Gong Luming: ''A strong national team can boost the domestic league''

XI'AN - The harmony between a national team program and a domestic league is hugely important for basketball in a country as each can be mutually beneficial to one another. 

That was one of the messages delivered at the FIBA World Basketball Summit by Gong Luming, a former national team player and coach who is now Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

Gong Luming

"The higher the national team's level reaches, the greater the influence it can make on the professional league," he said. "We can see that, every time the national team has achieved good results, the professional league gradually attracts double the audience the following year.

"If our national team is not good enough, it will lose market value, which leads to the decrease of business investment. So in reality, the professional league and the national team are parallel. We must take both seriously. We must work hard to develop both."

Another voice in Chinese basketball, that of Wang Xuan, agrees. Secretary of the Party Committee of the Basketball Management Center in the National Sports General Administration, Wang is also the Executive Vice-Chairman and Secretary General of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Organizing Committee.

Wang Xuan

"Only by improving the national team’s performance can there be more people to like it," he said. "Fans bring markets. I think this is the way that China’s professional sports should work."

Under the FIBA National Team Competitions System & Calendar that came into effect in November 2017, it's clear that national sides are at an advantage if they can call on players in their domestic competition for games like the ones as part of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers.

"THE HIGHER THE NATIONAL TEAM'S LEVEL REACHES, THE GREATER THE INFLUENCE IT CAN MAKE ON THE PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE. WE CAN SEE THAT EVERY TIME THE NATIONAL TEAM HAS ACHIEVED GOOD RESULTS, THE PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE GRADUALLY ATTRACTs DOUBLE THE AUDIENCE THE FOLLOWING YEAR... WE  MUST WORK HARD TO DEVELOP BOTH."- Gong Luming

Spain, for example, have relied for the most part on players from their Liga Endesa and have already qualified for the World Cup. China, with a place at the World Cup already secured as the host nation, have nevertheless taken part in the Asian Qualifiers with several aims, including gauging which CBA players should make up the team for next summer.

Yao Ming, the China national team legend who is the CBA's President, decided to have "red" and "blue" teams. The players, in front of roaring crowds, have staked their claims to places in next year's team.

"This year, the Chinese men's basketball team is divided into two teams: the red and the blue," Gong said. "It provides more opportunities for more young people to compete and go up."

Wang added: "I think the red team and the blue team strategy is fitting well in the current phase."

As China look to become a world power in basketball, they're placing a huge emphasis on not only identifying young talent but also nurturing it. To that end, there is now a National Basketball Academy.

"The National Basketball Academy is sponsored by the  government, which is jointly organized by the State Sports General Administration and Shandong Provincial People's Government," said Wang Yi, Secretary of the Party Committee of Shandong Sports University and Dean of the National Basketball Academy.

"Our sports university is the main body which undertakes the task to operate it, while the China Basketball Association and Shandong Sports Bureau are co-operators. So, there are three operators and two sponsors.

Wang Yi

"Our main task is based on domestic and facing international, cultivating all the talents in the whole chain related to basketball: what talents are needed for basketball development, what talents we train. Of course, this is a long-term development goal because we have only been established for two years."

The academy is ambitious.

"We currently have less than 300 students. Our recent goal is to reach 500 in four years," Wang pointed out. "Our current training program mostly revolves around producing grassroots coaches and physical education teachers. Apart from that, we're expanding our education fields, including basketball technology education, basketball support system education, etc."

Gong says China should not just assess players by their physical attributes but work hard at identifying youngsters that have a real hunger to succeed in the sport.

"Most Chinese basketball players are selected from grassroots based on certain height standards and physical qualities," he said. "We focus on cultivating these people to play basketball, instead of relying on people that are personally mad about playing basketball at schools or in society.

"If a basketball player stops growing at some point he needs to make greater efforts to move forward. He (may) stop ... this has created an obstacle for us to develop to a higher level. How to clear this hurdle? We need to motivate the player’s own motivation."

"I do think it should be said that now we have the best basketball talents (China could possibly have). The lineup in the 2008 Olympic Games was a world-class team, the best team we have ever had.

"Now through the development over these years, a large number of young players have the opportunities to grow."

The CBA is a big part of the development.

"The introduction of foreign players in the CBA league, including the introduction of NBA into China and some exchanges with Europe teams, has enabled our young players to grow rapidly," Gong said. "So now I think under certain conditions of this certain period, the red and the blue team strategy may allow more young people to participate in such competition. In fact, this is a positive attitude."

FIBA