Houston Rockets star Yao Ming leads national team to victory
China has beaten South Korea to become the new men's Asian basketballchampions, with the help of national legend and Houston Rockets center YaoMing.
Yao led his national team to a 106-96 victory in the men's final of theAsian competition, in a hard-fought match in the northeastern city ofHarbin. His score of 30 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocked shots forthe home team was watched by an ecstatic crowd on China's National Dayholiday both in the stadium and on national television networks.
While the win assured China of the sole Asian place at next year's SummerOlympics in Athens, the rest of the Chinese squad looked shaky incomparison with Yao, missing numerous easy layups and other shots.
Faced with Yao's dominance, the fast-attacking South Koreansturned to their best shooters, firing away 40 times from three-pointterritory. South Korean players made 17 of those three-pointers.
The South Koreans fought back behind the three point shooting of LeeKyu-Sup and Moon Kyung-Eun to trail 83-82 with less than four minutes leftin the game.
But just as it looked like the Chinese side was going to crack underpressure, little-used guard Fan Bin knocked down a key three-pointer andmade six of seven free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Yao was named tournament MVP. Menke Bateer, who plays for the San AntonioSpurs, also made an appearance on the national squad. However, the thirdmember of China's moving "Great Wall" of NBA players, Wang Zhizhi, losthis place on the national team after he declined to join a summer trainingcamp run by the Chinese Basketball Management Center (CBMC).