Players have been getting kicked off teams since team sports were invented. That's nothing new. I have yet to see a sports situation here in the U.S. where the government gets a hefty, and yearly million dollar cut of a players contract plus the right to demand that player come home and play for the NT, like a yo-yo on a string. I've known about Noam Chomsky for years, even he can't find anything remotely close to that here. ~ kountzer ~
Punishment for WZZ off the national team and denial of fame atleast in China, nothing wrong there. If Yao decides to spurn the NT, his punishment would be similar, but he'll definitely be hurt as far as endorsement goes. Most fans in China now hates WZZ, go to the sina boards to see. As far as million dollar cuts and stuff, I agree its stupid. Not just the Yao situation but the entire basketball league there is like slave labor, totally bs. But its like that in Europe as well when it comes soccer. Teams will sign a young promising player to a long term contract and then sell his rights once he prove himself for mad profits. Though I do think that the current CBA as an organization is f----- up, I have to say that paying a team to get a player to a diffrent league i.e. breaking contract, is totally fair.
Putting it into perspective, the Sino/American relationship has come a long ways. It's still very precarious, but I'd rather be trading basketball players with them than Nukes anyday. I still hate the fact that players like Yao Ming cannot devote themselves to preparing for the NBA 12 months a year. Who knows how good Yao could be if he stayed here a couple of off seasons and worked on his game. I can accept the status-quo of Yao's situation, being as how I have no other choice. ~ kountzer ~
The basketball sect is under the direct control of the main government in China, as is everything else. Maybe they are not rolling tanks down the middle of WZZ's parents house, a la Tianiamen Square, but you can best believe they are pulling major strings to see that he is punished for not doing what they want, namely not coming back last summer. And since when is it not a violation of civil rights when the gov't and other powers that be put 'the freeze' on you for exercising some harmless personal freedom? WZZ did not rob a bank or take a whiz on Chairman Mao's statute, all he did was made a wise basketball decision to stay over here during the summer, to work on his game. The government censuring him for that is not good ole, hardball business, that's facism. sorry.kountzer i didnot agree what you said.i live in beijing,the government of china isnot like what you said. i agree fruithater's view. "Wang had a contract and he broke it. That's business. And what freeze did they put on him? Is he forbidden to go to China now? Also, stop equating the government with government sports organizations. They are not the same; the Chinese bureaucracy is much more complicated than that. If a person gets kicked off Team USA, would you call the US a fascist government also?" i agree harrisment'view. "Yao just needs to stay here over the summer. Seriously, he is a human being, not a piece of property....he should be able to do whatever the hell he wants" i believe YAOMING will stay houston on summer.
Your post is sort of confusing, but I should of maybe left the politics to editorial columns and CNN. If I were a betting man though, I'd be willing to wager that Yao won't be spending his off season in the U.S. ~ kountzer ~
Ya see, what Yao needs to do is this: Next time he plays for the Chinese National Team, he needs to completely tank it and perform really badly. That way, China will want to get him OFF their national team, and he can get some rest during the offseason!
Did you watch the World Championships? They can't beat the Village People. The only way China will kick him off their team would be if he shrinks 6 feet.
Yes it does ring a bell, but what does that have anything to do with Chinese basketball or Yao? Now that you've tested me on my Chinese history, may I ask you if these ring a bell? Shay's Rebellion 1787 New York Draft Riots 1863 Kent State Massacre 1970 or any other incidents in which the government bought in troops to suppress popular movements You don't have to respond to this. My point is that you shouldn't bring up Tiananmen in unrelated conversations in order to bash the Chinese government. None of the incidents mentioned above can completely characterize and portray the governments they occured under.
Tiananmen Square incident happened 15 years ago. The government leaders changed, the society changed, the people changed. Although China is still under dictatorship, it's a vastly different country from 15 years ago. It's pretty old and outdated to use Tiananmen Square as an example to suggest a behaviour pattern for the current Chinese government. As for "government putting down freeze on a civilian who merely wanted to excercise his personal freedom", how about South Korea and Taiwan, two democratic regions that force their younsters to go to the army for two years? or the American civilians that were forced to be soldiers in the Vietnam war? Granted, there is a diffrence between the national interest of self defense and winning a basketball trophy, however, the Chinese govenrment is merely boycotting Wang's games on the TV network that they own. If a state owned TV network decides to put clamps on an individual that's not welcomed, it breaks no law. Wang Zhi Zhi's game is reported by privately owned media in China, such as sina.com. If the Chinese government issues an order to sina.com to blockade anything positive on Wang Zhi Zhi, then it's clearly a case of violating the free press rights. Still, it's still not violating Wang's personal freedom. Wang is punished to pursue freedom is established on the premise of no agreement was established prior to Wang's coming to USA, so far I've not seen any hard evidence to back up such alledgement. Does China treat Yao as their property? it's hard to answer as so far China hasn't shown any signs of treating Yao as their property. Frankly, I don't think any Chinese individual in China feels like they are the government's property. Case in point, recently there is a grocery store owner in Shenyang who's tired of all the hassling by the government inspectors, in terms of hygiene and tabacco inspection etc. as he refused to bribe those officials. So he filed several charges in the city court and won two of them against the government. The good part is, this is reported by CCTV, a government owned Tv network. This is also not an isolated individual case. Other Chinese civilians successfully carried out the same thing before. The civilian rights are awakening in China, along with its economic progress under the puedo-communism. The government and people have grown more civil compared to 14 years ago. It's just the beginning but to say any individual in China is the government's property is outdated. Hope this post can clear something up.
