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NBA Legends Start China Tour with Victorious Note
NBA Legends Start China Tour with Victorious Note
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Clyde "The Glide" Drexler led the NBA Legends to a 79-73 win over the Chinese national men's basketball team Friday night to open the NBA Legends Tour in China.
The Tour, which will be annually held in the next two years, features big names in NBA history like Drexler, Buck Williams and Eddie Johnson. Friday's game attracted about 15,000 audiences in the Beijing Workers' Stadium.
Even a group of 40 high-school cheer-leaders from Massachusetts joined the over-40s Legends squad, performing for the first time before the NBA-crazy fans in China.
"I've lots of fun here," said Drexler, one of the NBA 50 Greatest Players who retired from the Houston Rockets in 1998.
But for the Olympics-bounding Chinese national team, who won the Asian championship in Fukuoka, Japan, last year, the loss is not funny at all.
China, whose best placing at the Olympics was eighth in Barcelona, 1992, were outclassed in fields like defense, strength and experiences by the Legends team 20 years senior to them.
The Legends 10-player squad played a solid defense and fast passing game, outran the much younger and taller Chinese, who will face the United States in their first game at Sydney in September.
"They need to know how to play both the inside and outside game, and they need to play better defense," said the Legends coach Rick Barry. "If they want to get good results in the Olympics, they also need to be stronger."
The 38-year-old Drexler, who is household name in China, scored four points on three fast breaks in the first half, and even tried to make some spectacular plays before he was fouled.
On the other side, however, China managed only two points inside the key with the 2.28-meter Yao Ming and 2.13-meter Wang Zhizhi in the first 20 minutes when they led 44-37.
"Despite their ages, the NBA players are more experienced and have all-round skills," said China's forward Sun Jun.
The NBA Legends will leave for Guangzhou on Saturday for Game 2 in Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium on Monday. Game 3 will be in Shanghai on August 17.
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