NiuBBall.com

Yes, it’s true, Xirelijiang. You’ve been dumped by CCTV for Chinese soccer.

Game 5′s don’t come often during the CBA playoffs. In fact, before last year, they didn’t come at all. Since the league has switched to a best-of-five format for the first and semi-final rounds in 2005, there had been exactly zero series that went the distance. That changed last season, when Xinjiang – DongGuan gave us on in the first round, while Shanxi and Beijing gave us another in the semis.

So when Liaoning beat Xinjiang on Wednesday to force a third Game 5 in the last two years, fans were admittedly fired up. Especially when the three preceding first-round series all ended in sweeps by the higher seeded teams.

But that excitement has turned into… what??? Because when you turn on CCTV-5 tonight, instead of the game, you’ll see the opening round of the Chinese Super League, according to HuPu.com.No, that’s not a misprint. Not basketball. Soccer.

The fine folks at CCTV do have somewhat of a soul, though. They’ll be re-broadcasting the game at 10:30pm once the two teams are done playing. If you couldn’t tell, we’re being sarcastic.

If this news indeed holds to be true, the conspiracy theorists will be out in full force over this one (we’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with disagree). And if those conspiracies have some truth to them… well I guess it’d be business as usual. But this is an absolute abomination. Heck, if the programming directors at CCTV aren’t  too busy stamping out any potential interest for Chinese professional basketball, why not  drown some kittens, too? Repeat: An abomination.

I have nothing more to say.

(Photo: Boston Herald via Red’s Army)

For NBA fans who have always pined to see the Chinese Basketball Association, but have few if any opportunities to watch it outside of China, you’re in luck: The Boston Celtics have signed most of the league’s foreign player population to their NBA roster over the last week.

China-to-Boston speculation was rife in Celtics-land after Doc Rivers was quoted last month saying the team was looking at signing a player out of the CBA when its season ended. Turns out, they were looking at several players. After signing Terrence Williams to a 10-day contract, who played most of the season with the first-place Guangdong Southern Tigers before being replaced by Donald Sloan just before the post-season, the Celtics have followed up by signing D.J. White (Shanghai Sharks) and Shavlik Randolph (Foshan Long Lions) to two other 10-days.

While it’s a little surprising that one team has signed three players with Chinese experience this season, the fact that teams are looking across the Pacific Ocean for late-season help is a continuing trend that started two years ago.

[...]

After a lot of talk about their lack of size, rebounding and and off-and-on play, the Miami Heat are rolling as they enter the month of March. Currently on a 12 game win streak, the defending champs lost only one game in February and have won 17 of their last 19 overall.

LeBron James, whose historic play has been the main headline generator in recent weeks, is obviously a major reason for that. But Dwyane Wade, whose supposed athletic decline was brought up by Charles Barkley earlier in the season, has quietly returned to dominance. How is this for a one month stretch: 23.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.5 blocks and 1.7 steals and a very efficient 53% shooting clip.

Maybe that explains why Wade, who readers should know signed a multi-year deal with Chinese shoe brand, Li-Ning, over the off-season, has a new nickname, “WOW.” (One that LeBron finds corny, on a side note.) The nickname is referring to “Way of Wade,” which is the slogan for his shoe.

Nickname aside, one thing is clear: For Wade to leave Brand Jordan and join up with Li-Ning, there had to be a lot of money on the table. Just how much? Jalen Rose, on the Grantland Network’s “Jalen Rose Show” with David Jacoby, passes along a rumor that Wade’s deal is worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars and that he has an agreement in place to play in China when his NBA career is over.

[...]

The 2013 Chinese Basketball Association All-Star Weekend pretty much went down like previous ones, failing for the most part to capture the overall atmosphere of the the NBA one it tries too hard to imitate. But that’s not to say there weren’t moments: As is becoming a yearly tradition, Guo Ailun went onto the court to give everyone a performance on Saturday night, Xirelijiang knocked down 10 threes in a row in the final round of the three-point competition to take home the trophy and and Yi Jianlian nabbed All-Star MVP honors with 34 points and eight rebounds as the South All-Stars defeated the North 120-117.

Here’s the rest of what went down last weekend in Guangzhou:

[...]

Well, that’s over: Tracy McGrady has officially played his final game in China as of last night after announcing on his Sina Weibo account that he will not be participating in the CBA All-Star Game this weekend. As written on a full page note to both his fans and teammates  he will instead fly back to the United States to be with his ailing grandmother.

McGrady received the most fan votes in the league, becoming the first foreign player in history to achieve that distinction.

With little comment from McGrady about his status for the All-Star game, which will be this Sunday, there had been off-and-on speculation in Chinese media over his participation. Just a few days ago, Qingdao local media quoted an anonymous team insider and reported that he would in fact play.

But in the letter, which expressed gratitude to both fans and teammates, McGrady cited the need to be with his sick grandmother back home and hoped that people would “understand my predicament.”

In his final game, McGrady tallied 30 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the loss. His team, the Qingdao Eagles, finished in last place at 8-24.

The full letter can be seen below.

After 34 rounds, the Chinese Basketball Association has its eight playoff teams.

Defending champion, Beijing, who finished the season as the league’s third seed, will play sixth seeded Guangsha. Guangsha, who was locked in a late-season battle with DongGuan, Zhejiang and Shanxi for a post-season berth, jumped over everybody after beating Jiangsu at home last night 116-100.

At the top of the standings, Guangdong, who guaranteed themselves as the league’s top seed weeks ago, will play against Zhejiang. Despite losing on the road last night against Shanxi, who also finished the season with the same 16-16 record, Zhejiang clinched their spot after winning out on head-to-head point differential tiebreaker.

In other match-ups, second seed Shandong will play against DongGuan and fourth seed Xinjiang will play Liaoning.

The best-of-five first round, which implements 1-2-1-1 format with the lower seeded team hosting Game 1, will start on February 27. All games will start at 7:35pm.

The full first round schedule is as follows:

2/27 – Wednesday
Guangdong at Zhejiang
Shandong at DongGuan
Xinjiang at Liaoning
Beijing at Guangsha

3/1 – Friday
Zhejiang at Guangdong
DongGuan at Shandong
Liaoning at Xinjiang
Guangsha at Beijing

3/3 – Sunday
Zhejiang at Guangdong
DongGuan at Shandong
Liaoning at Xinjiang
Guangsha at Beijing

3/6 – Wednesday (if necessary)
Guangdong at Zhejiang
Shandong at DongGuan
Xinjiang at Liaoning
Beijing at Guangsha

3/8 – Friday (if necessary)
Zhejiang at Guangdong
DongGuan at Shandong
Liaoning at Xinjiang
Guangsha at Beijing

What was viewed by many as a pretty much inevitable fate, the Bayi Rockets have been officially eliminated from post-season contention. Despite winning at home last night against Liaoning, the Rockets come up empty in tiebreakers against Zhejiang, Guangsha and Shanxi, which means no matter what result they come up with against Beijing tomorrow, they’re ineligible to make the playoffs.

If you follow the blog or the league in general, you know that the powers-that-be at the Chinese Basketball Association passed two special rules designed to give Bayi, who do not have any foreign players on the team due to their affiliation with the People’s Liberation Army and are thus at a disadvantage talent wise, a chance at finishing in the top eight: First, opposing teams can only play their imports a maximum of five quarters instead of the regular six, including teams with a third Asian import. Second, only one import can take the court during the fourth quarter.

Although people across Chinese basketball never liked the rules, the quiet hope was that Bayi would sneak into the playoffs, get blasted in the first round and in turn save some face for the league and the extremely influential army team. But now that they’re going home early for the second season in a row, the perhaps not-so-quiet hope becomes that the league doesn’t make more sweeping rule changes next year, changes that would go even further to ensure post-season participation.

[...]

With his status for next season up in the air, Tracy McGrady’s legion of fans in China will get to watch their favorite player one more time in the CBA All-Star Game after the regular season ends this Sunday.

McGrady, who became the first foreign player in league history to receive the most fan votes of any player, has reportedly indicated to team officials that he will participate in the league’s All-Star Weekend, which will be held from February 23-24 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. McGrady, according to reports, had expressed doubt as to whether he was going to play.

Though fans would have been extremely disappointed if McGrady did not play, it would not have come as a entirely huge surprise as there is a precedent for foreign players declining All-Star invitations: Last year, both Wilson Chandler and J.R. Smith elected not to participate in festivities, instead opting to return to the United States early to undergo contract negotiations with NBA teams.

The All-Star Game is played in between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the post-season.

McGrady will start for the North All-Stars along with Stephon Marbury, Guo Ailun, Li Xiaoxu and Han Dejun.

Apparently not impressed enough with the best record in the league, the Guangdong Southern Tigers have made a big roster change on the eve of the post-season.

Former Texas A&M standout, Donald Sloan, has officially replaced Terrence Williams and has already joined up with his new team in DongGuan. Sloan, who started the season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, was waived in late December where he went to the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. After a brief stint there, he was signed to a 10-day contract with the New Orleans Hornets, which was not extended upon completion.

Sloan, whose registration is reportedly not yet completed, is questionable for tonight’s home game against Shandong.

Though this season has been full of surprises in Guangdong, the move to replace Williams was not one of them. According to sources, head coach Jonas Kazlauskas has been keen to make a switch since arriving as he has been preferable towards having a foreign guard as opposed to wing player. The 25-year old Sloan, who excels at getting to the basket and dishing out to teammates, should fit Kazlauskas’ bill nicely. With Yi Jianlian and Ike Diogu up front, as well as the sharp-shooting combo of Wang Shipeng and Zhu Fangyu on the perimeter, the Southern Tigers are likely to cause even more problems for opponents if they go to the Euro-styled spread sets that their Lithuanian coach favors.

In 29 games, Williams averaged 17.9 points and 4.1 assists.

Guangdong has two more games on its regular season schedule, Shandong at home tonight and Foshan again at home on Sunday.

With both a playoff spot and the individual scoring title on the line, Zhejiang’s Quincy Douby has a lot on his plate this weekend.

It goes by quickly, doesn’t it? After a week-long Spring Festival break, the Chinese Basketball Association’s 34-round regular season will come to a close this Sunday. And while Guangdong, Shandong and Beijing have already locked up the top three spots, there’s still plenty of stuff going on below them. To help everyone out, let’s go over what everyone should be watching for over these last two games.

[...]

For almost eight months in 2006-07 while I was studying abroad at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, I would wake up an extra 15 minutes early to walk in the complete opposite direction from my 8:00am morning class to buy the crown jewel of Chinese street food: Jianbing, a snack that has since been frequently immortalized on these very blog pages.

At night, I would come back to UIBE’s west gate to enjoy another, yet quite different staple of my China-college existence: Niu Da Wan, a 24-hour noodle spot that served beer, chuanr (lamb skewers), chicken wings and a whole bunch of other tasty stuff. On a steamy Beijing summer night, there was in my opinion no place better for this nearly broke language student to hang out, talk with friends and watch China slowly pass me by.

Memories of jianbing and chuanr stayed with me throughout my final year at the University of San Francisco, and I looked forward to the day when I would head back to two of my favorite spots and relive my tasty days of yore. But when I came back over a year later, not only were both places torn down and under construction; the entire west gate block had essentially been subjected to 2008 Olympics demolition, rendering my former stomping ground largely unrecognizable.

People who’ve watched the Shandong Gold Lions this season can relate.

Since their last playoff appearance in 2008-09, the Gold Lions have finished either tantalizingly close to a post-season spot or agonizingly deep down in the standings. Last season, despite a roster full of promising young talent, the team hit a low point, finishing among the last four teams while playing a rhythmless brand of basketball  and generally looking like a franchise without much in the way of short-term optimism.

Oh, how things can change in this country.

On the last day of the Year of the Dragon, the Gold Lions head into the new year on a red hot 15-game win streak and most importantly, having locked up the league’s No. 2 seed after defeating DongGuan on Wednesday at home. At 23-7 with two games remaining in the regular season, Shandong will head into the playoffs with a better record than defending champion Beijing and perennial contender Xinjiang, both of whom were among the list of teams expected to finish towards the top of the league.

The difference between last year and this year for the Gold Lions has been like night and day; or like 2007 and 2008 UIBE west gate. But whereas the Olympics spurred massive change over in NiuBBall.com’s old hood, it’s been a trio of foreign players, Pooh Jeter, Zaid Abbas and Jackson Vroman, who have helped lead the change this year in Jinan.

[...]

Good news for Beijing, bad news for everyone else: The Ducks will be defending their championship in the same place they won it last year, the 18,000 seat MasterCard Center (formerly knows as Wukesong Arena). And this time, they’ll be playing every home game there.

The move was officially approved last week by the Beijing City Sports Bureau.

Last season, the Ducks, capitalizing off of the unprecedented attention and popularity from a cinderella-esque run to the CBA Finals, successfully moved their home court from the smaller and comparatively drab Shougang Gymnasium to the NBA-quality Wukesong Arena, which served as the main basketball stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Coming into the final series as heavy underdogs against four-time defending champ, the Guangdong Southern Tigers, the Ducks shocked the nation by handily defeating their opponents in five games, going undefeated at home while playing in front of sold out crowds.The Ducks’ intensified home court advantage served as a major reason why the team was able to upset their opponents, and the three games were the largest crowd ever for a CBA game

The Ducks attempted to move the regular season home opener to the arena, but were eventually blocked due to an Elton John concert.

With every home game to be played there in the post-season, the Ducks now have what is without a doubt the best home court advantage in the league, assuming of course fans flock to the stadium like they did last season. And now that the Ducks seem to have found their groove after beating first-place Guangdong last Sunday, talks of a repeat are now squarely back on the table.

The starters for the 2013 Chinese Basketball Association All-Star Game were announced last week on Friday, with the Qingdao Eagles’ Tracy McGrady collecting the most fan votes.

Guangdong’s Yi Jianlian finished second.

McGrady, however, is reportedly considering as to whether he will participate in the event. Like last year, All-Star Weekend will be held in Guangzhou from February 23-24 at the Guangzhou International Sports Performance Arts Center.

Bayi’s Wang Zhizhi once again finished high enough to earn a starting spot for the South All-Stars, bringing his total All-Star Game tally to 13 appearances. Xinjiang’s Mengke Bateer holds the all-time record with 15 appearances, although this is the first time in his career that he will not be a starter.

Liaoning’s 19 year-old point guard, Guo Ailun, also makes headlines for getting the first start of his career. Yao Ming, then playing for Shanghai, became a starter in 1998 as an 18 year-old.

Quincy Douby, who set the All-Star Game single game scoring record with 44 points in 2011 while playing for Xinjiang, makes his return to the contest as part of the South squad after missing all of last season with a wrist injury.

Each team will have seven reserve players, which will be announced before the end of the regular season.

The complete list of starters are below.

North All-Stars:

Guards: Stephon Marbury (Beijing), Guo Ailun (Liaoning)

Forwards: Tracy McGrady (Qingdao), Li Xiaoxu (Liaoning)

Center: Han Dejun (Liaoning)

South All-Stars:

Guards: Quincy Douby (Zhejiang), Liu Wei (Shanghai)

Forwards: Yi Li (Jiangsu), Yi Jianlian (Guangdong)

Center: Wang Zhizhi (Bayi)

Tracy McGrady played the last home game of the season for the Qingdao Eagles on Wednesday. As has been par for the course, they lost, this time to Zhejiang. Whether it was the last home game of McGrady’s career is still up in the air.

Obviously, from a record standpoint, nobody in Qingdao thought it was going to go down like this at the beginning of the season.

But besides the wins (way too few) and the losses (way too many), there’s something else in Qingdao that hasn’t gone as well as initially anticipated: Ticket sales.

Expecting a huge swell in local demand from fans eager to see their longtime hero, the club acted quickly to move their home stadium, which was originally located on the campus of Qingdao University, to the much larger 12,000 seat capacity GuoXin Stadium. The logic isn’t difficult to follow — T-Mac is a walking god in China and conventional wisdom would suggest that many people would be willing to pay to see him in person.

Like we said, it’s not advanced trigonometry. But for those who either went to the stadium or watched on television this season, you probably noticed something kind of… empty. As in all of the empty seats. The many, many empty seats…

[...]

Maya Moore’s season in China ended exactly like the vast majority of her other seasons in her career, with a championship.

Moore’s Shanxi Flame defeated the Zhejiang Golden Bulls 97-87 on Tuesday night to clinch the club’s first ever WCBA title, winning the series 3-1. Moore scored 34 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and swiped seven steals to lead the team, while Zhang Wei and Zheng Xianmin each scored 19.

Shanxi, who was in the second division last year, won the championship in their inaugural season in top flight WCBA ball.

Moore finished the series averaging 41.5 points and 10.3 rebounds.

Like Stephon Marbury one year ago, who lead the Beijing Ducks to their first ever men’s title, Moore did not win Finals MVP because WCBA rules restrict non-Asian players from winning the award. Zheng, a Korean, ended up taking home the trophy. Former head of the CBA, Li Yuanwei, called the rule “outdated.” Because… well, it is outdated.

No word yet on whether Moore — or her opponent, the 6’8 Australian, Liz Cambage — will be back next season. But here’s some food for thought about all of that: Shanxi has reportedly received somewhere near  CNY 3 million in year-end bonus money from local Taiyuan city government and the provincial sports bureau for bringing home the championship. If the team wants to bring her back for a repeat bid, it seems as if money won’t be an obstacle.

So congrats to Moore and the Flame on a great season. And if you missed it, check out our interview with Moore from December.