China basketball chief Yao Ming has said he was unsurprised to see the men’s national team’s struggles last year at the Fiba World Cup and the Asian Games on home soil, because they reflected the state of the domestic league.
The former Houston Rockets star said Chinese basketball needed players who could “make a decisive contribution in decisive victories”.
Speaking in the 10th and the final episode of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV’s documentary The Past Summer, Yao pointed out the reasons behind China’s failure in the two tournaments.
“I am rather familiar with how this group of players train, and play in the league,” the president of the Chinese Basketball Association said. “When you understand how they performed in the league and compared them with the world’s standard, you wouldn’t find [losing those matches] strange.
“When you saw what happened on the court, first you have to judge whether it’s normal or not. Whatever happens, you either accept it or not because you know it is normal or abnormal.
“And looking at the tournaments, especially after the World Cup, if you think about their performance, you will find that it is normal to a certain extent.”
China won only one of their five games in the Philippines last summer and a landslide 96-75 loss to the hosts in the final game saw the Chinese lose their final chance of qualifying for the Paris Olympics, and eventually missed out for a second consecutive time on the Games.
The world No 29 side then lost to the Gilas Pilipinas again at the Hangzhou Asian Games before swallowing their first loss in an official Fiba match to Japan since the 1936 Berlin Olympics, 88 years ago, in February.
In response to Zhou Qi’s comments in the previous episodes, in which the star centre suggested none of the current crop of players could reach the level of previous leaders of the Chinese men’s basketball team, Yao listed the qualities he believed one had to possess to be considered a leader.
“It’s simple – he who leads must be someone who makes decisive contribution in decisive victories,” he said.
“It’s almost impossible to find a leader on a losing team; the team needs to have results for a player to become a leader.”
With no international basketball until the next World Cup in Qatar in 2027 – if China make it out of the Asian qualifiers, that is – Yao urged, among other things, the younger generations to go overseas to play.
“Players should be encouraged to watch and listen to public opinions more because this will allow those really good players to grow up faster,” the former NBA draft top pick said.
“Players should also dare to make mistakes too, for there’s no hope when you don’t even dare to make mistakes.”
