, he got the opportunity after the main player was injured and was promoted to the starting position, improving his scoring and other data.

For his reserves, the sweat he paid was not in vain. Without this "hard journey" competing for the starting position and the actual battle of American university events, Wang Junjie could not feel the taste of some "dimensionality reduction strikes" in the Asian Cup. After the Asian Cup, Wang Junjie believed that only the final against Australia made him feel a tense "sense of oppression". He said It is said that Saudi Arabia, Jordan and India men's basketball teams are not strong, and they are even lower than the NCAA.

Zheng Bowen is confident about Wang Junjie's further improvement in the future. On the one hand, Wang Junjie's many experiences in studying abroad have made him mature, knowing the direction of his efforts, and how professional athletes should arrange themselves. In addition, he has been in such a fierce competitive environment, and only has one mind to think about how to further improve. Chinese men's basketball coach Guo Shiqiang also made it clear that young players in Chinese basketball should "go out" and continue to exercise themselves: "I hope that more young players in China can play in high-level overseas leagues. This is not only an improvement for the players, but also an improvement for our national team. I very much agree with it. ”

As for entering the NBA, it is bound to be Wang Junjie's goal, but from the current perspective, Wang Junjie can't think so much. He still has to think about how to make solid progress and return to the main competitive position of the University of San Francisco.