Beijing Aoshen Olympians have upped the stakes in their dispute with the Chinese Basketball Association over point guard Sun Yue by announcing they plan to press ahead with legal action. 

The Beijing-based Aoshen, which quit the CBA in 2003 to compete in the American Basketball Association (ABA) in the United States, holds that national team head coach Jonas Kazlauskas' comments on Sun have adversely affected his chances of getting picked in the June 28th NBA draft.

The Lithuanian said last week that Sun has a long way to go to reach NBA level and skipping national team training will hinder his chances of being selected for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"We will sue him if we don't receive a formal apology to Sun and the club," said a statement released by Aoshen yesterday.

"Sun joined the pre-Draft camps in the United States after getting official permission from the CBA. He didn't disobey rules to skip national team training as Kazlauskas indicated. His defamation has made Sun into the second Wang Zhizhi, who refused to return to China from the United States in 2002. Is there an NBA team that would dare to draft a player like him?"

Sun, a 2.06m point guard, joined a training camp in Orlando on May 28 and then trained with the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards. He has an outside chance of getting drafted, with some draft websites ranking him narrowly in the top 60.

"Some NBA teams invited Sun to train in private camps but some of them withdrew the invitation once they heard Kazlauskas' words," said the statement. "We have to say Sun's future in the draft is at stake.

"We are furious to see the future of such a talented player killed by Kazlauskas' irresponsible comments."

Aoshen also challenged the CBA, saying its support for the Lithuanian was unreasonable. CBA released a statement on Saturday and said the coach's comments were fair and technically subjective.

"As an experienced head coach, he should know his words will have some effect on his players, and he should know how to comment on Sun especially when Sun is on the edge of the draft."

However, China's basketball chief Li Yuanwei said the CBA won't get involved in the incident.

"We are not going to say anything about it as we have made our position very clear in the statement," said Li during the ongoing Four-Nation Tournament in Guangdong. "Kazlauskas is entitled to comment on his players, it is very common to see a head coach criticize his players, he has criticized Yao Ming a lot of times before. As for Aoshen, they have the right to file a lawsuit against the coach."

The coach has defended himself by saying he was misunderstood by the Chinese media. 

But he has gained a reputation for being outspoken in his judgement of his players, including NBA prospect Yi Jianlian and returning Wang Zhizhi.

Sun, who averaged 13.5 points and six assists last season, led Aoshen to a best-ever third place finish in ABA last season and he also made the All-star roster of the league.

This is not the first time Aoshen has clashed with the CBA over Sun.

Two years ago the team would not allow Sun to play for national youth team, and this dispute was part of the reason Aoshen left the CBA for the ABA.

(China Daily June 19, 2007)