Man they are close off the court. But hasn't Yao heard the saying, "You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose. But you can't pick your friend's nose. "
just wondering if anyone could post a link or know of another airing of the game b/c I am really p!ssed I didn't check the board today until 7:00
Yi Jianlian stats showed 7 rebounds and 5 blocks in 24 minutes of play. Outblocked Yao. That translate to 14 rebounds and 10 blocks in 48 minutes. Not saying that's going to happen, but he has the potential to be the next kevin garnett. Wow. If Sacramento can invite liu wei for summer games, can houston do the same?
The replay is @ 09:00pm PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) • Basketball - "2004 Diamond Ball Tournament: China vs. Serbia-Montenegro" NBATV, Sat Jul 31 09:00pm PDT
IMO, the kid is still growing. He used to be listed as 6ft 11 (2.11M), then the nabdraft.net profile above showed him as 7ft. And the latest information on the FIBA Diamond Ball tournament, he is listed as 2.16 M (i.e. 7ft 1). (Please refer to the following from the Diamond Ball website) http://www.eurobasket2005.com/diamond_ball/team.php?id=500 And below is the latest team photo of the national team. Yi Jianlian is #11, standing beside Yao Ming. Compare him to MengKe Bateer (#14), who is 6ft 11. It is very obvious that Yi Jianlian has grown to be taller than 6ft 11.
No, the kid is not eligible yet. Liu is 24 already. A couple of Yi's block were pretty impressive. Yi and Yao if play right togeter, like the first half, might be the best interior defense in the Olympics, on par with the US team. Of course, Yi is still raw.
That's where the suspense part that had clouded over Yi Jianlian's age. Nbadraft.net has recently changed the DOB data of Yi Jianlian in his profile file from 1987 to 1984, hinting Ah Lian is a 19-year-old going to become a 20-year-old this October. But the information submitted to the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament, (and the Olympic as well) indicated Yi Jianlian as born 1987 October. So everyone is heatedly discussing about this "conspiracy theory" that CBA does not want Ah Lian to be eligible for NBA draft too soon, and wants him to remain in China, and represent China in Junior World Championship and other international tournaments for a few years more. I'm not sure the evidence I gave above (i.e. from when he was first listed as 2.11 M last year when he joined CBA to the latest 2.16M as listed on his profile in the Diamond Ball Tournament website) had proved that this kid has grown 1 ~ 2 inches during last year which is unusual for a 19 or 20-year-old !!!!
When does Yao become 229cm? I guess measurement is diff if you count bare foot or with shoes. So it is not sure Yi is 216cm or 211cm.
When does Yao Ming becomes 229 cm ??? LOL !!! That's the famous question of arguing whether Yao Ming is 226 cm (7ft 5) or 229 cm (7ft 6). The Diamond Ball website shows Yao Ming as 2.29M, as China files in those data, which is surprisingly the same as that listed on Yao Ming's NBA profile. So is Yao Ming officially 226cm or 229cm ?? http://www.nba.com/playerfile/yao_ming/index.html?nav=page
Bateer measured at 2.09m without shoes at last Quan(2)-Yun(4)-Hui(4), so he is not 6'11". Yi is more like 6'11 to me.
I guess only Yao knows his own height himself. The most credit information I read was a special report talking about big centers in China National Team History. They compared Mu(4)-ti(2)-zhu(4) and Yao side by side, and mentioned that Mu was taller and much stronger than Yao, but Yao was more skillful with better mobility. The reporter even got Mu to talk about himself and Yao. Mu was 2.28m, 160kg+.
