Wow! I am amazed at how many people apparently didn't get what macfan said was a joke! Seems like we all need a new sarcasm meter here.
He's a 20 year-old 6'9" point guard for the Chinese National Team. If he continues to develop, he should be playing in the NBA soon.
That kid is so good, not yet 20, 6'9" without shoes. Long and athletic, very very fluid, plays very calmly but with passion. Has great court vision. Always does the right thing at the very first moment. And he'll rebound, block shots and dunk on you. But he is stuck with a terrible owner who refused to let him to play for the national junior team and got the team banned for a whole season by the CBA. He is already on the nbadraft.net for 2007.
The Tall Blacks? There's a team nickname you don't hear very often. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3371408a12155,00.html China without NBA star for Tall Blacks match 09 August 2005 By GEOFF LONGLEY The Tall Blacks have spotted a few new faces in the Chinese team they will meet tonight in the opening match of a four-nation tournament in Perth, but not man-mountain Yao Ming. Yao, the 2.23m gargantuan who starred this year for the Houston Rockets in the American NBA, is resting up after ankle surgery, said Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin. Generally, NBA players are restricted to making few appearances outside of world championship and qualifying events. Yao may next appear at the Asian qualifier for the world championships in Qatar next month. The Tall Blacks recorded a narrow loss, 58-60, and a 21-point win against China in their two outings last month, but Baldwin predicted a close encounter. The win the Tall Blacks achieved in the second match on their way to winning the event was "one of those days when everything went right. You don't always have those in sport." The Tall Blacks' other rivals in Perth are Lithuania and Australia. Baldwin said he expected the tournament to be evenly contested. The Lithuanian team, which the Tall Blacks will play twice, is the national development side. It is not the first-string team, but is still tough opposition and won the Stankovic Cup event in China which followed the Tall Blacks' series there. "Judging by what we saw in China, this should be a pretty even series," said Baldwin. Australian has been strengthened by the return of three Athens Olympians, taking its tally to five. Baldwin said while it was a different Boomers side from that which went to Athens, the home nation was "reloading" its squad rather than "rebuilding" it. "They are just such a strong basketball nation with a powerful programme; there is never a weak team." Baldwin is unhappy about having to meet Australia during this tournament with the team scheduled to play its Oceania series in New Zealand next week. "They will be analysing us heavily and we will be scouting them likewise," Baldwin said. "Just how much we show and hold back I can't really say. We haven't decided that and it may come down to actual match situations if we decide to use some offences or defences." Baldwin will get another of his key players, point guard Mark Dickel, back today from his honeymoon. He would get game time against China. "I want him back getting familiar with our systems again, and knowing Mark, he won't have been away from a basketball for long. He is one of the most passionate players I know."
