Scoop & Breaking News / Li Chunjiang and the Shanghai Sharks’ last class of the season
A disturbance was caused at the conclusion of the 2022-23 CBA season. The Shanghai Sharks' star player Eric Bledsoe received a suspension of four games after a foul in the final regular-season game. To ensure an intact lineup for the playoff quarterfinal, despite its advantages, the team threw the second game in the first round for Bledsoe to serve the suspensions. In the third game, the rival team played passively, allowing the Shanghai Sharks to advance. After finding out the facts, the Chinese Basketball Association determined that both teams had violated the spirit of sportsmanship and imposed the most severe penalty in the history of Chinese basketball, including the cancellation of both teams' results in the season and suspension of responsible individuals. Among them, the Shanghai Sharks' head coach Li Chunjiang, known for coaching experience in multiple clubs with seven championships, received a five-year suspension, which essentially marked the end of his professional career. This film adopts an objective and documentary perspective to exclusively record the moment when the Shanghai Sharks’ head coach and the team learned about the penalty results, raising wide public concern. Incomplete statistics show the topic "Li Chunjiang's last training class" trended on Weibo with over 140 million reads. Clips from the video were shared on new media platforms like Douyin and viewed over a hundred million times. Several traditional media outlets reached out for relevant materials. Newspapers cited the information and details in this film.