The Shanghai Sharks will retire the No. 8 jersey of their legendary point guard Liu Wei during the 2023-24 CBA home opener on October 28, the team announced on Saturday.

Having played 18 seasons with the Sharks, Liu worked with Yao Ming to lead the team to their first and only CBA title during the 2001-02 season. He was the leader in appearances, wins, points, rebounds, assists and steals in franchise history. Meanwhile, he was the third Chinese player to reach 20,000 points in CBA history and in third place on the league's all-time assists leaders list.

Liu has never been known for splendid skills, but he was the unquestionable No. 1 point guard of the Chinese national team for two qualities: the ability to dribble to the front court against defensive pressure and solid individual defense that worked on the world's first-class players in his position.

The irony with Liu was that many always recalled the moments when his turnover led to losses for China, but they kept forgetting that those games would have never been that close without his performances. For example, China lost to Spain 85-75 in overtime in the group game at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Liu committed a turnover at the end of the fourth quarter, but he also dropped a team-high 19 points.

China lost to Russia 89-80 in the group stage at the FIBA World Championship in Türkiye after the opponents had a 14-0 run in the fourth period. That drive began with a steal of Liu's ball in the back court. Nonetheless, he got a team-high 21 points in the Round of 16 game against Lithuania, not to mention that he played 35.7 minutes per game, longer than any other teammate.

Liu made the above mistakes because he often had to battle the greatest defensive pressure on the court while shouldering one of the biggest loads, not only on the offensive end. In the game against Spain at the 2008 Olympics, he limited Ricky Rubio and Jose Calderon to 1-for-10 in combination. Mantas Kalnietis, the starting point guard of Lithuania at the World Championship in 2010, had only 11 points against Liu's defense.

There is this kind of player whose importance is never noticed until he is gone. Liu belongs to this category because every point guard for the Chinese national team after him has not been even close to matching his role for the team in any international tournament.