Zheng Wei (basketball)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Zheng.

Zheng Wei (Chinese: 郑薇; pinyin: Zhèng Wēi, born 4 September 1963) is a Chinese basketball coach and former player. She is the current head coach of the Chinese national team. She won the silver medal at FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup as both player and coach.

Zheng Wei

Zheng in 2023
Personal information
Born	(1963-09-27) 27 September 1963 (age 61) Wuhan, Hubei, China
Listed height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Career information
Playing career	1979–1998
Position	Guard
Career history
As a player:
1979–1985	Wuhan Military
1985–1998	Bayi
As a coach:
1999–2008	Guangdong Kapok
2008–2020	Guangdong Dolphins (assistant)
2009–2021	China (assistant)
2020–	Inner Mongolia Rural Credit Union
2022–	China
Career highlights
As head coach: 2×WCBA champions (2021, 2022) Best Coach at 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup[1]
Medals Women's basketball Representing  China FIBA World Championship 1994 Australia Team competition Asian Games 1990 Beijing Team competition 1994 Hiroshima Team competition Head coach for  China FIBA Women's World Cup 2022 Australia Team competition

Player career

Zheng spent her player career with PLA-affliliated teams. She started her career in 1979, playing for Wuhan Military team. In 1985 when the team were disbanded, she joined Bayi.^[2]

She represented China in the 1994 FIBA World Championship for Women, and won a silver medal.

She decided to retire in 1998 due to injuries.

Coach career

After her retirement, Zheng entered Guangdong Kapok. She became head coach of the team in 1999.^[3] After professionalization, she and the team acquired WCBA's runner-up in 2003.^[4]

In 2008, she stepped down and served as the assistant coach of the team until 2020.

In 2020, she moved north to join the Inner Mongolia Rural Credit Union team as part of a quite controversial project to support the newly established team.^[5] She won the WCBA title twice with the team.^[6][7]

National team career

Since 2009,^[8] she worked as assistant coach for Chinese national team. With the team, she won gold medal at the 2009 East Asian Games [zh], and the 2018 Asian Games.

In 2022, following Xu Limin's resignation, Zheng became the head coach of the national team.^[9] She was able to make historical breakthrough by winning the silver medal again at the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup.^[10]