Word: jianlian
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Dates: during 2003-2003
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Maybe not. But Yi Jianlian had better get used to the lofty expectations. A lot of people on both sides of the Pacific are hoping that the talented 6-ft. 11-in. teenager will be the next Yao Ming. Ever since Yao electrified the National Basketball Association last season as a rookie fresh out of Shanghai, a slew of agents, scouts and shoe-company reps have been looking for a Chinese player who can follow the large--and lucrative--footsteps of one of the league's biggest draws. Yi wears size-18 shoes, just like...
Nobody, though, seems a safer bet than Yi Jianlian. The son of two former athletes--his 6-ft. 5-in. father and 5-ft. 8-in. mother were both forcibly recruited by the state to play an obscure sport known as team handball--Yi was discovered in 1999 on a playground in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. Barely out of grade school, he was already 6 ft. 4 in. tall, a behemoth in a region known for its diminutive people. Yi's parents, however, were reluctant to let the Soviet-style sports school lay claim to their only...
...Jianlian is the first to admit he's not ready for prime time. "I'm too young and skinny," he says, his baggy denim shorts and triple-XL Nike shirt only reinforcing his point. Yi has played only one season, most of it riding the bench, in the CBA. But his final regular-season game last spring offered a tantalizing glimpse of the future. With the game heading into overtime, Yi came off the bench to score 13 points in five minutes to seal the victory--and secure Guangdong's place atop the standings. Two weeks later, when Guangdong played...
...when might Yi Jianlian don an NBA uniform? That depends on the biggest mystery of all: his age. The national junior-team roster says Yi was born on Oct. 27, 1987, which would make him just 15--and not eligible to enter the NBA draft independently as an international player until 2009. Several well-placed Chinese basketball experts say he is 17 or 18. Dates are manipulated, they claim, to give Yi more years of eligibility for junior competitions, which China counts on to increase its international prestige. (Age shaving is endemic in international junior competitions. It even affected...