The ground is full of "sixpences", but he looked up and looked at the moon

On August 1, the Bilbao Club of the Spanish Basketball League officially announced the signing of Chinese player Yu Jiahao. After the Asian Cup of the Men's Basketball Team held in Saudi Arabia, Yu Jiahao will set off for Spain to start his three-year life abroad.

This is not only a continuation of his pursuit of the forced interruption of the "American basketball dream", but also an active choice to temper his comprehensive abilities in the European League. Today, when the Chinese men's basketball team is in a trough, Yu Jiahao's journey west is a brave exploration of young players' new paths to growth, and it also carries the expectation of breaking through the shackles for Chinese basketball.

Feng Zihan reported that pursuing an unfinished dream

Joining La Liga is not the first time Yu Jiahao has gone abroad to play basketball. In 2018, the 15-year-old dragged his suitcase into the American basketball school Sierra Canyon High School, California, and became teammates with NBA superstar Zaire, son of Wade, and son of James Brownie.

In my senior year of high school, this young Eastern Conference Kong firmly took the starting center position and was named a three-star high school student in the United States. He entered the California High School League Finals with the team, and held the invitation from the University of California, Berkeley... It looked so beautiful, and even entering the NBA became less far away.

However, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic brought all this to an abrupt end. The NBA was the first to announce the suspension, and then the California High School League was suspended. Yu Jiahao had no choice but to withdraw and return to China. Since then, due to international travel restrictions, Yu Jiahao failed to complete his senior year and had to give up the opportunity to enter university to play NCAA.

In 2021, Yu Jiahao, who is over 18 years old, began to compete in the CBA. As a rookie season, he was a super star and averaged 12.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, but Yu Jiahao still did not forget the dream that was forced to be interrupted in high school.

In the summer of 2022, Yu Jiahao went to the United States to participate in the trial training of NBA teams. Although he failed to achieve the ideal result at that time, Yu Jiahao still looked forward to slowly improving himself and one day he went overseas and entered the NBA again.

In the past two years of offseason, Yu Jiahao will conduct special training in Spain to improve his basketball level. Now that he has become the main inside player of the Chinese men's basketball team, he has been "targeted" by European league scouts. So on the eve of the opening of the Asian Cup, Yu Jiahao received an invitation from Bilbao.

In order to better adapt to the new game environment and rhythm, Yu Jiahao will first transition to the Cantabria team in the Spanish Second Division as a loan, so that he can adapt to the Spanish rhythm as soon as possible in life, training and competition.

"I will definitely not give up on my goal of continuing to attack the NBA, but I still have to slowly improve myself step by step and play a convincing performance in the European arena first." Yu Jiahao said.

Strive to grow in competition

La Liga was founded in 1957 and consists of 18 teams. It is known as the "best basketball league in the world except the NBA." This league has also trained a group of top basketball players, such as the Gasol brothers, the "Golden Boy" Rubio, and Luca Doncic, who is now in the limelight.

There is no shortage of future stars here, which also means there is no shortage of competition. Yu Jiahao, who logs in as a foreign player, will face more challenges.

According to Yu Jiahao's agent team, each team in the Spanish League can only register two non-EU foreign players in each game. Here, Yu Jiahao needs to compete with top foreign players from all over the world such as the United States, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, etc. Whether he can get a stable appearance time depends entirely on his performance.

"There are certain difficulties, and this is also a continuous encouragement to me. It reminds me that I need to be alert and keep improving at all times." Yu Jiahao said.

In the CBA, Yu Jiahao can easily score at the basket, but his long shots, support and defensive footsteps may never be really polished. In La Liga, every training session has to fight against the top European men, and every ball has to fight for it with all his strength. This "discomfort" is exactly what he wants most. The schedule of the Spanish League is relatively loose, usually only one or two games a week, and it is also a new knowledge facing Yu Jiahao in planning and managing his personal life. "This means I have more time to devote myself to targeted training, more time to understand the European basketball system, and more time to recover and prepare for the next game, which will reduce the probability of injury. At the same time, this also means that players will have more freedom and need to 'rely rely on themselves'."

Of course, the most realistic gap in studying abroad is undoubtedly the economic level. According to the agent, in order to enter La Liga, Yu Jiahao gave up the high annual salary and a stable starting position in the CBA. His monthly salary in Bilbao is only about 2,000 euros.

But in Yu Jiahao's view, "this is not a matter of money." It is more important to take advantage of the youth to see the world and improve your abilities.

Explore a new path to studying abroad

In recent years, many young basketball players such as Li Yueru, Yang Hansen, Cui Yongxi, Zeng Fanbo, and Lin Wei have gone overseas in different ways. Yu Jiahao's trip to Spain to work hard can be seen as a new exploration of Chinese players' development.

The European arena attaches more importance to integrity, and focuses on tactical games and rhythm control. This is different from the American basketball style that emphasizes personal abilities and physical fitness, and is also more suitable for the development of Chinese players. Yu Jiahao deeply agrees with this.

"Actually, many Chinese predecessors have fought in the United States and the NBA. But I think that for those players who seek different development paths, Europe may be a new world." Yu Jiahao said, "Previously, few Chinese players competed in the European League, especially in La Liga. But as Lu Xun said, 'There is no road in the world, and more people will become roads'. Someone always needs to take the first step."

In recent years, the Chinese men's basketball team has poor performance in international competitions. The sad departure of the 2023 World Cup, the regretful defeat of the Hangzhou Asian Games, and the embarrassment of missing the Paris Olympics have hit the confidence of the Chinese men's basketball team again and again. Behind this, in addition to the fluctuations in on-the-spot performance, it also exposes the real dilemma of the player's ability ceiling being locked in the long-term closed environment of the domestic league. Those skills and consciousness that should be sporting international competitions will ultimately be difficult to truly grow in the soil of the greenhouse. As the world basketball evolves like lightning, Chinese basketball seems to be surrounded by invisible barriers and it is difficult to see a wider sky.

Yu Jiahao also knows this very well: "Come to La Liga means being able to directly confront top players from all over the world. Every fight is a valuable learning opportunity. If you stay in the domestic league, it is difficult to get into this higher intensity level of confrontation. I hope to find a way to deal with strong international enemies here."

Yu Jiahao's overseas study is a brave attempt by young players to seek breakthroughs in the trough, and it is also a silent commitment - to temper on a higher stage, just to one day wear the national team's jersey and live up to its responsibilities. As he said when he went to Spain for special training last year: "The ground is full of sixpence, but I also want to look up at the moon."