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Li plays it by the book

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-28 08:30

The cover of Lantanfengyunlu, which roughly translated into English means "Bumpy ride in Basketball". [Provided to China Daily]

Former Chinese basketball chief blasts his predecessor/successor, claiming his attitude toward the sport is outdated if the nation is committed to professionalism, China Daily reports

Li Yuanwei, China's former basketball chief, has burst back into the spotlight with his recently-published autobiography, Lantanfengyunlu, which roughly translated into English means "Bumpy ride in Basketball? The book, published on Aug 24, discloses some sensational inside stories about China's basketball during his tenure.

The revelations of Li, who stepped down from the post last January and seemed to have disappeared from the sporting landscape, include Yao Ming's outburst at national teammate Mengke Bateer at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Li's refusal to go along with the NBA's China league plan.

However, his most damning comments are reserved for his predecessor and now successor to the post, Xin Lancheng.

Li, 61 and now a professor at Beijing Sport University, is well prepared for the aftershock of his book and said he is only telling the truth.

"Revealing the inside story is just to let the truth be told. I know that these (inside stories) may cause some debates and I am ready," Li said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

"This book is not only a personal summary of my five-year tenure, but a record of the milestones through those years which may be a point of reference for my successors," Li said when asked what inspired him to write the book. "Some precious discoveries would eventually become dust and lost to history unless I wrote them down."

What attracts a lot of attention in the book is Li's thoughts about Xin, who was replaced by Li as basketball chief in 2003 and took over the post again after Li's retirement. He argued Xin, a strong believer in China's traditional state-support training and managing system, destroyed "Polaris", a basketball development plan focusing on NBA-like professionalism initiated by Li.

"I never imagined this (Xin's return to the post) would happen," Li said, "Five years of exploration seem to be wasted. If I knew this, I would not have taken the job in 2003."

When Li took over the post, the national league faced difficulties due to a lack of star players - after Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming left to play for NBA teams, a lack of competitiveness and poor media coverage. To save the league, Li launched "Polaris", a 10-year professional reform blueprint for the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in 2004. Then followed arguably the best period in the CBA's history.

The league's TV ratings reached a peak in 2005 when a total of 315 million people watched CBA games. The Swiss-based Infront Sports Management Group inked a contract with the CBA that same year to run the marketing operation, which has brought $6.5 million in revenue to the league each year since then.

The emergence of Yi Jianlian, the Washington Wizards forward who used to play for the CBA champion Guangdong Tigers, is also recognized as of a major achievements during his tenure.

However, his brainchild, "Polaris", came to an abrupt end when Xin returned to the post.

"I don't think he (Li) made the best choice for China's basketball development. We are not familiar with professionalization, so we couldn't copy the ready-made model of the NBA. Actually, we should go our own way concerning our conditions," Xin said after assuming the post.

Li defended his program and said Xin was simply too obsessed with medals.

"Long-term plans for the league are always going to compromise the chances to win Olympic gold medals, but that is the reality of how professional sports grow," he said.

"The fact is that the league is not the burden but the foundation of the national team's international performance. It is like the engine of our hoops' system and everything starts from it. But some higher-level leaders understanding of this is so limited," said Li.

He revealed he was placed under pressure ahead of the Beijing Olympics when senior sports officials forced him to trim the CBA league schedule for the 2007-08 season to accommodate the national team's preparations for the Games.

"Professionalism is a world-wide trend. But we still treat it as the rebel against orthodoxy. So we have to free our minds to let basketball go the professional route it is supposed to take, despite the fact the state-support system still plays a big and important role in certain events right now," said Li.

No matter what, Li can hold his head high; apart from overseeing the rapid growth of the CBA league, He also steered the national men's team to an eighth-place finish in Beijing - its equal best performance at the Games - and the women's side reached the semis.

"He (Li) did a great job during his tenure and accomplished the national teams' missions pretty well. Also, the CBA's reform brought notable achievements," Cai Zhenhua, the deputy minister of the General Administration of Sport, said in praise of Li.

China Daily