The Fountain of Youth is in China Part 2: 22 Chinese Players Birth Years Adjusted

Further alleged proof that the fountain of youth is in China is a report that 22 Chinese Basketball professionals' birth years were adjusted! As if it was that simple. We all know the reason why they do it. Even the "slovenly" record keeping excuse won't fly here. Obviously, their records are maintained properly. At least this time, Chinese players didn't shrink lol.

Below is the name, club, old birth year and new birth year of the 22 players whose birth years changed.


1. Tang Zhengdong Jiangsu 1984 1982
2. Hu Xuefeng Jiangsu 1982 1980
3. Yi Li Jiangsu 1987 1985
4. Han Shuo Jiangsu 1989 1986
5. Fang Hui Jiangsu 1986 1982
6. Meng Da Jiangsu 1984 1982
7. Lu Wei Liaoning 1987 1985
8. Gu Liye Liaoning 1986 1985
9. Yang Ming Liaoning 1987 1985
10.Zhang Qingpeng Liaoning 1985 1981
11.Liu Xiangtao Liaoning 1983 1980
12.Xu Guochong Xinjiang 1983 1981
13.Mai Wulan Xinjiang 1983 1984
14.Lu Yan Jilin 1984 1981
15.Tian Yu Shaanxi 1980 1983
16.Yu Junkai Zhejiang Guangsha 1977 1976
17.Du Feng Guangdong 1981 1982
18.Zhang Bo Bayi 1986 1988
19.Men Wei Beijing 1987 1984
20.Zhang Yunsong Beijing 1977 1981
21.Ji Zhe Beijing 1986 1989
22.Li Yiding Qingdao 1984 1981

Who knows? Next year the power of the Fountain of Youth will strike again. This report comes from Arthur Volbert - a Chinese basketball writer for Asia-basket.com.

Here's a part of his article:

The birth years of 22 CBA players changed between this year and last year. Jiangsu and Liaoning appear to have corrected the ages of a whole group of players...

For Jiangsu, Tang Zhengdong went from being born in 1984 to 1982, confirming longtime rumors than he was older than his listed age. Others who became older were Han Shuo, Yi Li, Hu Xuefeng, Meng Da and Fang Hui.

For other teams, there are the normal ups and downs with ages that happens in China. Guangdong's Du Feng, a member of the National Team, went from being born in 1981 to being born in 1982. He keeps switching from one to the other and back, for some unfathomable reason. (Maybe, he returned to his mother's womb for a year-mine.)

Beijing's Zhang Yunsong, a former member of the National Team, went from being born in 1977 to being born in 1981. He too keeps switching back and forth between the two birth years. Again the logic of this is unknown.

Source

Mr.Volbert is maybe being diplomatic since the reward for nosy foreigners is deportation. Whatever their reasons are we can't blame other people perception of China as age cheats. I wonder just how many in the so-called Chinese U-18 team are actually 18?

BREAKING NEWS: CHINA TROUNCES PHILIPPINES IN FIBA-Asia U 18, 86-63

Team Pilipinas still have to fight on!

7:43 pm MST - Just in, China defeated the Philippines in the 5th place classification match today 86-63 according to the website Iranbasketball.org. More details will be presented later.

The boys gave a good account of themselves in this tournament. I hope they forget this loss and continue to fight on. If my sources are correct, they have to battle Lebanon tomorrow for 7th place due to today's loss. Any team from this bracket which would come out unbeaten will get 5th place. Our team will finish no higher than seventh if we win the two remaining matches.

Not much was expected from these boys but they played with their hearts out and should have finished higher. On the other hand, China blew their opportunity to defend their crown - no thanks to their baby coach with childish tantrums!LOL. What the coach needed was a little restraint since he has a strong team anyway. China could still beat Syria and in fact leading before the infamous walkout.

Korea defeated Lebanon 93 - 72 in another classification match. Team Pilipinas will still meet these two teams again if my analysis is correct.

PHILIPPINE-IRAN AFTERGAME THOUGHTS

WE DESERVED TO WIN

Mohammad Hassanzadeh (player): we played very bad, we underrate philippines, and i am so sorry

Mohammad Jamshidi (player): we lost to our mistakes, but no problem, this match is not important

Pouria Kazemi (player): we underrated philippines and we lost to their speed.

Nebojsa Raicevic (Iran's coach): this match is not important, but we tried to win, today i must rested some players, our best player Emad Salmani is injured and i couldnt use him.

Philippines coach: amazing match , we played very well, we show our class , Iran is a very strong team , i am sure they will win the tournament.

Not the comments you would expect from a team playing in a "game that is not important", aren't they?

the fact that Iran's top guns played limited minutes is Iran's problem, not ours because they are the one who had an "L" in their win-loss record.

Bottomline: We played with our best, therefore we deserved to win.

Comment from Philstar.com

It was so easy for some pseudo-basketball writer from FIBA-Asia to say the other team didn't take it seriously. He didn't even interview the players - just stick to Cricket!!!

I agree we deserved to win. Victories are reserved to those who want it the most and to think away the credit from our boys is, dishonesty!

Team Pilipinas will meet China in 5th-6th place classification. China got booted out of the semifinals because of the childish boycott their coach instigated in the match against Syria. It got no points from the ill-advised caper. FIBA awards two points for a win and one point for a loss. Why FIBA awards points for losing is beyond me!

The consolation bracket the Philippines are playing in also has CHINA, KOREA and LEBANON – strangely, the Gold medallist, Silver medallist and bronze of the last tournament! In that order.China is in it because they “walked out” in protest over their game with Syria in the Quarter Finals thus suffering the penalty of getting 0 points on a three-way tie. Korea is in it because they lost to Iran and Japan. Lebanon is in it because.. well...they lost to China and Kazahkstan. We are in it because in the whole tournament... we’re the only ones who have beaten the top seeded team – Iran who may eventually... become tournament champions.The talk going around is that Iran cannot claim to be the best team here because they never got to play China. And China claims it can beat Iran. If we beat China tomorrow, which we’ve already done recently,We have the strange honor of claiming that we are the unqualified “best team” in Asia...for full story

HAHAHA! Not all best team gets to win the competition remember Holland in World Cup 1974 and 1978. China may fire the coach then.

INFANTILE PROTEST MAR FIBA-ASIA U-18 TOURNAMENT

Philippines lose

Philippines lost to Korea 98-80. By the way, the writer in FIBA-Asia should just stick to Cricket. His write-ups are absurd.

Chinese coach Li Chunjiang went berserk. He protested so much for what he perceived as dubious call against him (he received a technical foul with 6:13 left of the third quarter with China leading 46 - 41). Li led the walkout of his team. The match commissioner tried to pacify and bring back the Chinese squad but they adamantly refused to return. The referee forfeited the call in favor of the Syrians with a 20-0 scoreline. This is the alleged problem with Asian sports in general - too many shady activities - happening off the court. Some experts say this will persist for a long time. I wonder how many players participating in this tournament are really under 18 years of age.

Here is another view of the episode:

My guess is that the closeness of the score of this game had something to do with the refereeing being biased in favor of the Syrians.

The rivalry between West Asians and East Asians appears to be reflected in calls by referees, which is why I felt that Iran would win this tourney just as China easily won the last junior tourney when it played at home.

Is this just simple bias? Are payoffs involved? Who trained these referees? Donaghy?
You know what? These countries receiving perceived help from the referees are also notorious whiners and complainers because maybe they know what's happening behind the scenes and don't want to be the recipients of it.

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH IS IN CHINA!

Chinese Youth Cagers Shrink and Go Younger

I am interested in the development of Chinese basketball particularly at the youth level and this discovery really surprised me take a look at this Houston Chronicle article dated August 26, 2006:

The problem is the teams in the Chinese Basketball Associa-tion do not want to give up their best players, weakening their teams. Yao's former team, the Shanghai Sharks, used to be CBA champions, but now are at the bottom of the league.

Concerns such as that probably have kept 6-11 forward Yi Jianlian out of the NBA draft in recent years and playing for the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Yi is long and athletic, with good instincts and quick moves around the hoop. The NBA received a notice at the start of last season that Yi was 19 years old and would be draft eligible in 2006. Then another notice arrived in January, informing that Yi was only 18 and too young for the draft. Most insiders believe he is 22. During an exhibition game two weeks ago, Yi told Shane Battier he's 24.

From Arthur Volbert / asia-basket.com: (article written last year)

The Chinese team looks young in its photo at http://www.primetimepdx.com/ngc/photos/ngc07-1/ngc07-1-35.jpg but who really knows. With the slovenliness of Chinese record-keeping on ages it would not shock me if everyone is two years older than listed, or even two years younger. Yu Chen went from being born in 1994, at last year's Nike Asian Camp, to being born in 1990 here. Other Chinese players have also varied by 4 years in their listed ages. This makes it very hard to judge the potential of Chinese players.

China was winless at the Global challenge. It got blown out by Canada which lost to Puerto Rico. A nation of 1.3 billion which can produce talent like Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi should have the depth to produce competitive junior teams. China must realize that it is doing something very wrong in the way it develops its junior players.

Below is the official listing of the team for the Under-19 World Championship in Novi Sad Serbia

The other players are either playing in Las Vegas or were the last cuts on the team. These players were named for eligibility purposes in case someone got injured. Chen Jianghua is injured and that is why 13 players have their heights and positions listed. I do not know if Chen would have been sent here if he were not injured.

Note that Su Wei is listed at 212 cm and Wang Zheng is listed at 216 cm. Wang has grown 2 cm over the past year and is indeed considered to be a year younger than Su. Wang is clearly a player to watch.

Delehei, a Mongolian with one name, is listed as being 204 cm and not 207 or 208 cm as he is sometimes listed. He plays both center and power forward. He is listed as born in 1990 rather than 1989, as he is sometimes listed, but appears to have shrunk rather than grown in the last couple of years. That's what's so charming about junior Chinese players -- they can shrink and grow younger. (like laundry – mine)

Gu Aoke is listed at 196 cm and he is supposed to be an outstanding leaper who does 360 degree dunks. Tian Yuchen is listed at 205 cm and was listed at that height two years ago. This does make one suspicious that he was actually born in December, 1992. At the least it makes one seriously doubt that he will get any taller.

Xu Yong, on the other hand, appears to have grown an inch since he was MVP of the Adidas Camp two years ago.

The only point guard listed is Chen Jianghua, who is injured. Xu Xu is listed as 190 cm here and not 194 cm as he has been listed elsewhere. So he is probably a point guard. Yang Qin has also played the point.

Here is the list with the Name, Position, Height, Date Of Birth, Place Of Birth, and Current Club Team

Zhichao BA SF 200cm 6'7" 19/02/1989 Liaoning(CHN) Guandong (CHN)
Jianghua CHEN PG 187cm 6'2" 12/03/1989 Guangdong(CHN) Guangdong Southern Tigers, CBA (CHN)
DELEHEI C 204cm 6'8" 21/06/1990 Neimenggu(CHN) Bayi (CHN)
Jinhui DING -/- 27/10/1989 Zhejiang(CHN) -
Aoke GU SG 196cm 6'5" 12/12/1988 Liaoning(CHN) Shanghai Sharks (CHN)
Jingyu LI SF 198cm 6'6" 03/04/1991 Shandong (CHN) Shangdong (CHN)
Xiaoxu LI C 204cm 6'8" 05/06/1990 Liaoning (CHN) Liaoning (CHN)
Xiaoyu LIU -/- 14/03/1989 Jilin (CHN) -
Yahui LIU -/- 09/01/1990 Jiangsu (CHN) -
Wei SU C 212cm 6'11" 28/07/1989 Shandong (CHN) Guandong (CHN)
Yuchen TIAN SF 205cm 6'9" 30/12/1992 Jilin (CHN) Shanghai Sharks (CHN)
Zheng WANG C 216cm 7'1" 08/02/1990 Hebei (CHN) Guandong (CHN)
Xu XU SG 190cm 6'3" 05/01/1989 Henan (CHN) Bayi (CHN)
Yong XU SF 202cm 6'8" 30/03/1989 Shanghai (CHN) Shanghai Sharks (CHN)
Qin YANG SG 195cm 6'5" 28/04/1989 Jiangsu (CHN) Bayi (CHN)
Bo ZHANG SF 196cm 6'5" 30/09/1990 Liaoning (CHN) Bayi (CHN)
Jiadi ZHANG -/- 09/07/1988 Liaoning (CHN) -
Zhun ZHENG -/- 12/08/1992 Heilongjiang (CHN) -
Peng ZHOU -/- 11/10/1989 Liaoning (CHN) -

Average height: 200cm/6'7" which begins tomorrow. The players with their heights and positions listed are the ones on the final team.

What can I say except the Fountain of Youth is really in China! Slovenly record-keeping? Maybe but I doubt it. There seems to be a pattern and FIBA should take a look at this for if it is true then it is a blatant disregard of rules and people involved should be punished. It might as well stop these so-called youth tournaments if it can't stop this disgusting tradition (it is a way of life for some countries fielding ineligible players). It is so unfair to honest nations who compete fairly in those tournaments.

CHINA WATCH

BREEDING GIANTS? – basketballpilipinas China watch


I was researching rumors of 100 Chinese 7-footers being trained in their secret basketball camps around China and I got this report. A disturbing report I don’t know whether to believe it or not. There are two propagandas at work American and Chinese and I don’t trust them both. I’m very interested in Chinese basketball I’ve got a lot of files about it.

Chinese sports' giant question mark

Far from being a chance creation, Chinese basketball giant Yao Ming was knowingly bred for the sport, forced into it against his will and subjected to years of dubious science to increase his height, a new book claims.
The 2.28-metre Houston Rockets centre also underwent years of punishing training as one of hundreds of thousands of potential Chinese athletes who endure miserable childhoods in boot-camp conditions.
The revelations in Operation Yao Ming, by former Newsweek journalist Brook Larmer, are likely to raise further disquiet over China's Soviet-style sports system ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Larmer said Yao, China's first successful basketball export and its most famous face worldwide, was the product of a harsh and antiquated programme which has changed little since it was set up more than 50 years ago under Mao Zedong.
"Yao on one hand is this great symbol of China's modern advancement, a commercial icon that can stride across the Pacific and play the role of a bridge between East and West," he said.
"But he's still the product of this system which is one of the last bastions of socialism in China."
Larmer says Yao's birth had been anticipated for decades by Communist officials - desperate to boost national pride through sports - who had been tracking his family for two generations.
He describes a system where doctors armed with special growth-predicting manuals measure youngsters' bones and pubic hair to identify future athletes. Weightlifters must be squat with strong torsos; divers need tiny hips to minimise splash; basketball players must simply be tall.
"It's no accident that there have been generations of players who have continued to get taller," he said.
"One of the first NBA scouts was blown away when he went to northern China and saw more than 20 seven-footers."
Yao's grandfather, one of Shanghai's tallest men, was discovered too late for basketball but his son, the six foot nine Yao Zhiyuan, soon found himself dragged into the sports system.
There he was paired off with the six foot two Fang Fengdi, China's women's captain who had been a feared Red Guard during the murderous Cultural Revolution.
The two were encouraged to marry in a system with undertones of eugenics, the controversial gene-pool manipulation espoused by the Nazis and previously trumpeted by Beijing.
"It wasn't a national breeding programme, it was a desire among Shanghai officials for them to get together," Larmer said.