Champion, please stay!

Chapter 276, Section 274: The World's Strongest Frontcourt!
As the saying goes, among dogs, the Husky is the best, and among countries, the Turkish is the best.

Yi Shui had heard many rumors about this country and was quite curious about it, but unfortunately, he wasn't here to play around; he was here to represent the national team in a competition.

The accommodations this time were excellent; we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel, a seaside resort in Istanbul.

The time difference between BJ and Istanbul is only 5 hours. After arriving at the hotel, Yi Shui and Yao Ming fought off their sleepiness and played a few dungeons with Caiji in Yi Jianlian's room. Around 9 p.m., they went back to their respective rooms and fell fast asleep, quickly adjusting to the time difference.

The next day, the political commissar led the men's basketball coaching staff, players, trainers, medical team, staff from the Basketball Association and the Basketball Management Center, as well as the personal teams of Yi Shui and Yao Ming, totaling over a hundred people, to the training ground arranged by Tu Fang. After a rally, they began the final pre-match training.

The core lineup of this national team remains unchanged from two years ago.

Key players on the perimeter: Yi Shui, Sun Yue, Liu Wei.

Core inside players: Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, and Wang Zhizhi.

However, other changes were significant. Zhang Qingpeng and Du Feng were unable to compete with the two young players, Zhou Peng and Ding Jinhui, who were only 20 years old.

Wang Lei missed all games in the 2009-10 season due to a torn ligament in his right knee, and failed to make the training team. The coaching staff chose to bring in new players, and Zhang Zhaoxu, who is 2.21 meters tall, was selected.

Li Nan has retired, and the coaching staff has chosen Jin Lipeng, a veteran from Northeast China with 15 years of CBA experience.

The remaining six players who passed the selection process are: outside players: Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng, Jin Lipeng, and Zhou Peng; inside players: Ding Jinhui and Zhang Zhaoxu.

The final week of preparations went very smoothly. The core six-man team and the two pitchers were all present, and they were very familiar with each other's tactics.

Jin Lipeng, who recently joined the team, plays the role of a backup point guard and may not even get to play.

Zhou Peng played the role of the villain. During the "China-Europe All-Star Warm-up Game" on the 24th, Yi Jianlian was violently fouled by the opponent. Zhou Peng rushed up and started a fight, almost causing a brawl. Fortunately, the game was organized by the Chinese Basketball Association. Although thousands of fans came because of Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming, it did not cause any serious impact.

Ding Jinhui's role is similar to Du Feng's two years ago: serving as Yi Jianlian's backup, handling rebounding, catching and shooting, and defense.

Zhang Zhaoxu and Jin Lipeng are similar, both are pure substitutes.

During the preparation period, Yi Shui also met and had coffee with Curry, Chandler, and David Lee, all of whom were selected for the Dream Team IX.

Except for Iguodala, none of the other members of the Dream Team came, but Yi Shui was familiar with them all.

Aside from veterans Billups, Odom, Chandler, and Iguodala, the other eight players are considered to be from the same era as Yi Shui: Curry, Rose, Westbrook, Evans, Durant, Granger, David Lee, and Love.

Yi Shui and his three teammates or former teammates didn't talk much about the game; they mostly talked about the hot summer.

David Lee went to the Timberwolves and was in a great mood. In addition to getting a max contract and a higher status in the league, his status on the team was also higher.

During the USA Basketball training camp, David Lee and Evans had in-depth discussions about their playing style for the new season. Evans promised that he would be the primary shot taker and was willing to be the core of the offense, which was unexpected for him, but he was certainly happy.

Curry and Chandler are very satisfied with the team's summer moves, which were entirely built around them and Yi Shui, forming the core trio.

These two guys felt that with Yi Shui added to their team, they wouldn't be any worse than the Heat's Big Three, the Warriors' four stars, or the Bulls' two superstars.

Soon, on August 27th, Yi Shui and his team arrived in Ankara, the capital of Türkiye.

At 9:30 p.m., the opening ceremony of the FIBA ​​Basketball World Championship in Türkiye began on time at the Ankara Super Arena.

According to Turkish reports, the opening ceremony cost more than 2000 million euros and was quite well organized... Anyway, after watching the opening ceremonies of the Japanese and French Olympics, Yi Shui thought that as long as the opening ceremony didn't cause any trouble, it was pretty good.

When all 24 national teams entered the stadium, Yi Shui became the most dazzling star of the entire event.

More than 10,000 spectators from all over the world chanted "Great Emperor" in unison, and the camera on the big screen kept focusing on the Yi River.

Zhu Fangyu, standing to the side, expressed envy, while Yi Shui, whose smiling face was almost frozen, squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth: "I'd rather give you this good fortune. Damn, why is this camera pointed at me and I won't leave?"

Upon hearing this, his teammates clenched their fists.

Indeed, some people are better off being observed from afar; too much contact completely demystifies them.

This emperor, while not as wicked as the American media portrays him, is more deserving of a beating than one might imagine!

...

The 28th marks the first day of the World Championships.

Of the 24 teams, 18 left Ankara to play in the group stage in Istanbul, Kayseri, and Izmir.

The Chinese team, which is in Group C with the host Turkey, will remain in the Turkish capital to play the group stage.

The other four teams in Group C are Russia, Ivory Coast, and Puerto Rico.

China's first opponent is Greece. The match between "Emperor Yi Shui" and "European Kobe Spanoulis", and between Yao Ming and "Little Shark Skrsenitis", are very eye-catching. All 10400 tickets were sold out early.

Türkiye has few venues for the World Championships. Apart from Kayseri, which has two stadiums, the other three cities each have only one stadium large enough to host international events.

The schedule is also quite unique. In Ankara, for example, there is one match every afternoon, evening, and night, with two consecutive days of play followed by one day of rest... very Turkish, they come up with their own ideas, and as participating teams, they can only accept this bizarre schedule.

At 3:30 p.m., Yi Shui finished warming up and entered the stadium with his teammates. The stadium was already full of fans, including many from China. They chose seats in the same area and cheered for them in unison.

Yi Shui noticed that other teams from Group C had also arrived.

Timofey Mozgov, Russia's only near-NBA player, did not participate in this World Championship.

This 216cm, 125kg center turned 23 last year and reached the automatic draft age, so some teams wanted to draft him, but he was ultimately left out because he still had a contract with the Russian league.

This summer, the Knicks' first plan includes Mozgov, and the plan is to sign Bosh and then provide him with a backup center of sufficient size.

Since they couldn't get Bosh, there was no need to sign Mozgov. In the end, they offered more money to get Amir Johnson, and the Jazz signed him to a 3-year, $900 million contract.

Aside from the team's initial interest in acquiring Mozgov this summer and Yi Shui's prior knowledge of him, Yi Shui's deepest impression of the player was that he secured a massive four-year, $60 million contract with the Lakers.

Turkey's star player, Hedo Turkoglu, has also arrived.

This summer, the Suns failed to retain Stoudemire and tried to acquire Bosh and David Lee, but to no avail. In the end, they used Barbosa as trade bait and used their salary cap space to acquire Turkoglu from the Raptors.

Several key players from the Puerto Rican team, including Barea, Arroyo, and Sanchez, have arrived.

Facing the camera, Yi Shui, Yao Ming, and others greeted several players from other teams on the sidelines. However, even in front of the camera, the Chinese and Greek teams did not exchange many pleasantries. Only Yao Ming and Spanoulis, who had been teammates for a short period, greeted each other.

The Chinese and Greek teams are like bitter enemies. Two years ago at the Olympics, the two teams faced off twice, and the games were like fights, with violent fouls and conflicts never stopping. Especially in the semi-final, the two teams' combined score did not even break 100. The Greek team, which lost, was full of hatred for the Chinese team, and the Chinese team, which won, also hated the other team to the core.

After the pre-match preparation time ended, the starting lineups of both teams came onto the field.

Greece's starting lineup remains unchanged from two years ago: point guard Spanoulis, shooting guard Nikos Zisis, small forward George Printkis, power forward Ivan Vekiokas, and center Yanis Brosis.

The 150+ kg "Little Shark" Skorsenitis was placed on the bench. At only 206 cm tall, his stamina was particularly poor due to his large weight. Last season, he only played 12 minutes per game for Olympiacos in Greece, but he was extremely efficient, averaging 9.2 points and 3.3 rebounds with a 64% field goal percentage.

The Chinese team fielded a starting lineup of Sun Yue, Wang Shipeng, Yi Shui, Yi Jianlian, and Yao Ming.

At 4 p.m., the match started. Yishui defeated Blossoms and won the jump ball. The fans in the stadium cheered loudly, and the Chinese team attacked first!

As Yi Shui ran towards the frontcourt, he glanced at the stands where everyone was cheering for them. Although he knew that the Greek, Italian, and Lithuanian teams were disliked in European basketball, he did not expect them to be so unpopular. It seemed as if there were no fans supporting the Greek team at the scene.

Sun Yue advanced past half-court and passed to Yi Shui, causing the cheers from the fans to rise again, who shouted "Yi", "Emperor", and "Big".

Yi Shui was closely marked by Pritkis, who is 206 cm tall and weighs 105 kg. Seeing the opposing zone defense, he did not attack but passed the ball to Yao Ming on the right side.

Yao Ming took a step past Brosis, and both Viktorias under the basket and Spanoulis on the right sideline double-teamed him. Yao Ming raised the ball high, turned to face the basket, and flicked his wrist...

Yi Shui cut in from the middle to receive the ball, and over the onrushing Zisis, turned and pressed forward to slam the ball into the basket!

The referee blew his whistle, and Zisis, who had been knocked down and slid out of bounds, was penalized for a blocking foul.

Hearing the wild cheers of the fans, the Greek players were a little stunned as they looked at Yi Shui, who was high-fiving Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. Especially the twin towers, one minute Yi Shui was still on the right side of the top arc, the next minute Yi Shui had already rushed to the front of the basket to receive the ball.

The big screen played a replay of the play. When Yao Ming received the ball and lowered his center of gravity to post up, Yi Shui directly knocked aside Pritkis and rushed into the paint. Including the first step, he rushed to the receiving position in three steps, took a step over two people, and dunked directly.

The other players appearing in the replay looked like they were in slow motion compared to Yi Shui… The cheers from the fans in the stadium rose even higher!
Yi Shui made the free throw, making it 3-0. It was Greece's turn to attack. Spanoulis dribbled past Sun Yue, broke down the right flank, and reached the middle of the right sideline of the three-second zone. He grabbed the ball, jumped to the left, and threw it... "Smack!"... A hand reached out from over Spanoulis's head and swatted the ball Spanoulis threw into Yao Ming's arms.

Yi Shui rushed two steps from the left high position to Spanoulis's back, blocking the European Kobe's bomb shot!
The so-called "bomb shot" refers to Spanoulis using his top-notch step-back in Europe to get past defenders and help defenders, and then using a precise long-range floater to attack the basket from outside the range that the center can cover.

Viktorias rushed in to steal the ball, but Yao Ming lifted the ball, turned around, and stuck out his buttocks to protect it, allowing the Greek team to retreat on defense.

Spanoulis retreated to his own half, watching Yi Shui run towards him...

When he broke through, he actually wanted to draw Yao Ming to come up and help defend before lobbing the ball to the inside, but the opponent didn't spread out and stayed under the basket. He thought Yao Ming hadn't reacted yet, so he chose to take a step-back floater... It turns out the opponent wasn't afraid of his floater at all!
He knew that Yi Shui was doing very well in the NBA and had become the youngest player in history to win two NBA MVP awards, a huge improvement from two years ago, but he still judged Yi Shui's current strength based on the Yi Shui of that time.

After this round, Spanoulis finally realized how stupid his judgment was. This was not a 'huge progress', but an ultimate evolution!
When it was China's turn to attack, Yi Shui received the ball on the outside again. This time, instead of passing, he changed direction in front of his body and pulled the ball back sharply.

Principes defended very well. Yi Shui flicked the ball with his left hand and broke to the right, but Principes stopped his movement to the right in advance and retreated to the left and back.

But Yi Shui stopped his rightward drive, stepped back, returned to the front of the basket, a step away from the top arc, pulled up, and launched a three-pointer over the struggling Pritkis... and it went in!
6-0 at the start!

The fans cheered wildly, and the Chinese team players waved towels and shouted in front of the bench.

Hector, Arroyo, Baria, and others in the audience jumped up from their chairs.

Seeing the Greek team get thrashed by Yishui, the stars of other teams were overjoyed.

Every time they encounter the Greek team in a major international tournament, regardless of winning or losing, they get thoroughly humiliated, and the worst part is that they often lose.

The Greek team rarely wins championships, but whether it's the European Championship, the Olympics, or the World Championship, they always manage to grind until the very end.

However, even though they knew that a player like Yi Shui would be terrifying on the international stage, the first two rounds were still a bit too exaggerated. After their initial excitement, they began to worry about what to do when they faced Yi Shui again... They'd deal with that later; first, they'd see how the Emperor would crush Greece.

However, after two rounds of fierce attacks at the start, Yi Shui did not continue to attack with the ball.

Instead, they switch to drawing defenders, taking shots off others, defending, and counter-attacking.

Because the Greek team started double-teaming Yi Shui! He had just received the ball on the outside when two opponents immediately double-teamed him!

Instead of forcing his way in, he used his height and wingspan advantage to pass the ball back to Sun Yue for support, or to Yao Ming who was positioned in the mid-to-long range.

Two players will pass the ball to each other to find the main offensive point for tonight's set-up battle – Yi Jianlian!

In preparation for the match against Greece, the Chinese team's players and coaching staff identified Yi Jianlian as their primary offensive weapon.

Yi Shui and Yao Ming created scoring opportunities for Yi Jianlian, who is highly mobile and has a good shooting ability.

They just didn't expect the strategy to progress so quickly. Yao Ming didn't need to score; he could attract a double team simply by receiving the ball at close range. Yi Shui received the ball outside the three-point line, and the double team immediately attacked.

Even when Yi Shui was off the ball, the opposing small forwards were sticking to him tightly, and the opposing wing and basket players were also focused on him defensively.

Domestic players and fans pay much more attention to the NBA than European players and fans. In addition, they have trained together for 4 weeks and are already used to Yi Shui's style of play.

The Greek players are different. Like Spanoulis, he knows Yi Shui is strong, but he doesn't know exactly how strong. He can only use Yi Shui in 08 as a reference. Back then, Yi Shui was just a 203cm small forward who was fast, could shoot, and could help on defense...

But what they really encountered was a monster who was about the same height as a center, faster than their guards, more aggressive than any of their forwards, and had a longer shooting range than any of their shooters!

They had never encountered a player like this before, and their preparations for single-player defense, zone defense, and double-teaming were completely useless; they had no idea how to defend against them.

Their instinctive response was to double-team, preventing Yi Shui from going one-on-one, blocking the paint to prevent him from cutting in, and sticking to him to prevent him from making regular runs to receive the ball and shoot.

As the first opponent of this year's men's basketball team, the Greek team suffered a great loss.

On the Chinese side, although they did not expect the opponent's zone defense to collapse so quickly, they seized the opportunity and executed their prepared passing and cutting combinations and long-range shooting support, and their offense went crazy!
On the defensive end, the Chinese team also exceeded the Greek team's expectations!
Two years ago, the Chinese team's defense mainly relied on physical battles and hustle, combined with Yao Ming's rim protection. Now, the Chinese team has a well-developed defensive system.

Sun Yue closely guarded Spanoulis on the perimeter for long-range shots, Yao Ming crouched under the basket to cover the cutting players, and Yi Jianlian swept up the ball in mid-range shots. Yi Jianlian and Wang Shipeng on the wings weren't great defensively, but they weren't a liability either...

After the first quarter, the Chinese team had a double-digit lead of 23-11!
In the second quarter, Little Shark Skrsenitis came on and caused some trouble for the Chinese team. His energy was so great that even Yao Ming couldn't withstand his strong inside attacks. He played for 7 minutes and scored 8 points, but facing the rotation of Yao Ming, Zhang Zhaoxu, and Wang Zhizhi, Little Shark was already exhausted by the end of the second quarter.

Moreover, although Skorsenitis is strong offensively, his defensive awareness is so poor that he doesn't seem like a professional player. He can even let Yi Shui, Yi Jianlian, and Ding Jinhui cut into the basket when he's standing under the basket.

Although Greece scored 21 points in the second quarter, China scored 26 points, more than in the first quarter.

At halftime, China led Greece 49-32, a 17-point advantage!
During halftime, the Greek team made adjustments. By the third quarter, their defense was more organized, no longer as erratic as in the first half, and they began to implement a 1-1-2-1 central zone defense.

This defense is very effective against long-range shots from the top of the key, cuts to the wing, and close-range isolation plays.

As for the wing shooters, the Greek team did something quite effective on defense in the first half. They did a good job of wearing down the Chinese team's wing shooters through physical battles, and even Yao Ming's shooting distance got closer and closer to the basket.

However, this defense happened to run into Yi Shui's comfort zone for ball-handling offense... He fired off consecutive pull-up jump shots from the high post!
他开局拿了6分后，首节后面的时间只拿了5分，1次反击扣篮、1次接锅长两分、1次冲抢到进攻篮板球后造成犯规两罚中一；第二节主要打牵制，只拿到4分，外加2板3助攻。

In this quarter, his teammates only scored 9 points on 3-of-8 shooting and 3-of-5 free throws, but Yi Shui went on a scoring spree, taking 8 shots and making 4 of 7, including 1-of-2 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line, for a total of 11 points in the quarter. This was the second time in the game that he scored in double figures in a single quarter, leading his team to 20 points! They dominated the Greek team, who had scored 17 points!
After three quarters, the Chinese team led 69-49, a difference of 20 points!
In the final quarter, Yi Shui and Yao Ming were put on the sidelines to rest. With the point difference large enough, Jonas chose to let Sun Yue, Wang Shipeng, Zhu Fangyu, Yi Jianlian, and Wang Zhizhi fill in, giving the two players some rest time.

But once the two sat down, they didn't play again in the final quarter.

In the final quarter, the Chinese team only scored 12 points, while the Greek team only scored 15 points.

Despite losing by 17 points in the first half, the Greek players still had confidence. In the third quarter, they only lost by 3 points, but their mentality collapsed – they tried their best on defense but couldn't stop the opposing Emperor!

At 5:45 p.m., the final whistle blew.

易建联出战31分钟，17投9中，加上5中4的罚球，拿到22分9板。

姚明出战19分钟，拿到8分4板3助攻1盖帽。

易水出战30分钟，18投9中，其中三分球5中2，加上7中6的罚球，拿到26分7板5助攻1抢断4盖帽。

The three led their team to a resounding 81-64 victory over Greece, securing a winning start to the World Championships!

...

On the first day of the World Championships, the long-awaited fans showed great enthusiasm for watching the games and were very active in post-game discussions.

The 12 matches generated countless topics of discussion.

As the host nation, Turkey arranged for themselves to face Ivory Coast, the team ranked last among the 24 teams, and their match started an hour earlier than other games played at the same time. They then scored more than 40 points, which led to a lot of ridicule from fans around the world.

In the game against Croatia that started at 1 p.m., Durant made 7 of 10 three-pointers and scored 28 points in 22 minutes of playing time, leading the US team to become the only team to score over 100 points on the first day of competition. He was compared to Carmelo Anthony on the international stage.

France pulled off a stunning 72-66 upset victory over Spain. In the final seconds, with no hope of a comeback, Spanish striker Alex Monbrough committed a malicious foul, punching Batum in the groin, which sparked a conflict.

The scene was exactly the same as in the European Championship a year ago, except that the French team was crushed in the first three quarters, caught up in the final quarter, but Calderon hit two three-pointers in the last moment to help the Spanish team hold on for the victory. The French forward Batum, who had lost hope of a comeback, vented his emotions maliciously.

Fans believe this is Spain retaliating for what happened last year.

Last year's EuroBasket runner-up Serbia suffered a shock defeat, losing 81-82 to a German team without Dirk Nowitzki, who were caught off guard by a last-second putback from 18-year-old center Deborah Price.

It's worth noting that after Germany only managed to finish tenth in last year's European Championship, they almost completely revamped their squad. The new lineup consisted entirely of young players born after 85, and even included several teenagers born after 90!

Germany's performance reminded older European fans of the talented German team from the 90s.

Unfortunately, when the rest of the German team reached their peak, Nowitzki was still a child.

Nowitzki is currently in his prime, but his national team teammates have become a bunch of kids.

However, all the topics combined cannot compare to the popularity of one name—the Chinese Emperor Yishui!
The match between China and Greece was widely expected to be a repeat of the fierce battle between the two teams two years ago.

Even the NBA players who went to watch Yi Shui crush the Greek team only thought that Yi Shui could beat the Greek team, and that the game itself would still be very close. After all, since 04, the Greek team has been the opponent that basketball teams from all over the world least want to face.

Unexpectedly, Yi Shui completely dismantled the Greek team's defense! They scored a 20-point lead in just three quarters!
The combination of Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming, and Yi Shui was compared with the combination of Durant, David Lee, Odom, Chandler, and Love of the Dream Team IX after the game. Most people believed that the Chinese team's frontcourt trio was stronger!

AFP ranked the players' performances in the first game of this World Championship on its website: Yi Jianlian first, Durant second, Milicic third, Yi Jianlian fourth, and Batum fifth.

Two Chinese players made it into the top five, but Yao Ming, who didn't play much in the first game, wasn't on the list yet!
(End of this chapter)