Yao quitting the Chinese national team?
Friday, 24th October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Chinese media (beginning, reportedly, with Shanghai's Oriental Sports Daily) began reporting earlier this week that Yao Ming had announced plans to quit the Chinese national team.The center has since denied the reports to the Houston Chronicle. But his denial wasn't too forceful.
"I haven't announced that," he told the Chronicle. "I think now there is no national team and all I want to worry about is playing 82 games and the playoffs."
Yao had made comments to the Houston Chronicle before playing in his third Olympics earlier this year, indicating that this would be his last Olympic appearance. He will be almost 32 years old when the next games take place in 2012 in London. And with injuries dragging down his NBA career, including a broken foot that nearly kept him out of the Olympics, it's not much of a stretch to think the big guy might need a break.
In other Yao news, his doctor in Houston is reportedly seeing Liu Xiang next week, to see if he can help the injured hurdler.
Tags: basketball, Houston Chronicle, Liu Xiang, Olympics, Yao Ming
NBA to build arenas across China
Wednesday, 15th October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Among the challenges the NBA faces in holding games in China, or otherwise taking advantage of the league's huge popularity here, is a lack of venues equipped to host NBA events. As has been expected, the league is making big moves to remedy that situation, with a joint venture with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to develop a dozen arenas in China.Early reports and conventional wisdom suggest that the first site developed will be in Shanghai, with an 18,000-seat arena completed in time for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The second site, Guangzhou, is expected to be announced at Wednesday's NBA preseason game at Guangzhou Gymnasium.
"Our largest market outside the United States is going to be here in China," said Heidi Ueberroth, president of NBA global marketing partnerships and international business operations. Tim Chen, CEO of NBA China, said that the NBA and AEG will have a $28 million stake in the Shanghai project and that the total project cost will be $277 million. By contrast, the Ford Center, a similarly sized arena that will host the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle Supersonics), cost $89 million to build.
NBA commissioner David Stern indicated that construction wouldn't start right away and that the league hadn't chose all of the locations for arenas, which could also be in "Greater China" cities like Taipei, Macao and Hong Kong.. "We weren't going to start construction in the next couple of weeks," he said at a news conference with AEG in London. "We anticipate that in a relatively short order we will have laid out a road map of a dozen buildings or so throughout China." He added that decisions would be made over the next several months about where to put arenas.
AEG president and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke said he considered it a 20-year project, and that most of the new venues will be "built and designed from the ground up."
The arenas will be part of multiuse entertainment complexes, according to a statement from the NBA: "Where feasible, the arenas will be developed in conjunction with surrounding cultural and entertainment districts potentially comprised of restaurants, retail outlets, cinemas, hotels, residential areas, sports training facilities and smaller live entertainment venues."
The announcement comes just days before the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors play a pair of pre-season games in China. They will play at Guangzhou Gymnasium October 15 and on October 18 at Wukesong Arena in Beijing, the Olympic basketball venue developed by the NBA.
Related: Bucks and Warriors to play in China in 2008
Basketball's China Game Plan
Tags: basketball, Beijing, Guangzhou, NBA, Shanghai, Wukesong
Sun Yue sidelined with mono
Friday, 26th September 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Chinese national basketball team member and Lakers rookie guard Sun Yue was introduced to the media in Los Angeles Wednesday. With the help of a translator, he addressed a crowd that was outsized considering he was only the 40th overall pick in the 2007 draft, the LA Times reports.
Sun spoke about his longtime dream of playing in the NBA, and his particular interest in the Lakers. He also sought to manage expectations for his on-court performance, characterizing himself as a well-rounded player without exceptional skills in any particular area.
"I'm average," Sun said. "Not one skill that's very, very good, but no one skill that's very, very bad."
Any hope the 22-year-old guard had of making small improvements in the pre-season were soon dashed, though, by news that he will have to miss an indefinite period due to illness. Sun reportedly tested positive for mononucleosis shortly after the press conference.
Watch the full video of the press conference on NBA.com.
Sun Yue image: LA Times
Tags: basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, Sun Yue
Bucks and Warriors to play China in 2008
Thursday, 28th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The NBA keeps doing its best to dominate the post-Olympic China sports news cycle. The latest: the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors will play a pair of preseason games in China in October. The first will be played in Guangzhou Gymnasium October 15; the second will take place at Beijing's Wukesong Arena October 18.The Milwaukee Bucks are featured in this game, despite trading Chinese forward Yi Jianlian (易建联) to the New Jersey Nets on the eve of the NBA draft. The Bucks do have a player with a China connection, rookie Joe Alexander, who spent his middle school and early high school years in Beijing.
As sports marketing consultant Xia Song told CST in June, "Milwaukee has become a popular team in China. Even without Yi, it's still going to be a popular team in China. And if they have a player with a connection to China, that player is going to get attention here."
Related:
How the NBA draft looks from China
Basketball's China game plan
Tags: basketball, Beijing, Golden State Warriors, Guangzhou, Milwaukee Bucks, NBA, Wukesong, Xia Song, Yi Jianlian
NBA signs Tsingtao, Lakers sign Sun Yue
Wednesday, 27th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (2)
In what we're sure is a total coincidence, NBA entities had two big China-related announcements right around the time Team USA finished its gold medal romp in Wukesong Arena in Beijing.
The other China product with a hot NBA contract is 23-year-old Sun Yue (孙悦), a guard who finally signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. Sun was drafted by the Lakers in 2007, but left to pick up some seasoning before starting contract talks this summer.
Soon-to-be Lakers guard Sun Yue
While Tsing Tsao and the NBA looks like a match made in heaven, we're a little more skeptical about Sun and the Lakers. He'll join a backcourt that doesn't need much help--Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar and Kobe Bryant seem to have things pretty well in hand, and the team has a couple of other good prospects in training camp. Sun used to play point guard, but with the national team this season, he's been at shooting guard with Liu Wei running the point very capably. During the Olympics, he averaged a pedestrian 6.8 points and 2.5 assists per game.
Sun's been called the "Chinese Magic Johnson" in some Chinese media; don't expect that nickname to stick in a city that knows exactly how Magic played. But even if he never develops into a starter, this second round draft pick should be able to sell a few jerseys on Wangfujing, and cement more Laker loyalty among the Kobe-loving Chinese market.
For a look at Sun's pre-draft workout and video of him blocking Carmelo Anthony's shot, check out his CST profile page.
Tsingtao image: Tsingtao
Tags: basketball, NBA, NBA China, Sun Yue, Tsingtao
Field hockey China's last chance for team gold
Friday, 22nd August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Both the women's basketball and volleyball teams lost in semifinal games Thursday night,. The basketball team was handled easily by Australia, 90-56, sending coach Tom Maher's team to play Russia for the bronze on Saturday. Australia had a
balanced attack with five players scoring in double figures. China's high scorer was Bian Lan with 20. Australia held Miao Lijie, averaging 19.5 points going into the game, to just 10 points and two made field goals. The Australians face the USA Saturday in the final.
The volleyball team lost to Olympic favorite Brazil, 3-0, on Thursday. The first set was the hardest fought, with Brazil emerging 27-25. The Chinese team got progressively weaker, losing the next two sets 25-22 and 25-14. China plays Cuba for bronze on Saturday.
China's top team sport performance thus far in these Olympics was in beach volleyball, where its two women's pairs claimed silver and bronze.
Field hockey results page
Basketball results page
Volleyball results page
Field hockey team image: BOCOG
Tags: basketball, Beijing Olympics, field hockey, Miao Lijie, Olympics, Tom Maher, volleyball
Women's basketball reach semis
Wednesday, 20th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Miao Lijie
China won despite being outrebounded 41-22; the 27 turnovers by Belarus (to China's 11) made the difference, and then some.
Though Sui Feifei (隋菲菲) is the team's most famous player, she scored just 6 points last night, on par with her performance throughout the Olympics. Against Belarus, it was captain Miao Lijie (苗立杰), yet again, who took the game over for China. She led all scorers with 28 points on 71 percent shooting. Miao was key to China's upset of the United States in an Olympic test event in April, pacing China with 26 points. The 27-year-old point guard from Harbin is quick on the drive and a pesky defender. She's averaging 19.5 points in the Olympics.
China's route to the semifinals also included wins over Spain (67-64), New Zealand (80-63) Mali (69-48) and the Czech Republic (79-63). Its only loss came at the hands of the undefeated US team, a 108-63 trouncing.
China will play its semifinal game against Australia Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time. The teams played each other about two weeks ago in the FIBA Diamond Ball for Women tournament in Haining, with Australia winning by 14.
Miao Lijie image: 2008.qq.com
Tags: basketball, Beijing Olympics, Miao Lijie, Olympics, Sui Feifei
Yao carries Chinese basketball team into quarterfinals
Sunday, 17th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Liu Wei drives the lane against Spain.
China's 59-55 win over Germany last night puts the team into the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament. With very little hope of medaling, securing a spot in the final eight was the goal the team had set for itself.
With wins over Germany and Angola and losses to Spain and the United States, China is tied for third with Greece, which lost to and beat the same teams as China. Even if Germany were to win its final game against the United States, and China lost to Greece, the two would still be in a tie, and China's victory in head-to-head competition would put them in the quarterfinals.
Yao Ming has been setting the pace, as expected, averaging just under 20 points per game. The team's next leading scorers are Liu Wei (刘炜), with 10.3, and Zhu Fangyu (朱芳雨), with 9.5 (CST would like to point out that we told you how important these two players—little known to fans outside of China—are to the team, in this post last week). Both players have gotten most of their points from long distance: Liu has knocked down 8 threes and Zhu, 10.
Yao's NBA colleague, Yi Jianlian, is averaging just 8 points a game but has been a strong defensive presence for China. Sun Yue (孙悦), who will join the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers for the 2008-2009 season, has also had a quiet performance offensively, averaging 6.5 points, but has come up with key steals and blocked shots.
China will play its last preliminary game Monday against Greece. The quarterfinals begin on Wednesday.
Related: Yes, China can beat the Dream Team
Image: Sports.nen.com
Tags: basketball, Beijing Olympics, Liu Wei, Olympics, Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, Zhu Fangyu
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