Many fans were pessimistic about China Team, but some remained optimistic.
"Don't worry. Brother Yi's here. Nothing can go wrong."
"China used to rank near the bottom because Brother Yi had retired. Now that he's back, just watch. And this year we've got Little Fatty, too. Based on his performance at the Asian Cup, he's already one of Asia's top centers."
"Exactly. I can't wait to see how they do."
That night,
the first game tipped off, and it was a heavyweight matchup.
China vs. the United States.
Yu Jia and Director Zhang were on commentary for China's broadcast that evening.
Before the game began, the two analyzed the matchup.
"There's no need to explain the United States. They've got King Arthur and Morant in their prime, Zion, Jalen Green, and Wemby, who just became a U.S. citizen. They also have Embiid, Edwards, Tatum, Towns, and others..."
"It's fair to say that Team America is still the undisputed Dream Team."
"As for China..."
Before Director Zhang could finish, Yu Jia cut in. "China is a Dream Team, too, because any team with Wang Yi is a Dream Team."
Director Zhang chuckled. "That's right, that's right. Any team with Wang Yi is a Dream Team."
The opening game was held at Lusail Stadium, the venue that would also host the final.
Designed and built by China, Lusail Stadium was shaped like a saddle and was known as the Golden Bowl.
During the soccer World Cup, it had 80,000 unobstructed seats, and 90,000 in total.
Since a basketball court was much smaller than a soccer field, the stadium had been renovated and another 10,000 seats had been added. That brought the total number of seats for today's game to 100,000.
Every one of the 100,000 seats was filled.
As the Chinese saying