China Sports Today

U.S. NBA fans kinda miffed at Yi

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:26:00 +0800

Yi Jianlian (易建联) is getting under the skin of a lot of U.S.-based NBA fans this season. First, he was screwing up their fantasy teams with his many single-digit scoring nights. Then, it began to look more likely that there was truth to long-held suspicions about him being three years older than he says he is. Now he's threatening to make something of a mockery of the NBA All-Star game.

As of the third round of balloting, Yi had 959,324 votes in All-Star game voting, which is open to fans anywhere in the world. He trailed Boston's Kevin Garnett by about 150,000 votes, giving him a chance to pull ahead and into Garnett's second-place spot before balloting ended. This is despite being 21st in rebounding and 31st in scoring among Eastern Conference forwards. The top two vote-getting forwards in each conference will be starters on the All-Star team (starters will be announced January 24).

Yi is not the only player who has been targeted by complaints that he's getting more votes than are warranted by his on-court performance. Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas and Greg Oden are just a few of the players who have been accused of getting votes based more on popularity than recent achievement. But Yi might be the player who has overachieved most in the balloting process.

Some have questioned whether Yi is simply getting a boost from the millions of NBA fans in China (and fans of Chinese origin living all over the world), or if there has been some tampering with the process. Either way, if Yi doesn't get voted in, he's very unlikely to appear in the All-Star game. Only the starting units are selected by fans.

Yi Jianilan image: Mingxingzhongguo.cn

Phelps signs exclusive China deal with Mazda

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:20:00 +0800

Michael Phelps (菲尔普斯) has signed the biggest ever endorsement contract for a Western celebrity in China, claims DMG Entertainment group, the agency that reportedly signed him to a seven-figure deal with Mazda.

Phelps, who captured the awe of China (along with the rest of the world) while winning eight swimming gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, will promote the Mazda 6 through television and print ads, as well as public appearances. According to Bloomberg News,Mazda sold 105,000 cars in China in the first 10 months of 2008. Phelps will come to Beijing soon to start pitching for the Japanese automaker.

Related: Michael Phelps' marketing in Chinese

Michael Phelps image: Hudong.com

Guo second in USSA Female Athlete of the Year vote

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:09:00 +0800

Chinese diver Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) finished second in voting for the United States Sports Academy's Female Athlete of the Year. Guo, who won gold in both the individual and the synchronized 3-meter springboard events in Beijing, beat out tennis star Serena Williams, who finished second in votes for the award.

Known as the "Diving Queen" in Chinese media, Guo was second to no one, man or woman, in a favorite athlete poll of Hong Kong school children, conducted by the Boys and Girls Club of Hong Kong. The question on her fans' minds now is, what will Guo do with her fame, talent and good looks? At 27 years old, she's just young enough to consider one last Olympic appearance. There were rumors in the fall that she'd suit up for Hong Kong in the 2012 Olympics, and there's always speculation about her pursuing a career in modeling or acting.

Rounding out the top five in the schoolkids' vote were, in order Liu Xiang (track and field), Lin Dan (badminton), Yao Ming (basketball) and Yang Wei (gymnastics).

Guo Jingjing image: 163.com

Wells drops 52, but what is wrong with the CBA?

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0800

Yao Ming's former teammate Bonzi Wells is having a field day in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). After averaging 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds over the course of his NBA career, Wells is a scoring machine in the CBA. Last night, he scored 52 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a 119-115 overtime win for his Shanxi Zhongyu over Fujian.

While Wells is blowing up the scoreboard and earning the dubious distinction of "best former NBA player in the CBA," China's professional basketball league seems to either be cleaning itself up or descending into chaos--we're reserving judgment on which one.

The news feed on the league's Web site right now features four stories about recent fines for players and teams. A recent league order required the Jilin and Jiangsu clubs to pay fines of 50,000 yuan ($7,300) each for unruly fan behavior at a game. Earlier this month, Liu Wei (a captain of the Chinese National Team and a once-upon-a-time NBA prospect) and Cai Liang, took on-court aggression off the court when they chased down opponent Gabe Muoneke after a game. Water bottles were thrown at Muoneke, who was reportedly leaving the arena with his family. Liu and Cai were fined 50,000 yuan apiece and suspended for 10 games; their club, the Shanghai Sharks, paid a 100,000 yuan fine. Also recently fined was the Tianjin club, again for fan behavior.

And while the fights and fines are getting headlines, the widespread practice of fudging players ages (making them younger so they can compete in youth tournaments) has also garnered some bad publicity. Li Zhigang, a reporter for Sports Illustrated's Chinese magazine, dug up some evidence that several players, including New Jersey Net Yi Jianlian, are a few years older than the age listed for them on official league documents.

It would be a good year for the CBA to get its act together, and a bad year for it to cement a reputation for lies and fisticuffs. The NBA is making big moves here—opening its NBA China office about a year ago, and announcing extensive arena construction plans this fall. Whether the CBA lets itself get bought out or digs in and tries to compete with a possible NBA-run Chinese league, the less shine it has on its brand image, the stronger the NBA's position gets.

Real estate slump a ray of hope for baseball in China?

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:22:00 +0800

Beijing's Olympic baseball stadium has never had a particularly bright future. Plans to raze at least one of the two structures, built next to the much more commercially lucrative Wukesong basketball arena, seem to remain unchanged. This AP report indicates that, as China Sports Today has been told in conversations with China-based baseball professionals, the main stadium could soon be history. The reason is simple--lack of sufficient interest in the game to justify a substantial lineup of games.

But the AP story ends with an interesting observation. Real estate has been slumping in Beijing (this story cites a forecast from Jones Lang LaSalle that demand for office rentals in Beijing will dip by 10 to 15 percent next year), making 2009 a less than ideal year for the site's majority owner, ACRE, to find a new tenant for this piece of land.

AP quotes Harvey Schiller, the president of the International Baseball Federation, as saying: "Maybe current economic conditions will work in our favor, hopefully." Schiller and Major League Baseball seem to be hoping that the delay in developing new plans for the stadium site will buy them some time to get some other ducks in a row. Major League Baseball runs a youth development program called "Play Ball," and is reportedly still lobbying to get games aired on CCTV.

The stadium was christened last spring with a pair of exhibition games between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers, which were reported to be played in front of sellout crowds, despite at least a quarter of the seats being empty.

Related: Spring Training in Beijing

Chinese team skipping major badminton tourneys

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:28:00 +0800

Two weeks after pulling out of the Super Series Masters in Malaysia, the China Badminton Association announced that its players will skip the next two Super Series events in favor of recovering from injuries and attending training camp. China will miss the Malaysian Open, Jan. 6 to 11, and the Korean Open, January 13 to 18.

China's absence from the tournaments means that Olympic gold medalists Lin Dan (林丹, men's singles), Zhang Ning (张宁, women's singles), Du Jing and Yu Yang (women's doubles) will not compete.

Wells breaks 40 in first two CBA games

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:52:00 +0800

Bonzi Wells, the former Houston Rockets guard who recently signed with a Chinese Basketball Association team, is averaging 44.5 points after two games with Shanxi Zhongyu. In his first game, Wells scored 48 points and led Shanxi to a 107-106 win over Tianjin. In his second game, and his CCTV Sports Channel debut, Wells scored 41 but couldn't save the team from a 93-92 loss to the Beijing Ducks. Shanxi, with a record of 9-8, is now in a four-way tie for seventh place in the 18-team CBA.

Bonzi Wells image: Sports.sina.com

U.S. editors vote Beijing Olympics 5th biggest story for 2008

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:57:00 +0800

The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors voted the Beijing Olympics the fifth biggest news story of of 2008, coming in behind the U.S. election, the economic meltdown, oil prices and the American occupation of Iraq.

It's a pretty safe bet that a similar vote in China would put the Olympics at the top of that list, followed by the Sichuan earthquake of last May.

Sports fans in the United States who want to relive more Olympic moments can tune in December 27 to NBC's look back at the games, "Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony: TV Event of the Year," hosted by Bob Costas and Matt Lauer.

Yao and Rockets dominate Yi and Nets

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:41:00 +0800

As expected, Yao Ming outshone his countryman Yi Jianlian and the Houston Rockets picked apart the New Jersey Nets, in a 114-91 win Monday night. Yao had a double double--24 points and 16 rebounds--while Yi just barely reached double digits in scoring with 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting.

Controversy continues to buzz around Yi. He claims to be 21, born in 1987, but he's long been suspected to be a couple of years older. A reporter with Sports Illustrated's Chinese-language magazine claims to have found middle school records listing the forward as being born in 1984. Yi denies the reports and Nets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe has said he is not concerned about the issue.

Yao vs. Yi: Game Three

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:48:00 +0800

The only two Chinese players currently in the starting lineup for NBA teams will face off in New Jersey Monday night, at 7:30 p.m. EST (8:30 a.m. Tuesday Beijing time). It is the third meeting, and the first this year, for Yao Ming (姚明) and Yi Jianlian (易建联). The game will air live on CCTV's sports channel.

The Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen broke down in Sunday's paper why this year's Yao-Yi meeting won't match last year's for fanfare--Yao is focused on leading a surging Rockets team that is a serious playoff contender, and seems to see Yi and the Nets as just another opponent that needs to go down.

Yao has had a strong season so far, averaging 20 points and 9.5 rebounds a game. He has averaged 27 points over the last three games and was clutch in a weekend win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. His team has won five of its last six games.

Yi and the Nets are a different story. The team has dropped five of its last seven games, and Yi is averaging 10 points and 6 rebounds. He did notch a double-double against Dallas last Friday, but he's been held to one or fewer field goals six times this season.

Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian image: Tianjin Daily

USA defeats China women's soccer, 1-0

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:54:00 +0800

In the first soccer game and first women's sporting event played at Detroit's Ford Field, China's women's soccer team lost to the United States, 1-0, on Wednesday night.

Midfielder Heather O'Reilly scored the lone goal for the U.S. team off a rebound in the 32nd minute. China's best opportunities came on a shot from Xu Yuan that sailed over the cage, and an attempt from Wang Dan Dan that was blocked by goalkeeper Hope Solo.

The U.S. women are the reigning Olympic champions, with a record of 33-1-2 in 2008. They also beat China 1-0 in a game Dec. 13 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., one of four shutouts that the Americans notched over the Chinese this year.

Image: Sohu.com

Shenhua hand Chinese football championship to Shandong in closing minutes

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:38:00 +0800

Just one victory in their last five games and a shocking penalty miss saw Shanghai Shenhua hand the Chinese Super League title on a plate to rivals Shandong Luneng on the final day of the 2008 season on Sunday afternoon. (video highlights)

Shandong started the day two points ahead of Shenhua in the table, and were expected to beat mid-table Guangzhou at home to wrap up the title. Shenhua knew that a victory against local rivals Zhejiang Lvcheng, combined with Shandong failing to win their match, would see them snatch the title on goal difference. So with an air of tension, all games in the final round of the season kicked off simultaneously at 3.30pm, to avoid the potential for match-fixing allegations to arise if teams already knew the results of other games affecting their final standing.

Thanks to Kylie Minogue, Shenhua were playing at the soulless Yuanshen Athletics Stadium in Pudong instead of their spiritual home, Hongkou. An air of tension filled the air, as home fans had one ear on how events were unfolding elsewhere – news of a goal in Shandong's match against Guangzhou would surely poop the party. Just to add even more spice to the already flavorsome mix, it was also a local derby for Shenhua as their opponents, Zhejiang Lvcheng, are based just down the road in Hangzhou. Ominously, since their promotion to the CSL last year, all the previous three league games between Shenhua and LvCheng had been drawn.

Shenhua started positively and indeed spent much of the first half camped in their opponents box. It was no surprise when Paraguyan striker Justo Rolando Meza put the home side in front after 10 minutes with a well-taken header. Shenhua continued to push forward, only for Zhejiang to equalize after a rather fortuitous break of the ball fell to Algerian striker Karim Benounes who slotted home neatly to send the sizable away support behind the goal into raptures.

Somewhat perturbed, The Blue Devils, Shenhua's largest fan group, then took advantage of their opponents being the only other team in the league to come from a city speaking a similar dialect to their own, by abusing the visiting fans in Shanghainese. An angry chanted chorus "Lvcheng Dui, gang lu Dui!" (Greentown team, stupid cock team!" This drew amusement from the rest of the derby match crowd.

Encouraged by news that Shandong were being held 0-0, Shenhua pushed forward again. Chance after chance went begging, before Cheng Liang finally put the Blues in front again on the stroke of time with another header. Half-time, 2-1 to Shenhua, and critically, Shandong were still drawing 0-0 with Guangzhou. The stands buzzed with excitement at half time – Shenhua were 45 minutes away from their third league title.

The second half followed the first half closely. Shenhua controlled the game and wasted numerous chances. On around the 65 minute mark, a blatant handball resulted in a penalty to Shenhua and the chance to put the result beyond doubt. The anticipation was electric as Hamilton Ricard stepped up to take the penalty. The crowd waited with baited breath and bit their nails. Zhejiang's players looked on knowing the game was as good as over if it went in. All eyes in the stadium focused on the ball as it was placed on the spot. With the score still tied at Shandong, the stakes couldn't be higher. Ricard stepped up….

And fired his shot right at the Zhejiang keeper.

The crowd could scarcely believe Shenhua had scored yet another chance to make the game safe. And it was inevitable when Zhejiang equalized with just 15 minutes to go, the product of some rather slack defending at the back. Shenhua huffed and puffed for the remainder of the game, and young striker Gao Lin spurned a great chance when he elected to dummy the ball rather than shoot; his attempt to wrong-foot the visitors defence failed as there was no team-mate there to take advantage. Try as they might, Shenhua could not find a winner. And with that… the title slipped through their grasp. Final whistle – Shenhua 2-2 Zhejiang Lvcheng – and, cruelly, Shandong 0-0 Guangzhou. In other words, had Shenhua won, the title was theirs and the whole season essentially turned on Ricard's missed penalty.

If the game itself was not hard enough to swallow, the run-in made things even worse. Shenhua had their chances to at least go into the final game in pole position. But they won just one of their last five games, and even contrived to throw away a four goal lead in their match relegated Liaoning two weeks ago, who scored four times in the last 30 minutes to draw 4-4. A 0-0 draw to fallen giants Dalian last week did Shenhua no favours either – it was a game Shenhua were expected to win, Dalian only just avoiding relegation this year.

Shenhua have the consolation of joining Shandong, Beijing Guo'an and Tianjin Teda in next seasons revamped Asian Champions League. But that was scant consolation for the fans, some of whom found the disappointment all too much. Xiao Tan, a 26-year-old Blue Devils member, told China Sports Today, "I cried today. At least if we had won, and Shandong won, it would have been better. But not like this. And that penalty miss… good heavens. I have no idea."

Shenhua's reputation for being bottlers and under-achievers is, it has to be said, well-deserved. Former coach Wu Jingui told the Shanghai Daily, "Shenhua takes the lead but doesn't know how to keep it. It has been a problem for the team for years," adding, "The team tends to make mistakes at critical moments."

Shandong overtake Shenhua in the all-time championship table to claim their third title, on the back of wins in 1999 and 2006. A new season awaits Shenhua however and the team can take comfort from some very encouraging performances of attacking football. If they can carry this form into next year, they will once again be among the front runners.

Next season's CSL will offer more derby action to Shenhua – Jiangsu Shuntian of Nanjing return to the top league after an absence of 15 years. The 2009 season will kick off next March.

Picture of Hamilton Ricard courtesy of Sina Sports

Kevin Du's unusual path to hockey success

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:58:00 +0800

Thanks to Shanghaiist contributor Geoff Ng for alerting CST to this video about Chinese-Canadian hockey player Kevin Du. Du, who graduated from Harvard in 2007, now plays for the Shanghai Sharks. The video tells the story of his family; his father fled Saigon in 1975, spent five months in a Malaysian refugee camp and eventually gained immigrant status in Alberta, Canada. He encouraged young Kevin to play hockey as a way to insulate him from the racism that the family faced as the only Chinese family in a small town.

In an interview on the video, the elder Du speaks about the ability of sports to help people see beyond their differences: "We want to blend a kid into society so they don't feel different than the other kids. And no better way to do that than by playing hockey, because in hockey you meet a lot of people."

Rogge expects more doping cases, Liu needs surgery

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:10:00 +0800

A short glance at some of China's biggest current sports stories:

Liu Xiang
Doctors that hurdler Liu Xiang visited in the United States agreed with his Chinese doctors in advising surgery for the Achilles tendon injury that kept him out of the Beijing Olympics.

Doping
The International Olympic Committee is still conducting doping tests from the August Olympics, and IOC president Jacques Rogge said he expects at least 15 cases from this year's Olympiad.

Diving
Former Chinese national team diving coach Yu Fen has threatened legal action against diving's administrative body, to secure several million yuan she believes she is owed in bonuses from her tenure with the team, which ended in 1997. Yu coached greats Guo Jingjing and Wu Mingxia.

Soccer/Football
Tickets are on sale for the Chinese women's national soccer team's match against gold medalists the United States at Detroit's Ford Field December 17.

Aquatics
Hong Kong is among the cities bidding to host the 2013 FINA World Championships. The world governing body for aquatic sports including swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming holds a world championship every year. The 2011 championships will take place in Shanghai.

Baron Davis inks deal with Li-Ning

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:42:00 +0800

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Baron Davis will wear Li-Ning this season, a big marketing score for the Chinese shoe manufacturer (story in Chinese).

The Li-Ning contract replaces Davis's deal with Reebok, a brand that still has virtually no presence in China despite having Yao Ming in its clutches.

Davis' signing with Li-Ning is notable because he is an All-Star who doesn't play with a Chinese player or for a blue-chip NBA team. Since Li-Ning signed a deal with the NBA in 2005 to allow players to wear their shoes at games and other NBA events, players who put their name behind the brand have included Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets and Shaquille O'Neal, who was with the Miami Heat when he hooked up with the brand; and Lebron James' teammate, Damon Jones.

Li-Ning is not known very well outside of China, but it has the biggest market share in the sports apparel category in the mainland, well ahead of Adidas and Nike.

It made a big push for international recognition at the 2008 Olympics, outfitting teams including the Spanish national basketball team, and scoring perhaps the biggest marketing coup of the games—a high-profile appearance in the Opening Ceremonies for CEO and founder, retired gymnast Li Ning.

By signing Davis, Li-Ning is confirming what those who keep track of China's young basketball lovers already know—NBA fans here have gone far beyond Yao Ming worship, to become sophisticated followers of the entire league and all of its best players.

Li-Ning isn't the only sneaker brand working with NBA players. Peak has long used Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets as the face of its basketball gear; and after the Olympics, Peak also signed Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks.

Image: Sina.com