Hoopsters in a world of pain

Calls for overhaul of talent system after Team China crushed on global stage

Chinese basketball suffered another Manila mauling as the national team's chastening FIBA World Cup campaign sparked calls for an overhaul of the sport's development system at home.

Ten years on since its dreadful 2013 Asian Championship campaign in the Filipino capital, the Chinese men's basketball team sank to a new low with a 96-75 blowout loss to the host Gilas Pilipinas on Saturday.

The defeat consigned China to its worst win-loss record (1-4) in the history of the tournament. More frustratingly, the lack of fight in all four defeats riled fans and pundits alike, who have called for a complete rebuild of the sport's national program from the bottom up.

Finishing fourth among the six Asian contenders at the World Cup saw China failed to even reach the Olympic qualifying tournament,meaning it will be absent from the Olympics again after missing out on the Tokyo Games.

With a 3-2 overall record, tournament co-host Japan secured the only direct qualification berth to Paris 2024 awarded to Asia's top performer, while Lebanon made its way to next year's Olympic qualifiers by finishing as the continental runner-up with a 2-3 record.

As president of the Chinese Basketball Association, hoops legend Yao Ming watched grimly as the Filipino crowd celebrated wildly at Araneta Coliseum, bringing back painful memories of the 2019 World Cup in China.

"Me!" Yao responded back then when asked who should take responsibility for Team China's 24th-place finish at the home World Cup.

The disappointing 2019 campaign, which cost China a ticket to Tokyo 2020, had already exposed how far Team China had fallen behind the world's elite hoops nations.

Four years later, however, the gap seems even bigger and nothing substantial has been changed, except for hiring a world-class coach in Serbian tactician Aleksandar Djordjevic.

"This was a tough tournament for us, I am very sorry for how we finished it," Djordjevic said after Saturday's defeat that dragged China down to 29th place at the quadrennial tournament.

"The head coach must take a lot of responsibility, actually as the first one, and stay behind my players and keep working to get better," said the 56-year-old former Serbian national team guard and coach.

Yao, who wasn't made available for interviews in Manila, is expected to be held accountable by the country's higher sports governing body for the team's dismal performance.

Team China's miserable outing in Manila under Djordjevic drew comparisons on social media to the men's soccer team's failed bid to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup under Italian coach Marcello Lippi.

"Sometimes it does not work to invite a college professor to teach young pupils all the fundamentals.They are just not speaking the same language," basketball commentator and former national team player Wang Shipeng said during the World Cup.

Underlined by Team China's turnover-laden games in Manila, Djordjevic's European style, which emphasizes size, spacing, passing and 3-point shooting, proved to be a big ask for the Chinese squad in Manila.

"This team is capable of more.Throughout the whole tournament,the team has not been able to bring out its best," said former Team China head coach Du Feng, who was at the helm when the team qualified for the World Cup.

Du, who served as a commentator on Migu.com during the tournament, was replaced by Djordjevic in November after completing the World Cup qualifiers.

Djordjevic's lofty tactical standards and Chinese players' lack of high-intensity drills in the domestic league were a mismatch, according to Wang.

Outmuscled and outpaced by their opponents, Team China ranked 31st in rebounding (31), 25th in points (75.8) and 23rd (18.6) in assists per game among all 32 teams at the World Cup. It's overall 3-pointer shooting ranked 23rd, at 31.1 percent.

"After competing in five tough games at the World Cup, my biggest takeaway is that the level of competition in the domestic league is far from what is required on the international stage," said Team China starting guard Zhao Rui.

Zhao, China's best backcourt player who averaged 12.6 points and 2.8 assists per game in Manila, vowed to learn from the experience.

"I wanted to play at the Olympics so much, even for only one game.The pain of missing out on the opportunity will push me to try harder and become a better player," said Zhao, a 27-year-old shooting guard who will represent the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in next season's CBA.

To increase the competitiveness of the CBA league, observers have called for a raft of new measures,such as extending the schedule,reducing the limit on foreign players so that homegrown talents will be pushed harder and allowing more young prospects to develop their game in overseas leagues.

"We need a rethink, and perhaps a radical change on the talent development system that we've been used to," said Zhu Fangyu, a former national team shooter who now serves as general manager of 11-time CBA champion the Guangdong Southern Tigers.

Youth cultivation at grassroots level also needs to catch up with the rest of the world, CBA legend Gong Xiaobin reckons.

"The youth training system nowadays calls for results too early and too often for grassroots coaches to draft and develop talents in the right way," said Gong, a formidable member of China's eighth-placed team at the 1994 world championships and 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"Our system has failed to identify and nurture true talents, as opposed to players who are simply tall, from a very young age and develop them with patience for them to flourish on the elite stage.

"The foundation of the talent system needs reform."