Guo Shiqiang: Fame and qualifications are not our criteria for selecting people. The door to the national team is open to everyone.

August 20th, Chinese men's basketball coach Guo Shiqiang recently accepted an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency and talked about multiple topics. One of them was about the national team's selection criteria.

The original text is as follows:

This Asian Cup, the Chinese team failed to play with the full main lineup. The players such as Zhou Qi, Zhang Zhenlin, Zeng Fanbo, Yang Hansen, Zhao Jiwei, and Sun Minghui were unable to play for their respective reasons, which brought considerable challenges to Guo Shiqiang's selection and employment.

When the 12-man roster in the Asian Cup was announced, there were some different voices from the outside world. However, the coaching team led by Guo Shiqiang played a very exciting game with an incomplete lineup. Many young players performed well, and his platoon arrangements have also become a hot topic among fans.

In terms of selecting and employing people, Guo Shiqiang said: "We have our own standards. The first is based on the opponent's situation, and the second is based on our needs and the characteristics of the players. From the first day of training, we will observe the players' performance in each training class and each warm-up match, and then finally evaluate and confirm."

In this men's basketball team, there are several players who are not "big-name players" in the traditional sense. In response, Guo Shiqiang said that fame and qualifications are not the criteria for selecting personnel in the coaching team. "When I took office, I said that the door to the new national team will always be open to everyone. Whether it is professional, systemic, youth team, university, or overseas players, as long as you can meet the standards and requirements for selecting players in the national team, it is fine."