Guangsha officially announced the list of participating in the AFC Champions League. The championship prize is very attractive. Say sorry to Liaoning Basketball Team!

Recently, Zhejiang Guangsha Men's Basketball Team officially announced the list of participating in the 2025 FIBA ​​Asian Basketball Championship (BCL Asia) through its official social media platform. The competition will be held in Dubai, UAE from June 7 to 13. As the runner-up team of the 2023-24 CBA League, Guangsha has been awarded the invitation qualification and is temporarily led by assistant coach Nie Jinqiang. The team's lineup includes three foreign players, including Finals MVP Barry Brown, James Nanali and Nathan Knight, while domestic players are composed of Wang Xinrui, Duan Liqian, Xu Junwei, Zhao Jiayi, Cai Shulinsen, Li Zebang, Xu Zhonghao, Reike and others. It is worth noting that the main players Sun Minghui, Hu Jinqiu and Zhao Yanhao are not in the team. They have already participated in the National Games with the Sichuan team to prepare for the National Games, which directly affects Guangsha's main structure and core combat power this time.

According to the official schedule, Guangsha will face the Ulaanbaatar Broncos and Iran's Tabiat team respectively in the group stage. The game time is 19:00 pm on June 7 and 8. According to the competition system, the top two in the group and the third in the two best-achieved groups will advance to the quarterfinals. The knockout match will be decided in the quarterfinals based on the group results. Due to the lifting of restrictions on the use of foreign aid in this event, many teams recruited soldiers to form "luxury foreign aid team", thus forming a significant gap in paper strength. Some fans joked on social platforms, "If foreign players play full, domestic players can just squat on the bottom corner." Although this comment is joking, it also truly reflects the current dilemma of gradual imbalance in the AFC Champions League.

What triggered more discussion was that last year, the Liaoning team did not send core players to play in the same event context, and was accused by some public opinion of "neglecting Asian events". Some sports commentators even bluntly said that "because they represent China, they should respond to the challenge." This time, Guangsha also had to send a lineup mainly based on foreign aid due to personnel allocation. Whether it would be examined by the same strict standards has caused many fans to question on the Internet. Some remarks pointed out, "Do those media people who criticized Liaoning for not being able to play in the AFC Champions League last year also have high requirements for Zhejiang this year?" Now Guangsha has also sent out a third-tier lineup. From this perspective, the controversy surrounding Guangsha’s AFC Champions League lineup is not a purely competitive issue, but is mixed with complex factors such as double public opinion standards and league cultural identity. Say sorry to Liaoning!

The championship prize is as high as US$4 million, which is currently the highest prize in Asian basketball individual events. However, the CBA is in the transitional stage between the end of the season and the National Games preparation period, and most teams choose not to participate or only symbolically send a youth lineup to participate. Most foreign aid contracts have been terminated naturally, and it is difficult to temporarily recall or re-sign short-term agreements, resulting in a low overall willingness to participate. Guangsha chose to take the initiative to be invited. Although the staff was not in place, the foreign aid team was still intact, showing a certain degree of competitive attitude. However, in actual operation, the temporary patchwork of domestic players and the adjustment of the coaching team make this team more like a temporary mercenary, and the tactical stability and teamwork level remains to be seen.