Basketball in China – Not NBA Ready
The NBA and the CBA have been working together in recent years trying to develop the Chinese basketball level and bring it to new heights. That partnership took another major step in October when the NBA and CBA announced a comprehensive multi-year collaboration to foster coaching development in China.
One part of the new deal will see NBA experienced coaches,trainers, and even nutritionists lecture at the CBA’s exisiting coaching camps. But the more interesting aspect will be Chinese coaches in the making having the chance to travel to the US to experience first hand how teams are run by learning through NBDL teams and coaches. They will be able to attend practices as well as receive personal training from the NBDL coaches. Things are also working the other way around, with American coaches coming to coach in the CBA as is the case with the Shanghai Shark’s new head coach, Bob Donewald Jr.
Many have wondered when exactly the NBA will make its defining move and stamp its brand on an actual league in China. This latest development signals that the NBA is taking things slowly and is still quite a long way away from any such major steps.
At the heart of the matter is the reality that has sunk in that the basketball level in China is still in need of major improvement before the NBA can really be fully associated with it.
Recent basketball development concerning China has not been encouraging. It started with the defeat at the FIBA Asian Basketball Championships during the summer. China was hosting the competition in Tianjin and were eager to take back the Asian trophy they had relinquished two years ago, but yet were handily defeated by 18 points in the finals by a tougher and more organized Iranian side. The lack of Yao Ming both in these championships and around NBA circles has highlighted once again the massive importance he holds for basketball in the PRC. It was expected that there would be promising players ready to carry forward the progress of Chinese basketball but those are expectations are crashing quite rapidly.
Yi Jianlian was banked on to be among the leading candidates to take over the rains, but he disappointed with his lackluster performance in the Asian Championships. Furthermore, in the 2009-2010 NBA season he was injured after only 4 games and his team, the New Jersey Nets, might just make history as the worst team in the history of the NBA. Sun Yue similarly has been a big disappointment being first waved by the Lakers for salary cap reasons, followed by the lowly New York Knicks. One would have thought the Knicks could have at least used him for Marketing purposes with the city’s large Asian population and poor basketball record, but instead Sun now finds himself back in Beijing. This, compounded with all the troubles the CBA is facing at home, is making it quite clear that a lot of work still needs to be done.
A while back, I had a conversation with a Basketball Director from Nike China and he told me that in 10 years, China will have caught up with the rest of the world in terms of basketball capabilities. I was shocked to hear the claim then, and I’m equally not sure of it now. While NBA China, sports consultancies, and even the CBA have taken big steps in the right direction, there are still some crucial elements that I believe are being ignored. Next time, I will share ideas I believe need to be considered to really step up the development of basketball in China.
More proof positive that the Chinese coaching style needs to change:
Working overtime
Chinese coaching philosophies are too dated
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Latest: Monday September 18, 2000 11:48 AM
SYDNEY, Australia — Watching the Chinese basketball team go out to a 20-16 lead against the U.S. Sunday night, only to lose 119-72, two sentences reverberated in my head. They’re from John Anthony Spencer, a former star at Howard who spent several seasons as a basketball soldier-of-fortune in the Middle Kingdom.
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.”
A prime example: Hu Weidong, a guard who came off the bench Sunday night. Four years ago he was among China’s best players, good enough to be invited to the Atlanta Hawks’ training camp. Then he tore up his knee — surely, says Spencer, a former teammate of Hu’s, as a result of the national team coaching staff’s determination that players chi ku, or “eat bitterness.”
Why do the sages of Chinese hoop persist in their counterproductive methods? The answer may lie in a comment from Ma Jian, who was the first Chinese athlete to play college ball in the U.S. Ma tells me that when he was a member of the national team a decade ago, he approached coach Jiang Xingquan — the same man who’s guiding China in these Games — and pleaded with him to give the players a regular day off. Jiang not only refused, but explained his refusal with a line that illustrates how thoroughly bureaucratic thinking still permeates Chinese sports.
“We must practice every day,” Jiang told Ma. “That way, if we lose, I can tell the higher-ups that I’ve done everything I could.”
If you caught the sparks of possibility last night from 7-5 Yao Ming and 7-foot Wang Zhizhi, that comment will strike you as a horrible shame. Yao and Wang deserve a better chance to become the best players they can be.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Alexander Wolff is in Sydney covering the Games for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Wolff’s behind-the-scenes reports from Down Under.
To say that the reason the Chinese are not more successful because they are tired is the lamest excuse I have heard in a long time only a damn fool would believe such an idiotic statement. China can produce great NBA-type players but at a much lower clip than even caucasians. But I do believe the Chinese stand a good chance of genetically engineering their was out of this dilemma and will eventually produce NBA players at a more proprotionate rate.
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