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Things are going to be a lot different in Shanghai next season.

Last Friday, the Sharks held a press conference to announce a combination of decisions that will have a huge impact on the club’s short-term and long-term direction: the appointment of Wang Qun as head coach, and the re-signing of “Max” Zhang Zhaoxu.

Wang, who has had a long history with the Sharks and owner Yao Ming, will become the first official Chinese head coach since Yao took control over the club in 2009. He had been serving in an interim role after American Dan Pannagio was fired mid-season last year.

[...]

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

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.

In the Chinese Basketball Association, referees are an ongoing issue. And that’s putting it nicely. Accusations and rumors of point shaving, bribes and various related corruption have all been thrown around, by fans, media and most recently, Tracy McGrady, who was ultimately fined and suspended for publicly criticizing referees.

The most recent case: Sunday’s abomination of a basketball game between Qingdao (again) and Tianjin, which ended in double overtime after 119 total fouls foul shots and six players fouled out. If you’re a CBA vet, you should know how it turned out: Qingdao, playing at home, won on a terrible end-of-game foul off the ball that sent Chris Daniels to the stripe for the two game-clinching free throws. If anyone is interested in either reliving the nightmare or experiencing it for the first time, Anthony Tao over at Beijing Cream has provided the world with video and words that vividly detail the game and the officiating.

The entire game was pathetic no doubt, but as the lessons learned long ago in CBA Officiating 101 continue to remind me: This is how it goes down here. Teams typically get a good whistle when at home, and a bad one when on the road. The degree can vary from a few calls here and there, to some key calls in crunch time all the way to the Wow, I didn’t know it was even possible to get screwed like that-type of officiating. (Of course, that rule is thrown out the window when you play Bayi, in which case you’re getting an extra bad whistle with a bad scorer’s table and an incompetent towel boy on top.)

And though that fact is known, recognized and acknowledged throughout the league in private, publicly nobody offers up even a peep for fear of punishment from the league… Unless a television camera sneaks into your huddle during a timeout and records everything your head coach is saying, which is what happened last Sunday night during Beijing’s nationally televised game against Xinjiang.

[...]

One of many flops from last night’s Beijing-Shanghai CBA regular season opener.

The lights went out, bad music was sung, championship rings were passed out and with that, the 2012-13 Chinese Basketball Association regular season finally got underway with a result that happened frequently last year: A Beijing win.

Playing in their first game since winning the title last year, the Ducks avoided a ring ceremony hangover by running over the visiting Shanghai Sharks, 94-78. Randolph Morris lead the Ducks with 23 points, Ji Zhe had 19 and Stephon Marbury ran the offensive very effectively for 16 points and eight assists.

D.J. White lead all scorers with 24 points and also grabbed 17 rebounds.

In a game rife with storylines, the most hyped-up being the Gilbert Arenas-Marbury individual matchup, the game’s luster was decreased dramatically when Arenas left the game midway through the first quarter with a groin pull. He did not return for the rest of the game and the Sharks were thus forced to play agains the defending champs with one import player.

Yet despite that relative disappointment, we’re keeping it positive in here and giving everybody five observations we took note of while we took in the game last night inside Shougang Gymnasium.

Box Score

[...]

Stephon Marbury and the Beijing Ducks won the title last year… But will they have enough to repeat in 2012-13? (Photo: Osports)

Moreso than ever, the Chinese Basketball Association has become quite difficult to predict pre-season.

It’s hard to predict first of all because we generally stink at predictions, but more importantly that the league is as deep as its ever been top-to-bottom. There’s a more than a few reasons for that — more off-season player movement, more players going abroad to train in the summer, better coaching in-country, a commitment to strength and conditioning programs and better foreign players all round out the top of our list. But the end result of all that should be a very watchable and exciting league this season. Which is a good thing for us fans, of course.

Bad thing for NiuBBall’s annual predictions, however.

By our count, there’s 11 and possibly 12 teams (depending on how well you think Tracy McGrady is going to do in Qingdao) who have a shot at the playoffs. That’s well over half the league. If you think DongGuan is ready to make a jump (we do), then there are now four teams who could sport legitimate Finals cases. Building on Beijing’s buck-the-trend run to a championship last year, there appears to be a level of parody in the league. Pencilling in the top two, top four and top eight is no longer easy.

So as always, take what is about to come with a grain of salt and know that most likely this will all be very wrong.

[...]

Almost eight months after the 2011-12 CBA Finals, Beijing guard, Lee Hsueh-lin, finally has his MVP trophy… er, sneaker.

Remember when Stephon Marbury should have won CBA Finals MVP, but didn’t because he’s a foreigner? Seems like a while ago, right? Well, that’s because it was a while ago. Almost eight months to be exact.

Remember who won the award instead? No? Well up until this very day, neither did anybody else.

Whether it was to allow almost three-quarters of a year to let the public backlash against the anti-foreigner rule cool off, or because the decision was just that difficult, the powers that be at the Chinese Basketball Association held off in officially handing out the award… for eight months. As in 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Like, count-that-on-two-hands eight. Or one if you know how to count Chinese style. You know what I mean. A long time.

Of course within that amount of time, the league refused to do the one thing in which it should have done — change the rule — but did you really expect that to happen?

Instead, the league settled on Beijing’s Taiwanese guard, Lee Hsueh-lin. And we’ll give out some credit: If foreigners are ineligible, Lee is the right call. Dubbed “Mr. 48 Minutes” by Chinese media because dude practically never came out of the game during the Ducks’ magical Finals run, Lee  averaged 11.4 points, 3.4 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.6 steals and a three-point percentage of42% over five games against the Guangdong Southern Tigers. All while playing with a back injury.

For his troubles, he gets a golden sneaker that according to this NetEase article made out of 270 grams of gold. Another interesting factoid: Lee becomes the first Taiwanese player to win a CBA MVP. So that’s cool.

…But Stephon Marbury still should have won.

Because of a scheduling conflict, “Crocodile Rock” will likely be played live inside Wukesong Arena instead of Beijing-Shanghai’s CBA season opener.

And just when you were getting all excited to see the Chinese Basketball Association make its triumphant return to Wukesong… Elton John has to come along and potentially ruin everything.

According to the Beijing Evening Post, the rumored end-of-November season opener between Beijing and Shanghai at Wukesong Arena (now officially known as MasterCard Center) is in major doubt because of a scheduling conflict with an Elton John concert booked for the same night.

According to the report, the CBA originally requested the game be played on November 27th and the arena kept the date for the league. But after considering it further, the league opted to change the opener to the 24th, which John’s people had already booked for their show. With John’s show having been on the calendar for quite some time, Beijing-Shanghai is seriously in doubt and unless the league can find another date, “there’s definitely no way for the game to be played at [Wukesong Arena],” according to an anonymous insider who’s quoted in the article.

Our question is: How was this not known by CBA schedule makers before leaking all that to the press? I mean, tickets for the Elton John show are available on maipiao.com… seems like an awfully big thing to miss.

Hey, we enjoy “Tiny Dancer” as much as the next guy — but count us in the group that thinks this officially sucks.

Beijing will open its title defense in the same Wukesong Arena where they lifted the trophy last April.

Good news for CBA fans: It looks like the league and its schedule makers are finally starting to get it.

In an interview with CCTV yesterday, director of the Chinese Basketball Association competition department, Bai Xilin, stated that the 2012-13 season will kick off with the Beijing Ducks playing host to the Shanghai Sharks in Beijing. As to which venue it will be played in, Bai was not specific, though he did indicate. that the game would not be played at Beijing’s regular home court at Shougang Gymnasium, which in turn has opened up speculation that the two teams will play at the MasterCard Center (formerly Wukesong Arena).

No date has been set as of yet; however, Bai said the new season would start “sometime in the end of November.”

Shanghai went 18-14 last season before losing to Shanxi Zhongyu in five games in the first round of the CBA playoffs. Beijing, who went 21-11, won their first ever CBA championship, defeating then four-time defending champ, Guangdong Hongyuan, in five games.

In addition to the season opener, Bai also touched on some other league issues: There will be no changes to the structure of the schedule this season, nor will there be a salary cap. Widespread changes to the league have been discussed by owners and investors over the course of the offseason, talks which have come both as a result of last season’s record breaking foreign player salaries and the failure of the Chinese National Team to win a game at this summer’s Olympics in London. Bai hinted, however, that talks are ongoing and that reforms will likely take place in 2013-14.

The Ducks-Sharks showdown in Wukesong should have fans excited. And if that matchup indeed holds to be true, bravo to the CBA. Deciding to continue the incredible fan support Beijing built up last year en route to their championship by playing the first game of the year at the 18,000 seat, NBA-caliber Wukesong Arena — a venue which the team sold out in each of their three Finals games against Guangdong — will be a great way to keep that excitement going into this year.

And big kudos to the matchup itself, too. Although Shanghai doesn’t have a lot of on-court history with Beijing, the two cities have their fair share of beef as the longstanding Jing-Hu which-city-is-better-debate generally exemplifies the whole North-South rivalry that exists inside of Chinese culture. People will be amped to get to the stadium and cheer on their defending champs regardless of the opponent, but the fact that the matchup will have genuine meaning will only add to what should be a great occasion.

Beijing Ducks fans will be hoping Li Gen’s career season last year in Qingdao will carry over to the capital city in 2012-13. (Photo: CFP.cn)

Beijing’s boosted their chances for a successful title defense by officially signing one of the most explosive scorers in China, Li Gen. According to reports, the contract, originally said to be worth close to CNY 2 million per season, is over three years. Beijing general manger, Yuan Chao, denied that the deal was worth that much.

Last year for Qingdao, Li averaged 18 points a game to lead all Chinese players in scoring. He scored a career high 41 points in a win against Beijing on February 5th. He also won the CBA All-Star Game MVP, scoring 31 points to lead the North All-Stars over the South in Guangzhou.

The 24 year-old was a free-agent after spending the last two seasons on the coast of Shandong province. He made his senior level CBA in 2008-09, where he averaged 9.5 points over 23.5 minutes a game for last-placed Shanghai. The next season, however, he saw a sharp drop in playing time and production as then newly arrived head coach, Bob Donewald Jr. felt his defense needed vast improving. Li was ultimately shipped to Qingdao in 2010-11.

For Beijing, the signing speaks volumes about both their short and long-term ambitions. In the immediate future, the burly 6-5 guard/forward gives them an added scoring punch and a player who can create offense for himself. With Stephon Marbury getting up there in age, Li’s ability to get his own shot will take some of the pressure off of the American point guard to do pretty much everything on the perimeter. Li will also allow Chen Lei, who has also battled age and injuries in recent years, to take a step back in minutes.

Long-term, Beijing now has a very promising trio of young Chinese players to build around. 19 year-old Zhai Xiaochuan and 22 year-old Zhu Yanxi were both critical elements to Beijing’s title run last year as rookies, and both look to have long careers as top-level domestic players with the team. Teamed with Li, the three immediately become one of the best group of young, senior level teammates in the league.

It’s impossible to know where Guangdong fits into the CBA title picture as their import situation is still up in the air, but with Li coming on board to join Marbury and Randolph Morris, both of whom have re-signed for next year, as well as Zhai, Zhu, Chen and Lee Hsueh-lin, Beijing — at least for now — looks as the favorite to repeat as champions.

Su Wei and his new wife.

It’s been a rough few months for Guangdong center, Su Wei.

Back in April during Game 1 of the CBA Finals against Beijing, the big seven-footer was caught on live television cursing out Stephon Marbury after Su’s teammate, Zhou Peng, tried to intentionally injure Marbury with a Kobra Kai sweep the leg reenactment.

That incident then gave rise to “Su Wei Sha Bi” — Su Wei is a stupid cunt — which was yelled at the highest possible volume by each and everyone of Wukesong Arena’s 18,000 Ducks fans before the CBA stepped in and threatened to move Beijing’s home Game 5 to a third-tier city if fans couldn’t clean up their mouths.

By the time Game 4 came back to Beijing, Su, had lost his spot in the Guangdong rotation altogether thanks to some truly awful play on both ends and thus found himself strapped to the bench for the entire game and the rest of series. And so ”Huan Su Wei,” — sub Su Wei — was born, becoming the chant/movement/slogan that defined the series and will continue to haunt him every time he plays in Beijing (and possibly other cities, too).

It got worse for Su, though. After losing their title to Beijing, Su then lost something arguably of greater value: His spot on the National Team. On the roster for both the 2010 FIBA World Championship and 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, Su was one of the final cuts for London as head coach Bob Donewald Jr. opted for a smaller, more athletic team in where all 12 players could catch passes and make open lay-ups.

But after being made a national mockery and losing his spot in London, it appears things are looking up for Big Su: Dude apparently got married earlier this week.

A set of photos, which were sent into Sina Sports by a Sina Weibo user on July 23rd, show Su and his new wife at a wedding ceremony somewhere in China. No word as to what the bride’s name is or where she’s from. Congrats to dude and the new wife, who hopefully won’t want to “Huan Su Wei” if he loses his minutes again.

Stephon Marbury’s autobiography, I am Commissar Marbury, will be out in China on June 30th.

Stephon Marbury has gone from Chinese professional basketball player, to CBA champion, to Beijing city hero, to bronze statue… and now to published author. An autobiography, Wo Shi Ma Zheng Wei (I am Commissar Marbury), will hit Chinese bookstores on June 30th.

From a Sina Sports writeup: “From Shanxi to Foshan to Beijing, the book gives the account of an NBA star who was completely ignorant of China and his transformation into a ‘Beijing Boy.’”

The book will focus on Marbury’s life story from growing up in Coney Island, his days playing basketball in high school and college, his NBA career and finally three-year journey in the CBA that culminated with a league championship this season in Beijing. It will be sold for CNY 39.80 (roughly US $6.30).

The book is being written alongside Chinese journalist Wang Meng, who writes about basketball for Titan Sports Weekly. There is no word as to whether the book will be written in English.

According to the same Sina story, Marbury, who is back in the States recuperating from ankle surgery, will fly back to Beijing on the 28th. He will be at the Zhongguancun Bookstore on the 30th at 10:30am to hold a book signing event for fans. We’ll still be in the States so we’ll miss the festivities, but anybody who’s planning on going can always shoot an email or leave something in the comments.

• The Shanghai Sharks’ planned trip to the Philippines later this month for a few exhibition games has been posponed indefinitely.  The Sharks say their players’ passports aren’t ready, but the Philippines Sports Commission is suspecting that the decision to stay in China is a result of a standoff in the South China Sea that has caused a decline in relations between the two countries.

• Min Lulei, head coach of reigning CBA champ Beijing Shougang, in an interview during his visit to Europe this month: ”I want to learn about European basketball systems. It is very difficult for Chinese players, who play a one-on-one game. We want to learn how to play the European systems, play as a team, as a group, so that we can have more success.”

• Friend of NiuBBall, Chris Denker of NetScouts Basketball, just lead a team of recent American women’s college graduates to first place at a 14-day event in China. You can go to NetScoutsBasketball.com to check out the full recap.

• Sneakerheads will enjoy this little backstory about the just released “Year of the Dragon” editions of Chris Paul’s Jordan CP3 V.

• Meng Da was always a little different, but this takes everything to a new level.

Allen Iverson is in China right now, but the question is: Will he be back here next season? (Photo: Osports)

Allen Iverson captured headlines in China yesterday after arriving in Shanghai has part of an exhibition tour that will travel around China for the next two weeks, but he has captured the imagination of media and fans after indicating he’s open to the idea of playing in the Chinese Basketball Association next season.

Iverson is currently in China for the next two weeks as part of an NBA Legends Tour that will play seven exhibition games in six cities across central and southern China. Shorty after getting on the ground from the U.S. yesterday morning, he fielded questions from Chinese reporters and when when asked if he’d consider playing in the CBA next season, he replied: “Why not?”

Iverson has been out of professional basketball since January 2011, when he left Turkish outfit Besiktas after he injured his right calf muscle.

This is not the first time Iverson has been linked with a move to the CBA: He flirted with the idea of playing in China in the summer/fall of 2010 and had several serious offers, including a reported $4 million contract from Foshan. Iverson ended up declining Foshan and all other teams, and signed a two-year deal with Bestikas shortly after in October.

At this point, there is no indication as to which teams Iverson would be open towards joining.

Though the 11-time NBA All-Star rejected Chinese overtures in 2010, things could be different this time around if he is indeed serious about playing basketball. After an inconsistent stint in Turkey, big money European offers are likely off the table which means the best spot for a large contract would be China, where he is beloved by fans and widely recognized as one of the most popular NBA players of all-time.

But maybe more importantly, Iverson has a valuable ally in his Chinese corner this time, Stephon Marbury.

Fresh off of leading the Beijing Shougang Ducks to their first ever CBA championship, Marbury has grown into a bonefied superstar in China and has been called a hero of Beijing by the city’s millions of inhabitants. Due to a CBA rule that limits both the regular season and Finals MVP award to Chinese players, popular Chinese basketball website, hoopCHINA, has lead a campaign to build Marbury a bronze statue that will commemorate his season in Beijing, a project that has garnered the support of more than 1 million people in China.

How that relates to Iverson’s potential career in China isn’t hard to guess. Marbury continues to sell his Starbury line of apparel to the Chinese market. With Iverson likely keen on the idea branding himself to China’s estimated 300+ million basketball fans, Marbury would be the ideal example for the 36 year-old to follow if he indeed ended up playing here next season.

Marbury, who will play against Iverson for the Legends Tour’s first thee games, returned to Beijing yesterday after a short trip to the United States and was immediately supportive of Iverson joining up with a Chinese team next season.

“I think [Iverson] will be rejuvenated if he played in China,” Marbury said on his Sina Weibo account (Chinese Twitter). “He would love the fans here if he played basketball here. I hope he can feel the love when he plays here in the coming games.”

Besides Iverson and Marbury, the tour includes Dennis Rodman, who also landed with Iverson in Shanghai yesterday, as well as Clyde Drexler and Shawn Kemp. The Legends team will play the first three games against Marbury and the Beijing Ducks, the first of which is tomorrow night in Cixi, Zhejiang province. They’ll then play their next three against the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons, who lost to Beijing in the semi-finals this season, before playing the Chinese U-23 Olympic National Team in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, for the finale.

The Ducks will be short of their other import player, Randolph Morris, who elected to remain in the U.S., Lee Hsueh-lin, who is back in his native Taiwan, as well as Zhai Xiaochuan and Zhu Yanxi, who are in Sanya training with the China Senior National Team.

In 14 seasons, Iverson averaged 26.7 points, 6.2 assists and 2.2 steals. His accolades include an NBA Rookie of the Year award, an NBA MVP, an NBA Finals appearance, four scoring titles and  seven All-NBA Team selections. He is currently the 17th all-time leading scorer in NBA history with 24,368 points.

The Legends Tour schedule is as follows:

April 28th: Cixi (vs. Beijing Shougang)

April 30th: Wuxi (vs. Beijing Shougang)

May 3rd: Shenhen (vs. Beijing Shougang)

May 5th: Linyi (vs. Shanxi Zhongyu)

May 7th: Dongying (vs. Shanxi Zhongyu)

May 9th: Taiyuan (vs. Shanxi Zhongyu)

May 11th: Taiyuan (vs. China Olympic National Team)

The NiuBBall water cooler/heater: Where you can chat with friends about hoops while sipping either hot or cold water.

This chat originally appeared on Shark Fin Hoops.

The end of the 2011-12 CBA season is here, which means its time to switch our NiuBBall coverage to other things. But before we do, our guy Andrew Crawford over at Shark Fin Hoops has organized a final Pastuszek-Bothfeld-Crawford three-man gathering around the water cooler/heater to recap the year that was. As always, feel free to fill your cups with whatever temperature water your body desires.

Andrew Crawford: First things first, Beijing Ducks are the CBA champions. They led the league, then they had that slump, they needed five games to beat Shanxi- how surprised are you guys with the Ducks being the CBA champions?

Edward Bothfeld: After getting off to such a hot start, you had to expect there would be a mid-season letdown but with the way they started the season, it showed that they were going to be one of the best teams all year long. With Shanxi, I feel like they could have taken any team to the brink of defeat because Williams and Gaines can really score the ball. The first few games against Guangdong surprised me because I expected Guangdong to win but after their Game 2 victory, it seemed that Beijing might actually be better than Guangdong.

Jon Pastuszek: Regardless of how they started the season, I always thought it was going to be Guangdong again. Remember when Xinjiang went 31-1 last season in the regular season and people thought they were finally going to get a championship? Guangdong always plays below their level in the regular season because they know their final goal is a championship, so I never took much stock in Beijing’s hot start.

Plus, with Beijing only going seven deep, I also thought there’d be fatigue issues so to see Beijing lift the trophy was a huge surprise to me. That said, I wonder — and this to me is the big “what if” that doesn’t get raised enough — if a motivated Wilson Chandler had been playing in the playoffs, would Beijing have even made it past the first round?

EB: Jim Cleamons firmly believed, without a doubt, that if they had Wilson they would have won that series. A motivated Wilson that is. Cleamons also said that the Beijing team knew that too.

AC: That’s an interesting point which I was going to ask later but we might as well talk about now- Chandler, J. R. Smith and Kenyon Martin were the big names coming over this summer. Wilson walked out, Smith couldn’t get his team into the playoffs and K-Martin bought his contract out after half the season. When we look back at this season, did these three guys justify the hype?

EB: Wilson and J.R. were good when they wanted to be but once the lockout ended, all bets were off. Wilson really struggled once the lockout ended and he saw Kenyon board that plane back to the States so I think if the lockout had lasted a lot longer, the hype would have been justified, but the fact that Kenyon and Wilson didn’t even finish the season, I don’t think you can say they justified the hype. And J.R. Smith put up impressive numbers but when I saw him live it looked like he was goofing around the majority of the time – attempting impossible passes, etc.

JP: I think Ned is right about the impact of the NBA season resuming. All of those guys signed in China with the expectation that the NBA wouldn’t be playing, so for the lockout to end suddenly was huge. You can come out and say that it doesn’t bother you, but when you’re a free-agent who has the comforts of home and a big money contract waiting for you, of course it’s going to impact your performance. When K-Mart first got bought out, and then got his FIBA clearance, that just took things to a new level, but I think it also depends on how you interpret “hype”- even though none of those guys played in the playoffs, they helped to attract more attention to the league than ever before. Ratings and attendance were higher than ever before, so if you’re looking it at from that standpoint, I think they did live up to the hype. I’m sure their teams feel otherwise, however…

AC: Indeed. What have you guys made of less heralded names from this season? Before he got injured, I thought Ryan Forehan-Kelly was amongst the best imports in the CBA. Besides Marcus Williams (obviously), who stood out to you as an overseas guy really making a difference in the league?

JP: I’m with you on RFK; his numbers may not have jumped off the page, but he was a huge reason for Shanghai’s success before he got hurt. Having played under Panaggio and his triangle offense, in the D-League, he was a big part of their success in integrating that offense in Shanghai. Not only that, he was their best clutch performer and was their most versatile perimeter defender. Just from a fan standpoint, it was sad to see him get hurt. Other guys who stood out: I’ve always been a big James Singleton guy, I just like his unselfishness and how he’s commited to winning. Will McDonald in Fujian was also great to watch, he’s one of the most skilled bigs to come into this league in a while and I hope he’ll be back next year.

AC: I am a big Zaid Abbas fan. After watching him live, I really have an appreciation for all the little things he does; his hustle, his determination, his shit talking- I want him on my team, and as we’ve seen, every team he goes to starts doing really well. He’s a winner.

JP: Would either of you sign him as a regular, non-Asian import though?

AC: Personally speaking, I would- either him or Singleton would be perfect for Coach Panaggio’s setup. I know they are talking about scrapping the Asian import but regardless, he’s a proven player. I’d be delighted to see him pitch up Shanghai- the Yuanshen would go nuts for him.

EB: Another guy I liked besides Abbas was Lester Hudson. I realize he hoisted a ton of shots but he was all over the place, getting steals, rebounds, etc- and after talking with him after his game against Guangsha, it seemed like his head was really in the right place and that he was dedicated to winning as a team and becoming a better player personally.

AC: Okay then, lets move on- which Chinese player(s) really stood out for you? I know he flew under the radar because he plays for a terrible team in Tianjin but Zhang Nan looked like a tidy player in the forward posistion. Han Dejun looks like he could be a monster with the right coaching and conditioning and I’ve got to show some love for Zhang Zhaoxu who is getting better and better every game. The Sharks coaches really like him and he could well be an every night double-double guy next season.

JP: Beijing’s Zhu Yanxi was a guy who really caught my eye this season. A big part of the Ducks’ championship was their ability to spread the floor and let Marbury do his thing. Without Zhu drawing out opposing bigs, there’s no way they would have been as successful as they were. I’ve always thought China should look to produce more Euro-type big guys who can stretch the floor and shoot it from the perimeter; maybe Zhu will convince coaches of the same. I’m looking forward towards seeing him develop both on Beijing and the National Team in the years ahead. Other guys I liked this year- Han and Zhang both looked good and I also really liked Xinjiang’s Xirelijiang.

EB: For Guangsha, I felt like Wang Zirui made a lot of progress in terms of developing. At just 18 years old, he was the youngest player in the CBA. He started the season on Jim Cleamons’ bench but was the starting PG by the time the playoffs rolled around. If he continues to develop, he will be a starting caliber PG for years to come.

AC: What about coaches? I know I’m writing from a Shanghai perspective but I have to say that the turn-around sparked by Coach Panaggio here has been impressive. What are your thoughts on guys who’ve made a big impact from the touchline?

JP: I agree about Panaggio, and I think Brian Goorjian in Dongguan also has done really well. Both overcame slow starts to make the playoffs and both made it a priority to develop their Chinese players, which is ultimately what this league should be about. Yang Xuezeng was the first coach ever to lead Shanxi to a post-season berth, so I think that has to be commended as well.

EB: Yeah, I also thought Daniel Panaggio did an excellent job with Shanghai. He preached defense and it showed. He also managed to incorporate Marcus Landry into the team’s system after Ryan Forehan-Kelly went down with the Achilles injury. Shanghai finished the 2011 season 12-20 and was ranked all the way down at fifteen on NiuBBall’s season preview. Coaching had a lot to do with their turnaround.

AC: What teams did well this season? There have been a few surprises this season but which teams really caught your eye?

EB: Qingdao and Fujian were nice surprises. I can’t say it enough- Lester Hudson is a hell of a player, although he does shoot the air out of the ball. Qingdao were fun to watch and it was good to see them have some success. As we anticipated, Fujian would get a boost due to the addition of Abbas, who was their Asian import. But I don’t think anyone saw them making the playoffs. Besides Abbas, McDonald really came on strong and played well — and if Roberson was shooting well, they really had a three headed monster. I thought they could make some noise in the playoffs, but with Roberson and Abbas battling injuries, they had no chance.

JP: You have to start with Beijing. I think a lot of people expected them to be a playoff team, but hardly anybody thought they’d be serious championship contenders. For a team to go from a periphery playoff squad to CBA champion is unheard of in this league, even more so when you consider that Beijing was among the younger teams this season. Shanghai was another team that surprised me; a new coach, a new offense, lots of young players and relatively unknown imports- I thought it was going to be a long season in Yuanshen.

AC: You’ve mentioned the improbable success of Beijing but we should also talk about the poor seasons endured by Jiangsu and Bayi- what were the critical factors in their seasons being so bad? Do you think this will be a blip or could you see these teams starting to stagnate?

JP: We all know Bayi doesn’t have any imports. Back in the late 1990s and early and mid-2000s, when the league was attracting mid to lower-level imports, that wasn’t an issue because they could contend every year knowing they had the best Chinese players. Things are a lot different now, though: First, their star player, Wang Zhizhi, is old and not nearly the player he once was. Second, the CBA is attracting better imports with every passing year, with this season’s NBA-to-China exodus clearly standing out as the best crop of foreign players in league history. So with every team around them getting better while Bayi themselves decline, it wasn’t a huge shock to see them take a dive this year. For Jiangsu, I think they missed having Tang Zhengdong in the middle. They also did a terrible job selecting their imports. Mardy Collins and Dan Gadzuric were both gone shortly after the beginning of the season. Jackson Vroman was a good pick-up, but Marcus Williams (the UConn one) was without a doubt the worst foreigner in the league this season.

EB: With Jiangsu, I thought the problem was with Williams. He looked really out of shape and only averaged 11.34. That’s not going to cut it for an import. Vroman was a nice surprise, but they need an imported upgrade in their back court. As for Bayi, maybe it’s time for them to change the system. Their demise was seen eight months ago, when Jon predicted they would miss the playoffs. Wang Zhizhi is really old — they need a new face to the franchise. When I saw them live, they played without any hint of passion.

AC: Let’s return to the players for one last time. Who have been your favorite guys to watch? For me, Osama Daghlas was a masterful point guard- he crushed Shanghai when they went away to Jilin and he’ll be another ‘Asian’ player that teams should look to sign this time next year, regardless of what the status is with imports. Mike Harris could really put on a show and should expect several suitors if he comes back to China. J.R. was also unbelievable in person and was absolutely worth the price of admission.

EB: Marcus Williams was just so efficient. I loved his game. Whether his team needed him to slow the game down by getting to the line or hit a big three, he was there for them. At times, it seemed like he would never miss! Abbas is also a blast to watch. His hustle and passion were infectious and he’s so annoying. I would hate to play against him. I was sitting first row behind the Guangsha bench and he would not stop talking shit, “Alright guys- one on five, one on five!” (in the fourth quarter when Chandler was attempting to take over”. I really hope he’s back in the CBA next season.

JP: I’ll give you three: I enjoyed watching Marbury for obvious reasons. He was able to perfectly balance his point-guard duties with his import ones, running the offense and distributing effectively for the first three quarters before taking over himself in the fourth. Shanxi’s Marcus Williams was fun to watch, he’s pretty much able to get whatever he wants on offense and looks very smooth while getting it. And last, Liaoning’s Guo Ailun. I’ve always been a fan of Guo, he doesn’t play the point guard position like a typical Chinese, he’s very vocal, energetic and enthusiastic. Plus he can be a beast out of pick-and-roll. All of that is fun to watch, even if he’s bricking jumpers and turning the ball over.

AC: Final question then- what has been the highlight and lowlight to your CBA season? I’ll take any of the big results Shanghai got against Guangsha, Xinjiang, Beijing, or Zhejiang for the former and the latter will probably be losing both home games in that Shanxi playoff.

JP: The highlight of the season was being a part of the 18,000 fans who filled up Wukesong Arena to watch Games 1, 4 and 5 of Beijing – Guangdong. As for the low point of the year, I think it’s a tie between Shanxi fans’ behavior during and after Game 4 of the semi-finals and Li Chunjiang ordering his players to sweep the leg and injure someone.

EB: The highlight of the season was watching Jin Lipeng hit the buzzer beater against Shanxi. It was a game that the Lions should have won, but gave away their lead at the end of the game…. until Jin came up huge. The lowlight has to be watching Wilson Chandler and the rest of the Lions team mailing it in during some games. It was so frustrating to watch. Against Bayi, with the playoffs on the line, they showed no sense of urgency. Just thinking about what could have been if Chandler and the Lions had remained motivated. I think that once Chandler had checked out, so did his teammates.

AC: Lovely stuff. Well, we finally made it happen and the much-vaunted three-man weave was well worth the wait. Thanks for your various contributions over the season, gentlemen. Enjoy the offseason!