Looking back at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, hosted right here in China, the performance of the home team remains a topic of intense discussion and, frankly, some lingering disappointment for fans like myself. As someone who has followed Chinese basketball for decades, from the era of Yao Ming to the present, this tournament was seen as a pivotal moment—a chance to prove our growth on the world stage with the advantage of a home crowd. The final outcome, however, told a more complex story. The team finished with a 2-3 record, placing 24th overall, which was a clear setback for a nation with aspirations of being a consistent force in international basketball. The journey was a rollercoaster, encapsulating moments of sheer promise followed by frustrating inconsistencies, a narrative perfectly summed up by then-coach Li Nan’s post-game reflections, though the sentiment echoes the famous line from coach Tim Cone after a tough loss: “Hopefully, we can tighten things up and we will be better in the next game.” That desire for tightening up, for finding consistency, was the central theme of China’s campaign.

The tournament started with a glimmer of hope. An opening victory against Côte d’Ivoire, 70-55, was solid if not spectacular. The real heartbreaker, and the game that arguably defined our fate, was the second group stage match against Poland. We were so close. I remember watching, utterly convinced we had it in the bag in the final minutes, only to see it slip away in a series of catastrophic errors—those infamous inbound passes—leading to an overtime loss, 76-79. The psychological blow was immense. You could see the confidence drain. The subsequent win over Korea, 77-73, felt more like relief than triumph, and it merely secured a spot in the classification rounds, not the main knockout stage we had all hoped for. The final two games laid bare our limitations. A crushing 59-72 loss to a physical Venezuela team exposed our struggles against aggressive defense and rebounding, and the finale, a 73-86 defeat to Nigeria, directly cost us an automatic qualification spot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That loss to Nigeria stung the most, watching Yi Jianlian pour his heart out with a heroic 27-point performance in what felt like a last stand, only to fall short.

Digging into the numbers and the style of play reveals the root causes. Offensively, the team was overly reliant on its core trio. Yi Jianlian was a warrior, averaging a team-high 17.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, but at 32, the burden was visibly heavy. Guo Ailun showed flashes of brilliance but was inconsistent, and Zhou Qi’s tournament, sadly, became more remembered for his pivotal mistakes against Poland than his defensive presence. The system lacked fluidity; ball movement often stagnated, and three-point shooting was a glaring weakness—we shot just about 26% as a team from beyond the arc. Defensively, while there were stretches of good effort, rebounding was a chronic issue. We were consistently outmuscled on the glass, giving up crucial second-chance points. The game against Venezuela was a masterclass in this problem, where we were outrebounded by a significant margin. From my perspective, the roster construction and tactical approach felt somewhat outdated. There was a lack of versatile, two-way players who could create their own shot and defend multiple positions, a staple in modern international basketball.

So, what did the 2019 FIBA World Cup mean for China’s basketball future? In the immediate sense, it was a failure. Missing direct Olympic qualification was a huge blow, and the 24th-place finish was unacceptable for a host nation. The public and media criticism was fierce, leading to coaching changes and a period of introspection. However, as a long-time observer, I believe it served as a necessary, if painful, reality check. It highlighted the vast gap between the CBA and the top international level in terms of pace, physicality, and decision-making under pressure. The “next game” that Coach Cone’s sentiment alludes to became the entire next cycle. It forced a reckoning. We’ve since seen a greater emphasis on integrating naturalized players like Kyle Anderson to bolster talent, and there’s a louder conversation about developing younger players with more international exposure. The 2019 World Cup didn’t show us at our best, but it showed us exactly what we needed to work on. The hope is that this painful lesson was the catalyst for the “tightening up” required to truly compete next time. The journey continues, and the expectations, now tempered with realism, remain high.