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Coach Li Says It's Time to Go to NBA
Li Qiuping, head coach of the Shanghai Sharks, said it is the right time for the Chinese best players, like Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, to join America's National Basketball Association (NBA).
After Sunday's CBA league finals when Sharks having astonished the champions Bayi Rockets 116-105, Li said "The Chinese Mobile Great Wall" are good enough for the world best basketball league, NBA.
"Yao Ming is better than Shaquil O'Neal (Lakers' center) in skill," Li said of the 7-5 feet Yao. "He's so young and he can move and pass and handle it. Watch his jumps. Nobody at his age of that height can do them like him."
The 20-year-old Yao was the cover profile of December's ESPN magazine and ESPN analysts dubbed him as the player who "has a chance to alter the way the game of basketball is played".
And for the 7-1 feet Wang, who was drafted last year by the Dallas Mavericks but did not join NBA when the Rockets refused to release him, Li said he should go to NBA as soon as possible.
"He's 23 years old and is flexible, he must go to NBA now."
"Rockets won the title every season. There is no stimulation in the domestic league for Wang. If he goes to NBA where there are many better players, he could take another step up in a very short period of time," Li said.
Yao and Wang raised the eyebrows in the Sydney Olympics in September when China put up a hard time to U.S. in the opening game.
U.S. coach Larry Brown said of Yao after the game, "In four years, he could be one of the best players in the world."
Wang is the first Asian basketball player that was drafted by a NBA team.
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