China could be surprise in basketball - Ginobili
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-19 10:24

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine basketball player Emanuel Ginobili, who has been three-time champion of the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs, said Wednesday that China "could give an unexpected win" in the men's basketball, although he said "(they) don't have the potential to achieve a semifinal."

Ginobili, who plays as shooting guard, told Xinhua that even without having Yao Ming in its physical plenitude, the China's basketball national team, "could complicate, could win one important match, or make an unexpected win, a surprise."

"However, I doubt they (Chinese team) have potential to achieve the semifinal," Ginobili said.

Ginobili, who won the gold medal in the Athens Olympics in 2004, could be out of Beijing due to a lesion in his left ankle, although the final decision will be taken on the first week of July, after medical checkups in San Antonio.