When you walk around the Yuanshen, you quickly realize that this is Yao Ming’s house. His image adorns the walls, the banners and the advertisements, whilst his retired jersey hangs from the rafters. During home games, Yao watches from his private box up high in the arena, looking down on players and fans alike like an emperor.

Yet if Yao is the liege of Shanghainese basketball, then Liu Wei is very much the heir-aparant. The two man are childhood friends, playing in same youth team together before both found themselves called up to the Sharks at the age of seventeen in 1997. There, under the tutaledge of coach Li Qiuping, they won a CBA title together, beating the then mighty Bayi Rockets in 2002, having lost to the military side in the two previous finals.

Lifting the trophy would be Yao’s last act for the Sharks before the NBA beckoned and the giant centre would not return to the team in an official capacity until 2009 when he bought the ailing basketball club. Yao and Liu were re-united in Shanghai but with an odd twist; one man was now technically the boss of his close friend.

Though Liu also made it to America, it never worked out like it did for Yao. On trial with the Sacrimento Kings in 2004, Liu played against his old team mate in the ‘China Games’, two preseason matches between the Kings and the Houston Rockets that  got obviously high viewing figures in Asia. This was as close as the guard came to making the NBA; Liu played thirty-four minutes over three games, scoring two points and getting four rebounds. Sacrimento didn’t pick up the option and the point guard returned to carry on playing for the Sharks.

Yet inspite of not being able to make it to the NBA, Liu Wei remains a popular, well-respected figure in Chinese basketball. As well as captaining his country, he has won one gold medal with China at the FIBA championships and two at the Asian Games. Last year, he became the first player in the CBA’s history to score 6000 points, 1600 steals and 700 assists. Within China’s social media sites, he is one of its most ‘liked’ figures, and fans at the Yuanshen will still gather by the players’ tunnel before and after games to reach down to Liu for a high five or an autograph.

There have of course been controversies, most notably in 2008, when along with three other team mates, he got involved in a post game confrontation with Gabe Muoneke, then playing for the now defunct Yunnan Bulls. The American was chased and cornered by the players in front of Muoneke’s family in what the CBA referred to as ‘[an] incident [that] was abominable and serious in nature, casting a terrible influence over society and seriously harming the CBA’s brand and reputation”. The point guard had the book thrown at him, and was fined heavily and suspended for ten games.

Its testament to his popularity however, that despite the Muoneke incident and the Sharks record in recent years (they have only had two winning seasons since 2002), Liu is still an important figure to the Shanghai supporters, who fete him with the same adoration as other fanbases in other sports might regard Derek Jeter, Paolo Maldini or Mario Lemieux; one-club players who have stayed with their team through thick and thin. Their mistakes on and off the court are excused by the supporters because these players have become fused to the very identity of the club. By staying around for so long, they have shown the same passion and commitment to the team as the supporters do.

Liu’s willingness to give his all for the Sharks has been well documented, although as he gets older, it will need to be stored and used carefully. In a recent CBA game against Lioaning, with Shanghai falling behind to a high scoring offense,  Liu, who had previously hobbled off due to knee pain, dragged himself back onto the court to help with the chase. It was ultimately fruitless as Shanghai were beaten decisively and Liu may well have made the injury worse (he would leave the subsequent game against Guangdong Tigers in the first quarter and has missed every Sharks game since then) but it underlined his desire to help his team win.

Liu will be thirty-two by the end of this CBA season and depending on the state of his body, he could play for a few more years to come. In a young team with masses of raw potential, the guard might be tempted to keep on playing into his thirties as his team mates mature, although he has also suggusted an interest in coaching.

When he does call it a day, Liu’s number will almost certainly be retired and raised to the rafters along with Yao’s. The two friends then will probably end up sitting together in the owner’s box, watching the team they led to a title almost a decade ago move onto its next chapter. Yao has already secured his legacy and in what time he has left, Liu will be seeking to make his already lengthy list of achievements that little bit longer.

Picture: QQ.com

The ongoing NBA lockout has understandably been a massive coup to other basketball leagues around the world, who have invited a number of its currently unpaid players for a spot of moonlighting in a variety of interesting locations. Deron Williams is in Turkey, Tony Parker and Rudy Fernandez are turning up for teams in their native France and Spain, and players from the basketball’s most lucrative league  can be found plying their trade in Israel, Russia, Brazil, Poland, South Korea, Slovenia, Serbia, Lithuania and Montenegro to name but a few.

China has also got in on the act but with a crucial difference. Though the NBA lock-out allows for players to play for other teams, the majority of the players playing overseas have opt-out clauses in these invariably year-long contracts that will allow them to return to the NBA if and when the labour dispute ends. China on the other hand is taking a firm line with teams in the CBA reaching out to NBA players, insisting that only free agents can be signed, all of whom will be expected to fulfill the duration of their CBA contracts.

This caveat has not slowed CBA teams making deals with a variety of close-to-household names and the depth of new talent arriving into the Chinese league remains impressive;

Foshan Dragons – Gerald Greene

Jiangsu Dragons- Dan Gadzuric

Jilin Tigers- Cartier Martin

Liaoning Dinosaurs- Josh Powell and Jermaine Martin

Xingiang Guanghui Flying Tigers- Kenyon Martin

Zhejiang Golden Bulls- J.R. Smith and Josh Boone

Zhejiang Lions- Wilson Chandler

Amongst the new arrivals, that include the first overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft (Kenyon Martin) and a two-time champion (Powell, albeit tentatively), all bar Jermaine Martin have play-off experience in their career and all of them played anywhere from often to continuously  during the last NBA regular season. Only  Kenyon Martin and Gadzuric are in their 30′s and in the cases of Smith and Chandler, are players approaching their prime. For CBA fans, who have spent last season with only the aging, broken Stephon Marberry as their sole marquee name, the NBA’s problems are Chinese basketball’s gain.

Likewise, the short term benefits for the free agents are clear to see. Though there won’t be an immediate exit route back to the NBA, what they can look forward to are regular games and the chance to develop (something Chandler has already acknowledged) whilst the rest of the NBA’s players head to Europe to play (but not too hard lest they injure themselves too close to the lockout finishing) or stagnate through inactivity. Equally important is the fact that all of the new arrivals will being paid handsomely;  Zhejiang will be paying Smith a cool $3 million salary for his year in East China, Kenyon Martin will be taking home $2.65 million,  whilst Chandler can expect to make somewhere between$2-$3million. By comparison, Shanghai’s presumably new starting centre, Tseng Wen-ting will be taking home $310,000 during the same time frame.

The sudden chaos in American basketball has created an unexpected bonanza for the CBA, certainly in the short-term but it remains to be seen what will happen when the 2012-2013 season rolls along.

Firstly, the CBA is still a small league where its highest-points-in-a-game record is still held by Andre Emmitt, a journeyman who played six games for Memphis in his rookie season in 2004 and has since diligently moved from weak league to weak-ish league, picking up high points per game averages in Venezuela, France and Belgium as well as China. A similarly nomadic guard, Leon Rodgers hit a record fifteen three-pointers in a game in 2008. For a country as crazy about basketball as China, its domestic league measures up poorly in comparison with its European counterparts and the arrival of out-and-out ‘big’ names will give the CBA the legitimacy that a developing league needs to improve, both in terms of marketability but also standard of play. Further along from 2011, one of the core criteria for assessing how Chinese basketball utilised this unexpected diaspora of NBA talent will be if it will still be possible for unremarkable players to score 71 points in a game, or whether the admittedly temporary arrival of top drawer talent can rubber stamp the CBA as a respectable, competitive league that can continually attract competent, talented athletes.

Secondly, the CBA will be faced with the challenge of maintaining the fan interest that will be created by the arrival of Mssrs Smith, Chandler et al once they have returned to the States. Ideally, team owners will resist the urge to raise prices for CBA matches too much this season (although you obviously can’t afford to pay someone three million dollars for thirty-two games without some gameday price raise) and find ways to  keep the arenas and gymnasiums full once the current crop of stars have moved on.Whilst the CBA shouldn’t become a lucrative elephants graveyard, the idea of NBA players considering Chinese teams in free agency shouldn’t be so unusual anymore and owners, players and agents alike will no doubt be aware of the marketing potential that would come with being part of a successful Chinese team and through it, a more widely supported and attended CBA.

Ultimately, the greatest benefactors from the NBA lockout chaos should be the Chinese basketball players themselves. The arrival of players like Smith and Chandler could be a gimmick that is coyly exploited for one year and then China will return to watching basketball on their tv screens rather than live and in person. Yet it could easily be the spark that improves the CBA, the quality of players it can attract and with time, the standards of the players it produces for the NBA and the national team. The upcoming CBA season promises to be an exciting one for obvious reasons but in the long-term, it may also be one that shapes the league’s progression and ambition for a decade to come.

Photo: SI.com

Could this man be wearing the uniform of a CBA team during the lockout?

With all of the hoopla around former Houston Rockets’ center Yao Ming’s retirement, some may have forgotten that the NBA is still in lockout mode. As players and owners still haggle over an agreement, many of the top NBA stars have had a lot of free time on their hands this summer and it looks like they will still have a lot of down time come September when teams should be heading into training camp getting ready for the new season.

So what does an NBA player do while he is banned from team facilities or contacting anyone remotely affiliated with his team?

Perhaps Kevin Durant will bring his game to China for a brief period?

The Oklahoma Thunder’s star forward, Kevin Durant and Los Angeles Lakers’ guard, Kobe Bryant recently made appearances in China hosting basketball clinics. Bryant’s teammate, Pau Gasol and newly crowned NBA champion, Dirk Nowitzki, are back in Europe with their respective national squads preparing the 2011 European Basketball Championships. Meanwhile, KFC is trying to entice one of their former employees, the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade, to comeback and work for them.

Despite all of the tours or international basketball ongoing at the moment, the big question is what will these players do come September if there is still no end to the lockout? Some players are already considering playing basketball elsewhere in the world.

Things started off with New Jersey Nets’ point guard Deron Williams signing with Turkish league team Besiktas. Slovenian national team guard Sasha Vujacic otherwise known as the future Mr. Maria Sharapova, followed in the steps of his Nets teammate by also signing with a Turkish team, Anadolu Efes.

This is only the beginning as more players maybe looking to what options they have overseas in order to stay fit while negotiators try to hammer out a new agreement.

Some serious thinking is needed by CBA teams

One of the options that some players may look at is playing in the Chinese Basketball Association. The Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard and Durant have been on record as to saying that they are considering the possibility of playing in the Chinese basketball league should the lockout persist.

While many basketball fans in China maybe drooling over the idea of having a few top NBA stars in China’s top league, one needs to take a step back and be totally realistic about this prospect.

First, a CBA team signing a player the likes of Howard, Durant or anyone else would be a huge coup and most likely fill arenas in every CBA city. However, teams are probably considering whether it would be worth the gamble offering a lot of money to a player when the lockout could possibly end at any point. It would definitely be a poor investment on the part of a CBA team to part with so much money. Certainly, many of these teams are also wary of the whole Steve Francis fiasco during the previous season.

If anything, the CBA teams would most likely pursue offering a contract to a host of NBA free agents that are on the market. The likes of Russian Andrei Kirilenko, Tyson Chandler and, yes, Yao Ming’s former teammates in Houston, Tracy McGrady and Shane Battier are in the pool of players possibly looking for new teams. Perhaps a stint over in the ‘Middle Kingdom’ would be useful for them.

Second, if any of the top NBA players are strongly considering to play in China during the lockout, they have to realize that there are only a few big market cities in the country. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou can certainly provide these players with a rather comfortable life off the court, but would any of them be willing to sign for teams in Liaoning, Jilin or Shanxi?

In addition, how will the players adapt to the lack of luxuries they receive while playing in the American ‘Association’? They have to face the reality of playing in cold gyms, changing in makeshift locker rooms and possibly sharing a room with a teammate while on the road. These are certainly things they haven’t experienced since high school. There is going to be a lot they will have to sacrifice and adapt to if they choose to play in China.

Wukesong Basketball Arena: NBA players won't be seeing the inside of this place

Third, there is no guarantee that fans will see any of the top NBA stars in the league due to the strict rules that are imposed on teams by the CBA. With the number of foreign players allowed on each team limited, the amount of minutes they can play limited and a strict salary cap imposed, this could lead to most players looking to the European leagues or other places to play.

While it may seem like a smashing idea to have the rare opportunity of a star NBA player on a CBA roster during the lockout, fans should not hold their breath on this. It going to be a long time until there is confirmation that the 2011-2012 NBA season will be canceled and a few of the well-known ballers signing contracts with teams here.

Photos

For the Record Sports

Yiqiyou

The NBA's key to the Chinese market on the verge of retirement

The imminent retirement of Houston Rockets’ center Yao Ming comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Shanghai native’s career from his early beginnings in the game. Persistent injuries over the past few seasons have allowed the towering center to only play in a handful of games. Coming off of his most recent injury, a stress fracture of his ankle, may have put the writing on the wall for the former Shanghai Sharks star.

Throughout last week and this week there has been much talk about Yao’s retirement and his plans for the future. There has also been some discussion about the future of the National Basketball Association in the Chinese market. Some consider the retirement of Yao as a huge blow to the NBA in the Chinese market.

In a recent online poll conducted by Weibo, 57 percent of the participants said they would stop watching the NBA after Yao’s retirement. A few things must be noted when analyzing this online poll as it is not exactly scientific.

First, it is not easy to know whether these participants are regular followers of the NBA or just casual fans since Yao Ming joined the league in 2002. Most likely it is the latter, but that does not mean the NBA will lose its hardcore followers in China.

Second, besides Yao being the face of the league in China, how many other players could those who took part in the poll identify? This goes back to the previous assumption that most of those that took part in the poll are casual fans. Of course, most know of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and the Miami Heat’s LeBron James, but are they familiar with other stars in the NBA?

Washington Wizards’ forward Yi Jianlian is in the league; however, he may not have the star power as his former teammate. Having changed teams on a couple of occasions during his time in the US, he has not been able to stamp his authority as of yet.

Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard will always have a presence in China

Third, China is a market that not only the NBA wants to be in, but even the players, individually, want to be in as well. Players such as Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Kevin Garnett choose to spend part of their summer holidays here in order to increase their profiles. Even jersey sales in China show that fans here are following other players in the league than Yao.

Yao Ming’s retirement from the NBA will be a disappointment, but it will not spell doom for the league in the Chinese market. What could spell its doom is the lingering lockout saga which sees no sign of ending.

Photos: CNS

Slam Counterkicks

When the lanky Shanghainese first landed in Houston in 2002, few expected him to achieve what he now stands for. In his nine seasons of playing in the NBA, Yao Ming averaged 19 points, 9.2 rebounds per game. Yet his contribution to basketball and the NBA cannot be told by these stats, as Yao basically globalized the sport more than anyone in history.

The news came out yesterday from Yahoo Sports that the 7-foot-6 player is to retire soon due to left foot and ankle injury, which already cost him the past two seasons. Yao’s injury was a typical result of over-playing. Since the 2004 Athens Games, the “Moving-Great Wall” constantly found himself moving over the Pacific Ocean to reunite with his Chinese teammates for glories in the Asian Champs, the Olympics after at least four surgeries.

Yao Ming to Retire Soon

There’re claims from both sides, the Rockets and the Chinese sports bureau, about the other’s irresponsible role in playing Yao too much to a degree that even the Shanghai native himself tried to downplay the spat a number of times. At the age of 30, Yao can probably still play a reduced role in the NBA, but decides retirement as his best option for future career development. And what he left after the retirement are a multiple layers of assets that cannot be easily measured.

Yao Ming’s humble image and witful, humourous talk not only made his countrymen proud, but also made Chinese kids glue to the game. For sport in China, the most valueble legacy after he leaves should be those boys playing hoops around the country. There’re, according to the NBA’s estimation, 300 millions of Chinese playing basketball. And most of these 300 million grew up watching Yao Ming play in Shanghai and then Houston and drew inspiration from him. The game would not only make the next generation of Chinese more athletic and healthy, but more team-work oriented through competitions on the court.

But for the moment, this vast player base doesn’t equal the height of Chinese basketball, as there’s a great divide between grassroots and pro players. The CBA, the country’s basketball association, doesn’t really interested in organizing non-professional league in schools. In recent years, sports brands assumed CBA’s role in doing that, because for them, schools are excellent opportunities to market their brands and products. Chinese basketball could further unleash its potential given proper restructure work of league-building.

The professional league, the CBA, has its own faults too. After 17 years of operation since its establishment in 1995, the basketball players in the country still cannot be traded. This correlates with China decades-old sports school system, in which a player, like Yao Ming, is found, trained and developed in a local sports school and then supplied to a local club. Of course no Chinese club wants to lose a player in Yao’s stature, but an average bench player would also find it very hard to move due to a lack of regulation on players’ trading. The move-around of players every season is mainly done behind the closed doors between local sports bureaus and clubs, with so much guanxi involved. The result? You get only three champion teams in the past 16 seasons and familiar faces every year in the CBA All-Star Game.

Yao Ming Left Due To Foot Injury

Yao may not be as fortunate as Mengke Bateer and Sun Yue, who received their NBA champ rings respectively with the Spurs and Lakers and, more important, both are still playing. Yet his fortune allowed him to do something his national teammates have never dreamed of. In 2009, Yao purchased Shanghai Sharks, his former team before joining the Houston Rockets in the Chinese top league. The team is reportedly costing Yao RMB 20 mln a season, but the new management he brought to the Sharks is strikingly positive and could herald change in the CBA if more investors come in.

On 20th this month, Yao will get back to his hometown to announce his future plans. His decision of retirement will become yet another lesson to many Chinese kids looking up to him but few had a chance experiencing themselves: When things go wrong, we move on. Let it be said that Yao is the greatest player in the history of sport in China so far and, as his name ‘ming‘ suggests, Yao’s legacy will be carried on in the generations to come.

Photo: Netease

Previously:

• What can Yao get from the Sharks

It might be too early to call it “normal,” but since Chinese investors went after the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball squad in 2009, the latest news that a Chinese investment group is now looking to purchase Liverpool F.C. doesn’t seem all that surprising. Except for the little issue over the fact that it is the China Investment Corporation, a state-owned company established in 2007 under the Ministry of Finance using 1.55 trillion RMB. The corporation is charged with managing part of the country’s foreign reserves, and is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

Kenneth Huang, point man for the potential purchase of Liverpool F.C. by the China Investment Corporation. Image from Shanghaiist.

The British press seems flustered at the prospect of having the financing arm of the Chinese government owning a football club. The BBC’s Beijing corespondent Chris Hogg cautioned the move by the CIC in an August 5 podcast. The Guardian questioned the decision by the CIC, calling a potential Liverpool purchase “the odd one out in the CIC investment portfolio,” given the group has invested in firms such as Coca-Cola, Apple and Motorala, but has no experience in sports teams.

According to the Telegraph, the investment group would be led by Kenneth Huang and his QSL Sports Limited company, both of which have been linked to purchasing a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, bringing Tsingtao beer to the Cavs’ sports arena, as well as helping bring Yao Ming to the Houston Rockets and deals with the New York Yankees baseball organization. Huang and associate Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund, would be in charge of day-to-day operations should Liverpool be bought, and the other Chinese investors involved in the CIC deal would have a more “passive” role in the team.

In 2009, when China Sports Review looked at the Cleveland Cavs deal with a group of Chinese investors, CSR championed Huang and the apparent front runner of the group, Albert Hung, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Hong Kong, for potentially ushering in a new era of sports investments into American athletic teams. Since then, the only attention the Cavs have received is the circus that surrounded LeBron James’ departure from the team to join the Miami Heat, and recently Shaquille O’Neal’s move to the Boston Celtics.

Even the NBA’s own reports downplayed the purchasing stake in the Cavs, and instead focused on Huang’s goals of investing more into the China Basketball Association. The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t even bother to make it news for the organization, as it is not listed anywhere on the team’s official Web site that a Chinese company has a stake in the franchise. Tsingtao Beer is probably kicking themselves in the pants for investing in a team that’s seen its star players jump ship, and is now a Chinese beer company with exclusive distribution rights to … just another sports team in the “middle of nowhere” Ohio.

This isn’t to knock Huang, who seems to pop up in the news every few months with a potential sports deal that elicits even more raised eyebrows than the previous, particularly because China has a very limited history of investing in foreign sports teams, but I think Huang is the wrong person to focus on when talking about the potential Liverpool purchase.

It’s also naive and unnerving to see the British media challenge the CIC based on the fact that it has no previous experience in the sports world. Pardon me, Guardian’s Tania Branigan, but what is wrong with a fund that made a nearly 12 percent return on its 2009 investments now branching out into sports?

Lou Jiwei, current head of the CIC, China's former Vice Minister of Finance, and one of the country's most seasoned financial operators. Image from Time Magazine.

Maybe it’s as simple as saying CIC has a lot of money to throw around, Liverpool is in debt, and for all intents and purposes the CIC will bail them out. Maybe it has something to do with getting a foothold on a market that is currently undergoing a number of infrastructure projects — code words for serious money moving around — in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Or, given we’re looking at Liverpool, maybe it has something to do with the massive planning project recently approved for Liverpool, the largest in the United Kingdom, that will see 1.7 million square meters of the region developed. The not-for-profit Web site Merseyrail Extensions is currently documenting the expansion taking place in Liverpool, and it has managed to pull together several interesting developments — another code word for serious money moving around — taking place in Liverpool.

Given all that, I don’t have anything to back these assertions, but Lou Jiwei, China’s former vice minister of finance who now runs the CIC, just doesn’t look like a man that interested in soccer balls. In this case, the purchase of a sports franchise seems like the first step in creating a pipeline for Chinese investors into the United Kingdom, and more importantly “western Europe.”

— Zachary Franklin

A Chinese investment group is trying to sign a deal for a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo from New York Times.

A Russian billionaire is being challenged by an American politician over previous company investments. Is this cause to also go after a Chinese investment group that is finalizing a deal to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Mikhail Prokhorov, left, is being challenged by a U.S. official over whether one of his companies was funding Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, right. Photo from the New York Post.

A New Jersey congressman is demanding an official inquiry into Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who is about purchase the New Jersey Nets, for his apparent business dealings in Zimbabwe. The move threatens to crumble the $200 million USD deal and whether the team will ultimately be moving to Brookyln.

According to the New York Post, the congressman is challenging Prokhorov on whether one of his companies violated a federal rule that forbade any United States or U.S.-based subsidiary company from doing business with current Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

I bring up the challenge to Prokhorov because an investment group from Asia is still finalizing a deal to purchase a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in 2009 that the deal is being led by Jianhua “Kenny” Huang, a Chinese businessman who has brokered deals with the New York Yankees and other U.S. sports teams in the past.

In December 2009, China Sports Review wrote an op-ed on the proposed deal to purchase a stake in the Cavaliers franchise, and asked why Albert Hung, another apparent front man connected with Huang to purchase the Cavs, and an individual with strong ties to the Communist Party, had not been subjected to any backlash by the American public in the wake of an influential CCP member investing in a U.S. sports franchise.

It would seem prudent in the wake of a U.S. government official calling out Prokhorov and his dealings in Zimbabwe that both the NBA and the Cleveland Cavaliers organization are absolutely certain there are no ghosts in the closet with the Asian investment group. Then again, maybe Prokhorov was a little too cavalier in the lead-up to finalizing the Nets deal. After all, what billionaire flashes an automatic rifle on CBS’ 60 Minutes interview and admits the reason he’s become so wealthy is by nefarious dealings in Russia?

Recent public spats over Chinese Renminbi currency appreciation have been cause enough for American politicians to cry foul when it comes to China. Huang, who has a history with American sports franchises might not be under the microscope, but there has yet to be a public disclosure of the other Asian partners involved in the deal. One can imagine NBA Commissioner David Stern is hoping his foreign investors’ pasts do not catch up with them when it comes to business in the National Basketball Association.

“The aim of signing Marbury is to pay back our fans and try to win more games in the rest of the season,” Shanxi boss Wang Xingjiang told ESPN.

Reports indicate Marbury is expected to help boost the team’s chances of making the playoffs. Currently, Shanxi sits 15th out of 17th in CBA league standings.

Shanxi made headlines last year when former NBA player Bonzi Wells joined the team, and two months later took a vacation and subsequently did not return to China.

— Zachary Franklin

I dug through the news reports from Ohio to China, trudging through the same list of accolades and accomplishments of Albert Hung, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Hong Kong, who is finalizing a deal to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Then I waited for the negative backlash.

There was none.

The NBA in China blog did a writeup of Hung, stating “Hung is a member of numerous powerful groups and committees including: the Standing Committee of National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Vice President of China Sports Foundation, Vice Chairman of Major Sports Events Committee, the President of All Stars Sports Association Ltd. of Hong Kong, and Vice President and Director of the South China Athletic Association.”

I was waiting for the harsh comments concerning a Chinese Communist Party member getting his hands on an American basketball team. He’s a member of the CPPCC, which is now a sort of advisory group to the National People’s Congress, and has been chaired by the likes of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and Li Xiannian.

The NBA in China blog went even further: “Perhaps his most valuable political affiliation is with the Hong Kong Selection Committee, which is the group that elects the chief executive of the massive Asian commerce and cultural hub.” Judging by previous news reports, the Hong Kong Selection Committee — chosen by the Chinese government — was somewhat unpopular when it was charged with selecting the first leader of Hong Kong’s provisional government as well as its other legislatures, after the citizens in Hong Kong had already selected a group in a free election. No one batted an eye.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, reported much of the same information as the NBA China blog report. I was waiting for Hung to face the same gauntlet radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh got hit by when he was stonewalled from purchasing the St. Louis Rams. Nothing.

It was reported Tsingtao beer signed a multi-year partnership with the Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena. Ohio is the fourth largest producer of beer in the United States, and the third largest consumer, according to statistics. Pabst Brewing Company, one of the oldest beer companies in the United States, is now produced in Ohio. Annheuser-Busch, which makes Budweiser, and Miller Brewing both have production plants in the state. No resident in Ohio has bothered to question a Chinese beer company setting up shop inside the Cavs’ arena.

My speculation that negative commentary would be the result of both a 15 percent purchase by a Chinese businessman and a Chinese beer company coming to town was from some of the more negative headlines concerning the People’s Republic in 2009. Australia steel giant Rio Tinto backed off a deal for Aluminum Corp. of China to purchase a 18 percent stake in June, according to the Wall Street Journal, and mixed in with the deal’s rejection was concern that the Chinese government was getting too close to a national industry in Australia — a similar sentiment made by United States politicians four years ago when the Chinese made an attempt to purchase a U.S. oil company. The rioting in Xinjiang that took place in July brought a second major protest in China over a span of two years to the front lines of major newspapers and television stations, the result has been 22 people sentenced to death since the rioting stopped.  The Guardian reported that China showed some ire in September after threatening to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair — where China was the guest of honor at this year’s event — unless two authors, which the Chinese government deemed dissidents, were removed from the list of participants. Most recently, the Guardian blasted China for what it called “hijacking” the Copenhagen climate meetings, stating the PRC wrecked any attempt at making a real deal at the summit.

That’s a long paragraph that has little to do with sports. But from all this, I was expecting the worst when I read that Hung would be purchasing a stake in the Cavs. There was nothing. There wasn’t much praise either. Only a few ripples within the news. But I have yet to read any negative commentary with regard to Hung and his business dealings.

The silence around Hung’s recent move and the deal to be finalized come the start of 2010 should be taken as a good sign for the NBA, which has seen its stock in the Chinese market steadily rise over the years, particularly since the league brought pre-season games over to the Mainland. Then again, Hung, and partner Kenny Huang — who was the original man selected to invest in the Cavs — might just be the future to bringing more of America’s sports to China.

— Zachary Franklin

There is no question that large, global sporting events can help change the image of a city. Governments use the spectacles as a means to redevelop or invest further in a city’s infrastructure. South Africa proposed a nine billion rand — or about 1.7 billion USD — budget on city infrastructure projects for next year’s World Cup. According to the Beijing Organizing Committee, the 2008 Olympic Games saw about 60 billion USD invested in city-wide infrastructure projects, which included new stadium venues for the sporting events.

Last week, the article “Sloppy Services Bode Ill for Guangzhou’s Asian Games,” which appeared on the Global Times and was reported by China Sport’s Review’s David Yang, noted that Guangzhou would spend approximately 29 billion on infrastructure throughout the city, and an additional 900 million USD on stadium construction and renovations, in preparation for the athletic events in 2010.

China continues to show willingness to play host to several international sporting events, as well as increasingly popular national athletic endeavors. As mentioned, there are the 16th Annual Asian Games in Guangzhou. The 2009 East Asian Games are currently taking place in Hong Kong until Dec. 13.

Nanjing, which bid and was eventually eliminated for consideration as the host city for the 2012 Youth Winter Olympic Games, is currently in the bidding process for the 2014 Youth Summer Olympic Games. Even animatronics is getting into the mix, as 2010 will also see Harbin play host to the Robot Games, where androids designed from more than 100 universities worldwide will compete.

Apparent in the infrastructure bubble that takes place in cities around China that are vying for the chance to host a major sporting competition is that chinks are beginning to arise in just how productive and profitable a host city can be in the years after the athletics have moved on. Just recently, China Daily reported the city of Harbin gave up on its plan to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, saying that a push by the People’s Republic to host a winter Olympic Games event was “premature.”

Beijing’s crown jewel of sporting events, the 2008 Olympic Games, cost a reported 400 billion RMB, with 12 venues constructed for the two-week event. A 2006 New York Times article titled “The China Syndrome” noted the original budget for the National Stadium was about 500 billion USD, yet the Bird’s Nest currently sits toiling just north of the city center.

Long-term use of Olympic venues has always been the Achilles heel of hosting the event, but in China’s case, where the country is taking on larger sporting events, when infrastructure includes new stadiums and sporting venues, what is happening to these places after the games have finished?

In January, USA Today reported the Bird’s Nest is still searching for a permanent tenant, has yet to hold a major sporting event, and there are doubts the stadium will ever recoup the 450 million USD the government spent to construct the architectural wonder.

According to an Oct. 2005 Reuters article, the budget for the 2005 China National Games held in Jiangsu province was roughly one-third of the 2008 Olympic Games spending, and the Nanjing Olympic Sports Stadium —constructed in 2002 and an integral part of the 2005 China National Games — according to the stadium’s official Web site is now used almost exclusively for local events.

chinaSMACK, which translates “hot topics” on Chinese Internet forums and Chinese news reports, reported that in addition to the myriad of scandals at the 11th National Games held in Shandong during the month of October, the total cost and construction for the event totaled 200 billion RMB, including the Jinan Olympic Sports Center, a 60,000-seat stadium that was the centerpiece of the National Games.

China Daily reported in 2008 that Harbin needed three more stadiums built — at a price tag of 370 million USD — for the 24 Winter Universiade, which featured 4,000 athletes from 50 countries. And the East Asia Games, according to the secretary of home affairs’ home page, saw renovations on the three stadiums in Hong Kong, costing about 240 million USD.

The question surrounding all these monumental athletic venues is who plays in them going forward? The China Basketball Association, the country’s most visible sport, lost 17 million USD overall during the last season, according to an Economist Intelligence Report released in October. The People’s Republic currently has no homegrown athletic teams in any sport that can fill stadiums to capacity on a weekly basis.

Both the National Basketball Association, Premier League and the National Football League have made attempts to bring games to China, but the results have been marginal: a few preseason NBA and Major League Baseball games, an outright rejection to ship Premier League games outside of Europe, and two cancellations by the NFL.

China’s sports powerhouse ambitions, while praiseworthy on the field, have yielded few positive results for long-term sporting events. Yes, major international competitions take time and planning, but China has the infrastructure in place to do more with its sporting venues,  and tying its infrastructure plans to major sporting events should draw continued usage for years after.

— Zachary Franklin