Mou Zuoyun

Mou Zuoyun (; 18 December 1913 – 16 March 2007) was a Chinese basketball player, coach, and pioneer, known as the "godfather of Chinese basketball". He competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a member of China's first Olympic basketball team, and coached the Chinese men's team at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He served as president of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and was named Lifetime Honorary President of the Asian Basketball Association. In 2005, the CBA named the championship trophy of China's professional basketball league the Mou Zuoyun Cup. In 2019, he posthumously became the first Chinese inductee to the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Early life and 1936 Summer Olympics Mou Zuoyun was born in 1913 into a peasant family in Wuqing, Hebei (now part of Tianjin municipality), Republic of China. When he was a student at Yuying School (now Beijing No. 25 Middle School), he was selected into the national basketball team to compete in the 1934 Far Eastern Championship Games held in Manila, and won the silver medal.

In 1935, Mou entered the Department of Physical Education of Beijing Normal University and joined the university's basketball team. A year later, he was again selected into the Republic of China national team to compete in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. It was the first time basketball became an Olympic sport Because of political instability and shortage of funds, the delegation endured a 17-day sea journey to Germany and the team was soon eliminated.

After the end of World War II, Mou went to the United States in 1946 for a two-year graduate program at Springfield College, the birthplace of basketball where John Ma had graduated from.

Mou was appointed vice president of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in 1956 and president in 1973. When the Chinese player Yao Ming was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016, he paid tribute to Mou in his speech. In 2019, Mou was posthumously inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame; he was the first Chinese inductee. His daughter and grandson attended the award ceremony on his behalf.