Just announced retirement and terminated the contract with the original team, only one month later, it was announced to return to join the women's basketball league giants, and also received a high salary. The reversal of the approach has also aroused the dissatisfaction of the original team.
Beijing Women's Basketball officially announced that Liu Yutong, the national player who previously played for Shanxi Women's Basketball, joined the team. At the end of 2024, Liu Yutong just terminated the contract with Shanxi Women's Basketball, citing Liu Yutong's desire to continue her studies as the reason. In response, the senior management of Shanxi Women's Basketball once explained that she is still a graduate student, with many subjects and papers unfinished. She also communicated with the club, and the club decided to respect the player's opinion and terminate the contract with the player. Fans previously expressed understanding.
Because Liu Yutong is not a top athlete, although she has played in national-level games. But there should not be so many preferential treatments. Moreover, she wants to pursue a doctoral degree, which should not have any preferential policies among athletes. Those Olympic gold medals can only be specially recruited for a master's degree. However, just one month later, things changed, and Beijing Women's Basketball officially announced Liu Yutong's joining the team, which made Shanxi fans very dissatisfied. They believed that Liu Yutong was going back on her word, terminating the contract with Shanxi and then going to Beijing Women's Basketball to receive a high salary, and Beijing Women's Basketball did not have to pay any transfer fee.
Liu Yutong's approach is indeed inappropriate. Even if there are contradictions, they can be openly stated, or if she doesn't want to stay, she can transfer at the end of the season, find a reason not to play to complete her studies, and then sign with another team. Signing Liu Yutong also strengthened the inside line of Beijing Women's Basketball. In women's basketball games, the inside line is the key. With her addition, plus Tang Yu, Parker, and Hillsman, there are both frontcourt attackers and low-post powerhouses, which can bring great help to the team.
Liu Yutong's development has not met the expectations of fans. Liu Yutong could do whatever she wanted in the college women's basketball league, playing casually and crushing scores. However, when it comes to WCBA and national team-level games, encountering tough opponents or national team centers, she almost couldn't score many points. It's easy to play when there is a clear physical advantage, but when there is no physical advantage, scoring may be difficult. This season, Liu Yutong's performance is not good. She has only scored 2 points in three league games so far, almost falling out of rotation. Although she used to average over 15 points, she couldn't beat Li Yueru and Han Xu.
Li Yueru and Han Xu were born in 1999, while Liu Yutong was born in 2001. Judging from the gap in strength, she still has a considerable gap compared to other female basketball players. I hope she can focus all her thoughts on the basketball court, be down-to-earth, and move forward step by step. What do you think about Liu Yutong joining Beijing Women's Basketball?