He is a national pitcher and one of China’s men’s basketball feuds. Wang Shipeng, remember?

One of South Korea’s most representative pitchers, sealed as a North Korean pitcher

He once pressed Mohammed bachrami and Wang Shipeng in the Asian Stadium.

His family tragedy was too tragic, and his facial paralysis was once caused by psychological problems.

— Now, Anyang KGC, who is the assistant coach, leads KBL. This runner-up team last season will directly PK Bay Area pterosaurus in the Champion week of the East Asian Super League next year, launch an impact on the top of Asia.

KBL started playing on October 15. As of November 9, Anyang became the front runner with two wins in Yuanzhou, which ranked second with 8 wins and 1 loss. Such a result made the competition atmosphere relaxed, the camera swept the uniform group by chance, and the familiar faces caught everyone’s eyes–

Zhao Chengyi!

Today, I don’t know how many people still remember him?

Today, he is an assistant coach of health care; In the past, he was a No. 10 member of South Korea’s men’s basketball and a small forward who had a good shot, mohamed bachrami of Iran and Wang Shipeng of China were also pressed…… By the way, his nickname is–

North Korean pitcher

The greatest players in South Korea’s men’s basketball history were Li Zhongxi and Wen Jingyin, who were all the best in Asia-he was placed in such a position, it is also a treatment that has risen to the national level.

Zhao Chengzhen was born on December 23, 1983 and was selected into the men’s basketball of South Korea in 2007. He participated in the 2007 Bangkok World University student transport conference that year. Since then, his experience, in the words of South Korean media, is–

Put on Taegeukgi for a long time

But Zhao Chengzhen really made Korean fans and Chinese fans feel his strength, which was the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

In men’s basketball, South Korea played against China twice. At that time, 27-year-old Zhao Chengzhen contributed 27 points. In South Korea men’s basketball, he was the No. 3 scorer second only to Jin Zhoucheng and Liang Donggen.

Especially with China’s title decider, his 3-point goal 3, with a hit rate of 100%, helped South Korea men’s basketball bite the score in difficult times-although it failed to let South Korea win the gold medal, but it made the fans and opponents remember this cold-faced shooting expert.

However, his cold face and stiff expression were not born, but because of the life changes he encountered in 2007……

That year, Zhao Chengzhen’s parents suffered a car accident and were seriously injured.

At the end of his death, his father told everyone not to tell the bad news to his younger son who was training overseas. When the training was over, Zhao Chengzhen, who returned from overseas, went home happily to visit his old two with a gift of filial piety to his parents, I never thought that what I got was the bad news of the death of both parents.

Strong emotional stimulation caused Zhao Chengyan to suffer from facial paralysis. Although it has been basic cured after treatment, it still leaves irreversible sequelae.

After the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, he was recruited by South Korea’s men’s basketball coach Liu again in 2011. The task was to compete in the men’s basketball Asian Championship (the predecessor of the Asian Cup).

As a result, Zhao Chengyan of the 2011 Wuhan men’s basketball Asian Championship was amazing again. The average time of the game was only 14.9 minutes, but he could get 11.1 points, which was surprising with high efficiency. However, in the scoring list of the competition, he was second only to China’s Wang Zhizhi and Iran’s Mohamed bachrami-at that time, the latter was praised as the first small forward in Asia.

After 9 games, Zhao Chengyan’s three-point shot percentage was also kept at 43%, and finally ranked 8th in the ranking with an average of 2.1 Three-point goals. In South Korea men’s basketball, it is the No. 2 shooter second only to naturalized player Wen Tai Zhong (No. 6).

Because he played the same position as Wang Shipeng in the same year, they were always compared in the Asian Stadium.

Unfortunately, Wang Shipeng, who was absent from the 2011 Wuhan Asian Championship due to injury, lost the best striker in China and South Korea face-to-face and a relatively high chance.

In the 2013 Manila men’s basketball Asian Championship, South Korea won the third place, which also won the chance to play the 2014 Spanish basketball World Cup qualifier. However, in Manila, Zhao Chengyi, as a scorer, still exported steadily, all the sessions, only the score against the Philippines failed to double, and the final technical statistics were

Average 23.9 minutes, 12.3 points, hit rate up to 46%

In addition to the 3 of the 3-point 4 in the match against India, he hit 100 percent in the 2-point goal and 100 percent in the free throw goal. He scored 14 points in 16 minutes and punched out in advance.

In this event, Zhao Chengzhen was the No. 2 scorer in South Korea men’s basketball. Before him, only Jin minjiu had an average of 12.7 points. However, looking at the list of the competition, there were only Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi among the Chinese players who were in front of them in the scoring column-in the Asian stadium at that time, the outside line could not be compared with the inside line.

In terms of three-point goals, Jin Min 9 ranked second in the competition and seventh in Zhao Chengyan; While the Chinese players on the list ranked highest in the same position was Wang Shipeng, still behind Zhao Chengyan.

It was also the men’s basketball Asian Championship. In the group match, China lost 59:63 to South Korea, and the most important reason for the 14-shot 0 in the outer three-point ball had to be said-at least, one; After that, he lost to Chinese Taipei in a humiliating way and finally ranked fifth.

After that, Wang Shipeng gradually faded out of China’s men’s basketball; While Zhao Chengzhen chose to continue to stick to South Korea’s men’s basketball.

In the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, Zhao Chengyi, 31 years old, once again wore the Korean men’s basketball shirt, and helped his team win the Asian Games gold medal at home again after 12 years.

It was also from that moment that Zhao Chengyan began to be designated by Koreans–

North Korean shooter

In the 2015 Changsha men’s basketball Asian Championship, South Korea’s overall poor performance in men’s basketball won only the 6th; But Zhao Chengyi became the top soldier of the team instead, ranking 25th in the scoring list and 7th in the three-point Stadium.

This time, his snatch was ranked second in the competition.

Facing the brand-new Chinese men’s basketball, he can still play: against China, he and veteran Liang Donggen took half of the team’s score.

Compared with Wang Shipeng, who chose to retire in 2016, Zhao Chengyan, who was the same age, unexpectedly hit 2021.

In 2017, Zhao Chengzhen suddenly transferred to Changyuan Falcon from the Sonic Bomb of Shuiyuan which had been serving for 11 years. When the incident happened, South Korean fans were furious-because in their hearts Zhao Chengzhen should be the exclusive star of Shuiyuan.

With the passage of time, Zhao Chengying also began to go downhill, especially from 2017 to 2019, with serious signs of aging and a sharp decline in competitive ability.

However, he still couldn’t hide his position as KBL legendary shooter, especially his iconic three-point running shot, which became a signboard action that only Zhao Chengyi could do; Korean media commented on him like this–

“He is a higher success rate three-point shooter, good at passing, and has his own characteristics in overhead shooting. Although the sports ability is not enough, the basketball IQ is high, and receive the ball shots are clean and neat. At the same time, it can attract fire, create opportunities for teammates, and find another opportunity for yourself.”

In front of natural laws, athletes are helpless.

After a bad season, on May 23, 2021, after long thinking, Zhao Chengzhen announced his retirement seven months before his 38th birthday.

In May this year, under the call of coach metallographic planting, he joined Anyang as an assistant coach.

On June 18, 2022, a retirement ceremony was held for South Korea during the intermission between the warm-up match men’s basketball and the Philippines men’s basketball-six years after leaving South Korea, the North Korean striker-waited for his separation.

To be able to wait until the retirement ceremony of the national team should be the lifelong yearning of many athletes; However, in the new position and new identity, Zhao Chengyan now is also like a duck to water-the team leads the league with record, the cooperation of the coaching staff continues.

“Compared with adapting to the team, I am now studying hard, communicating with the team members, having a good time and feeling the feelings I didn’t feel when I was a team member. This is different from how players feel when they win the game. I don’t know what the difference is, but I felt strange for the first time.”

When winning the first game, Zhao Chengyu said.

I just don’t know what will flash through his mind at a certain moment in those matches and at the moment when a player moves? Will there be ever high-gloss moments that will be remembered again in my heart?

Text/Dawn

Note: author Zhang Chenxi, former Sina China basketball special reporter. I have interviewed various competitions of China men’s basketball from 2006 to 2019, including three Olympic Games, four Asian Games and five Asian Championships. The study of Asian basketball has been deep for many years, especially the basketball insights of the three East Asian countries. I have interviewed 13 consecutive CBA All-Star games.