OLYMPICS/ Team china
Olympic basketball hopes in jeopardy: Yao
By Xiao Chen (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-27 10:18
Basketball superstar Yao Ming is worried that China's recent shaky performances will cost it its lofty ambitions at next year's Beijing Olympic Games.
Chinese NBA star Yao Ming (R) shake hands with 18 year old basketball player Wu Fengmiao (L), who will compete in the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics, at a promotional event in Shanghai July 4, 2007. [Reuters] |
"The rivals of our recent warm-ups are not big teams," said the Houston Rockets star center. "But we still failed to play our game throughout the matches.
"This is the biggest problem right now for the national team."
Hopes are high that Coach Jonas Kazlauskas's team will achieve a podium finish at the Beijing Olympics, or at least a better place than the country's previous best of eighth.
But Yao is anything but upbeat about the team's prospects.
"At the Beijing Olympics, we will have totally different teams to play and all the matches are played successively," he said.
"We have to perform our best in a consistent way if we have to win and advance. If we lose some matches due to lack of concentration, we might have no chance at all."
The NBA All-Star joined the national team earlier this month and together with Milwaukee Bucks' new Chinese marquee Yi Jianlian led it to an unconvincing 5-1 record against two Australian clubs.
The players squandered big leads during the matches and continued to struggle to score points, especially when Yao was benched.
"Sometimes we can play very good game, but sometimes we could not," Yao said.
"It means we have to take more systematic trainings in the following time."
But the 226cm giant also pointed out some positives, singling out fellow big man Yi, the 2007 NBA No 6 draft pick, as strong backup inside the paint.
"He showed how good basketball he could play. I am sure he will give something more to the team after playing in the NBA season.
"We will have bigger advantage in the paint in the next year after Yi makes further progress from the world's best league."
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