Shirelijan Muxtar

Shirelijan Muxtar (Uyghur: شىرئەلىجان مۇختەر‎; ) is a Chinese basketball coach and former professional player of Uyghur origin, who played the combo guard position for the Chinese national team. He played an important role in the first CBA championship for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers franchise.

Before the 2018–19 season, Shirelijan was rented to Guangzhou Loong Lions for one year in a blockbuster trade. In the same trade, Xinjiang traded Yao Tianyi and rented Sun Mingyang for three years to Guangzhou, and Guangzhou rented Fan Ziming for two years to Xinjiang. Shirelijan returned to Xinjiang Flying Tigers after the one-year rental terminated.

After the 2019–20 season, Shirelijan's contract with Xinjiang Flying Tigers terminated, and he became a free agent. He signed a three-year max (type-D) contract with Nanjing Monkey Kings, averaging 8 million CNY (US$1.2 million) a year. He is the most notable free-agent pick for Nanjing Monkey Kings in their first year of rebuild.

Name There are several alternative spellings to his name. Shirelijan, or alternatively Xirelijan, is the direct transliteration of his first name from his native Uyghur language. Alternatively, some sources indirectly transliterated his name via Mandarin Chinese (西热力江) as Xirelijiang. His patronym's direct translation from Uyghur is Muxtar, or alternatively, Muhtar. The indirect transliteration via Mandarin (木合塔尔) is Muhetaer. Therefore, alternative spellings of his full name include:

Shirelijan Muxtar Shirelijan Muhtar Xirelijan Muhtar Xirelijan Muxtar Xirelijiang Muhetaer

Some sources mistake his patronym's indirect transliteration via Mandarin as Mugedaer. Some sources also mistake his name as a Chinese name, thus treating his first name as the surname or applying the Eastern name order.

As a Uyghur name, Shirelijan Muxtar uses the patronymic system and consists of the given (first) name Shirelijan and the patronym (father's name) Muxtar. Therefore, Muxtar is the name of Shirelijan's father. In general, it is not acceptable to refer to him using only Muxtar, even in a context which usually requires a surname (last name). One should always refer to him using the full name Shirelijan Muxtar or simply his first name Shirelijan.