Posts tagged ‘fiba’

While a lockout fills pro basketball headlines in America, United States counterpart China has recently made a recovery from potential basketball disgrace. By winning the 2011 FIBA Asia tournament, reclaiming the title from Iran (winners of FIBA Asia in 2007 and 2009), their men’s national team has secured a spot in the 2012 Olympic games. Much of the thanks is due to the massive nation’s current basketball cover boy, and likely former Washington Wizard, Yi Jianlian.

In a country where the government hopes to manufacture basketball success by building a court in every village, making the cut to play in London was pretty important. The problem is the next step, competing with the best in the world; China has played men’s basketball in the past seven Olympics but has never finished better than eighth. And while he is now their star, Yi has done little to cure anxiousness for success.

Guan Weijia on SheridanHoops.com highlights the issue many Chinese have with Yi: “Fans are dissatisfied with his performance in the NBA, believing he is wasting his talent and playing too soft. Yi has many nicknames, none of which are complimentary.”

The Chinese national team was already smarting from the retirement of Yao Ming in July. In August they came up short at the Stankovic Cup, winning one game and losing seven at the China-hosted event. They lost three games to Russia, one to New Zealand, one to Australia, and won just one of three games against Angola. Worth noting, however, that the minutes of Yi were limited during the Stankovic. Bob Donewald, American coach of the Chinese national team, indicated that he wanted to bring him along gradually. Still, the masses were less than satisfied.

Later in August, China went 0-5 at an international basketball friendly, the London Invitational Tournament. They lost to Australia by 28, Serbia by 34, France by 17, Great Britain by 8, and Croatia by 30 points. Yi averaged 16.8 points, just 6.6 rebounds and a scant 40.8-percent shooting. In addition, during all this, a black eye to China’s basketball discipline arrived courtesy of an on-court brawl in Beijing between a team featuring players connected to the China’s People’s Liberation Army and a team of athlete-students from Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown University.

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[Linas Kleiza hops past Yi Jianlian on his way to a game-high 30 points. Photo/FIBA]

On Tuesday, in their FIBA 2010 knock-out stage opener, Yi Jianlian and China took on Linas Kleiza and a strong, undefeated Lithuania team. In many ways, this contest followed the same script seen in the China-Puerto Rico game. China jumped out to a quick 16-5 lead with contributions from Wang ZhiZhi, Sun Yue, Liu Wei, Wang Shipeng, and Yi. China held a 22-17 lead at the end of the first quarter. That lead wouldn’t last much longer, however. With 4:52 left in the second quarter, Robertas “The Shark” Javtokas gave the Lithuanians a one-point advantage — one they wouldn’t surrender. China’s 11-3 run in the 4th quarter pulled them within five, but it was too little, too late. Final score: 78-67 Lithuania, who advanced to the FIBA quarterfinals to face Argentina, who edged Brazil 93-89 in Tuesday’s nightcap.

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Had enough of Yi Jianlian yet? I’ve got some good news and bad news. Bad news first. According to a report by the China Daily, and a story on the FIBA website, Yi sat out of Thursday’s game against Turkey with an injury to his Achilles tendon.

China’s coach, Bob Donewald, said that the Achilles was “inflamed a little bit,” and that Yi would be getting an MRI on it. Donewald also called Yi a “warrior,” because he played hurt after sustaining the injury Wednesday against Russia. Surely cringe-worthy news for Wizards brass. Those darn international competitions.

Now for the good news, or actually, bad news depending on how you look at it. Even though China went 1-4 in Group C at the FIBA Worlds, they advanced to the knock-out stage (four out of six teams from each of the four groups do). The Ivory Coast, whom China beat, and Puerto Rico, who beat China, were the two teams from the group sent home. All three finished with a 1-4 record, but China held the three-team tie-breaker.

On Thursday morning (on the East Coast), the Ivory Coast beat Puerto Rico for their first ever win in a FIBA tournament. China was aware of this result heading into their 2 pm Thursday afternoon game against Turkey. Knowing they would advance regardless likely contributed to Yi resting; China lost to Turkey 87-40.

China will play Lithuania on September 7th. If they win that game (unlikely, Lithuania went 5-0 in Group D), they will face the winner of Argentina and Brazil. I’d love to see Yi against either of those front lines. Read more »

“Bob Donewald, the coach of China, is buoyant … Energy, Enthusiasm, and Effervescence could well be his middle names. He brings this chump Chinese team to the brink of advancing to that last 16, but only if he can overcome Dallas Mavericks’ Juan Barrea and his Puerto Rican compatriots.” — Nick Bent/Mick Dent/FIBA Commentator?

Coach Donewald wasn’t able to beat Puerto Rico this past Tuesday. Juan Barrea is by no means a stateside superstar, but his play-making skills and command of the offense in FIBA play proved to be too much for the “chump Chinese.”

No, guard play killed the Chinese on this night. As Kyle Weidie plainly pointed out on Twitter:

China’s guards are absolutely horrid. If they had someone halfway decent…. (and no, Sun Yue is not halfway decent).

The game should have been simple: give the ball to Yi. The commentator described him as, “One of the men in the tournament” and his skills were on display early and often, despite an inconsistent supply of basketball.  China raced to a hot start, making seven of their first eight shots. Yi’s first points came on a great post up and baseline move, finishing with a quick hook shot. Yi then hit a sweet three on a rare pick and pop situation. His partner in crime, Wang Zhizhi, racked up ten points before driving and dumping to a cutting Yi on the baseline for the easy flush. Read more »

Not long after Washington Wizards fans started making preseason plans and deciding what they would do in their down time until training camp leading up to the October 5th 2010-11 preseason opener, the AP’s Brian Mahoney Tweeted that Brook Lopez of the New Jersey Nets would be pulling out of the FIBA World Championships as he continues to recover from mono. His replacement? JaVale McGee.

Now, it’s unclear if this means that McGee has made the final roster of 12 players, or if he’s just replaced Lopez amongst the cut of 15 that now includes Chauncey Billups, Tyson Chandler, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon, Danny Granger, Jeff Green, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love, Lamar Odom, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, in addition to McGee.

Common sense would say that, since Team USA was already thin at the center position, McGee will straight up replace Lopez. But what’s common sense worth anyway? Team director Jerry Colangelo has said that they might take a couple of extra players with them as they travel to Europe before the tournament. Team USA is scheduled to play exhibition matches against Lithuania on August 21 and against Spain on August 22 (both to be held in Madrid, Spain). They will play a final exhibition game against Greece in Athens on August 25 before arriving in Turkey, which is kinda in both Europe and Asia … Eurasia, for the FIBA tournament the next day, which is essentially when Colangelo will be required to submit an official roster of 12.

But first, McGee will report to New York City by next Tuesday, August 10, for continued training with the team, including an exhibition game against France on Sunday August 15 at 1 p.m. (EDT) at Madison Square Garden. Yi Jianlian and the Chinese team will take on Puerto Rico following the USA-France game.

So, it’s yet to be seen if McGee will be afforded the opportunity to play in for real, for real international competition … but in the least, we’re guaranteed to see several more scenes like the one below — McGee being mentored by a great NBA vet and training against some of the top talent in the world. In the basketball doldrums that’s usually the entire month of August, the bare minimum scenario is a pleasant surprise that’s more than Wizards fans could ask for.

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{image via bscup.tom.com}

Reports have surfaced that Yi Jianlian injured his arm playing for China in an international competition, the Stankovic Cup, held in Liuzhou, China, while getting ready for the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey [hat tip to Matt Moore of ProBasketballTalk]. Initial reports only indicated that Jianlian suffered an “injury” to his right arm, and that forced him to sit out the second half of China’s loss to Slovenia. However, Jianlian came back and played in the next game against Iran.

In their first game on July 28th, China lost 64-63 to Australia. Jianlian led the Chinese with 17 points and 10 rebounds in just over 17 minutes of game time. But Australia’s David Andersen, who was recently traded from the Houston Rockets to the Toronto Raptors, scored a basket in the game’s final 10 seconds to give the Aussies a one point victory. Andersen finished with eight points and seven rebounds. Patty Mills led Australia with 13 points.

On July 29th the Chinese faced Iran and defeated them 86-64. Jianlian had 16 points (7-12 from two-point land, 0-1 from three, 2-2 from the free-throw line), 10 rebounds (two offensive), three blocks, one steal, two assists and three turnovers in 28 minutes of action.

Jianlian was injured in his third game on July 30th against Goran Dragic and Slovenia. Yi was limited to just 11 minutes and scored 11 points, grabbing only two rebounds. Dragic, a member of the Phoenix Suns, notched a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. With Jianlian on the bench for the second half, Slovenia prevailed over China 75-71.

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