China keeps Yao Ming out of NBA draft
( 2001-05-11 22:04 ) (7 )

yao ming

China's Yao Ming will not be allowed to enter the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft next month, his club said on Friday.

Shanghai Sharks manager Bai Li said the 2.25-metre center was too important to the nascent Chinese basketball league to be allowed to leave for the United States at the moment.

"The Chinese league, after six years of efforts, is just starting to take off. It needs the support of its players and teams," Bai told a news conference.

"Yao Ming is a very influential player, so he has a serious impact on the league. We're temporarily giving up on this idea," he said of the possibility of the 21-year-old center entering the NBA's June 27 draft.

"When we made the decision, the club spoke to his parents, coaches, Shanghai sports authorities and Yao himself," Bai said.

"On big things like this ... he will consider the collective good."

But Bai said it was possible Yao would be allowed to enter next year's draft. Club officials said, however, many details would have to be worked out or cleared with the authorities before that became a reality.

"Next year, from the club's standpoint, he will be allowed to go," he said.

'NOT READY'

Yao Ming is athletic as well as immensely tall -- a combination that is likely to see him chosen very early in the NBA draft when he is allowed to enter it.

But Bai said Yao was just not ready for the NBA, considered the world's physically toughest league.

"He's not ready yet, physically," Bai told Reuters after the news conference.

"But he's so young, his future's ahead of him," he said. "When he goes, it's better that he really does go and not keep shuttling between China and the NBA. Then he can concentrate on the NBA."

Bai said China's other outstanding center Wang Zhizhi, who signed for the Dallas Mavericks in April, was doing just that in his capacity as a national team player.

Yao was not present at Friday's news conference. Club officials said he was training with the national team in Beijing.

His mother Fang Fengdi, who at 1.88 metres was the tallest member of China's national women's team in the 1970s, said she was not disappointed by the club's decision to keep Yao Ming for at least another year.

"To go to the NBA is every boy's dream. As parents we would be happy. To have dreams is the only way to improve," she said.

But, she added: "It's a goal to be achieved at a later stage."

Yao Ming would have been only the second Asian to go to the NBA after Wang.

Club officials said they would consider putting Yao on a special training programme to prepare for the rigours of NBA play.