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Working overtime Chinese coaching philosophies are too dated
SYDNEY, Australia -- Watching the Chinese basketball team go out to a 20-16 lead against the U.S. Sunday night, only to lose 119-72, two sentences reverberated in my head. They're from John Anthony Spencer, a former star at Howard who spent several seasons as a basketball soldier-of-fortune in the Middle Kingdom. Here is what he told me: "This is the most athletic foreign team you'll ever see. But you'd never know it because they're so tired." The Chinese nationals practice five hours a day, every day. Their training camp is in session whenever the Chinese Basketball Association isn't.
"The physical punishment basically kills their bodies," Spencer says. "I'd hate to see this team if it had a day off every week and practiced two hours a day. Add a better diet and some weightlifting, and this could be one of the toughest teams in the world." A prime example: Hu Weidong, a guard who came off the bench Sunday night. Four years ago he was among China's best players, good enough to be invited to the Atlanta Hawks' training camp. Then he tore up his knee -- surely, says Spencer, a former teammate of Hu's, as a result of the national team coaching staff's determination that players chi ku, or "eat bitterness." Why do the sages of Chinese hoop persist in their counterproductive methods? The answer may lie in a comment from Ma Jian, who was the first Chinese athlete to play college ball in the U.S. Ma tells me that when he was a member of the national team a decade ago, he approached coach Jiang Xingquan -- the same man who's guiding China in these Games -- and pleaded with him to give the players a regular day off. Jiang not only refused, but explained his refusal with a line that illustrates how thoroughly bureaucratic thinking still permeates Chinese sports. "We must practice every day," Jiang told Ma. "That way, if we lose, I can tell the higher-ups that I've done everything I could." If you caught the sparks of possibility last night from 7-5 Yao Ming and 7-foot Wang Zhizhi, that comment will strike you as a horrible shame. Yao and Wang deserve a better chance to become the best players they can be. Sports Illustrated senior writer Alexander Wolff is in Sydney covering the Games for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Wolff's behind-the-scenes reports from Down Under.
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