Chapter 716: CBA Assemble
Various media outlets immediately reported the news of the Chinese Men's Basketball Team's victory, mostly using words like bloodbath, shame, rout, and no mercy.
Chen Yan scored a massive 51 points in this game.
Scoring 50 plus points in an international competition was harder than doing it in the NBA, because international games only had 10 minute quarters, and some rules were also different.
Chinese fans jokingly called the Asian Championship the friendship ending tournament because of Chen Yan.
South Korean netizens were completely subdued by Chen Yan.
Now, whenever they heard his name, their hair seemed to stand on end.
The most miserable ones were the South Korean national team players.
After the game, when they returned home, they collectively knelt to apologize to the fans.
A 60 point loss was the largest losing margin for the South Korean Men's Basketball Team in Asian Championship history.
However, looking at the entire history of the Asian Championship, South Korea's loss was not the most humiliating.
On the evening of September 14, 2005, Beijing time, in a match between China and Saudi Arabia, the Chinese Men's Basketball Team completely crushed its opponent by 88 points.
Everyone knew the strength disparity was enormous, and Saudi Arabia was doomed.
But what surprised people was that although they were expected to offer at least some resistance, the Saudis barely fired a shot. They surrendered the entire city, perfectly cooperating with China's massacre.
In the entire game, China scored 98 points.
Saudi Arabia, in this basketball game, scored a football like 10 points.
The 88 point difference set a new record for the largest margin of victory in Asian Championship history, which was astonishing.
Chinese fans jokingly said that if Jonas had not pulled the starters in the 4th quarter, there might have been a real chance to break that largest point difference record.
If a new record had truly been set, then the South Korean players return home would not have been as simple as an apology.
Given the temperament of South Korean fans, they might have forced the players to perform seppuku.
On the evening of September 25 at 8 PM, the Asian Championship final began.
China's opponent was Jordan.
The 2 teams had already met in the group stage, where Jordan lost by more than 30 points.
After watching China's game against South Korea, the Jordan Men's Basketball Team was very nervous.
They feared being completely routed by China in the final.
It had to be noted that the overall strength of Jordan was not stronger than South Korea.
From the start of the game, Jordan looked extremely flustered, missing all of their 1st 5 shots.
However, China's offensive desire was also much weaker compared to the previous game.
After the 1st quarter, China led 24 to 14, a 10 point advantage.
In the 2nd quarter, China still played at this rhythm.
The main focus was steady progress.
At halftime, China led 47 to 30, a 17 point advantage.
After watching the 1st half, the South Korean players were dumbfounded.
You guys did not play us like this in the last game, did you?
Especially Chen Yan.
In the 1st half, he mainly focused on organizing and connecting plays.
He only scored 8 points, but dished out 7 assists.
It was not until the 3rd quarter that Chen Yan suddenly unleashed his offensive power.
Jordan had no ability to resist and quickly fell behind.
Strictly speaking, they did not dare to resist.
Everyone knew that Chen Yan was the type of player who became more excited the more his opponents fought back.
Since they were going to lose anyway, why not choose to lose with a little more dignity?
Led by Chen Yan, China pulled away in the 3rd quarter.
In the 4th quarter, the 3 NBA players collectively clocked out.
Ultimately, Jordan lost the game 88 to 57.
A 31 point difference was already considered a very respectable margin.
During the post game award ceremony, Chen Yan felt the joy of winning the championship, but not intensely.
For Chen Yan, playing in the Asian Championship was similar to playing amateur games.
The intensity might even be lower than in the Drew League.
The source of his joy came more from bringing honor to his country than from the competitive aspect.
The Asian Championship award list was released 1 week later.
Jonas won Best Head Coach.
Netizens jokingly commented that with this Chinese Men's Basketball Team lineup, they could win the championship even if they were the head coach.
Even more extreme voices directly stated that even a dog could win.
Chen Yan was also elected the tournament's Most Valuable Player without any suspense.
Netizens comments on this were that if an NBA and World Championship MVP could not win MVP in the Asian Championship, then something must be wrong with the tournament.
The 5 players in the All Tournament First Team were Douglas, Chen Yan, Bahrami, Yi Jianlian, and Yao Ming.
Sun Dasheng and Zhu 8 made the All Tournament Second Team.
The national team games had concluded, and Chen Yan now had to consider club level competition.
The NBA lockout would not end anytime soon, so Chen Yan and his agent decided that he would temporarily join the CBA.
As soon as this news broke, every CBA team went wild.
If any team could get Chen Yan, it would create an explosion of traffic, not only domestically, but internationally as well.
It would become major news.
Every CBA team expressed that no matter how demanding Chen Yan's signing requirements were, they could satisfy them.
Chen Yan had no special demands regarding treatment.
He was not short on money.
Coming to the CBA was simply to play basketball and maintain his form.
However, Chen Yan specifically noted 1 condition.
Once the lockout ended, he would immediately return to the NBA.
Because Chen Yan knew the lockout could not last the entire season.
Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming were the same.
The 3 agreed to play together in the CBA during the lockout.
Yao Ming returned to the Shanghai Sharks, and Yi Jianlian returned to the Guangdong Southern Tigers.
News of Chen Yan's plan to join the CBA spread like wildfire.
Many NBA stars also expressed interest in the CBA.
Among them were Kobe, Nash, Stoudemire, and others.
Some of them were Chen Yan's opponents, and some were his teammates.
The media dubbed this phenomenon the Chen Yan Effect.
A few days later, the CBA officially broke major news.
Chen Yan signed with Jiangsu Nangang.
Besides Nangang offering the highest bid, Chen Yan also wanted to conduct an experiment.
Could he single handedly change a CBA team?
After all, his arrival in the CBA was a dimension reducing strike.
So far this season, Nangang had only won 3 games and ranked at the bottom, making them one of the weakest teams in the league.
To make Chen Yan's arrival in the CBA smooth, the Basketball Association broke some previous regulations.
Previously, NBA players coming to the CBA had to meet 2 conditions.
1st, they could not be under an NBA contract.
2nd, they had to play the entire season.
When the Basketball Association realized these conditions conflicted with Chen Yan's requirements, they decisively relaxed the restrictions for that season.
Chen Yan only wanted to use this period to give back to Chinese fans, allowing some devoted domestic fans to see him play live.
However, he never expected that this move would also attract a group of stars to the CBA.
1 day later, Shanxi announced that they had signed Kobe.
Kobe's side proposed 5 astonishingly strict conditions.
The 1st condition was that after the 2011 NBA lockout ended, he could immediately return to the NBA without any breach of contract.
The 2nd condition was that daily training, commercial activities, and other arrangements would not be subject to any interference. In other words, he could do whatever he wanted.
The 3rd condition was that Shanxi had to arrange a private jet for him to travel to away games.
The 4th condition was that they had to arrange a villa for his accommodation, complete with bodyguards.
The 5th condition was that his salary would be settled monthly, and the salary would be tax free.
According to the exchange rate at the time, Kobe's monthly salary amounted to more than 10 million RMB.
Shanxi agreed without hesitation.
Compared to the commercial value Kobe would bring, these demands were negligible.
Kobe's popularity in China was second only to Chen Yan, far ahead of other players.
Stars like Stoudemire, Garnett, Durant, and McGrady also rode this wave into the CBA.
The happiest people were undoubtedly the Chinese fans.
They could now watch these superstars perform right in their own backyard.
Some fans even joked that if this continued, the NBA would have to be called the Little CBA.
Many big name stars came, but not many ordinary players and role players followed.
The reason was simple.
Big name players had privileges and could return to the NBA at any time.
Role players could not.
They had to play a full season in the CBA.
This made many players hesitant, because NBA competition was always fierce. Once they disappeared from sight, they could easily be forgotten by their teams.
During the lockout, NBA players generally split into 3 factions.
The 1st faction stayed home to train, then formed teams to play pick up games to maintain their form.
The 2nd faction went to Europe.
The level of European leagues was not low, 2nd only to the NBA worldwide, and many NBA players had come from Europe.
Rudy Fernández, Ibaka, Kevin Séraphin, Gallinari, Nicolas Batum, and other European players chose to return to Europe to play, maintaining their form while compensating for financial losses.
The Turkish tycoon team Beşiktaş had signed the highly popular Allen Iverson before the lockout, then signed Deron Williams during the lockout.
They even tried to recruit Kobe and Durant.
However, Durant and Kobe were more interested in the CBA.
Not only did the CBA have the most passionate fans, but they would also have a chance to compete against Chen Yan.
Both of them regarded Chen Yan as a lifelong rival.
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