Report: Yao, Chinese club reach agreement Associated Press -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEIJING -- Yao Ming's agent says the 7-foot-5 center has reached an agreement on compensating his Chinese team if he is selected in the NBA draft, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. Compensating the Shanghai Sharks is a key issue in whether Yao goes to the NBA, where he is expected to be the No. 1 choice by the Houston Rockets in Wednesday's draft. "We have reached agreement in principle with the club,'' Xinhua quoted agent Zhang Mingji as saying. The agency said Zhang would not elaborate. Zhang wasn't immediately available for comment, but Yao scheduled a news conference for Saturday night. The 22-year-old Yao would be the third Chinese player in the NBA after Wang Zhizhi of the Dallas Mavericks and Menk Bateer of the Denver Nuggets. Xinhua on Friday quoted the Chinese Basketball Association as saying Yao can't go to the United States for the draft because he is training with China's national team for a four-nation tournament this month. However, it said, "Whether or not Yao Ming participates in the draft will not affect whether he later plays in the NBA.'' According to Xinhua, the association also said Yao was expected to join the Chinese national team for a world championship qualifier in August and the Asian Games in October. The Rockets would want Yao in their training camp in October. A crew from Turner Sports will be in China to interview Yao live by satellite hookup during the draft, NBA spokesman Terry Lyons said.
ESPN just reported that Yao and the Sharks had reached an agreement. They said Houston just needs to reach an agreement with Yao (sign him) and the Chinese Govt if they draft him. I don't know exactly how hard the deal with Chinese govt will be or if it is a formality.
To give credit where it's due (not taking anything away from Old School who scoops more than Ben & Jerry's), a relatively unknown poster named CinciRocketFan broke this story this morning at 6:04am in the Draft forum. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36122 To make it even more bizarre, our "Chinese correspondent" and draft MVP windandsea broke the story from a Chinese report at exactly the same time! http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36123 Technically CinciRocketfan won, but hey, the times are the same. Thanks for keeping us all in the loop guys!
the deal with chinese goverment won't include money. It will be easily done by open-minded nothing-lost officals on the spirit of China-USA friendship developing.
The DRAFT forum??? Tell him to post any Ming news over here! The Rockets are the only team drafting that I care about! os
To be honest, I just noticed Clutch may have out-scooped them all. I really need to read the front page more...
