Got it from the Sixers board. ESPN Insider Article About Basketball and China -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An interesting Read Quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOS ANGELES -- Shaquille O'Neal might be the most dominant big man in the NBA, but for the second consecutive year at All-Star weekend, it's been Yao Ming towering over just about everyone else. If being voted as an All-Star starter over Shaq for the second straight year isn't enough, the NBA threw a little party in Yao's favor Saturday that should've made him feel just a little closer to home. Flanked by Yao on one side and Disney president Michael Eisner on the other, NBA commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA would play two preseason games in Beijing and Shanghai in October against the Sacramento Kings . The games will be broadcast by ESPN on Oct. 14 and Oct. 17. The announcement is, in many ways, the real story here on All-Star Saturday. Stern's news about the NBA's strengthening relationship with China should send shivers down the spines of basketball isolationists wondering when the NBA's infatuation with all things international would end. "This is part of a long-term effort to enhance the relationship between sports fans in the United States and sports fans in China," Stern said. "With respect to that will be looking for many areas of mutual cooperation including the playing of basketball, clinics ... the kinds of things that bring people together." Stern said that the NBA plans to use this as a launching point to have coaches visit, official clinics begin and hopefully a flood of 7-foot Chinese immigrants into the NBA. "In short, this begins a basketball cultural exchange between the NBA and the Chinese basketball association," Stern said. "This is the next natural step for us." Stern went on to claim that if China can find a proper arena to house a regular-season game, we'll likely see one in the next two or three years. What's the big deal about a preseason game in China? It's not the game that matters, but the growing bonds between the league and China that eventually could dramatically alter the future of the league. To get a handle on the significance, you've got to go back to 1998 when Mavericks scouts Donnie Nelson and Tony Ronzone made their way to China to check out Wang ZhiZhi . Ronzone, who was a coach in United Arab Emirates at the time, had seen ZhiZhi at a tournament in Asia and told Nelson about the skinny 7-footer whom he felt could make it into the NBA with the right training. Nelson and Ronzone took off to China in early 1998 to get a look at ZhiZhi and came back in awe of what they found -- literally millions of Chinese hungering and thirsting after the game of basketball. There are 200 million registered basketball players in China. It seemed to Nelson and Ronzone like they met every one. The trip consisted of several basketball clinics and nightly dinner meetings with Chinese officials in an effort to build the trust that would lay the groundwork to bringing a Chinese player to the NBA. The efforts weren't always easy. "When it was time to eat, the Chinese will show you beforehand what you're going to get," Ronzone told Insider. "Whatever you're going to eat, it comes out in a bag alive. One night they brought out a bag with three or four giant king snakes. Donnie said, 'If were going to eat a snake, better go with the biggest.' " To wash the king snake down, the host passed around a glass filled with sake with a round snake gall bladder in the bottom of the glass. They used chop sticks to mash the bladder into a green mush. Ronzone and Nelson both had to chug it down. Their efforts on the court weren't any easier. One day they showed up to help with a three-on-three tournament to find 4,000 eager kids waiting to be trained by the two scouts. "They just love basketball in China," Ronzone said. "They're crazy for it. We've never seen anyone more enthusiastic than the Chinese. The response was overwhelming." The sacrifices paid off. Not only did Nelson and Ronzone get their man Wang, he was a huge hit when he arrived in Dallas one and half years later. Wang's first game with the Mavericks came amidst a growing controversy with the Chinese over a downed American spy plane that the Chinese wouldn't release. Nelson said he was nervous the first time Wang stepped onto the floor, not knowing how the conservative Texas fans would react. "When they announced his name at the scoring table, the entire crowd gave him a standing ovation," Nelson said. "It was one of the most special moments in my career. I knew then that if we would embrace him in that environment, there was a big place for the Chinese in the NBA." ZhiZhi may have been the immediate goal, but it was another young prospect in China who turned out to be gold. Ronzone also stumbled into a 17-year-old named Yao Ming during a visit there. "He had a great lower body and unbelievable hands," Ronzone said. "The most impressive thing was that he loved to play basketball. He'd stay after practice to keep shooting around. That's so rare in big men, I knew he was something special." Nelson shrugs off any of the credit for Yao claiming he would've been found eventually. "Yao was an NBA player," Nelson told Insider. "Eventually we always find them." Still, you have to wonder if those two hadn't downed that snake that night whether the history of Chinese basketball and the NBA would have been the same. Ronzone spent the next few years living in and out of China. In 1999, he became the first American ever to coach the Chinese junior national team. In 2001, he served as the first American assistant to the national team where he coached Yao, ZhiZhi and Mengke Bateer . By the time the Rockets drafted Yao in 2002, the NBA had forged a solid relationship with China and, with much persuasion and a record buyout, the league and the Rockets persuaded the Chinese to give the NBA their national treasure. Stern predicts that next time, the league won't have to twist China's arm to allow another top player to leave for the NBA. "I don't believe that will be a difficult issue in the future," Stern told Insider. "As more Chinese players develop and there's a stronger talent pool and as long as the players are available for international competition, as Yao has been, I think that will ease the concerns that led up to the technical difficulties we had in bringing Yao here the first time." At Saturday's press conference, the Chinese seemed to agree. "Yao now belongs not only to Shanghai, but to China and the world," Sun Kanglin, president of the Beijing Bureau of Sport, said. "We hope to continue to promoted the cultural exchange between our two countries." Believe it or not, Yao is just the beginning. What Ronzone describes is a sleeping giant in China. "The potential there is unlimited," Ronzone said. "There are more people playing basketball in China right now than the entire population of the United States. That is an amazing pool to pull from." With players like Yao, ZhiZhi and Bateer getting big time exposure in the United States and China, the result has been a rapidly improving Chinese pro league. Now, the league imports solid players like former NBA players Olumide Oyedeji , Mark Stickland, Chris Herren and Roy Tarpley and former NCAA stars like God Shamgod and Jamaal Watkins. "Their pro league has improved dramatically over the last few years," Ronzone said. "Their players are playing against better competition, and they're really improving in all aspects of the game. We've really only scratched the surface over there. With 1.2 billion to choose from, it's only a matter of time before the Chinese have a significant presence here." Ronzone claims that he's already found twenty 7-footers between age 13 and 17 in recent trips to China. Scouts already have identified several other top prospects starting with 17-year-old phenom Yi Jianlian, a 7-footer who several scouts are already comparing to a young Kevin Garnett . Yi is athletic, has a complete inside-outside game and is already starting and contributing for the Guangdong Huanan Tigers. Several scouts claim he'll be a top five pick, maybe No. 1 overall, when he's allowed to come into the NBA. More conservatively players like Zhu Fangyu (a 6-foot-8 Majerle clone), Mo Ke (who some scouts compare to Matt Harpring ) and Tang Zhengdong (a young 7-foot-1 prospect) also figure to be drafted in the next several years. Stern predicts that in the near future, Chinese players will outnumber the other international imports into the NBA. "I have no doubt that there will be as many elite NBA players from China than in any other continent in the NBA." Ronzone nods his head in agreement. "It's going to happen."
