The national flag fluttered for the first ti at the Olympic basketball award ceremony, although not in the center, without the national anthem, there was a bit of regret, but just a bit. This Olympic journey was truly a dream for Zhang Yang.
The athletes of the Chinese n’s Basketball Team were all smiling, losing the ga was certainly not pleasant, but the overall strength gap was too large. Although Zhang Yang scored 33 points, his dominance on the outside couldn’t compare with the opening match, being almost "pulverized" by Wade, Anthony, and Kobe, he only lasted half the ga. Such a defeat, it suffices to feel sad for a few seconds when the final whistle sounded.
Throughout the Olympics, he and his teammates were showered with flowers and applause. Even with tonight’s collapse in the second half leading to a definitive loss, fans continued cheering for them.
Excited tears were shed the night before yesterday when they defeated Greece to enter the finals, now everyone is enjoying the joy of winning the silver dal.
Today marks not only the last day of basketball events but also the final day of the entire Beijing Olympics.
The next day, Zhang Yang attended the closing ceremony with the Olympic delegation.
With the Olympics held at ho, the Chinese Olympic delegation topped the gold dal tally for the first ti, and everyone was proud.
Previously, the athletes of the Chinese n’s Basketball Team were just "cheerleaders," but this ti it’s different. Although they didn’t win a gold dal, they added a dal to the Chinese Olympic delegation, raising the total dal count to 101.
This Olympics was not only a significant Chapter in the history of Chinese sports but also an important turning point for China itself. Being part of it all, Zhang Yang felt very honored.
After the Olympics ended, the national team duties for the basketball players were not yet over. In the last days of August, Zhang Yang was running around with the team, receiving awards, attending events, going to arranged schools for promotional activities...
Zhang Yang personally also had endorsent activities to do. He was busy for about ten days, only clearing his side tasks by September 5th.
However, even though the Olympics had ended ten or so days, his popularity remained high!
The Chinese n’s Basketball Team stole the lilight at this Olympics, defeating the Dream Eight team in the opening match. The attention and topic heat consistently suppressed that of the Dream Eight team, sparking continuous interest among sports fans from the start to the end of the Olympics, always being the most popular team without exception.
Ultimately, the Dream Eight team won the championship, but its influence was nowhere as significant as it could have been.
Because they lost a ga, opponents found out that even with Kobe joining, the Dream Team was still not an invincible team like Magic-Bird’s Dream One or the Four Centers’ Dream Three, and they could be defeated.
For Zhang Yang personally, borrowing from the Chinese n’s Basketball Team’s magical performance in this Olympics, he significantly boosted his fa and influence worldwide.
Of course, it had to do with his personal performance—he beca the strongest scoring king since FIBA allowed professional players in the Olympics!
In 8 gas, he scored a total of 210 points, averaging 26.25 points, a record high since professional players were allowed to participate in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
The last ti soone scored higher was in the 88 Seoul Olympics, when Brazilian legend Oscar Schmidt averaged... 42.3 points.
His single-ga score of 43 points was also the highest since 1992, the last higher score... was still Oscar Schmidt, who scored 55 points against Spain in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, setting an Olympic n’s basketball historical record.
Before 1992, professional players were not allowed to participate in Olympic basketball events.
However, the criteria for defining ’professional players’ was different from now, purely aid at restricting players from higher level leagues like the NBA, La Liga, and Bundesliga.
Like Oscar Schmidt, who played 29 years in various South Arican leagues, amassing over forty-nine thousand points, before 1992, he was not considered a professional player in FIBA’s player classification.
Once restrictions were lifted, the German basketball team, and teams from Spain with many players in La Liga, Argentina’s basketball team, Greece’s basketball team with a plethora of players in European leagues jumped to beco top teams rivalling Yugoslavia in the 90s.
Entering the 21st century, the dominance of the U.S. team declined, and after Yugoslavia’s breakup, Argentina’s basketball team, Greece’s basketball team, and Spain’s basketball team beca the strongest teams in the world basketball scene over the past few years.
The most direct manifestation of Zhang Yang’s growing fa and influence — sold-out sneakers!
After the basketball event’s opening match, his sneakers’ sales soared on top of the already high volu, specialty stores in major dostic cities were sold out as soon as they hit the shelves, with fans lining up to buy, and they also sold out in multiple U.S. cities.
Even in Europe, countries with decent basketball warmth like Spain, Greece, Germany, France also faced a situation of supply not eting demand.
Tellem and AJ’s high executives laughed with joy looking at the sales report and the stock prices in red, having forrly felt sowhat indignant about the historically highest unit-price endorsent contract for Zhang Yang. Around the ti before and after signing the contract, they cursed Tellem countless tis for opportunism, taking advantage of the upcoming Olympics to take a big bite, but they no longer regret it. The AJ president even joked during an interview, saying he wanted to kiss Zhang Yang’s butt, to which Zhang Yang responded by saying his backyard was big enough, he would get a donkey to keep.
But there’s one thing making Tellem and AJ executives feel frustrated — the pair of light-show sneakers Zhang Yang wore in the finals exploded overnight!
That pair was the ’special edition’ reluctantly added during a face-to-face talk between AJ’s representative and Zhang Yang about Olympic promotional activities arrangent in early June.
Reviews
All reviews (0)