Relentless workload

Selected by the Atlanta Dream at 35th overall in 2019, Li only made her WNBA regular-season debut in the summer of 2022, representing the Chicago Sky following a pair of trades.

Despite an earlier injury, also to her left knee, and the challenges posed by the pandemic, Li kept working hard, with a hectic schedule over the past three years, plying her trade overseas between the WNBA and the Turkish women's league, as well as competing in the domestic WCBA and representing the Chinese national team at the 2022 FIBA Women's World Cup and Paris 2024 Olympics.

At international level, Li led China with team highs of 17.7 points and 11 rebounds per game at Paris 2024. She recorded the most points by a woman in Chinese Olympic basketball history since 1998 with 31 points against Spain on July 28, 2024.

As China's sole representative in the world's top women's league, Li has finally reestablished herself as a serious contender in the WNBA, following a slow start in the North American league, and then a short stint in Europe, after she helped get the fallen Wings soaring again six games into her Dallas adventure.

The reason pushing the relentless 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) center to play tirelessly all year round, and all over the world, is simple.

"I came to the United States only for one reason, and that is to play basketball and improve myself at the highest possible level," Li said when explaining her request for a trade from Seattle to Dallas, per an X post from Seattle sports reporter Percy Allen, earlier this season.

Li's latest knee injury, after having withstood a punishing workload for the past few years, has left fans bemoaning the loss of, arguably, the only "world-class" player on China's current national team, which, in Li's absence, was beaten by close neighbor Japan in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup last month.

Following Team China's record-tying silver finish at the 2022 World Cup, Li's national teammates Han Xu (center) and Li Meng (forward) also joined the WNBA with New York Liberty and Washington Mystics, respectively, seeking higher-intensity drills, but both returned to their higher-paid domestic league clubs before the Paris Games.

Yang Hanchu contributed to this story.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn