Yao Ming in the interview. Photo: CCTV

In response to an interview with CCTV on the Chinese men’s basketball team’s loss to Japan in the Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers on March 7, Yao Ming, an NPC deputy and chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), said that the disparity between China and the world’s high-level basketball teams lies in foundation.

On February 25, the Chinese men’s basketball team lost to Japan 73-76 in the second round of Group C group matches of the Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers held in Tokyo, Japan, marking China’s first loss to Japan in the FIBA tournaments at the Asian level and above.

Yao believes that the main reason for the loss was the mismatching of the game strategic positioning. The goal of Japan, with an average age of 28.6 years old, is to go all out to prepare for the Paris 2024, while China is in the reconstruction period of the old and the new, with the average age of only 23.5 years old.

And for such a young army that is in dire need of honing its lineup so as to gain experience and feel for the game, Yao views this lost as the beginning of the rebuilding process, and said that the next step for the CBA is to try to provide at least 10 to 15 high-quality international matches for the national team every year.

Yao believes that the shortcoming of the Chinese men’s basketball team is not in the athletes, but in the awareness of basketball trends.

In any sports competition, the ability of individual players is always significant. Based on this, Chinese basketball needs to abandon the inertia thinking that positions shouldn’t be limited by height. “In advanced basketball concepts, the first thing to look at is whether you can meet the requirements of the outside position,” said Yao. “When you can’t, then consider being a forward, or even a center.”

“If there are more people thinking about what the future of basketball looks like, and then train the next generation of athletes according to what they think, maybe we can step into the future earlier.” Yao said.

High-quality youth training then logically becomes the basis for catching up with the trend of world-level basketball. According to statistics, basketball is one of the most popular sports among Chinese youth, and does not lack a mass base and attention. So, what is the difference between Chinese basketball and the world-level basketball in terms of youth training that converts mass sports into elite sports? What are the main gaps between team China and the leading world-level basketball teams?

Yao believes that one is the tournament system and the other is the literacy of the coaches. 

“The world’s basketball powerhouse must have a strong league system as support. Assuming there is a kid playing in the “Village BA”, can we discover him through the tournament system, find him, or at least know him? Do we have a good coaching staff to train the kid according to the basketball knowledge he needs at each age? These are the things we have to focus on.”

Yao firmly believes that within China’s population, there is a lot of basketball talent. But it takes a lot of effort to transform the “potential stocks” into usable talents.