Li Kai'er Photo: VCG

With a shocking 75-96 loss to the host nation, the Philippines in the FIBA Basketball World Cup on Saturdays, team China failed to qualify for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, to the despair of the country's of die-hard basketball fans and netizens who regard this dismal performance as the "deepest humiliation."

This was China's first loss to an Asian rival in a major international men's basketball tournament.

Fans and netizens expressed their frustration on Sina Weibo social platform, where a hashtag about their defeats in the tournament racked up 120 million views.  

"Our performances couldn't have been any worse, that's so heartbreaking to see such an outcome, " said one comment on the Sina Weibo.

"The players don't have any hustle. Is this going to be like Chinese football?" quipped one Weibo user.

Others mocked the loss is related to the country's recent social problem. "Basketball and football are the microcosm of our society," wrote another Weibo user.

While the top Chinese performers Li Kai'er and Zhang Zhenlin collected 17 points and 13 points each in this tournament, the Chinese team nailed only five three-pointers out of 22 attempts and fell behind in rebounds (31:46). Jordan Clarkson, the star of the Philippine team, played well in the game, scoring 24 points in the third quarter and collecting 34 points.

In2019 China, was defeated by Nigeria in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, at the time the Chinese team failed to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. In this year's tournament, Chinese men's team failed again to qualify for the Olympic games, making it the first time that the Chinese men's basketball team has missed two consecutive Olympic Games.defeats

After the game, most insiders believe that the Chinese men's basketball team defeat, was wnot due to Clarkson's sudden outburst, but to a decision by head coach Aleksandar Djordjevic's that people cannot understand: abandoning  the use of Wang Zhelin even in the 8 minutes when Zhou Qi was injured and could not continue the game,, which transformed the team's advantage into a liability, according to media reports.

The Chinese famous commentator, Yang Jian, also let his tears flow freely during the post-game interview, "I'm quite upset and I felt aggrieved for our players,".  Former Chinese men's basketball coach Du Feng commented:, "This is not the real level of our men's basketball team". 

After the post-game, Djordjevic noted that "Everyone in the team is responsible for the loss of the game, and as the head coach, I should take the main responsibility, we will gradually improve the level in later training and matches. "

"China still has a lot of young players waiting to be discovered. " he said. 

After the World Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team will rest to solve injury problems to prepare for the Hangzhou Asian Games at the end of September. 

The Naturalized Chinese men's basketball player Li Kai'er is scheduled to return to the United States to prepare for the new NBA season, and he will not participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games according to media reports today.

Global Times