NBA stars Yao Ming bolster national team's hoop hopes

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 23, 2003

NBA stars Yao Ming bolster national team's hoop hopes

The 22nd Asian Men's Basketball Championships, which open today in this northern city, makes special sense to the Chinese national team.

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The 22nd Asian Men's Basketball Championships, which open today in this northern city, makes special sense to the Chinese national team.

The 12-time Asian champions, who lost to South Korea 102-100 in overtime at the Busan Asian Games, are on a two-part mission to regain their No 1 position.

First, to win the only ticket to the 2004 Athens Olympic Games,then to avenge the humiliating defeat to the defending Asian Games winners.

Spearheaded by NBA stars Yao Ming and Mengke Bateer, China looks very sharp for the coming battles on home turf.

Jiang Xingquan,new head coach of the Chinese team, spoke cautiously about the chance to claim the tournament title,but his players are confident.

"We cannot underestimate any opponent at any time. We must be on alert throughout the event because a little bit of relaxation will cost us our title chance," said the 63-year-old head coach, who took charge of the national team for the third time after Wang Fei was sacked.

Citing the Asian Games as an example, Jiang said: "Everyone said at that time China will take the title for sure, but you see, we lost. "We will not repeat the story again."

The team has made very thorough preparations heading into the tournament. They played nine warm-up matches against foreign visitors from the United States and Australia and kept a perfect winning record.

They arrived here on September 9 to have a two-week low-profile training camp to better adjust to the local weather and environments.

"We have made very careful plans for every possible opponent, especially our archrivals from South Korea," Jiang said.

In contrast to their coach, Yao and Bateer are both very confident of China's chances.

"Forget the past. We come here just to win," said Yao, the former first overall pick in the NBA draft by the Houston Rockets.

"Our biggest rival is ourselves."

Bateer, who plays centre for the San Antonio Spurs, expressed the same sentiment.

"We have worked very hard for this title. We are here to take the title back from the Koreans and qualify for the Athens Olympic Games," he said.

"But we must adjust our mind to the home court advantage. Sometimes it can turn out to be big pressure for our players."

Meanwhile, the strong-willed Koreans will not let the title slip away easily.

"We have the experience to beat China and this time we are confident to win the title. I can hardly predict the winning chance but we will go up gradually throughout the tournament," said the 32-year-old Korean veteran Moon Kyung-eun.

Today China will play Syria, the fourth-place finisher at the last Asian Championships in Shanghai in 2001.

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