Yao Ming, new owner of the Shanghai Sharks

[IceCat]

...will be spending the next month getting more familiar with his old team, which opened the 2009/2010 season Saturday with a new coach, some new players, and a heartbreaking 102-101 OT loss to Zhejiang.

Video report:
Yao Ming watches home team in action in Shanghai CCTV-International

Yao hopes to excel in new avatar

Yao hopes to excel in new avatar

By Ma Zhenhuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-19 11:50

SHANGHAI: If you still believe in the adage, busy as a bee, you sure didn't see Yao Ming on the first day of his return to China.

Flashlights began bouncing off the NBA All-Star center as soon as he landed in Shanghai on Thursday night with wife Ye Li. They were back within hours - Friday morning - when he walked with the support of a crutch into Shanghai Sharks' press room.

After a 30-minute program to celebrate the club getting a tire company's sponsorship, he moved to a hotel nearby to do his duty as the image ambassador of WildAid, an environmental protection agency fighting to protect sharks.

Yao has returned to the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league after seven years. But his return is not as a player, but the owner of Shanghai Sharks. He bought the club for 20 million yuan ($2.93 million) in July.

Dressed in a black business suit, Yao said he was still learning the tricks of club ownership. "It's a pretty interesting process. To me, it's not something like an overnight shift (from player to owner)."

"I maintain good communication and friendship with Shanghai Sharks players through the phone we all know how to distinguish our jobs from our daily life."

The NBA star conceded, though, that he and the club management (called Team Yao) are still undergoing a "gearing-up process". It's a different matter that they are quite confident of making Shanghai Sharks a success in the CBA league.

Yao the player had helped the Shanghai Sharks to win its only CBA national championship in 2002, before flying to the US to start his NBA career.

"I myself played for this club from the age of 14 I am inextricably tied up with the club. That's why I came back to do my part of the job for the club," he said.

Yao's presence has spread the basketball fever in Shanghai. All the 3,000 tickets for Saturday's opening match were sold out within 5 hours, according to the club's general manager Lu Hao.

"Such bullish ticket sales was beyond our expectations," Lu said.

Yao's dream began in Shanghai. And he hopes that his second association with Shanghai Sharks would help the club emerge out of the doldrums and fund crisis, and inject NBA-style business operations and coaching.

Back into the US, Yao spent his injury break to collect information and materials on Shanghai Sharks even after getting a report from Team Yao. The one month he is expected to spend in his hometown of Shanghai to recover from his injury, he said, would help him dedicate more time to the club. He will attend the opening match of Shanghai Sharks and other events related to the club.

The one-month stay will offer him a chance to talk to the club coach, players and the management team, too. Plus, he expects to meet his fans and survey the Shanghai basketball scene.

"Now I have to have clear knowledge about many, many things."

The new CBA season will start at the Yuanshen Stadium on Saturday, with Shanghai Sharks playing Zhejiang Guangsha.



Kevin

[NTB]

I don't think I could take that kinda financial chance.

[IceCat]

Originally Posted by notaxbill

I don't think I could take that kinda financial chance.

Well, he certainly has the money and right now he has the time, so it's perfectly understandable that he's showing his loyalty in this manner to the team that gave him his start in professional basketball. He's also a realist, as evidenced by replacing his old coach, who hadn't been able to lead the Sharks back into the postseason since Yao left for Houston, with an NBA veteran and bringing in some new players. For his first few years in the NBA Yao has had to have a certain percentage of his salary plowed back to the Chinese state sports system. The fact that now that he's free of that provision yet he's voluntarily giving back to the development of basketball in his country anyway by purchasing his old hometown team and taking steps to turn it around is very commendable. The gentle giant is looking towards the future, both his own post-NBA and the game of basketball in China.


Kevin

[IceCat]

Today is Round 10 of the 34 round CBA season, and thanks to the Yunnan Bulls' financial woes sidelining them this year each of the remaining 17 teams has a bye in each round. With the Shanghai Sharks enjoying that bye today it is a good time to get everybody caught up on their progress so far in 2009-2010.

Their record so far is 6-3, good for a share of 4th place with the PLA's team, the Ba Yi Rockets based in nearby Ningbo in Zhejiang province; 1st place is held by the only remaining unbeaten team so far at 8-0, the 2-time defending CBA champion Guangdong Southern Tigers of Dongguan. After losing their first two games of the season (the previously mentioned opening night loss to Zhejiang Guangsha of Hangzhou and a similiarly close defeat to Zhejiang's 3rd team, the Yiwu-based Zhejiang Cyclones) the Sharks rattled off 6 straight wins before losing their most recent contest Friday night to the Jiangsu Dragons in Nanjing 106-103. One of the Sharks' 2 US imports, John Lucas III, is the 10th leading scorer in the CBA with 25.1 PPG, is 4th in 3-point shooting at 43% (32 made out of 72 attempts) and is 8th in assists with an average of 4.66 per game. The other American, Garret Seiler, is tied for 6th in dunks (yes, they do keep such a stat) at 1.55 per game. Their Jordanian-born teammate, Zaid Abbas, is the league's 8th leading rebounder at 11.2 per game.

The Sharks return to action in Round 11 Wednesday on their home floor against the Rockets. Their 2nd and final bye in the schedule doesn't come until Round 27 in late February and from there it will hopefully be a sprint run for a postseason berth.


The standings after Round Nine:

1 Guangdong 8 0
T2 Xinjiang 7 1
T2 Guangsha 7 1
T4 Shanghai 6 3
T4 BaYi 6 3
T6 Zhejiang 5 4
T6 Fujian 5 4
T8 Liaoning 4 4
T8 Shandong 4 4
T8 Jiangsu 4 4
11 Beijing 4 5
12 Shanxi 3 6
T13 Qingdao 2 6
T13 Jilin 2 6
15 Dongguan 2 6
16 Shaanxi 2 7
17 Tianjin 1 8


Kevin

[IceCat]

The CBA has been on a break since last Wednesday for the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year and will resume this Friday with Round 24. Shanghai has won four of their last five and currently sit in 5th place with a record of 16-6. From my reading it would appear that the top eight make the post-season. Two-time defending champion Guangdong still leads the standings having only lost one game all season: the two teams finish the regular season against each other Sunday 14 March in Shanghai.

John Lucas III of Shanghai has the 7th best scoring average at 26.6 and leads in three-pointers with 89. He's also 7th in assists with an average of 4.71 per game, just behind team captain Liu Wei at 4.94.
In his five games so far with Shanxi Stephon Marbury has averages of 25.8 points, 10.8 assists and 2.6 steals per game, made 39 of 48 from the charity stripe and 8 of 25 from three-land. His team only won two of those five games (the most recent two) to sit in 14th place.

The current standings:


1 Guangdong 21 1
2 Xinjiang 18 3
3 Guangsha 19 3
4 Jiangsu 17 5
5 Shanghai 16 6
6 Liaoning 14 7
7 Fujian 10 12
8 BaYi 10 12
9 Shandong 9 12
10 Zhejiang 9 13
11 Dongguan 7 14
12 Tianjin 7 15
13 Jilin 6 15
14 Shanxi 6 16
15 Beijing 6 16
16 Qingdao 5 16
17 Shaanxi 4 18


Kevin

[xman5]

Originally Posted by IceCat

In his five games so far with Shanxi Stephon Marbury has averages of 25.8 points, 10.8 assists and 2.6 steals per game, made 39 of 48 from the charity stripe and 8 of 25 from three-land. His team only won two of those five games (the most recent two) to sit in 14th place.

No matter what his stats are he is a curse to every team he plays on.

As a Knicks fan we know this well.

[IceCat]

Originally Posted by xman5

No matter what his stats are he is a curse to every team he plays on.

As a Knicks fan we know this well.

Shanxi had been struggling before they signed Stephon, so you can't pin that on him. They signed him to put more butts in the seats, and he accepted in part to better market his shoe brand in China as well as keeping sharp for a comeback to the NBA.


Kevin

[IceCat]

The 2009-2010 CBA regular season has concluded and following Sunday's All-Star Game in Beijing the playoffs begin in earnest. Yao Ming's Shanghai Sharks finished in fourth place at 25-7 and thus have home-court advantage in their best-of-five quarterfinal against Liaoning beginning on Wednesday. The PLA's team, the BaYi Rockets, snuck in as the eighth seed with a losing record of 15-17. Despite their mid-season signing of Stephon Marbury Shanxi finished 14th but he is coming off the bench for the North team in Sunday's All-Star Game. John Lucas III is on the South's starting lineup while his Shanghai teammate Liu Wei is among the reserves.


The final standings:


1. Guangdong 30-2
2. Xinjiang 27-5
3. Guangsha 26-6
4. Shanghai 25-7
5. Liaoning 21-11
6. Jiangsu 20-12
7. Fujian 17-15
8. BaYi 15-17

9. Shandong 14-18
10. Zhejiang 14-18
11. Dongguan 13-19
12. Tianjin 11-21
13. Jilin 10-22
14. Shanxi 10-22
15. Beijing 8-24
16. Qingdao 7-25
17. Shaanxi 4-28

[IceCat]

Shanghai had earlier lost in the semifinals to Guangdong, winning only one game in the best-of-five series to end Yao Ming's maiden season as team owner.

Guangdong get past slap-happy Gaines for China title- Yahoo!7 Sport


Guangdong get past slap-happy Gaines for China title



BEIJING, April 26 (Reuters) - Former NBA center David Harrison has won the first title of his career by helping the Guangdong Southern Tigers to a third straight Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) title.

Guangdong beat the Xinjiang Snow Leopards 103-94 to win the best-of-seven finals 4-1 on Sunday, Harrison and his team mates getting the better of his free-scoring fellow American Charles Gaines, who controversially slapped an opponent in Game Two.

"It's my first CBA title and also the first title in my whole career. I'm so happy," former Indiana Pacer Harrison told China Sports Daily. "I am away from home for so long. This time I can bring home a championship medal."

Gaines's clash with Du Feng was, however, the major talking point of the playoffs, the American slapping his opponent to the ground after a Du head-butt as the pair squared up in Dongguan.

The 28-year-old forward, who averaged more than 30 points a game for the Snow Leopards, was keen to play down the incident after the final game of the series.

"I'm not going to hate him... when we fought we were both in a bad mood," he told Beijing News. "We made lots of contact. He was angry. I was angry. So the irrational thing happened. I don't hate him."

AGGRESSIVE IMPORTS

The incident will, however, further fuelled debate about Americans imports to the CBA, who critics say are too aggressive and reduce the playing opportunities for local players. Former NBA guard Andre Emmett topped the scoring charts with 32 points a game, an average substantially boosted by his record haul of 71 points in one game for Shandong in March.

Despite new rules restricting teams to two foreigners, the top nine scorers in the league were imports with the only local in the top 10 being former NBA player Wang Zhizhi.

"American players are decisive in the CBA at the moment," Beijing Ducks coach Min Lulei said.

Twice NBA All-Star point guard Stephon Marbury was the highest profile American import, attracting huge crowds after his arrival in Shanxi in January.

The former New Jersey, Phoenix, New York Knicks and Boston player failed to lift the team into the playoffs but certainly boosted sales of his "Starbury" brand shoes, and has suggested he might be back next year.

"It was a great experience, they love basketball over there," he said on Twitter last week. "Asia is the move long term. You never know though," he added. (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney and Liu Zhen; Editing by John O'Brien; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

[NTB]

Good reporting Ice Cat