I don't care if his competition were scrubs or not, that's impressive. http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/14319.htm
"The Knicks are expected to be on his agenda, as Chinese officials are hoping he is drafted by a big-market team with a big Asian population." Consider that fix <B>in</B>.
I don't think the NBA can afford to look that suspicious. 2 years ago, Thorn won, last year MJ won, and the Knicks too? I wouldn't be surprised if NY lands 2 or 3, though. Jason Williams would do wonders for them as well. Hopefully, the NBA sees one of the four largest cities, a team with a lot of young talent, a couple of championships, but hounded by injuries. The Nets had that luck.
i don't think china is that "suspicious" now either i could go into how china has changed over the last 10 years... but basically they didn't do it with wang or mengke and wang was really the star of the league for a long time but i guess when you've got a person or party wanting marketability and ease of transition for a player, it looks more shifty if it's a "communist regime" (china is communist still? HAH) than david stern or a high school coach worrying about a player from outside the country or high school's "transition" and "market area"
And Krause got it the year before, after MJ left. Am I the only one who finds this a bit strange? I know they have guys confirm the lottery, etc. But, we don't know if those guys are in on it as well. It isn't that farfetched.
Hehe, imagine if... The three lottery winners were the Rockets, the Clippers, and Knicks. That would mean the four largest cities would have the first 4 picks (Chicago gets #4). The Rockets are due. Three lotteries in a row, they were nice to Stern and beat the Mavericks/Cuban. Maybe David Falk will call in a favor for us.
So, I guess Clutch will be putting an end to the Lotto generator and we'll all be reading novels on draft night if the whole thing is rigged.
Reading a novel?!? I'd rather be frollicking with naked women. RM95, I love your sig. I can't count the number of times I've heard some idiot gripe about working overtime, because they'll have to pay so much in taxes. Now, the next time someone says that, I'll be able to offer them a rebuttal.
I may be mistaken, but isn't the lottery done with a random drawing of ping pong balls, (like most lotteries) with all lottery team representatives present and watching closely? I'm a cynic, too, but I don't think there's much room for shady business there. It would really, really suck if the chinese government is going to wait to see which team gets Ming's rights before they decide to make him eligible. The only other NBA franchises in cities with high asian populations would be the east coast- Seattle and LA, definitely. Maybe Sacramento? Golden State? Portland?
Since Don Chaney sees no impact players, and Sprewell and Houston both want Chris Wilcox, maybe we can make the Knicks an offer even if he lands there? If we can pickup Wilcox with the first of our picks, then Chris Marcus with the second, then can the Knicks refuse?
I thought that they kept the draft order a surprise. I thought they used a prominent accounting firm to certify the process. You know, like Andersen.
I searched the web and couldn't find precise numbers but the Chinese population in Houston, while significant, is by no means overwhelming. But Houston has the Chinese consulate at least, and a fair amount of business dealings with China. San Francisco, L.A., D.C., New York, and Chicago, I think, have the biggest Chinese American populations. It will be interesting to see what happens with Yao Ming because he can't just be drafted and traded like any other player. The Chinese would get confused and pissed off if it wasn't handled right. I know it isn't necessarily fair; it might even be B.S. But it's the reality in this situation. You can bet if NY could draft and keep Ming they would. Big market for Chinese population, big market for TV rights to broadcast his games overseas. If we can't get him, I just hope he gets drafted by an Eastern Conference team. I don't want Golden State, for example, to suddenly play well. We have enough competition in the West as it is.
Considering that those annoying Falun Gong protesters spend 24/7 in front of the damn place, I don't imagine they'd have a tremendously positive view of Houston as a result of the Consulate.
