China's basketball super league will cancel 100 games in the upcoming season to give its national team more time to prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China Basketball Association (CBA) announced yesterday.

 

The Yao Ming-led Chinese squad finished with a modest 11th place at the World Championships, which wrapped up in Japan last month. CBA officials said the reduced number of games is a response to the decision of the General Administration of Sports.

 

"The move aims at giving more time and overseas competition opportunities to the national team, which shoulder the task of representing China in the 2008 Olympics," CBA league operations director, Hao Guohua, said in a press conference. "We need to elevate the level of the national team as soon as possible, because during the World Championships we saw a wide gap between our players and those of European powerhouses."

 

"Basketball isn't the only sport dealing with such changes; the national teams of all sports will be given more time in order to raise playing standards before the Olympics."

 

The new season, which starts on October 8, will include a 50-day break to allow the national team to prepare for the Asian Games, which open in Doha, Qatar, on December 1.

 

The format changes also include a "playoff draft," in which teams that make the playoffs can draft one foreign and one Chinese player from the teams that missed out.

 

According to Hao, the move is intended to reduce the game time of national team players and make the playoffs more interesting.

 

The changes are seen as a setback for the 11-year-old league, which has made rapid improvement over the past two seasons.

 

Since 2004, the play-offs have been televised in the US, helping the league sign multi-million dollar contracts with sponsors last year.

 

"We are quite aware that the changes to the league season schedule will affect the interests of sponsors and clubs, but the league must operate in accordance with national interests as the Olympics approach," Hao said.

 

Houston Rockets center Yao lamented a lack of support from his teammates at the World Championships in Japan and said young Chinese players should be encouraged to go abroad to gain experience.

 

"We cannot make enough progress by the national league alone: It's like trying to build a cart without knowing how," Yao said after their second round 95-64 rout by Greece.

 

"Chinese players have to go overseas to play. I mean, they should go there alone and fight for their positions on the teams. This is the only way to lift the overall level of Chinese basketball."

 

(China Daily September 9, 2006)