I totally agree with this. When you have the government intervening in sports that basically means they will try to succeed at any cost to bring pride ot the country. Just ask Schwarzenegger or Russian wrestlers from the Cold War Era not named Dolph (well I guess you could ask him too but still). So, growth hormones, horse steroids, arranged marriages, eugenics, what have you...eventually every Chinese natl team member, even the PGs, will be over 7ft tall even though this makes no rational sense whatsoever. I'm not pinning the blame just on China, I'm just saying that we need to get over our hypocrisy of vilifying the ones who get caught and while maintaining absolute faith in everyone else. It happens in every sport in every country, it's just better organized in China. Another great example: Tyler Hansborough is a 7ft beast whose dad can't be more than 5"9-5"10 and is essentially a mirror image of Larry David. I think we need to just allow our athletes to do whatever it takes and eliminate the pretention that they achieved their physique on hard work alone. In the year 2300 all basketball players will be 9-11ft tall with half a wit and trigger-happy temperaments, occassionally running into the stands and killing people like monster trucks. They'll have increased the wall in the colosseum that encircles these basketball "matches" to 15ft of course, but that won't stop them all the time. Oh, and single-eye is optional.
Going by your reasoning.. the MLS should be on top of the soccer world and our Dynamo would be playing in a Colosseum with 100,000 fans. Go Dynamo!
They don't have the support network that Chinese athletes have though. I just can't imagine Africa emerging as a power in anything. Africa is in bad, bad shape in just about every way. I hope things improve there, but I don't see it happening in the immediate future.
The Chinese argument fails for the following reasons: 1) China is no hotbed for superior athletes, Yao is the greatest thing with the label "made in China" and he still isn't the best player in the League. How many Olympic medals and FIBA championships has China won? How many 1st round pick has it produced? 2) Economic power is worthless when your average per capita income is still 3rd world by modern standards. If the average Joe can't afford a TV or pair of tickets to watch the game then how are you going to make money? Please don't bring the population of billions argument when a majority of those people live in poverty conditions and have never seen a basketball game in their life. 3) Professional sports is a business and making money is a big part of it. No athlete wants to live and play in a country where the government gets a big chunk of salary for no good reason. Heck athletes will do anything to save buck like buy a million dollar house in states with no income tax. 4) Finally please explain why Yao the great left the Shanghai Sharks and made himself eligible for draft and the chance to play in the NBA, which you consider an to be inferior league?
It takes 15 people to make a team. If China/Asia can foot 30% of the players for the best league, and there's billions at stake to feed the best league, the rest would follow. It'd be about whether nba superstars would be willing to live in China for 4 years to take an insane amount of money. Probably not since most are pampered and spoiled divas.
They happened to win 32 Gold metals (2nd to our 36 Golds) in the 2004 Olympics. Perhaps you are only talking about the basketball medals? The thread starter has repeated again and again that he was talking about 20 years later. I wouldn't want to make a comment on this one now considering how rapidly their economy is growing. Are you talking about what is happening there today? I read the Chinese professional soccer players are making insane amount of money (in Asian sports standard). Basketball players there may not be doing as well but I think the problem is with the popularity of basketball over there. I hear the game attendance is not really that great. But I guess it's the same reason which explains the MLS players in the US are not getting decent salary either. Maybe because the NBA is obviously a much more superior league 5 years ago? Once again, the thread starter was talking about 20 years later. But I am with you here. I don't believe the NBA will become an inferior league in 20 years.
Outside of the USA the best basketball nations are Argentina, Serbia, & Lithuania. None are considered economic powers or have large populations. What they do have in common is a significant group of tall, athletic people and good coaching. I'm sure China has a number of tall people. I don't know how athletic they are. Coaching talents come and go. There is a number of talented basketball players coming from Africa these days. I could easily see some nation investing enough money to create a program that could become world class just like Argentina.
