Are you looking to watch Greece take on China, or Lithuania vs. New Zealand in the first day of World Championships?

Follow all the group play matches in Interbasket’s World Championships of Basketball forum where we’ve created individual game threads so you find out where to watch the game, comment on the game, and follow along with Greek, Chinese, and basketball fans from around the world.  Check out the individual game threads below:

The Nets may not be winning any more games since Yi Jianlian returned to the lineup, but the 7-0 forward from China has emerged as a bright spot and an unexpected offensive force for the hapless Nets.

(Discuss Yi Jianlian and Chinese basketball in our forum)

The 22-year old Yi has played seven games since his return from injury and put up 20.7 points per game on 47.6% from the field, 38.5% from three, and 79.6% from the free-throw line.

Add in 7 rebounds and one block and we’ve got a player on his way to a potentially breakout year in his third NBA season.

These performances are coming from a player that has averaged just 8.6 points on 40% shooting up until this season.

What’s the reason behind Yi’s improved play?

Taking a look at his numbers, it seems that aggressiveness is the reason for Yi’s statistical improvement as the former-sixth overall pick of the 2007 NBA draft is going to the free-throw line 5.8 times a game this season whereas he only went to the line an average of 2.1 times a game in his first two seasons – that’s a 176% improvement.

No longer is Jianlian relegated to shooting midrange jump shots with the Milwaukee Bucks, but he is taking it strong to the hole and fighting harder for rebounds; his newfound aggression has him putting up career highs of 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks in 34 minutes per game.

“He’s shooting the ball with confidence, attacking the rim with tenacity and finishing strong,” said star guard Devin Harris. “He’s capable of it. I’ve seen him jump just as high as Sean [Williams] in certain places. He’s got the athleticism. He’s a very talented individual.”

Unfortunately, Yi’s newly-inspired play hasn’t translated to additional victories. The Nets are just 1-10 in the eleven games that Jianlian has participated in, but at least his play is a bright spot in an otherhwise forgettable season.

• CHINA: Yao Ming and his with wife Ye Li, are expecting their first child. Not only will the child be in the limelight as Yao Ming’s offspring, but the nation will track the child as the next basketball prodigy. The 7-6 Yao and 6-2 Ye Li, who also plays for the Chinese National Team, will likely give birth to a very, very, very tall child. I would hate to be that child; his/her path is already paved, and nothing short of international success the benchmark. Follow the Chinese fever of “YY”.

• GERMANY: Even with the names of luminaries such as Gasol, Kukoč, Sabonis and Petrovic, is Dirk Nowitzki already the greatest European NBA player ever?  (Discuss and argue this question in our forum).

• GREAT BRITAIN: Pops Mensah-Bonsu was released, again, by the Toronto Raptors. The 6-9 forward, who was already released by Toronto over the summer and by Houston earlier this season, averaged 2.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 6.7 minutes in 16 games with Toronto. In the money-saving move, the Raptors are looking to sign him to a 10-day contract.

• KOREA: The first Korean player to reach the NCAA will leave the University of Maryland. Forward Choi Jin-Soo was being unable to reconcile his studies and play basketball; he willl return to Korea and play in the KBL (From Basket-Spot).

• LEBANON: Lebanese superstar Fadi El Khatib will move from Champville Maristes Sports of Lebanon and will play for Al-Jalaa, a Syrian club, next season. The 6-6 rugged forward signed a four-year deal.

• TURKEY: The Turkish All-Star Game will be played this Sunday, the two teams featured will be the Turkish Stars and the Foreign Stars (Talk Turkish basketball in our forum).

• USA/NBA: Laker coach Phil Jackson is blaming Chinese for NBA All-Star voting, even though he’s wrong: “I think Houston might have all their players in the top five at every position,” Jackson said. “That Chinese fan group, they vote for the Houston team because of Yao Ming and their relationship to Houston. It’s all skewed.”

• USA/NBA: With Ronny Turiaf (France) and Andris Biedriņš (Latvia) returning from injury and back to the Golden State lineup this last week, the team has released NBA journeyman Mikki Moore.

Check out all of our global roundups with short takes and notes on international basketball news from leagues and players from around the world. Got an update or breaking news? Send us an email.

The desire for Yao Ming to play in the 2010 World Championships is there, now all it takes is the authorization.

This is according to a representative for Yao Ming, Zhang Mingji, who recently revealed the wish of the Houston Rockets centre to play for the Chinese national team.

(Discuss Chinese Basketball in our forum)

However, the 29-year-old has been sidelined for the past five months and will likely miss the entire NBA 2009-10 season.

Therefore Yao will need medical permission from the Houston Rockets before he can play the tournament – something the NBA club will not be fond of considering Yao’s injuries the last few years.

China is in group C of the World Basketball Championships, along with Greece, Ivory Coast, Puerto Rico, Russia, and host Turkey. China’s chances of getting to the next round would increase greatly with the addition of Yao, the star and face of the team.

Thanks to Basket-Spot for the heads-up.

It’s been a busy week for FIBA as they announced the four wild cards on Saturday, and determined the top four seeds for the World Championships of Basketball on Sunday.

Now the federation that overseas international basketball has announced the draw results that will determine the groupings for the 2010 world basketball event in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 24 participating nations were drawn into four groups of six teams each:

• Group A: Serbia, Argentina, Australia, Jordan, Germany, Angola
• Group B: Croatia, Brazil, Tunisia, Slovenia, Iran, USA
• Group C: China, Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, Ivory Coast, Greece
• Group D: Lithuania, Lebanon, France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand

(Discuss the draw results in our forum)

The draw was held at the the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, on 15th December 15th, 2009 at 11:30AM local time.

The draw was conducted jointly by FIBA and the LOC in the presence of participating nations’ representatives, “National Federation members, prominent public figures and members of the international media.”

The FIBA World Championships are held every four years and determines the world’s top country in basketball.

Talkbasket recently had a great feature with images of 10 basketball courts from around the world; from colorful courts in Berlin, abandoned courts in Chernobyl and Russia, to snow-covered courts in the Himalayas.

Other courts featured include backboards (and sometimes even rims) from Germany, Singapore, Belize, Ukraine, El Salvador, Cambodia, and Mexico. Here’s a sampling of the images:

[Show as slideshow]

Basketball is growing worldwide, but obviously there are corners of the world where hoops hasn’t fully been realized. Want to see the entire gallery, go to Talkbasket to see the full piece: 10 basketball courts from around the world.

Though healing well and showing good progress, Yao Ming said there is no chance of him making a comeback during the 2009-2010 season.

“You don’t want to rush it, because they want it to totally heal this time,” Yao said, “I have been in this situation enough.”

“The (X-ray) picture looks good. The bones heal well.”

Because of his size and the chronic injuries to his leg and foot, this latest setback had many wondering if Yao would ever play basketball again.

To those wondering if Yao’s career would continue, Yao is certain that he would play again, but that he would have to adjust his style and schedule as to ensure that he wouldn’t seriously reinjure himself.

“Obviously, I want to play basketball. This is my life right there,” Yao said. “But for long term, believe me for long term, I need to slow down.”

The question is what does “slow down” mean in this case?  Does it mean less international competition with Team China?

To keep Yao fresh and so that he doesn’t reaggravate an injury, is the Houston staff going to rest Yao Ming, as the Phoenix Suns did with Shaquille O’Neal this past season?

Or does “slow down” mean Yao will become less aggressive in the post, playing more high-post rather than low-post?

Time will tell, but it’s encouraging to know that Yao will play again.

Houston fans can rest easy knowing that Yao will have the next year to continue healing and getting back into shape.

If  basketball popularity coincided with the average height of the country’s population, then Scandinavia should have many more professional basketball players.

At least according to some data that was compiled by one of our forum members, tpraseri (see Average Height by Country thread).

Tpraseri compiled data from across the internet, listed out the average heights of 82 countries around the world. You can see the full list at the bottom of this post.

Netherlands the tallest country
At an average height of 5-foot-11 (181,0 cm), the Netherlands has the tallest average height amongst males twenty years old and older.

Holland was followed by #2 Iceland (5-10.8, 179,8), and then the three Scandinavian countries Norway (5-10.7, 179,7),  Sweden (5-10.6, 179,3), and Denmark (5-10.4, 178,8) rounded out the top five.

And who have these countries have produced?

The Netherlands has been decently successful with Rik Smits, Dan Gadzuric, Francisco Elson, Swen Nater, Geert Hammink, Henk Norel, and Serge Zwikker.

Sweden has the recently-drafted Jonas Jerebko, Iceland sent Petur Gudmundsson to the NBA in the 1980s and Jón Stefánsson, and Lars Hansen of Denmark.

And who would have assumed that #43 South Korea (5-7.3, 171,0) would, on average, be taller than #48 Portugal (5-7.1, 170,5), #56 Brazil (5-6.7, 169,5), #69 Mongolia (5-5.5, 166,4), and #75 Nigeria (5-5, 165,0),?

Asia has the shortest countries
Asia owned the six shortest countries on the list, mostly Southeast Asian countries.

The only country shorter than #81 Indonesia (161.5, 5’3.6) and the #80 Philippines (162.0, 5’3.8) was #82 Cambodia clocked in as the country with the shortest average height for males at just 160,3 (5’3.1″).

To see the full chart, see below:

* For the references used to compile this data, go here.

The New York Knicks have signed Sun Yue, a 6-9 guard/forward from China, to a partly guaranteed contract.

The 23-year old Sun was brought on after being waived by the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this year. Sun will participate in the Knicks training camp which begins Sept. 29 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

After averaging 6.8 points and 2.5 assists a game for the Chinese national team in the Beijing Olympics, Sun spent two years with the Lakers, winning an NBA championship and spending a lot of his time on the bench and in the NBDL.

The Knicks also announced that they signed two other players to partly guaranteed deals: point guard Gabe Pruitt and forward Warren Carter.

A hilariously-disguised Steve Nash walked onto an outdoor court in Beijing this past weekend, hoping to run a couple games with the locals (discuss).

“I had on a Chinese opera bandana and I had on some protective goggles,” Nash told the AFP, laughing. “As soon as I walked on they recognized me. It didn’t really work.”

Nash spent an hour of playing basketball with some Beijing locals.

Despite wanting to play more pickup basketball, Nash normally stays away “because it turns into a camera phone opportunity and it’s all over the web”.

“But to do it in China is really something because it’s so far from home. To play people that you’d have a hard time communicating with but you communicate with basketball…” he told AFP. “I love that.”

According to the AFP, Nash is in China for a week with a handful of NBA players to appear on a Chinese basketball reality show and for a coaching clinic at a rural school where NBA players are helping build a new basketball court.

Kunshan, China - The Stanković Continental Champions’ Cup is an international basketball tournament held annually in China.

This year’s continental basketball championship features four teams: last year’s champions Angola, hosts China, Turkey and Australia.

The 2009 Stanković Cup is set for August 28-30.

I wonder how Turkey is going to participate in both the Efes Pilsen World Cup and the this tournament?  The Efes Pilsen World Cup started yesterday and is suppposed to run until August 30, while the Stanković Cup starts tomorrow, August 28.

edit: It turns out that Turkey and Angola will both send their B teams.

The tournament is in honor of Borislav Stanković, FIBA Secretary General Emeritus, for his significant contributions to the world of basketball.

This will be the fifth annual tournament.  China has never won the tournament, past champions include Lithuania (2005), Greece (2006), Slovenia (2007), and Angola (2008).

For more information and discussion about the 2009 Stankovic Cup, visit our forum.

Tianjin, China - The 2009 Asiabasket All-Tournament team was named yesterday amidst a little controversy over one of the selections.

(edit: this was an unofficial selection from sports.cn – we apologize for the inconvenience)

The team was led by Asia Championships MVP Hamed Haddadi of Iran, followed by Chinese veteran Wang Zhizhi, do-it-all Iranian swingman Samad Nikkhah Bahrami,

Asiabasket’s top scorer Rasheim Wright of Jordan, and Lee Hsueh Lin of Taiwan.

C: Hamed Haddadi (Iran)
F: Wang Zhizhi (China)
F: Samad Nikkhah Bahrami (Iran)
G: Rasheim Wright (Jordan)
G: Lee Hsueh Lin (Chinese Taipei)

The inclusion of Lee Hsueh Lin is a head-scratcher.  Lin is not a bad player, but is his 8.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.3 steals a game for the fifth place Taiwan squad really that impressive to the panel?

To many of our forum members, it was certainly a shock to find the 5-9 point guard on the star-studded first team.

Especially when there were other play makers that not only had better numbers, but also played larger roles for better teams. Players that we feel got snubbed were Rony Fahed (Lebanon), Sam Daghles (Jordan), Mahdi Kamrani (Iran), and Qatar’s leading scorer Saad Abdulrahman Ali.

Discuss the selections in our forum.

Iran successfully defended their Asia Champions crown last night, dropping favored-China in a laughable 70-52 win.

Led by Memphis Grizzly center Hamed Haddadi‘s 19 points and 17 rebounds, Iran dominated the Chinese in the first two quarters; outscoring their opponents by 11 in the first quarter and by six in the second.

The Iranians took a 17-point lead into halftime, see the lead balloon up to 25, and would never look back.  This was China‘s first ever loss in an Asiabasket gold medal match.

This year’s win is significant because it signals a new age in which Middle-Asia teams, namely Iran, Jordan and Lebanon,  may have finally caught up with their East Asian brothers.

Up until 2007, China had won 14 of 16 Asia Championships.  And East Asian teams, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan, have taken the title in every other year previous to 2007.

Iran’s win is much more significant this year because they went against a Chinese team,  even without Yao Ming, that was still favored to win the tournament.

In Iran’s win in the 2007 Asiabasket, the Chinese fielded their junior team, having already automatically qualified as the hosts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Now Iran can be truly crowned the Kings of Asia, having won the 2007 and 2009 FIBA Asia Championships, the 2009 Asia Cup, and the 2009 Williams Jones Cup.

Hamed Haddadi, who was named MVP of the tournament, shot 9-17 from the field, shredding the Chinese interior and scoring 9 points in 12-4 run in the fourth quarter that slammed the door shut on any thoughts of a Chinese comeback.

Oshin Sahakian was the only other Iranian to reach double-figures with 10 points.  Javad Davari added 9 points and 6 rebounds.

Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, who came in averaging over 18 points, failed to reach double-figures for the first time in the tournament, finishing with just 8 points.  The star guard did pass out 6 assists.

The Iranian defense held Yi Jianlian to just 11 points on 5-17 shooting, while Sun Yue, Shipeng Wang, and Liu Wei combined to shoot just 3-15.

Wang Zhizhi was China’s only consistent threat, the former NBA player shot 10-16 from the field, and scored a game-hih 24 points and added 8 rebounds.

In the third place game, Jordan took the final berth to the World Championships by defeating Lebanon for the second time this tournament, 80-66.

Lebanon finished without a medal for the first time in three championships, having earned a silver in the 2005 and 2007 FIBA Asia Championships.

In the classification rounds, Chinese-Taipei took fifth place over Qatar 87-79, while Korea edged the Philippines, 82-80 on Donggeun Yang’s jumper with one second remaninig.

RP’s James Yap’s missed a three at the buzzer that would give Korea seventh place, and the Philippines would finish eighth.

Yi Jianlian and Hamed Haddadi came up big for their respective national teams last night, propelling each squad to an unblemished 5-0 record in the 2009 Asia Basketaball Championships.

With the two NBA big men leading their teams over Jordan and Korea, China and Iran are now the remaining teams without a loss.

China to the quarterfinals undefeated
Yi wasn’t just big, he was huge as he scored 29 points, pulled down 18 rebounds, passed for 4 assists, and blocked 2 shots, all game-highs, against Jordan, who was also 4-0 coming into the game.  China won the game 89-83 in what was the closest challenge to China in the tournament.

Wang Zhizhi added 23 points and 8 rebounds for the victors.  Rasheim Wright led Jordan with 28 points, but the 6-3 Jordanian guard needed 22 shots to achieve his total.

Iran also undefeated going into quarterfinals
Hamed Haddadi was strong in the middle for Asiabasket defending champions Iran. The 7-2 Haddadi put up 21 points, 16 rebounds, 6 blocked shots, and 4 assists in pushing Iran over east Asian squad Korea, 82-66.

Haddadi completely dominated Ha Seung-Jin, formerly of Portland Trailblazers, as the 7-3 Korean center managed just 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 turnovers in 25 minutes of play.

Iran was led in scoring by Hamed Afagh’s 24 points.  Donggeun Yang led Korea with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Asiabasket Quarterfinals
After the fifth day of games, the Asiabasket quarterfinals are set for August 14, 2009:

• Jordan vs. Philippines, 14h00 (GMT+8)
• Qatar vs. Iran, 16h00 (GMT+8)
• Chinese-Taipei vs. China, 19h00 (GMT+8)
• Korea vs. Lebanon, 21h00 (GMT+8)

For the entire Asia Basket schedule, click here.

Two regional basketball championships are going into their third, and final day, of preliminary games today.

The 2009 Africa Nations and the Asia Championships are finishing up their round robin play.After day 2, Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon have advanced into the quarterfinals of the 2009 Africa Nations Championships of Basketball

The top three teams in each of the four groups will move onto the quarterfinals to be played on Saturday, August 8th local time.

National Teams that are promised a berth in the quarterfinals for Afrobasket are defending champions Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon, all four of these teams went undefeated in their first two days of pool play. Follow the African Nations Basketball Championships in our Afrobasket forum.

On the Asian side, 2007 Asiabasket champions Iran, China, Jordan, Korea, and the Philippines have started 2-0 going into their third games today.  After winning their first two games, these five teams will move onto the quarterfinals even if they lose today.  For more about the Asia Basketball Championships, visit our Asiabasket forum.

The final goal of the gathered national teams is to grab one of three available berths to the World Championships in 2010.  Both Africa and Asia will send the top three finishers from the tournament to the 2010 global basketball tournament.

Links and Resources: 2009 Afrobasket Schedule (Fiba.com),  2009 Asiabasket Schedule (Fiba.com)