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Yao: China's team needs to get smarter
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-30 10:31
Yao Ming believes his teammates on the Chinese national team need to get
stronger and smarter in order to compete for a medal at the 2008 Olympics,
though he wouldn't go so far as to endorse the solution offered by Del Harris.
Houston
Rockets center Yao Ming, left, talks to his translator Colin Pine
during an appearance at the NBA store to promote his newly published
autobiography 'Yao: A life in two worlds', Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 in
New York. [AP] | Harris, who coached China to an
eighth-place finish at the Athens Olympics, said the Chinese basketball
federation needs to allow its best players to compete in the European Leagues
over the next four years to prepare for the level of competition they'll face in
the Olympics.
The matter is a touchy subject in China, with the national federation eager
to improve the country's standing in international basketball but not wanting to
dilute the quality of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Given a chance Tuesday to agree or disagree with Harris, Yao took a
diplomatic stance.
"The CBA is thinking of ways to deal with that so that everyone is happy,"
the 7-foot-6 center said during an interview to promote his autobiography: "Yao:
A Life in Two Worlds."
"The thing we need to change the most right now is a lot of players play too
casually. It's a bad habit," Yao said. "It was something you could see a lot of
times. Next to scoring as the highest statistic on a player's line would be
turnovers, not rebounds or assists."
Yao Ming,
basketball player and new author, poses during an interview in a New York
hotel, September 29, 2004. His new autobiography is on shelves now, and
talks about his life before and after coming to the U.S. to play in the
NBA. [Reuters] | China matched its best Olympic
finish by coming in eighth at the Athens Games, the highlight a one-point
victory over the defending world champions from Serbia-Montenegro in the final
game of the opening round -- a win that Harris called the most rewarding of his
45-year coaching career.
Yao said that victory meant even more to him than carrying his country's flag
in the opening ceremony of the Athens Games because it was an honor he had
earned rather than had bestowed upon him.
China won 63 medals in Athens, finishing third behind the United States and
Russia, and plans an even stronger showing at the 2008 Olympics. Harris has not
said whether he would be interested in coaching the Chinese team again.
"He gave us a very clear goal every day," said Yao, 24, whose book describes
his childhood in Shanghai, his teenage years with the Shanghai Sharks' junior
team, the difficulties in gaining his release prior to the 2003 draft and his
experiences during his first two seasons in the NBA.
Among the highlights:
-- When he first turned professional at 13, his coach put the Sharks' junior
team through four practices a day -- the first beginning at 6 a.m. and the last
ending at 8:30 p.m.
-- He lost 60 percent of the hearing in his left ear when doctors gave him
the wrong medicine at age 7 for a problem with one of his kidneys.
-- The red friendship bracelet he wears on his left wrist is a keepsake given
to him by the only girlfriend he has ever had, 6-foot-3 forward Ye Li of the
Chinese national women's team. Ye rejected his advances for six months before he
earned their first date by giving her a collection of Olympic pins he collected
at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
-- His relationship with Chinese center Wang Zhizhi is not close, though Yao
hopes Wang -- who angered the Chinese federation by refusing to return to China
to prepare for the 2002 World Championships -- will be allowed back on the
national team by 2008.
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