After chatting in the locker room for a while, Yang Jian went to the press conference with the head coach and teammates who performed well.
Everyone in Lithuania was interviewed by the media before, and shooting guard Sarunas Mathilionis decided to retire directly, which became the big news today.
"Playing against Yang Jian made me see my shortcomings clearly. I no longer have the confidence to play well in the NBA. I don't want to go back to the United States to pursue the next contract. It's time to quit."
Good guy, one of them was retired directly.
Reporters all wanted to contact Yang Jian in this news. He was indeed too ruthless. Mathieu Leonis could neither prevent his shooting nor his breakthrough, and his mentality collapsed.
Moreover, Mathieu Leonis was not the only person who was abused by Yang Jian to the point of collapse. After the end of this season, the 76ers' veteran shooting guard Jeff Malone also announced his retirement. After he was completely blasted by Yang Jian at home,
I feel helpless and have no energy at all.
After Yang Jian arrived at the scene, a reporter told him about the incident and asked him what he thought.
Yang Jian thought for a while and smiled: "Matthew Leonis is an excellent player with outstanding skills. His physical fitness has declined significantly due to injuries. This is fatal for players who mainly rely on breakthroughs. I can understand him.
decision."
"Do you think it was too hard to blow him up?"
"Of course not. I just do what I should do and lead the team to win with all my strength. Should I lose on purpose? Make a few more pass mistakes at critical moments to allow people to steal and score easily? Come on, I'm not Lithuania.
Famous place."
After saying a few words about his thoughts on winning, Yang Jian praised the head coach Gong Luming and his teammates who performed well today, saying that the win was due to everyone. He especially praised Wang Zhizhi, who is like a ball player in this Olympics.
The second in command of the team.
In today's game, Wang Zhizhi played 32 minutes, making 7 of 12 shots, 4 of 4 free throws, and scored 18 points and 5 rebounds.
Wang Zhizhi played in all 8 games of the Olympic Games, averaging 13.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, ranking second on the team in both statistics. Hu Weidong had less possession of the ball because of overlapping positions with Yang Jian, averaging 11.5 points per game.
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The player most affected is Sun Jun. He averaged 16.1 points per game in the last Olympics. This time he has been playing as a substitute and has not played much time. He is only a fixed-point shooter.
The team's fourth scoring point is point guard Li Xiaoyong, who is participating for the first time, averaging 10 points and 2.8 assists per game.
With Yang Jian here, his teammates no longer need to hold the ball and force a breakthrough, and generally display the characteristics of accurate catching and shooting.
The reporter asked: "Are you satisfied with the result of winning the bronze medal?"
"To be honest, I'm not satisfied because I hate losing and just want to win the championship. Therefore, my future goal in the national team is to lead the team to win the World Championships and Olympic Championships."
The reporter asked: "Do you think the Chinese team can beat the American team in the future?"
"This is not a question of whether you believe it or not. The Chinese team should work hard towards this goal. I don't believe in 'friendship first, competition second', unless it is a friendly match. For me, participating in a competition is to win.
Losing, winning always comes first!”
Reporters think Yang Jian is cool if he dares to say such things. Yang Jian always doesn't mind exposing his ambitions, just like when he dared to beat Jordan in the NBA.
At this time, almost everyone was not optimistic about the Chinese men's basketball team winning the championship in the future. How could they pass the Dream Team level? A team composed of NBA stars is too strong.
Yang simply has this effect. He is not afraid of others not believing it because he knows that the US team will not always send the strongest lineup to participate in the competition. It is still difficult to beat the US team, but the Dream Team is not invincible.
In a parallel world, the American team has lost many times, but other teams can win. Yang Jian believes that the Chinese team can also win.
In addition, the 1998 World Championships was an opportunity for the Chinese team to win the championship. The US team sent a mixed team to compete, and the Chinese team's biggest opponent was the Yugoslav team.
Even if the content of the championship is relatively low, it is still a championship. At least the Chinese team won. Yang Jian defeated the Lithuanian team this year and firmly believes that he can also win against the Yugoslavia team. In 1998, his teammates will be stronger, and he will be stronger too.
Others were also interviewed, and most of the topics they were asked about were related to Yang Jian.
A Japanese reporter asked Hu Weidong: "You used to be the team's outside core, but now Yang Jian, who is younger than you, has become the team leader. How do you feel?"
His nickname is "Chinese Jordan", he is the one with the best quality in the national team, but now he has been robbed of all the limelight.
Hu Weidong smiled and said: "I think this is normal. I am very happy that Yang Jian can become the core of the team. This has nothing to do with the seniority of the national team. Our strength gap is too big."
He added: "Let's put it this way, when we scored 20 points in a game at the World Championships and Olympics, everyone would say it was a high score. If Yang Jian scored 20 points in a game, it was only 20 points. It was a performance.
Abnormal.”
No one in the Chinese team is jealous of Yang Jian, really not. The difference in strength is so big that they are not from the same world at all and cannot be jealous.
Even if forward Ma Jian, who has a "higher football intelligence than Yi Jianlian", is asked to evaluate the Olympics in the future, he will only say that he has the ability to start in the national team and will never compare himself with Yang Jian.
Coach Gong Luming was interviewed and talked about the team's tactics. He was embarrassed to say that he arranged the tactics himself. The style of play of this men's basketball team was unprecedented before. So he could only praise Yang Jian's personal ability.
Say he is the key to winning.
Gong Luming is also popular in China. Everyone knows that the Chinese men's basketball team has an "Old Gong" who asks the players to hand the ball to Yang Jian, and then win from close range on the sidelines as a spectator.
Many people envy Gong Luming's luck. For other coaches of the men's basketball team, the biggest achievement was to lead the team to win the championship in Asia. Moreover, they have never had the opportunity to cooperate with the world's top superstars, so they don't have many cards to play.
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Gong Luming didn't know that Yang Jian had changed his destiny. In a parallel world, the national team he led had no outstanding results except for the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games. In 1996, he lost three games and scored 14 points in the semifinals of the 1997 Asian Championships.
The loss to South Korea was also the biggest point difference between the two sides.
His on-the-spot adaptability is very poor, and Yang Jian controls the rhythm of the game on the court. He really wins without hesitation.
But Yang Jian really likes Gong Luming as a coach because he doesn't arrange tactics randomly and doesn't think he is better than the stars. The NBA has head coaches who are lagging behind. When they were players, they were not good at defense. But after becoming a coach, they are very good at it.
Prevent the death of our team's superstar.
Wang Zhizhi was interviewed and said that the bronze medal was mainly due to Yang Jian. He was not only strong but also inspired the morale of the whole team.
"We thought it was impossible to win against Croatia and Lithuania before the game. This is true, because they are the runner-up and third place in the World Championships, and our initial goal was just to reach the quarterfinals. But Brother Yang said, don't give up confidence, don't
We gave up hope. We tried our best, but the result was different from what we imagined."
Wang Zhizhi's words will not affect morale, but will only increase the legend of this Olympic trip. Other players also mentioned Yang Jian's morale boosting, and "Don't give up, don't give up" became the slogan of the men's basketball team.
Fans are all talking about the Chinese men's basketball team and Yang Jian. Yang Jian has become a different kind of bronze medal superstar, and his popularity is so high that he is a Chinese athlete who has won gold and silver medals.
The Chinese team won a total of 16 gold medals, which is the same as the last Barcelona Olympics. The difference is that the 16 Olympic champions combined may not be as topical as Yang Jian.
Other events were only actively reported by domestic media. Yang Jian's team's bronze medal win was reported by many media around the world, and the ratings of the Chinese team's game were not inferior to those of the Dream Team. This has never happened before, and all fans are paying attention.
The dream team doesn't care about other teams.
And after all the men's basketball games were over, many fans thought the bronze medal game was more exciting than the finals.
Barkley, Kemp, O'Neal, David Robinson and others performed many dunks. Outsiders Payton, Reggie Miller, and Richmond also performed well.
This Dream Team 3 is stronger than the parallel world. Their style of play seems to be learning from the Sonics. Many outside players run, catch and shoot, and combine inside and outside.
It was not exciting because the game was one-sided. The Yugoslav team did not pose a threat to the Dream Team 3, and they were defeated by 34 points 69 to 103.