On January 4th, Beijing time, multiple news emerged from the CBA League. Firstly, Zhao Rui was suspended for five games and fined 100,000 yuan by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and the league for colliding with a referee. Additionally, Xinjiang Flying Tigers head coach Liu Wei was fined 20,000 yuan due to the responsibility system.
The Xinjiang club acknowledged the fine and has severely criticized Zhao Rui, demanding stricter discipline from their players. Zhao Rui also apologized on social media, expressing his deepest regrets to all those affected.
I believe that the CBA and the league responded quickly and efficiently in issuing the fines. However, I also hope that the overall quality of the league, referees, coaches, and players can be comprehensively improved. Why do I say this? It turns out that in a recently concluded regular-season match between Beijing and Zhejiang, the CBA's amateurish nature was astonishing. The game had only two referees officiating, with the third referee nowhere to be seen throughout the match.
After the game, media reported that the third referee was suspected of having the flu and was unable to officiate. This highlights the amateurish side of the league, lacking a fourth referee in reserve. When three referees face controversial calls, they can still discuss it, with the minority deferring to the majority. But how do two referees make decisions? The authority of the head referee increases, leading to more missed and mistaken calls, naturally undermining the fairness of the game.
The second piece of news is about the game where Zhao Rui was ejected. Peterson, known as the top foreign player in the CBA, criticized the league's amateurishness after the game. He complained that the CBA could conduct two sports on one court, basketball and rugby simultaneously. Peterson is dissatisfied with some domestic players' rugby-style defensive actions and players who enjoy covering their faces to fake falls to gain the referee's sympathy. He also questions what the CBA referees are doing?
Furthermore, during the tense moments at the end of the game, because he couldn't stand Yu Dehao's fake fall to draw a foul. Xinjiang head coach Liu Wei repeatedly shouted obscenities at Yu Dehao while he was controlling the ball, urging him to "let the idiot shoot." The original audio of the game was also exposed, with Yu Dehao protesting to the sideline referee but being ignored. Therefore, I personally believe that the league should strictly manage and improve the quality of coaches; otherwise, more coaches will overstep their bounds, daring to enter the court to scold players or even collide with referees.
The third piece of news is that in response to the above issues and Zhang Ning's excessive number of technical fouls (seven times), the Chinese Basketball Association held a special referees' meeting. At the meeting, Zhang Ning was highlighted as an example, and the leadership demanded that referees strengthen the management of players' technical fouls and not turn a blind eye. Additionally, professional managers discussed feedback regarding the referees' lack of seriousness in penalizing players for feigning falls and covering their faces to "cheat" fouls.
I believe that these problems are the key to the decline in the performance of the Chinese men's basketball team. The referees' professional abilities are lacking, the league has loopholes, some players and coaches have tempers greater than their skills, there are too many hand movements in defense, and faking falls and technical fouls are rampant. How can we cultivate superstars in such a league? Even if we manage to cultivate them, they are likely to be "wasted." Therefore, the CBA led by Guo Zhenming has also realized this. After the meeting, the league will now strengthen the management of coaches, players, and referees to purify the league environment.
Finally, let's briefly discuss the ranking situation of Liaoning and Guangdong men's basketball teams. Liaoning has reportedly signed another wingman foreign player, bringing the total number of Liaoning's foreign players to four. On the other hand, Guangdong has officially announced the release of Les and is still unable to find a suitable substitute for Xu Jie. In the remaining ten or so games of the second stage, I estimate that Liaoning will make a strong comeback and rise from eighth place to the top four. If Guangdong cannot resolve the issue of Xu Jie's substitute before the end of the second stage, I predict that the team's worst ranking will drop out of the top ten. Therefore, Du Feng, the head coach, is currently under the most pressure.