Marked by success in the women's game and the struggles of its men's program, Chinese basketball has capped an eventful year, albeit with mixed feelings, while the sport's governing body says that it is determined to keep growing the game on all fronts.

Twenty-eight years after its historic second-place finish at the world championships, China's women's national team once again did the country proud when it repeated the feat by winning silver at the FIBA Women's World Cup in October, giving Chinese fans something to cheer about following the turbulent summer endured by the men's squad.

Despite losing to 11-time winner, the United States, in the final, the Chinese women's team earned respect at home and abroad for its tenacity, resilience and unselfish team play in Sydney, wowing fans on China's National Day holiday.

Team China's star forward Li Meng was voted women's Player of the Year in Asia by fans for her performances, in which she averaged 16 points a game during the tournament, FIBA announced last month.

The General Administration of Sport of China, the country's top sporting governing body, hailed the team as an inspiration for the whole country, which shone at the right time.

"Your excellent performance and record-tying results were testament to the aspirational and confident image of Chinese youth, and contributed to the building of a sporting power, while sending a perfect birthday gift to the country," read a congratulatory statement from the GASC.

The silver medal run in Sydney proved a critical learning curve for the young team that will only grow stronger, said head coach Zheng Wei.

"We showed our game, our style and our fighting spirit to the world at this tournament. We overcame some mental challenges to take down some international powerhouses and gained a lot of valuable experience," said Zheng, who was a player on the last silver-winning team at the 1994 world championship, also held in Australia.

With highlights, such as guard Wang Siyu's game-winning free throws in the semifinal against Australia and Li's step-back 3s going viral online, Team China's World Cup journey garnered massive attention on social media.

NBA legend Pau Gasol, a FIBA ambassador for the women's World Cup, turned into a new fan of the Chinese team.

"It's been fun to watch Team China," said Gasol, a two-time NBA championship winner with the Los Angeles Lakers and a three-time Olympic medalist representing Spain.

"They've been playing really good basketball throughout the tournament. You can tell there is chemistry, there is belief and there is a good amount of talent."

The women's return to top of the game helped ease some of the disappointment after the Chinese men's squad lost in the quarterfinals of the Asia Cup in Jakarta in July, bowing out of the continental tournament much earlier than expected.

The men's team's 69-72 quarterfinal loss to Lebanon, an opponent it had previously beaten 11 times, was considered a devastating blow to a national program that had won the Asian title 16 times. The team's poor performances, however, need to be put into perspective, with several key players struggling against fever and fatigue after getting infected by COVID-19 on their way to Indonesia.

Still, the performance slump sparked a backlash back home with fans criticizing the team's lackluster campaign under former coach Du Feng, who guided the team to qualify for the men's World Cup this fall, but was still replaced by Serbian tactician Aleksandar Djordjevic in November.

Reflecting on Team China's international performances throughout the year, Chinese Basketball Association president Yao Ming attributed the men's struggle to the lack of systematic support.

"It's unfair for the coach to take all the blame," said Yao, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was just re-elected the head of CBA last month for a second five-year term after taking on the role in 2017.

"We need to build a support system that the coaches could lean on, with input from experts in fitness training, health management, scouting and data analysis.

"We need to reduce the workload for the head coach and allow him to only have to focus on training and the competition on the court," said Yao, who led the men's team to the quarterfinals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics to equal the program's best result at the Games.

Entering his second tenure, Yao reckons that the most immediate goals for the national program are to make sure that the men's team qualifies for next year's Paris Olympics by finishing the World Cup as the highest-ranked Asian country, while maintaining the momentum of the women's squad to at least finish in the top-4 in Paris.

To further enhance Team China's international competitiveness, Yao said that the CBA remains open to naturalizing eligible foreign-born talent to bolster the men's team roster if feasible and necessary.

"We need to take the rules of FIBA, as well as all the relevant laws and policies of our country, into consideration. Technically, the player should be able to help the team on the court, while, culture-wise fitting in off the court," Yao said of the standards of selecting naturalized players.

"So far, we don't have a target, but we welcome any recommendations."

With young guns muscling their way into the spotlight, the start of the 2022-23 CBA season has witnessed a power shift as the domestic game's future once again looks bright.

During the regular season's first phase which was played in bio-secure bubbles in Hangzhou in October, four teams that fell out of the top-12 playoff cut last year had all cracked the top eight — bolstered by surging young talent — and overthrown some of the league's perennial powerhouses.

Among the surprises, last year's bottom team the Nanjing Monkey Kings and crosstown underachiever the Jiangsu Dragons, who finished third to last, have both impressed with their newfound swagger giving them the momentum to rank fifth and sixth, respectively, after the first phase.

Nanjing's rookie guard Wang Lanqin, a talent developed in China's collegiate system and who was selected as the top pick by the club in last year's CBA Draft, has emerged as one of the league's standout performers during the opening stretch of the season.

A once towering presence for Tsinghua University, Wang's composure and efficiency for the Monkey Kings have silenced doubts over whether his college-honed game would be able to cope with the physicality and intensity of the professional stage.

So far, the 24-year-old has averaged 12.2 points, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 16 games, with fans beginning to believe that the early-season momentum won't be a flash in the pan.

"I think one of the biggest takeaways for this season's CBA league so far is the development of young talent," said Yao, who has been cooperating with the country's educational authority to encourage more college players to ply their trade in the pro system.

"The smooth transition of some of the college players into the professional league will help expand the league's talent search in the future."

In a move to promote basketball culture, the CBA established its own Basketball Hall of Fame system last year. After nomination, election and final review, nine inductees across three categories entered the China Basketball Hall of Fame, with 15 tenured inductees and a collective comprising the "outstanding new China basketball 50".

"We need to know where we came from, who we are and where we are going in the future," said Yao, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

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