Chapter 1373 Embark on the Journey to the Tokyo Olympics
With a roster of 15 people, Du Dai's core, plus the third leader Holiday, and a group of good-quality role players, the Pelicans maintained their championship strength.
As for whether the championship will be successful in the end, it depends on the performance and luck of next season.
Tang Tian is not a player, and like last season, that is out of his control.
After solving the team's roster, his focus also shifted from the Pelicans to the national team.
Getting back into shape and looking for game form is what he has been doing.
There is only less than one month left before the start of the Olympic Games. The national team training camps of various countries have already started, and the warm-up matches have also started.
For the Chinese men's basketball team, Zhou Qi, Yi Jianlian, Ding Yanyuhang and Abdu, who have finished their seasons one after another, have all returned home.
Tang Tian followed closely and prepared to return home.
Just when he was about to leave, he received a call from Lin Yi.
He is ready to give up this year's summer league and return home with him.
Lin Yi, like Tang Tian, is not a player in the system, and whether he wants to play for the national team is entirely up to his personal will.
Especially since this is the first year of his career, summer league is more important.
"It doesn't matter if you fight or not."
But what Lin Yi said when he saw Tang Tian made him laugh.
He almost forgot that Lin Yi was cheating just like him. Although he had just started, it really didn't matter whether he played or not in the summer league.
When they arrived at the national team, the national team was playing a warm-up match against Lithuania.
According to the rules, there are a total of 12 teams in the Olympic Games, namely the host Japanese team, the seven teams with the best results in the seven continents produced by the World Cup, and the 4 teams that were previously selected through the Olympic Games.
The best teams from the seven continents were determined a year ago, namely Spain and France in Europe, China in Asia, Australia in Australia, the United States in North America, Argentina in South America and Cameroon in Africa.
After that, the four teams produced by the Olympic Games were Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Greece.
It is worth mentioning that after the Canadian team lost the World Cup, most NBA players did not participate in the losing game.
This also makes the four teams that advance to the losing round all come from Europe.
Counting Spain and France before, there are a total of 6 European teams in this Olympics, reaching half of the participating teams.
Such a result is also in line with the purpose of the FIBA reform, not to allow all continents to participate as in the past, but to select the 12 strongest teams.
On this basis, this year's Olympic competition system has also undergone very big changes from previous years.
Take the Rio Olympics as an example, the 12 teams are divided into two groups, and the top four of the two groups will play in the quarterfinals in the way of A1 playing B4.
But this year, the 12 teams will be divided into 3 groups. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals, and the remaining two places will be the third places in the two groups with the best results.
This competition system is a bit similar to the 100-meter preliminaries. It can avoid teams that fail to advance to the quarter-finals because they are assigned to the death group, and better guarantee fairness.
And after entering the quarter-finals, they will no longer be matched according to the group rankings as before, but will be drawn by lottery.
The 3 first-placed teams in the group and the second-placed team with the best performance in the previous stage (1 team) will be divided into one and a half zones (D zone), and the other 2 second-placed teams in the group and the 2 teams with the best results in the group The three-placed teams will be assigned to the other half (Zone E).
Then the quarter-finals will be played in the order of D1 vs. E1.
Everything is to ensure the fairness of the game as much as possible.
In addition, according to the rules, the teams in the same group in the group stage will not meet again in the quarter-finals.
Fiba also announced the grouping of the 12 teams in the group stage.
Group A: China, Spain, Australia, France
Group B: USA, Cameroon, Serbia, Lithuania
Group C: Japan, Argentina, Slovenia, Greece
The grouping method is also determined by drawing lots like the previous World Cup. Except China, the United States and Japan are the seeded teams, the other three teams in Group C are obviously weaker than other groups.
Such a result is intriguing, but it's not too surprising, it's more of a routine for Olympic hosts.
However, the Chinese team is obviously being targeted. The remaining two teams in the World Cup semi-finals are there, and the French team is also a team that will go straight to the Olympics.
In the past, when the men's basketball team was not on the rise, they always called their groupings a group of death. This time in Tokyo, it is a serious group of death.
Of course, the host Japan grouped the Chinese team in this way to "respect" the Chinese team. After all, the Chinese team is now the double champion of the Olympic Games and the World Cup.
Without the four major NBA players, the Chinese team did not beat Lithuania.
Although the Chinese men's basketball team has been very popular in recent years, it will take time to get from the bottom of the pyramid to the top. Now these players still rely more on the four major NBA players.
The fans also know this and don't care much about the result of the game.
After Tang Tian and the others arrived at the team, they immediately practiced together.
Tang Tian, Yi Jianlian, Ding Yanyuhang, and Abu are all old players, and they integrated quickly, but Zhou Qi, who didn't play last season, and newcomer Lin Yi, all need time to adjust.
The Chinese team in the World Cup last year was called the strongest Chinese men's basketball team by fans, but this year they joined the men's basketball team of Zhou Qi and Lin Yi, and their strength was obviously stronger.
The men's basketball team is playing the final warm-up match with other teams, and the players are also constantly grinding during the game.
It was also during this time period that "Path of Glory" completed its announcement and was officially released in theaters across the country.
After the film was released, it immediately detonated the domestic film market.
As the first basketball-themed sports movie in China, it has attracted the attention of a large number of fans.
And because of the excellent quality of the movie itself, word of mouth fermented rapidly.
Just like the popular movie "Wolf Warrior" before, it doesn't matter if it's not a military fan/basketball fan, it's military/basketball fan's wife/husband, parents/children, all flocking to the cinema.
200 million, 500 million, 1 billion, 2 billion... Movies are spreading rapidly in a blowout manner.
"It's still fun to play by yourself. Compared with lore Monihei, this real lore is more exciting."
"A great film that absolutely crosses history, not only in terms of subject matter, but also of excellent quality."
"Prepare to do it twice and do it three times. A movie like this definitely deserves a higher box office."
"I don't watch basketball, but the rhythm of the whole story is interspersed so well that I feel excited when I finally play in the United States."
"By the way, when will I make a movie about Rio, I can't wait!"
"Yeah, the Olympics are coming soon. If you can watch movies about the Rio Olympics, you don't have to do anything else, the box office will definitely be paid for!"
...
The topic of the movie spread rapidly on Weibo and forums, and word of mouth continued to ferment.
At the start of the Olympic Games, this is a great booster for the men's basketball players, and it also makes fans look forward to the performance of the men's basketball team in the Olympic Games.