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Basketball

Chinese name and literal translation: 篮球 lanqiu (basketball)

China's national league, the China Basketball Association (CBA) feeds the national team and has teams in more than a dozen cities. The men's CBA season begins in October and ends in February. The women's league, the WCBA, begins in December and ends in February. Both the men's and women's CBA feature several international players, and the CBA has produced two current NBA players—Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets and Yi Jianlian of the Milwaukee Bucks.

The NBA is the undisputed leader among foreign sports leagues in making inroads into China. The league first hosted the Chinese National Team in the United States in 1985, and has steadily stepped up its marketing efforts here ever since. In 2007, three preseason games were played in Shanghai and Macau and through programs like Basketball Without Borders, the NBA regularly sends players and coaches to the mainland.

The NBA's partnership with CCTV means that Chinese fans can watch hundreds of games every season. NBA gear—both authentic and fake—is ubiquitous in shopping malls and on the streets. The growth of basketball's popularity here has also opened opportunities for individual NBA players to work with domestic brands: Shaquille O'Neal signed a sneaker deal with LiNing in 2006, and Shane Battier is the face of Peak sports apparel. In early 2008, the league announced the formation of NBA China, a new business entity that will cooperate with both the NBA and the CBA in promoting basketball in China.

History in China:

The CBA was started in 1996 and the WCBA debuted in 2002. Forty-five years after its founding the CBA sent its first player to the NBA. China's first two basketball exports were both centers. Wang Zhizhi, once a player for the CBA's Army team, joined the league in 2001 and played with the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat before returning to China in 2005. Former Shanghai Shark Yao Ming was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2002 and has become a marquee player, selected for five All-Star games in his first six seasons.

The latest Chinese basketball export is forward Yi Jianlian, whose selection by the Milwaukee Bucks has inspired the launch of the city's first Chinese-language newspaper. Also drafted into the NBA was 6'9” point guard Sun Yue, the 40th pick overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2007 draft. However, Sun did not make the Lakers' roster.

Men's national team coach: Jonas Kazlauskas

Players to watch: Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi, Chen Jianghua, Lu Xiaoming, Zhang Kai, Sun Yue

Olympic venue: Wukesong Gymnasium

Good Luck Beijing 2008 test event: April 19-26

Athens 2004 medal count:
No medals. The men's team reached the quarterfinals, while the women failed to make it out of the classification round.

Sport Organizations:
Chinese Basketball Association (CBA)

Links:
CBA schedule
Yao's NBA.com profile
Yi's NBA.com profile

Athletes:
Chen Jianghua 陈江华
Li Nan 李楠
Liu Wei 刘炜
Ma Zengyu 马增玉
Sui Feifei 隋菲菲
Sun Yue 孙悦
Wang Lei 王磊
Wang Zhizhi 王治郅
Yao Ming 姚明
Ye Li 叶莉
Yi Jianlian 易建联
Zhang Kai 张凯
Zhu Fangyu 朱芳雨