NBA in China

[RebelAzn]

Here is an article about possibility of NBA in China. It would be cool.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4762972.html

David Stern is serious about starting a NBA sponsored league in China. Basketball is already getting way popular in China and it is catching up to soccer.

[Lum]

Hellz yeeeah it'd be cool. I would never have expected basketball to be the American-type organized sport that China took an interest in. Not because of stereotypes, just...'cause. This is crazy, not 2 weeks ago I was talking sports with a friend and I said I bet China's secretly gearing up for a surprise like this one for the 2008 Olympics. Now we need Japan in the MLB.

[RebelAzn]

Hellz yeeeah it'd be cool. I would never have expected basketball to be the American-type organized sport that China took an interest in. Not because of stereotypes, just...'cause. This is crazy, not 2 weeks ago I was talking sports with a friend and I said I bet China's secretly gearing up for a surprise like this one for the 2008 Olympics. Now we need Japan in the MLB.

My thoughts are exactly. Asian men are always bitching about how we are stereotyped by the white media. Isn't ironic that might be our Asian brothers in Asia that might improve our image here through international sports? Already there are kids who want to grow up ballers and some are pretty damn good. I hope Yi Jianlian works out cause he is the type of player a lot of kids want to be. Yao Ming is good, but he is not fun to watch and he does not jump out of the gym like Yi.

Japanese players are already making a huge impact in the MLB. Bobby Valentine (Ex-Mets manager who is managing a team in Japan right now) has said to ESPN that he thinks every single starter on Japanese professional team can be a starter in the MLB. Basically, he said skills of Japanese players are just as good as MLB players. Number of position players already proved this. Positional players like Kenji Jojima, Kaz Matsui and Akira Iwamura etc. are kicking butt in the MLB. Chien Ming Wong almost won the Cy Young last year.

[Lum]

*gasp*

I can't believe you say that about Yao. It's like watching a giant cheetah play basketball.

[RebelAzn]

*gasp*

I can't believe you say that about Yao. It's like watching a giant cheetah play basketball.

Lum - I love Yao. I got his jersey and I got his bobbling doll. I watch Houston games because of Yao. I just think most kids want to grow up and be guards. I mean, how many kids gonna grow up to be 7'6"? I am sure there are a ton of 6'2" guys in China who would love to play like Iverson or Tracy McGrady. We need some Chinese guards to come to the NBA that can ball.

[Lum]

Yea I agree, we need an Iverson. Or a Kobe. LOL.

[RebelAzn]

Yea I agree, we need an Iverson. Or a Kobe. LOL.

I got a good Asian friend who is a really good baller. He is about 5'10" but he can dunk with both hands. He is all state Texas and played against Shaq in the high school championship when Shaq was 17. I think he told me he scored 28 points while Shaq scored 42. Shaq was 7 feet tall at age 17. Anyway, he got a scholarship to George Washington (D1 school) but he decided to walk-on to Texas because GW did not have a good engineering program. He is probably the best Asian American baller I know in my circle of friends. He probably would have got scholarships to UCLA is he is 6'2". I need more guys like him develop into ballers. BTW, his brother is 5'8" and the guy can dunk with both hands by jumping straight up under the basket. See, there are Asian dudes with some serious jumping ability. When I used to play volleyball, I met a 5'8" Filipino dude with 50 inch vertical. The dude would go up over the volleyball net to block guys who are 6'5". Now we just need some guys like these who are 6'5".

[zhangfei]

http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2005/12/talking_with_br.html

LB: How has Yao changed basketball in China?

BL: Yao hasn’t changed the way basketball is played in China, since he is an old-school player who reflects the traditional training methods of the Chinese sports system, which are a throwback to the 1950s. But he has certainly changed the way basketball is perceived – and marketed. I remember hanging out with him the night before he left China in 2002; at that time, there wasn’t a single billboard, poster, or TV ad bearing his image in Shanghai – and he walked home that night down a crowded street and nobody bothered him at all. His arrival in Houston changed all that. Suddenly, he was a national hero back home and every basketball game he played in was followed as if the nation’s prestige were on the line.

Now you have multinationals and local Chinese companies scouring the country for the next Yao Ming; one local shoe company, Li Ning, has just signed up a 13-year-old kid in Shanghai who, at 6’7”, is already taller than Yao was at that age (6’6”). But the kids on the street get their main inspiration not from Yao, but from aggressive, acrobatic guards such as Allen Iverson and LeBron James. It's hard to aspire to be like Yao.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/news/2000/09/17/wolff_basketball/

Here is what he told me: "This is the most athletic foreign team you'll ever see. But you'd never know it because they're so tired."
The Chinese nationals practice five hours a day, every day. Their training camp is in session whenever the Chinese Basketball Association isn't.
"The physical punishment basically kills their bodies," Spencer says. "I'd hate to see this team if it had a day off every week and practiced two hours a day. Add a better diet and some weightlifting, and this could be one of the toughest teams in the world."

David Stern has done a fantastic job marketing the NBA to China since Yao Ming joined the league. China has some talented players. The problem is China's sports system. It's been "killing" young players with its antiquated training methods and coaching techniques. Look at the development of young point guards Chen Jianhua and Sun Yue. Chinese coaches just didn't know what to do with them. And despite all this, Sun Yue, a 6'9" pg who can windmill 360, is still projected to be a second-round draft pick in the NBA later this summer.

[RebelAzn]

David Stern has done a fantastic job marketing the NBA to China since Yao Ming joined the league. China has some talented players. The problem is China's sports system. It's been "killing" young players with its antiquated training methods and coaching techniques. Look at the development of young point guards Chen Jianhua and Sun Yue. Chinese coaches just didn't know what to do with them. And despite all this, Sun Yue, a 6'9" pg who can windmill 360, is still projected to be a second-round draft pick in the NBA later this summer.

China need some NBA or US college coaches. They need to send some of these kids to US colleges to play college ball. I can't imagine how good some of these kids would be if they get 4 years of coaching from coaches like Calhoun, K or Roy Williams. I know there are a lot of talent but they have to develop it properly.

USA has all the ABCD camps and summer leagues. China needs to adopt the system. They really need to get rid of these old style Chinese coaches that aren't winning games.

[RebelAzn]

Here is a video of future Chinese ballers.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1QL-qW_Svi4&mode=related&search=

There are a ton of videos like these on Youtube.