"The salary of playing in Europe and the WNBA for 5 years is not as high as the annual salary that the WCBA is willing to give him"! Choosing a job of "less money, more things, and far away from home" twice in a row, Li Yueru has become a typical negative teaching material for migrant workers. And two details of this game prove the meaning behind her outrageous choice!
Back in March 2023, Li Yueru hit her knee heavily while scrambling for a rebound in Game 3 of the WCBA Finals, and she burst into tears when she couldn't return to the court due to pain. The domestic hospital did an examination, and the diagnosis can be fully recovered in 2-3 weeks, but I did not expect that the posterior cruciate ligament was re-detected during the special training in Australia, which is basically the same as a break.
Then I went to report to the WNBA's Sky team, and the results were the same as those in Australia, and it would be at least another 8 weeks before I could start basic running and jumping training. Therefore, Li Yueru, who did not have much role with the Chicago Sky, was suspended from her contract by the team on May 19 on the grounds that she was not injured by the WNBA league.
It was not until the Hangzhou Asian Games at the end of September that Li Yueru returned from injury and helped the Chinese women's basketball team defeat Japan again and win the Asian Games championship. Since then Mongolia women's basketball team has offered Li Yueru a contract with an annual salary of nearly 4 million, but she resolutely refused and chose the Turkey league that can only provide an annual salary of 1 million, for two reasons, one is that "I knew before the game that the champion was either Sichuan or us, and then there was not much motivation for the whole season"; The second is to use the Turkey league as a springboard to regain the WNBA dream.
In her later words, Turkey has 3-4 players from each team who have played in the WNBA, the intensity has increased, and unlike the all-English environment, more non-native English speakers will communicate with each other in simpler English, which is the perfect transition for her to adapt to the WNBA.
Soon she was firmly in the main position of the Besiktas team in Turkey, averaging 18 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, and also tried to develop three-pointers, hitting four three-pointers in 11 shots this season, and finally helped Besiktas women's basketball team finish second in the regular season, European Championship runner-up, and was selected to the best team of the league.
Such a performance impressed the WNBA Sparks, and through the trade, the team took Li Yueru's suspended contract with the Sky into the account, but still only had an annual salary of 64,800 US dollars, less than 500,000 yuan. In March this year, in order to improve herself, Li Yueru chose to lower her price for the second time to join.
As mentioned at the beginning, playing for 4 years with an annual salary of 64,800 US dollars, plus 1 million yuan from Turkey, is indeed far from the annual salary offered by the WCBA, but Li Yueru also has a valuable harvest.
In the first game of the Paris Olympics, in the last 15 seconds of overtime, Li Yueru used a three-point chase to breathe a sigh of relief for the team on the edge of the cliff. If you thought it was a dribble, you probably didn't know that Li Yueru's first goal in the WNBA this season was a three-pointer who took the initiative to bounce outside when blocking and dismantling.
She will even drive an additional 200 kilometers round trip, practice twice a day, follow the famous NBA trainer Jordan · Lawley, strengthen the ability to dribble and stop shooting, and the look is already quite smooth and skillful! In the first warm-up game after returning to the Chinese women's basketball team, facing Belgium, she also did not hesitate to fire on the outside, and completely developed a peripheral threat.
The second detail is that the speed of blocking and dismantling is significantly faster, especially this time when the feet are jumping together, and the confrontation after the small delay causes fouls, which is full of impact in the appearance, and this kind of athletic improvement is especially precious for heavy centers, especially since she has also experienced a serious knee injury. Perhaps this stems from the WNBA's training environment, where the whole team needs to play against male players, "United States boys are stronger, rebounds can't be grabbed at all, I'm a little anxious and angry, but it's a process of adaptation, and the future will definitely be better."
As she said, the performance of 15 rebounds in this game, including 10 frontcourt boards, once again proved the significance of "going out" experience!