FIBA Asia Cup 12-man roster announced

Team China’s trip to Tokyo for the Asia Cup got off to a boring start last night.

Yesterday, the Chinese Basketball Association has announced the 12-man roster for the 2012 FIBA Asia Cup.

Wang Zhelin and Guo Ailun headline a team that is completely comprised of players aged 22 and under. Going up against teams that will have veteran senior level players, head coach Fan Bin stressed to reporters that this China team won’t be judged on results. Instead, the tournament will be used as a way for China’s next generation of National Team players to gain experience in preparation for the 2016 Olympics.

In part, there’s truth to all of that. But as people who are familiar with Chinese basketball know, China will still be looking for a decent finish. If all they really cared about was the experience, would they have taken Guo Ailun, who has been out of action since he sprained his ankle on September 3rd and went so far to tweet on September 9th that it was still in a large amount of pain? The answer is pretty obvious, I think.

Things are already off to a rough start for the Chinese, however. According to the Beijing Morning Post, after arriving in Tokyo last night, the team was forced to wait at the airport for two hours for their bus to arrive. By the time their vehicle had arrived, it was well past midnight.

Hmmmmmm….

The full roster:

Center

Wang Zhelin (Fujian)
Sun Zhe (DongGuan)
Zhang Dayu (Zhejiang)

Forward

Yu Changdong (Xinjiang)
Wu Ke (Shandong)
Cao Yan (Bayi)

Guard

Guo Ailun (Liaoning)
Duan Jiangpeng (Shanxi)
Sui Ran (Shandong)
Wang Zirui (Guangsha)
Zhao Tailong (Fujian)
Cao Fei (Zhejiang)