Word: zhizhi
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...undisputed icon of Chinese basketball, the country's most high-profile player in what is probably the nation's most popular sport. While not the first Chinese hoopster to play in the NBA - that distinction goes to Wang Zhizhi, who was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 1999 - Yao is by far the most prominent. A seven-time NBA All-Star and pillar of the Chinese national team, his angular face can be seen on everything in China from Coke billboards to Visa ads. His annual endorsement income last year was estimated at $36 million, more than triple that...
Within China's domestic sports scene there has been age-fixing as well. Young athletes can be designated as younger than they are so they can dominate in age-based competitions, as was the case with Chinese basketball star Wang Zhizhi, whose age was listed in inter-club competitions as two years younger than he actually...
...Tian was different. Other athletes who had disagreements with the administration all end up apologizing. Wang Zhizhi, the former NBA player, had to make a public apology last April before sports officials would allow him to play in the China Basketball Association. He had been frozen out for four years after disobeying orders to return to China to practice in 2002. Tian's ex-girlfriend, Guo Jingjing, made a public self-criticism in 2005 to avoid being kicked out of the national team for "attending too many social activities." But the "Prince of Divers" as he is called, would never...
After a few more years in the Arabian sun, Ronzone joined the Dallas Mavericks in 1997 and based himself in China, where he and Nelson nudged the Chinese government into letting the Mavs sign 7-ft. 1-in. Wang Zhizhi (paving the way for Yao Ming's arrival in the U.S.). In 2001, Ronzone was poached by the Pistons, who, never having drafted an international player, gave him carte blanche to travel. After years of frequent-flying, though, Ronzone discovered he could cut back. "If I'm going to three normal countries--say, Italy, Spain and France--I now have...
...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 the Clippers' Wang Zhizhi, who had NBA teams scrambling to verify his true age to make sure he was old enough for the draft.) Yi and his parents both say on the record that he was born in 1987. But when pressed on the issue, Yi turns away and fills the room with...