Full video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mWOLB26U9Y
By Alex Tan
Nov.17.2023
“China finished the Men’s FIBA Basketball World Cup by winning 1 of 5 matches and ranking 29th in the world.” The men’s Basketball World Cup, which ended in September, has become a nightmare for many basketball fans in China, and the continuous failure has made everyone’s emotions fall to the bottom of the rock.
By chance, SDSN met Zhou Peng, the CBA’s DPOY (the best Defensive Player of the Year) and player of CBA Shenzhen team, who had just finished playing in the Chinese Men’s Basketball team, and won a precious interview opportunity, so that members of SDSN could have a direct dialogue with Zhou Peng and learn more about the Chinese national team and professional basketball.
SDSN member Alex Tan recalls: “I am very excited to interview Zhou Peng. I have fantasised many times about holding a microphone and interviewing famous players after a match, and this may finally come true.”
When Zhou Peng told us the interview time, we only had two days to prepare, through the wisdom of the whole team, we came up with nearly 30 questions, and finally selected 15 of them, including the just ended FIBA World Cup, CBA professional arena, and Zhou Peng’s personal opinion.
The venue and photography equipment for the interview once became the most troubling problem for us. We planned to use the venue for the club activity to interview Zhou Peng, but the venue was too small to conduct the interview normally. Finally, by contacting Principal Li and Teacher Jack Wu, we spent half a day transforming the original TSTV interview room on the negative first floor, and finally completed the interview.
“Thomas G recalls: We went through multiple options for our podcast settings, from the interview room to the theatre, even the senior management meeting room. We were very thankful that Mr Jack was able to offer us his best equipments.”
On September 26, Zhou Peng finally came. “When Zhou Peng got out of the car, my first feeling was that he was really tall. In the live TV broadcast, I could not realise Zhou Peng’s original height. Even when he sat down for an interview, his height gave me a sense of pressure” said Alex Tan. SDSN interviewed and talked with Zhou Peng for nearly an hour, and learned the reasons behind China’s failure in the men’s Basketball World Cup, as well as more stories and secrets of professional basketball players.
SDSN Alex Tan: “To sum up this interview in one word is shocking, and also learning. I learned a lot about the truth behind Chinese basketball that you have never considered and only come to know after talking to a player. Such as the experience of playing with Li Kaier (Kyle Anderson, player of the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves), and the reason China suffered from great lost in FIBA World Cup.”
“Thomas G said that: I can’t stress this enough, but It’s truly been a great honour for SDSN to have Mr ZhouPeng as our opening guest for our podcast. ”
