12 years later, they reunited on the final battlefield, and the CBA Finals faced the Liaoyue War

Reporter | Joe Tudi

Three months late, the CBA Finals finally arrived.

At 8:00 p.m. Beijing time on August 11, 2020, Liaoning and the defending champion Guangdong will play the first match of the finals in Qingdao - the same format as the semi-finals, this year's finals will use a three-game best-of-three system, which means that the two teams are only two wins away from reaching the top.

The last time the Liaoning and Cantonese teams met in the CBA Finals was in the winter of twelve years ago.

The 2007-2008 CBA league also experienced a contraction — in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the regular season of the CBA was reduced to 30 games, and the playoffs began on January 16.

It was also that season that Yi Jianlian left the CBA to officially participate in the 2007 NBA Draft, and was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the sixth overall pick in the first round.

At the end of the regular season, Guangdong and Xinjiang ranked first and second with a record of 26 wins and 4 losses, and were regarded as strong challengers to impact the championship.

But the playoffs have not yet started, and the "Guan Xiuchang Incident" that allowed the Basketball Association to finally issue a super ticket occurred. This season, the Xinjiang team introduced Guan Xiuchang, a player known as a Chinese national in the United States, but Guan Xiuchang's true identity continued to be questioned. After investigation, Guan Xiuchang had a problem of identity card fraud, and he actually held a US passport. This means that the Xinjiang team actually used three foreign aides, violating the league competition regulations that "each team can only have two foreign aides".

The Basketball Association gave the results, and All 15 games that Guan Xiuchang participated in and won were lost, and the Xinjiang team lost the qualification for the playoffs and was substituted by Zhejiang Guangsha.

Entering the playoffs, Guangdong swept Zhejiang Guangsha and Dongguan 3-0, while Liaoning won 3-1 against Bayi and Jiangsu respectively.

In this multiple context, Guangdong and Liaoning finally met in the 2008 finals.

The Guangdong team without Yi Jianlian still cut through the thorns, and they reached the top after eliminating the Liaoning team with an absolute advantage of 4-1. This championship has also become the starting point of Guangdong's four consecutive championships.

Although Liaoyue has only one previous Record of finals meetings, the two sides have met 25 times in the playoffs. In this data, Liaoning has the advantage of 14 wins and 11 losses. In this season's regular season, Guangdong team defeated Liaoning 107-98, 105-96 successively to complete the sweep.

However, the past record is not enough to predict the future results, and the special arena and special format are destined to make this season extraordinary.

This year's finals will be a clash of two single-handed foreign aid teams.

In late July, the Guangdong team chartered a plane to pick up Ma Shang, originally hoping to strengthen the lineup before the arrival of the playoffs, but because Ma Shang was diagnosed with new crown after landing, he was immediately transported to the hospital for treatment in a closed loop, failing to join the team and not being able to play. For now, the Guangdong team will continue to adopt a single foreign aid lineup with Sony Weems.

Liaoning's season has been full of twists and turns, from not being optimistic at the beginning to reaching the finals, all the way to the question. Shortly after the start of the rematch, Liaoning launched O.J. Mayo, which was replaced by an all-China class to a single foreign aid lineup.

After 12 years, Du Feng, who played for Guangdong and Yang Ming, who played for Liaoning, have now become the coaches of their respective home teams.

The players who still remain in the Guangdong squad are Zhou Peng and Su Wei, who are already veterans over 30 years old. Zhou Peng, who had been on a suspension for several months, finally returned from injury in the rematch, and Su Wei continued to play a substitute role.

At that time, the Liaoning lineup was still li Xiaoxu and Han Dejun, and now The Great Han has grown from a rookie who played only 5 minutes in the finals to the top pillar of the team, and Li Xiaoxu has a knee injury in the rematch stage and will continue to miss the game.

The 2019-2020 season will begin with the Battle of Liaoyue and will end in the Battle of Liaoyue. The audience during the special period was a bit deserted, but it did not prevent the smell of gunpowder from spreading in this long-lost duel.