Chinese basketball center Mengke Bateer has signed with the New York Knicks as a free agent in preparation for the start of pre-season training camps.

The 7-foot center joined Yao Ming as a member of China's Olympic basketball squad, which matched its best-ever showing with an eighth-place finish at the Athens Games, China Radio International reported Tuesday.     

The 30-year-old Bateer, a three-year NBA veteran, has appeared in 46 career games for Denver, San Antonio, Toronto and Orlando.

Terms of the deals are not announced, but earlier reports indicated his one-year contract with the Knicks is worth of US$700,000.

Bateer is one of four Chinese in NBA training camps this year including Yao Ming, center for the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat center Wang Zhizhi and Liu Wei, a guard trying out for the Sacramento Kings.

(CRI October 6, 2004)