Coming of (Correct) Age for Yi?

Despite averaging 9.7 points and 6 rebounds a game, 2nd-year New Jersey Nets Yi Jianlin could still make it into the All-Star game with the online voting support of his fellow Chinese. Online voters select 2 guards, 2 forwards and 1 center for the Western and Eastern squads. Right now, Yi's in third place, but with a voting surge from China, it's not unforseeable to see him leap-frog K.G. to secure a spot as the most undeserving NBA All-Star game starter ever.
Player	Votes
LeBron James (Clev)	1,259,764
Kevin Garnett (Bos)	905,506
Yi Jianlian (NJ)	762,162
Chris Bosh (Tor)	500,700
Paul Pierce (Bos)	313,474
Shawn Marion (Mia)	210,040
Hedo Turkoglu (Orl)	137,035
Danny Granger (Ind)	116,238
Josh Smith (Atl)	110,186
Michael Beasley (Mia)	100,257
Tayshaun Prince (Det)	98,262

While the above is apparent good news for (young?) Yi, the following is yet another piece of evidence inflaming the growing tinder heap of allegations that Jianlian is not now the freshly-minted 21-year-old he'd have us believe he is, but rather someone quite older (cue "Murder She Wrote" music)

From Interbasket.net

Breaking: Document Suggests Yi Jianlian 3-Years Older than Reported">Breaking: Document Suggests Yi Jianlian 3-Years Older than Reported

Recent evidence referencing a Sports Illustrated-China piece suggests that Yi Jianlian, the 7-0 forward from Heshan City, China, is much older than 21 years old, as all his official NBA profiles report.

The document is Yi’s senior registration form at Binhe Middle School, which has a picture of a young Yi and seems to have been filled out by Yi himself. The form is from 1997 and lists his date of birth as Oct. 27, 1984, and not October 27, 1987 as it’s found on NBA.com.

You can see in the image to the left, on the first line next to Yi Jianlian’s photo that it shows his birth date to be 1984.10.27 (click on the image to make it larger)

For more information and discussion, please check out our discussion thread dedicated to this. You can also see the full document in this thread (not that it’ll do you much good unless you can read Chinese).

Since Jianlian has become an NBA prospect to being a player with the New Jersey Nets, rumors and controversy surrounding the Yi’s real age has followed him where ever he has been.

And Yi has asserted in the past that his birthyear is 1987, and he has also denied to answer any questions concerning his age “I have no comment on that,” Yi said through translator Roy Lu back when when the then supposed-19-year old was on his way to his first practice with the Milwaukee Bucks.

No word on whether this document was discovered during a recent crackdown that found at least 36 Chinese players “age-shaving” or lying about their ages in order to qualify for youth tournaments. Chinese authorities have pledged to put an end to age fraud, which apparently is very common in China.

US Dispenses China 101-70

This game, likely the most widely watched in basketball history, was very much a Jekyl and Hyde affair. The electricity surging through the arena before the game was palpable, I'm sure. From all I saw it was, anyway. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to listen to the commentators on TV but instead watched the live webcast on nbcolympics.com.

N.B - NBC's website says that the company will air more than 3,600 hours of the Summer Olympics this year, 1,000 hours more than the combined coverage for every televised Summer Olympics in U.S. history (Rome 1960 - Athens 2004, 2,562 hours).
It is "the most ambitious single media project in history."

My viewing experience, however, wasn't as grand. I was chagrined to learn that nbcolympics.com does not stream commentators (for this game, the color commentator was Doug Collins). So I watched the game in silence, pretending I was there, occasionally checking the weird text-based live commentary some random ex-coach provided.

The beginning of the game is all a basketball fan could have hoped for - the president in attendance, Yao Ming hitting a three, and the home team starting out with tough, spirited basketball. But while China was able to keep the game close through the first quarter (America did not shoot well, hitting only 2 of 16 threes through 3 quarters, and Carmelo did not score in the 1st half), a number of factors led to China's eventual 31-point demise:

1) China is not a deep team and the US is. The US kept running and at first China could handle it - they had the adrenaline of playing at home and fresh legs going for them. But over the course of the game, they fell victim to wave after wave of fast-breaking, stars and stripes-saluting greyhounds.

2. Yao Ming, China's hinge, was creaky. He had surgery in the spring and has been playing with the national team since only July 15th. He scored only half (13 points) of what he averaged 2 years ago as the leading scorer of the world championships and was not able to finish plays around the rim during the 2nd half. He wearily waved to the crowd as he exited with 4 minutes left in the game, but I expect China to bounce back as Yao's stamina improves and EVERY OTHER TEAM WON'T BE THE UNITED STATES from now on. The Red Dragon's second brightest flame, New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlin, was horrible: he had made only 1 of 9 shots a couple of minutes into the 4th quarter.

3. LeBron and D-Wade were spectacular. LeBron had 18 points on 8-12 shooting, buttressed by 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. He also looked like he was ready to win the 100 meter dash. Late in the 2nd quarter, as he waited for a rebound off of a free throw attempt, he hunched down like a sprinter in the starting blocks. There was no way he was letting Yi Jianlin get the rebound.

Wade was impeccable - 7-7 FGs, 5-5 FTs. If he continues to play at his NBA Finals MVP-level of last year, the US's transition game goes from orange alert to red.

China's Problems

Anybody who follows basketball knows China is an emerging force on the international scene. It is estimated that the population of Chinese NBA-followers is as large as the population of the entire United States. Yao Ming and Yi Jianlin are only the tip of a talent iceberg and will be melting into the NBA (and strong European leagues) over the coming decade.

But why has the matriculation of Chinese talent into the League not been faster? After all, Ming entered the league in 2002 and we waited another five years for Jianlin. Only one Chinese guard, Liu Wei, has had a shot in the interim and he did not progress past the preseason.

So what gives?

In the recent SLAM special Olympic issue (pg. 66), Alan Paul wrote that Chinese players are often overworked in domestic leagues. They "almost appear to be loafing when they are actually pacing themselves, the result of spending eight hours a day, six days a week playing basketball since they were 13 or 14. It is impossible to maintain high intensity for such long stretches and thus the system, which is designed to toughen up the players and almost make them basketball machines, eventually breaks down their will and teaches them that the smartest route is to rarely rise above a 75 percent energy level."

This observation is supported in a recent FIBA interview (FIBA Assist, Issue 30, pg. 45) with Tom Maher, China's womens national team head coach. He noted that China has a tradition of "committing itself to outwork its opposition" but that this isn't necessarily the "most productive method in a dynamic game like basketball."

"We have tried to change the philosophy of training from one of high volume to one of dynamic intensity."

It will be interesting to see how the Beijing games affect this aspect of Chinese training culture. The guess here is that intense exposure to the training methods of American and European coaches will leave a lasting impression on Chinese trainers and coaches - one that will hasten the nation's growth into an eventual basketball giant.