Center Wang Zhizhi Required to Join National Team

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Center Wang Zhizhi Required to Join National Team

The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) broke silence on Wang Zhizhi's status with the national team and asked the center to join his teammates as soon as possible.

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The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) broke silence on Wang Zhizhi's status with the national team and asked the center to join his teammates as soon as possible.

"We expected Wang Zhizhi to contact the CBA as soon as possible and make the right choice," a senior CBA official said in an interview with the China Sports Daily published on Wednesday. The report did not give the name of the official but named him as an "chief official from the CBA".

The China Sports Daily also published a letter sent from the CBA to Wang Zhizhi in late July, in which the CBA promised not to punish Wang for his delay on national duties.

"If only you return from abroad to train and play with the national team, the CBA and the Bayi Rockets will not make any punishment to you," the letter reads.

"You can still sign with any NBA team and play in the NBA in the future,"

"We have already put you on the national squad lists for the world championship and the Asian Games, please give up your unnecessary worries."

Wang Zhizhi was not included in the recent published 12-member squad for the upcoming world championship in the United States but was listed as one of the two substitutes.

Wang, the NBA's first Chinese player, played his first full season in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks last season and threw himself into the center of rumors by staying in the United States after the season to train alone.

The official admitted that Wang should return to China at the end of the season, according to an agreement between the CBA and the Mavericks, but played down the assumptions that the national team would say "no" to Wang following the delays.

"According to the agreement between the CBA and the Dallas Mavericks, Wang should submit to national duties," he said. "After the Mavericks finished their season play in late April, the CBA informed Wang via the Mavericks that he should join the national team in late May,"

"However, he did not come back on time. Before we had the second letter sent to the Mavericks, he had left the club,"

"In the last three months, we have been waiting anxiously for Wang Zhizhi to join the national team. We sent him messages times and again, informing his national duties and asking him to come back, but he kept staying in the United States and never gave direct responses,"

"When the CBA announced the national squad for the world championship, we still could not make sure whether Wang would comeback or not, which forced us to list him as an substitute. But westill asked the Adidas company to prepare Wang's uniforms and hoped he could play the world championship."

According to the CBA, Wang did ask them for permission to train alone in the United States and play in the NBA summer league. CBA responded by asking him to return from abroad first and discuss the other issues later. Wang did not give positive answer and theCBA could only have indirect communications with him through somebody in-between since then.

The CBA reinforced that Wang Zhizhi's NBA future would not be affected by the issue and was looking forward to seeing him change his mind.

"We support Wang to play in the NBA, but he should return to China to train and play with the national team first," the CBA said in a letter to the NBA commissioner David Stern on Wang's national duties. "Any worries that the CBA would no longer allow him to play in the NBA are unnecessary."

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