“I think we’re not bad at the basics, but we do lack a competition system,” the former Houston Rockets player said.

“Let’s say a child is playing in the village basketball league, can we discover him, find him, or at least know about him through our competition system?”

Speaking to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday, Yao also said that he believed his country needed to upgrade its youth coaching resources.

“The quality of coaching staff is what we need to focus on,” he said. “Do we have the right set of youth coaching staff, which can, in every age group, train our children according to the basketball knowledge they need?

“I firmly believe that with China’s population, we have a lot of basketball talent. But can we turn players from a potential stock into a talent that can finally be used? I think this requires a lot of effort on our part.”

The CBA filled only 900 seats on the first of the event’s two days at the 18,000-capacity Phoenix Hill Sports Park, with the official overall attendance of 15,000 falling about 6,000 below that of the previous edition.

Yang, the 7ft 1in (2.16-metre) centre from Qingdao Eagles, is widely tipped to be the next Chinese to play in the NBA, potentially through the 2025 or 2026 draft, following in the footsteps of the likes of Yao, Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian and Zhou Qi.

Chinese basketball commentator Chen Zhenghao said Yang was the closest to having the ability to reach NBA standard among the current crop

“Yang has his weaknesses, but those will be vastly improved after he starts playing in the NBA,” Chen said. “His core strength and explosiveness may not be good now, but he’s still young, so the sky is the limit for him.

“I hope he can reach the NBA sooner rather than later, or at least train in the United States, because I think the training environment in China will affect his growth.”