No, they aren't enough to support your claim. It's a lousy JV tourney that shouldn't be keeping him from training camp. I seached the official site of the Busan Asian Games but couldn't find anything other than economic and goodwill goals combined with the exercising of the participating asian olympic organizations' processes and facilities - searched the faq, too. I suggest you keep an eye on the official site of the Asian Basketball Confederation to see when they announce where the 22nd Asian Basketball Championship will be held. (Rocket fans - this is where Yao will be next August - qualifying for the Athens Games. The USA will be in Brazil, I think, doing the same next summer.) Or, occasionally go hit this site to see if they have updated the info regarding next summer's ABC.
As far as I know, the criteria for some disciplines such as Basketball to be qualified for the Olympics depend on a country's final standings, which is not decided by just one series. Asian Games are closely related to Olympics, the Faq section of the official web site of Busan Asian Games talks about how to buy "Olympic memorial coins" for this Asian Games. Asian Games are also sanctioned by Olympic Council of Asia. Asian Men's Basketball Championship is not the only Olympic qualifier. Asian Games is a grand sport event in Asia so I won't call it a lousy tourney that doesn't worth to take part in. I've also proved with the Indian Hockey team article that the Asian Games, in which 6700 athletes and 3000 officials are participating now, are closely tied with the Olympic qualification - winning a gold medal can make a national directly qualify for the Olympics and that's a fact. The lack of direct proof isn't on my part. Even the official Olympic web site doesn't say anything about qualification process, let alone the Busan website. Unless I see a complete guide of Olympic qualification process that doesn't mention anything about the Asian Games, there's no doubt in my mind that Asian Games are tied with Olympic qualification.
He won't be in US before Oct 20, I predict. In various interviews, Yao Ming said that he would go back to Beijing after the Asian Games. He probably will take rest for a day. There will be celebrations for all players in order to boost everyone's morale as I expect. That will be another day. The NT will then be dissolved. Yao Ming goes back to Shanghai (Another day). Another round of celebrations and good wishes (two days). He will rest and take care of chores (two more day) and then head to US with his parents. The trip itself will be another day (from Shanghai to Los Angeles and then to Houston).
Me and Gater worked out all the dates for the Asian Games and the Asian Championships a few days back...Thread is here Asian Championships have been held every 2 years...the last ones were in July 2001 Asian Games have been held every 4 years...the next ones will be in 2006 Olympics are of course every 4 years..next ones are in 2004 So since I can't see a qualifying tourney being held too far away from their related Olympics...I would imagine that the Asian Championships are the qualifier since they should be held in 2003...which is the year before the next Olympics...
I believe w&s is correct. The Asian Championships (a biennial event) is the qualifyer. <blockquote><hr> Competition ABC regularly stages five main official competitions -- The Championships for Men, Women, Men "22-and Under," Junior Men and Junior Women. <b>These also serve as the Asian qualifying tournaments for the World Championships and the Olympic Games.</b> Championship for Men - This is held biennially on odd-numbered years. Participation is limited to 16 teams -- one from the host country, the best-placed five teams from the previous championship excluding the host and the top two teams from each sub-zone which have not qualified by virtue of the above<hr></blockquote> http://www.asianbasketball.com/about_abc/overview.asp ABC is the FIBA Zone for Asia, and they ecide on the Olympics and WC participants.
Yao ming is a freaking giant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are no electrical appliances in yao's dorm. I think the Korean offer the cheapest dorm to the chinese players....
On a totally unrelated note: Cinese women Table-tennis team just lost to N. Korea in the Asian Games, making it the first time in 11 years the Chinese lose any internatinal competition. hopefully men's Basketball team, led by Yao Ming, won't pull such a stunt.
You and W&S are right about Asian Men's Basketball Championship being Olympic qualifier, but it is only PART of qualifiers for Olympics. There's not only one way to Rome. A qualifying tourney can be held 2 yrs before Olympics. I heard that since Yugo won the gold medal in the WBC it's automatically qualified for the Olympics. USA, on the other side, has to further compete in order to be qualified for the Olympics since she lost in the WBC. Single discipline qualification can be carried out in tourney that targets a single discipline, such as Asian Men's Basketball Championship. There's also Asian Shooting Championship, Hockey Championship, Rugby Championship, Boxing Championship etc... The results of these tournaments matters but so are the Asian Games. Asian Games are the Asian Olympics with over 6700 atheletes and 3000 officials from over 44 countries competing in 38 disciplines. Allow me to further illustrate the importance of Asian Games. Asian Games are regulated by a regional Olympic council, the competition level therefore is acknowledged by the Olympic committee. Any record broken in the Asian Games are considered as BREAKING THE WORLD RECORD. An Asian Games gold medal doesn't hold any less water than an Asian Championship gold medal. That's why the India National Hockey team was directly qualified for the Olympics upon winning an Asian Games championship. There's four most important sport events in the world, the Olympics, the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the SEA games. This is from a Singaporean government sport document. Is an Olympic gold medal considered more important than a WBC gold medal? Yes. Is an Asian Games(as the Asian Olympics) basketball gold medal more important than a Asian Men's Basketball Championship? No doubt. There is also internet talks that talk about winning in the Asian games to qualify for Olympics in basketball and soccer disciplines. I don't consider those BBS talks as legit proof that's why I didn't list them, but I'll be glad to upon request. All the things I hear are pointed to the direction of Asian Games being Olympic qualifier, and I haven't seen any substantial counterpoint from naysayers, so I'll stick to it.
The Asian Games is not the qualifyer for the Olympics; give it up. See the links to the official Asian Basketball web site in my previous post.
If you check the link to the other thread in my last post...then check the links Gater and I looked up in that thread.. Then check the link that heypartner provided in his previous post.. I believe those qualify as "substantial counterpoint from naysayers" I'm not saying that your explanation is not possible, but I haven't seen as much verifiable proof to that effect as has been provided for the other viewpoint.
