Yes, I checked your link...did you check mine? The misunderstanding is coming from the fact that we are talking about two different events.. The question was about the Asian Games, which are the ones keeping Yao Ming from pre-season training right now.. Your link is about the Asian Championships Mine are about the Asian Games The Asian Championships are different from the Asian Games. In the link you provided, the Asian Championships were held in July in 2001 , August in 1999, and Sept in 1997. Whereas, the Asian Games(the ones Yao Ming is at right now) were held in Dec in 1998, Oct in 1994, Sept in 1990...etc. The second link is from the host city of this year's Asian Games, so I would think they would know the background of the games. Calling windandsea,redao, fwang..can any of you guys shed some light on this?
The Goldberg and Les should be run out of town. All along it was said in the media that Yao would be drafted ONLY IF they had the letter signed by the CBA. It was not. They came back and said that it would be done. They went over there again, it was not. They drafted him any way. SHAME ON THEM, and if that is the case, I have to say I agree with the guys on the show "Pardon the Interruption."
R2K - Yes, perhaps not deeply enough. Absolutely correct...however, I did persue this further and found the following to be true: 1) Starting in 1968, the Olympics were held every 4 years in an even numbered year - 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000. 2) In this same time frame, the Asian Games (your link) have been held every 4 years on an even numbered year not having and Olympics - 1970 Bangkok, Thailand 1974 Tehran, Iran 1978 Bangkok, Thailand 1982 Delhi, India 1986 Seoul, South Korea 1990 Beijing, China 1994 Hiroshima, Japan 1998 Bangkok, Thailand 2002 Busan, S. Korea 3) The Asian Basketball Championships (ABC) have been or will be held on all odd numbered years (my link). You have commented on three recent dates not conflicting with the NBA schedule but this has not always been the case. Historically, the ABC's have been held between October and January in 14 of 20 contests. 4) Since 1970, the World Games (also called the World University Games) have been held in the same year as the Asian Games. The is what is currently occurring (Indianapolis and then Busan). Sorry to beat this into the ground, but I am sure that misinformation does none of us any good. Given what we now know about scheduling, perhaps this is one of the details being finalized between the Rockets and the ChBA.
So given that we have uncovered all these dates, we can put them together and try to determine what years he will be needed by the Chinese. Its a given that he will be wanted for the World's, the Olympics, and the Asian Games. Do we know for certain that he will be wanted for the Asian Championships? I would think not considering that the Asian Championships are normally late in the year(during the season). The World's are normally in the summer, the Olympics are in the summer..and the Asian Games are in the fall(during pre-season). So that means that the Olympics will be in 2004,2008..etc The AGs will be in 2006,2010..etc and according to your research, the Worlds are in the same years as the AGs..so they would be held in 2006,2010... but the ABCs are held every other year in the late part of the year.. So I would imagine that if the Rox are demanding that Yao Ming be available for the full season, he would not be able to play for China at the Asian Basketball Championships. Considering that he will be available for them for the other major events, China will have to be happy with that and he will not be here for all of pre-season in 2 out of 4 years.. Starting with this year...he is missing camp in 2002...will probably miss in 2004, 2006 etc... Just my take on this...
