From China to the DMV, Li Meng's patience landed her lifelong dream with the Mystics

From China to the DMV, Li Meng's patience landed her lifelong dream with the Mystics originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

Ever since Li Meng was a little girl growing up in Shenyang, China, she had two dreams which both revolved around her love for the game of basketball.

The first was to one day play for China’s women’s national team and the second was to make it to basketball’s biggest stage in the WNBA.

Meng managed to achieve her first dream in China as a citizen but the second one came as a bit more of a challenge. The guard had been trying to reach the WNBA for quite sometime earlier during her basketball career.

League scouts liked what they saw in her game, but Li had to turn down their calls due to her commitment to China’s national team. At 28 years old, it might seem like a late start to enter the league, but Li would not let that faze her from achieving her goals.

This offseason, Li secured a preseason training camp spot with the Mystics. It provided her with an opportunity to both play in the league and uphold her commitment to China’s national team, which she would play for during the middle of the WNBA season.

So how exactly would Li’s game translate from playing overseas to the WNBA.

“The differences are two-fold,” Li said during an interview with Mystics Pregame Live host Wes Hall. “One is the physicality here and how people are talented and the second one is the technical and the tactical side of things, how they think about basketball. Those are the two biggest differences.”

https://youtu.be/FSyjMpQT0A0

Li knew the WNBA is the highest platform a player can get to. She also understood that her game would need to be elevated to play with the league’s most talented players.

When it comes to Li’s transition to the WNBA and playing alongside talented players, she had one of the best influences the league has to offer in teammate Elena Delle Donne. One of Li’s biggest inspirations and role models, aside from LeBron James, Delle Donne has helped her become acclimated with her new team.

“She's been so good for us,” Delle Donne said following the Mystics' June 18 win over Chicago. “She's physical on defense, she's such a pain for people to go against her because she just gets in, you can tell she frustrates people.

“Then offensively, with her quick trigger she's impossible to guard, it really opens the floor for us. She also just makes really good IQ plays and knows the game so well. She cuts at the right time, she makes the right pass, she keeps the offense flowing.”

In Delle Donne, Li has found a teammate she can continue to learn from.

“I feel fortunate and honored to be with her during practice, during games and also just life in general,” Li said to Hall. “What I see the most in her is how she’s willing to help people and how kind she is. Her professionalism is what I want to learn from.”

As a native Mandarin speaker, Li works regularly with a translator. In what's been her first time ever in D.C., she’s become more adjusted to the ins and outs of the city and has been embraced by her coaches, teammates and fans.

“She jumped right in and she might talk more than most of us,” Delle Donne said. “She's speaking a lot more English and trying out different words. She definitely understands us when we're talking and now she's starting to speak a lot more. We love Meng. I'm so glad she's on this team. I'm so glad our lives have crossed. Meng is such a real one.”

Through her rookie year with the team, Li has succeeded in earning herself a consistent roster spot with the Mystics. She’s made an instant impact as one of the team’s top three-point shooters (36.4%) through 16 games played.

Li’s stock has also been rising, as she went from playing just a single minute in the season opener to elevating herself to the Mystics’ second unit and the top guard off head coach Eric Thibault's bench.

During the Mystics tenth game of the season against Phoenix, Li made her first start and delivered her best performance, finishing with career-highs in points (14) and minutes (27).

Before the WNBA All-Star break, Li was finding her groove. She then departed the Mystics to play for her home country in the FIBA Asia Cup. Li helped China achieve something not accomplished since 2011.

In the championship game against Japan, Li led her team with 17 points, sinking a pair of free throws down the stretch that iced her team’s lead in the game's final seconds. China held on for a 73-71 victory, bringing home their first gold medal win in 15 years.

“We made history in terms of Chinese women’s basketball,” Li said. “Our national team based our games on teamwork, and never giving up and also fighting hard. I want to bring that spirit back to the Mystics’ team because that is what we are facing right now. We are facing challenging situations because of injury.”