Yao talks Sabonis, Strombergas, Spanoulis, and European Basketball
Thursday, October 4th, 2007After two games in the CBA-Euroleague challenge, Yao Ming has averaged 27 points and 7 rebounds going 1-1 against Benetton Tamoil and CSKA Moscow. Yao Ming gave Euroleague.net his unique perspective about his experiences, thoughts and what he has learned playing against and with European players during his career.
“…back 10 or 11 years ago, when I was still playing in China, the year before I started my career, actually, we had a Lithuanian player, Saulius Stombergas, in the CBA,” Yao said. “I think that until now he remains one of the best players to come from Europe or even America to play in China - the best one, really, in CBA history. So, people don’t know the teams, but they know the players, like Sabonis and Spanoulis, my former teammate from last year.”
Yao then went on about his personal experiences he has had against European teams “I think that European teams have a couple of different styles. Some, like those from Greece, play good organized games, using the full shot clock of 24 seconds. You have to play a lot of attention on defense, because they keep moving the ball until they find the best chance to take a shot. Some other teams, like Slovenia, play more like a U.S. team. They play very physical and try to score as much as they can. And France, I don’t know much about except they left a big impression on me in 2000 when Antoine Rigaudeau made six three-point shots in a row to beat us.”
For the full interview text, click here. Official Euroleague-CBA Site
