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This Week in China Sports: NFL Draft, new CBA champion, Olympic gymnasts stripped of Sydney medal

Friday, 30th April 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

Ed Wang was, indeed, picked up in the NFL draft. He went to the Buffalo Bills with the 140th pick, becoming the first Chinese-American drafted by an NFL team. Titan Sports News, China's top sports newspaper, featured Wang on its front page.

The Guangdong Southern Tigers beat the Xinjiang Flying Tigers 103-94, winning their sixth Chinese Basketball Association title. Guangdong took the series 4-1. Only the Bayi Rockets, the Chinese army team, have won more titles (8), and Guangdong has been the CBA champion all but one of the last seven years. (Xinhua)

Bob Donewald, coach of the Yao Ming-owned Shanghai Sharks of the CBA, was tapped to coach the Chinese men's national basketball team through the end of the year (Washington Post). Donewald coached NCAA basketball at several different Midwestern universities throughout the 80s and 90s. He will lead a Yao-less team at the world championships in August and the Asian Games in November.

The International Olympic Committee stripped China of its bronze medal in the gymnastics team competition in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, after Dong Fangxiao was ruled to have been underage. The bronze now goes to the United States team. Ironically, Dong was outed by her accreditation papers for working as an official at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. That paperwork has her birth date as January 23, 1986, and not January 20, 1983, as she had declared in Sydney. Olympic gymnasts must turn 16 in the year they compete in an Olympics, per restrictions set by the Federation Internationale Gymnastique (AP via ESPN).

Kenny Huang is NOT denying rumors published in the Sunday Mirror that he is in talks to buy Liverpool Football Club. He only denies speaking to a reporter from the paper, and said he would not comment on the rumor.

China may not have a team in the FIFA World Cup, but they do have a presence. Many of the South African flags currently selling well in the host country, are made in China and apparently the imports were not quite printed right (Mail & Guardian)

Tags: basketball, Bob Donewald, CBA, FIFA World Cup, Guangdong Tigers, gymnastics, IOC, Kenny Huang, NFL, Olympics, Shanghai Sharks, Xinjiang Tigers, 黄建华

Smush Parker in the CBA finals

Tuesday, 21st April 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (2)

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If you're ever going to watch CBA basketball, now is the time to do it.

The Chinese Basketball Association finals start this Friday, featuring the matchup that's been expected all season. Xinjiang (44-6, regular season) will make its first finals appearance ever, facing Guangdong (45-5, regular season), the former team of New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlian and the winner of four out of the last five championships.

The two teams are unusual in that they are both led by non-Chinese point guards, unlike most CBA teams that use their two-foreigner allowance to pick up a big man and a shooting guard or swingman. Former Los Angeles Laker Smush Parker, the biggest name left in the league since Bonzi Wells' exit, runs the point for Guangdong, and Myron Allen steers Xinjiang. Also on Xinjiang's team is Mongolian center Mengke Bateer, the first Chinese player to start for an NBA team and the first to win an NBA championship (San Antonio Spurs, 2003).

Smush Parker image: Shanghai Daily

Tags: basketball, CBA, Guangdong Tigers, Mengke Bateer, Smush Parker, Xinjiang