China won the gold medal in Men’s Basketball at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China on November 26, beating Korea 77-71 in the final.

(Discuss the 16th Asia Games in our Asian Basketball Forum)

The Men’s Final was a successful ending of the basketball events at the Asian Games. All basketball games were sold out for the entire tournament. The brand new venue, that holds up to 18000 fans was finished 6 months ago and is a state of the art basketball facility.

FIBA was represented by its President Yvan Mainini and its Secretary General Patrick Baumann. FIBA Asia, responsible for basketball at the Asian Games, was represented by its President Sheikh Saud Bin Ali Al-Thani and Secretary General Dato Yeoh Cho Hock.

The Men’s Final was not an easy ride for the Asian powerhouse China to overcome their rivals from Korea. Korea was leading in the second quarter by 37-31 with 5:10 minutes left before a number of consecutive three pointers put China 43-37 ahead at the end of the first half.

China defeated Korea 76-66 in the preliminary round.

Wang Zhizhi, who scored 20 points for China, led all Chinese starters to score double-digits. Ding Jinhui and Sun Yue each added 14 while Wang Shipeng and Liu Wei got 10 apiece.

Korea had three players scoring double-figure with Kim Joo Sung and Cho Sungmin each 15 points, and guard Yang Donggeun 17.

The women’s team took home gold earlier today in a 70 – 64 win against Korea.

Read the original article at FIBA.com.

With the NBA season a week away, NBA clubs are optimizing their rosters and many international players have been cut or signed this past month.

• The Utah Jazz cut three players, including their second round pick Goran Suton.
• The Houston Rockets let go of swingman Romel Beck of Mexico.
• Aussie Nathan Jawai was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a conditional second-round 2012 draft pick.
• Portland signs Australian guard Patty Mills.
• The Lakers waived Chinese guard Sun Yue mid-month, then released Mickael Gelabale.

The NBA regular season begins on Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

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.

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.

Title: Asia Championships of Basketball
Location: Tianjin, China
Official Website: http://china2009.fiba.com/
Description: The 2009 FIBA Asia Championships of basketball (discuss) will be held in Tianjin, China from August 6-16, 2009 with 16 teams divided into four groups.

The sixteen teams competing for the gold and a spot in the 2010 World Championships are hosts China, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

Discuss the 2009 Asia Championships of Basketball in our forum.

Despite the absence of Yao Ming, the tournament still features many national stars in Yi Jianlian (China), Hamed Haddadi (Iran), Kim Min-Soo (Korea), Rony Fahed (Lebanon), Zaid Abbas (Jordan), Sun Yue (China), Lin Chih-chieh (Chinese-Taipei), Samad Nikkah (Iran), Fadi El-Khatib (Lebanon), Wang Zhizhi (China), Yuta Tabuse (Japan), and Tien Lei (Chinese-Taipei).

The top three teams from the four groups advance to the second round of the championship.

* Group A: Japan, Korea, Philippines, Sri Lanka.
* Group B: Chinese Taipei, Iran, Kuwait, Uzbekistan.
* Group C: China, India, Kazakhstan, Qatar.
* Group D: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE.

The top three overall teams will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.  Even without finishing in the top three, there is still a chance to qualify for the WBC as 3-4 more teams can be selected as wild cards by FIBA to complete the 24-team field.

The Lakers announced that they would not be picking up the option on Sun Yue, the 6-8 Chinese guard who won an NBA championship ring during his one and only season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

With the move, the Lakers essentially waive Sun, allowing the 23-year old guard from Shanghai to pursue other opportunities.

“(The Lakers) were all class. But because of the depth on their roster, we both knew that even if he made the team there wouldn’t be a lot of opportunity to play and the Lakers didn’t want to hold him back.” said Sun Yue’s agent Charles Bonsignore.

In between two stints with the NBDL, Sun played sparingly for the Lakers, only logging minutes in ten games.  He scored a total of six points in 28 minutes all season including 4 points, 4 fouls, and 2 turnovers in a five minute span against the Milwukee Bucks in early December.

The Lakers drafted Sun in 2007 with the 40th overall pick, and the team held a $736,000 option on Sun for next season.  His option was waived the same day that  Lamar Odom agreed to a multiyear deal to return to Los Angeles.

“I want to thank Sun Yue for his professionalism and for the contributions he made to our team last season,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “Sun is a young player who will no doubt continue to improve in the coming years.”

Sun Yue spent eight seasons with the Beijing Aoshen Olympians of the Chinese Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association.  Before being drafted into the NBA, Sun Yue was honored on the All-ABA First Team with averages of 13.5 points, 10.5 assists, 6 rebounds, 1.9 steals, and 2 blocks.

Sun Yue, the Chinese rookie for the Los Angeles Lakers was activated last night, and actually saw some playing time in a 105-92 win over the Milwukee Bucks.  Yue was activated after Luke Walton was scratched from the active roster with flu-like symptoms.

And Sun Yue tallied 4 points (2-3FG), 4 personal fouls and 2 turnovers for a anxious, stat-filled FIVE minutes (5:14).

Despite the mixed debut (he scored twice, but also tallied as many fouls as he did points), the hometown fans cheered for the 23-year old from Cangzhou, China.

“I think we were both happy tonight,” Sun said referring to the LA fans,“We both have a great night. I think it was a fantastic night for me, but also a fantastic night for the fans. I showed them something. At least I’m not making them disappointed tonight.”

After missing his first shot, a three point attempt, the left-handed Sun hit his next two shots to score his four points.  He hit 16-foot jumpshot and on a driving layup off a pass from Sasha Vujacic.

The Lakers have asked Sun about spending more time with the NBDL, but Sun Yue hasn’t been nearly as receptive as they would like: “I’m not saying anything about the D-League is bad,” he said. “I just think, when I signed the contract and put my name on the paper, that was an NBA contract. I think the NBA will help me improve much faster.”

“People have been waiting a long time to see the Chinese player and how they do on the basketball court,” said Yue, “I think people think I can play in this league. I just need time to adjust. Myself,  I think I can play in this league.”

Links and Resources: Lakers’ Sun rises to the occasion (Los Angeles Times), Here comes the Sun Yue, a big darling (Contra Costa Times)

Even if you aren’t an expert in international basketball, one can recognize names like Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili, Pau Gasol, Sarunas Jasikevicius, and Luis Scola. And to know that these players are going to play a huge role in their team’s success and most likely will be leaders in several statistical categories.

If you are familiar with names such as Berni Rodriguez, Roko Leni-Ukic, Carlos Delfino, Liu Wei, and Olimpio Cipriano, congratulations, that means you’re well-versed about hoops around the world.

However, international tournaments always have a handful of little-known players that come in with much less fanfare and reputation, only to use that tournament as a springboard into national and international headlines.

About a month after the Olympics have officially ended, Interbasket will be profiling several of these players, over the next month.  Players that made names for themselves during the 2008 Olympics or furthered their reputation with their play.

The Monkey King Cometh
Sun Yue didn’t exactly tear it up in any one category at the Olympics, but the self-proclaimed Monkey King made a lasting impression with his ability to do a little of everything on the floor.  His final statistics, 6.8 points, 2.5 assists, 1.7 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1 block, didn’t sum up his contributions.  Sun Yue’s effort, energy, and athleticism on the floor gave Team China another dimension.

In six Olympic games, Sun Yue played 28 minutes a game, and shot an efficient 46.7% from the field, 35.3% from three, and 87.5% from the free throw.

The 22-year old Sun has spent the majority of his professional career with the Chinese club Beijing Aoshen Olympian and while with the team, Sun was in the subject of a power struggle between the Chinese National Team and his club in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

In 2005, when the Aosehn teammates, the then 19-year old Sun and teammate Zhang Songtao were called upon for the under-20 national team duty, the Beijing club refused to release either player. In response to Beijing’s dissension, the CBA would place a two-year suspension on Aoshen, which would disallow the team from participating in their league.  Sun Yue and Aoshen would eventually end up in the ABA, the American Basketball Association.

In Aoshen’s first season in the ABA, Sun would display his all-around abilities by putting up 9.5 points, 7 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.9 steals, 2.5 blocks and 4.3 turnovers per game.  Q-Tip, as he was known around the league was second in Rookie of the Year voting, was named to the 2005-06 ABA All-Star team as well as All-ABA second team.

The next season would be Sun’s last in the ABA, but he would significantly improve over his rookie campaign.  Sun improved his overall floor game and averaged a double-double in the 2006-07 season.  Sun averaged 13.5 points and 10.5 assists as well as 6 rebounds, 1.9 steals, 2 blocks and decreasing his turnovers to 3.8 per game.  Sun was named All-ABA First Team along.

“In American basketball, everyone has confidence, basketball is much better here.” Sun would say about his experience in the ABA.

After bring drafted by the Lakers in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft, Yue wouldn’t sign with the Los Angeles Lakers until after the 2008 Olympics and will join the team for the 2008-09 season, making Sun the fifth Chinese player ever to play in the NBA after Wang Zhizhi, Yao Ming, Mengke Bateer, and Yi Jianlian.

He’ll join other international players Pau Gasol, Sasha Vujacic, Vladmir Radmanovic, and DJ Mbenga on the Lakers squad.

Slightly less slight than the slight Shaun Livingston of the Los Angeles Clippers, Sun Yue is a 6-9, 212lb point guard that has a long wingspan and gets off the ground quickly.  And like Livingston, a tall point guard in the greater Los Angeles area always brings up comparisons to another 6-9 point guard.

Though Sun Yue has made it clear he doesn’t want to be compared to Magic Johnson (some say he closer to Hedo Turkoglu), I am sure Sun hopes he can mirror at least half of the Magic man’s accomplishments in his time in Southern California.

Links and Resources: Lakers Sign Sun Yue (NBA.com),  China’s Sun next rising NBA star (China Daily), Sun Yue: Don’t Call me Magic, call me Monkey King (Ball Don’t Lie), 6-9 PG Sun Yue to be featured on ESPN magazine (Interbasket Forum), Beijing Aoshen Olympians 2006-07 ABA season (Interbasket)

With the Olympics all done and all the medals handed out. I thought it would be a good idea to collate some of the best Olympic basketball photos into one gallery. I’ve organized the Olympic photos by date, so you can follow the tournament as it progresses.

The images in this gallery are taken from, and courtesy of Yahoo, Gettys Images, NBC Olympics, and from FIBA.com

[Show as slideshow]

12►

Links and Resources: Fiba’s 2008 Olympic Basketball Photo Gallery (Fiba.com)

Day one of Olympic Basketball has finished with Russia, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Croatia, and the USA getting their first wins.

Russia 71 : Iran 49 (Russia-Iran Boxscore)
Despite the 71-49 score, Russia didn’t have quite as easy a win as expected, though a late run in the game made for the final margin against feisty Iran.  Russia was outscored 16-8 in the third period, and Iran pulled within 8 points going into the fourth period 46-38.  Russia would go on a 25-11 run of the final period.

Naturalized J.R. Holden scored 19 points for Russia while Andrei Kirilenko added 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks.  Viktor Khryapa, a key Russian player that had been a question mark for the Olympics, played 20 minutes and put up 8 points and 5 rebounds.  For Iran, Samad Nikkhah Bahrami scored 16 points, but also had 7 turnovers.  Iranian 7-2 center Hamad Ehadadi added 9 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  (comment on the game).olimpio cipriano defends germany\’s chris kaman” src=”http://www.interbasket.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/oly1-cipriano-kaman-rs.jpg” alt=”" width=”237″ height=”193″ />

Links and Resources: Russia put away gritty Iran in men’s opener (FIBA), Russia-Iran Boxscore (FIBA)

Germany 95 : Angola 66 (Germany-Angola Boxscore)
Playing in Group B, Angola is not going to have a lot of opportunities to advance.  Germany was one of their chances to get a leg up.  Unfortunately, Angola’s offense was erratic, and their defense wasn’t much better, giving up 54 points at halftime, 17 of those to Chris Kaman.  Kaman ended the game with 24 points and Dirk Nowitzki took a backseat with 23 points and 6 rebounds.  Together the NBA duo combined to shoot a blistering 17-21 from the field, and the German team shot 58.6% for the game.

Eduardo Mingas put in 24 points and 3 steals for the Angolans, while Olimpio Cipriano and Joaquim Gomes both played roughly 30 minutes, but combined to shoot only 2-13 from the field, though Gomes did have 8 rebounds.  Carlos Morais added 14 for the Angolans. (Angola-Germany Live Discussion)

Links and Resources: Kaman, Nowitzki power Germany past Angola (FIBA), Germany-Angola Boxscore (FIBA)

Spain 81 : Greece 66 (Greece-Spain Boxscore)
The big game of the day didn’t turn out to be much of a competition as Spain easily defeated Greece without much of a fight.  The Spanairds just seemed to be a couple steps ahead of the Greeks on both ends of the court.  It also didn’t help team Hellas that they shot 11-24 (46%) from the free-throw line.

Outside of the free-throws, the two team’s stats weren’t that dissimilar, but the difference was on the court, the Spanish just executed better on both ends and showed why they, along with the USA are the favorites to medal.  Rudy Fernandez led Espana with 16 points.  Jose Calderon added 13 points and Pau Gasol chipped in 11 points and 7 rebounds.

Former Houston Rocket Vasileios Spanoulis scored 15 points and had 4 turnovers for the Greeks, and Dmitrios Diamantidis put in 14 poinrs, 3 assists and 3 turnovers.  Spain has now defeated the Greeks in four straight contests.  (Greece-Spain Live Discussion)

Links and Resources: Spain win to continue recent dominance against Greece (FIBA), Greece-Spain Boxscore (FIBA)

Lithuania 79 : Argentina 75 (Argentina-Lithuania Boxscore)
In the game of the day, Lithuania squeezed by Argentina with the help of a big three-pointer from their 6-8 power forward Linas Kleiza.

With 3:23 remaining in the game and Lithuania up 11 points, Argentina would stage their come back.  Luis Scola‘s layup would complete eleven straight points that would tie the game at 75 with 1:33 left.  Lithuania would go scoreless from the beginning of the Argentina’s run until Kleiza’s three pointer with 2 seconds remaning.  A span of almost three and a half minutes.  An errant inbounds by Scola and a Siskauskas free-throw would make for the final score.

And the Lithuanian’s knew they were lucky to pull this one out, without Kleiza’s three, the Lith’s finish to the game was horrendous.  Instead they walk out of day one with a big win, “Argentina is the Olympic champion and it speaks for itself,” Jasikevicius said. “For us to start the Olympics in this way, it’s incredible.”

Kleiza led the Lithuanians in scoring with 13 points, shooting a perfect 3-3 from three and a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line.  Robertas Javtokas had 12 points and 5 rebounds.  Siskauskas, Sarunas Jasikevicius, and Marijonas Petravicius each added 10 points.  Jasikevicius also had 8 assists and 5 turnovers.

Argentina was led by Manu Ginobili’s 19 points, though he shot only 6-15 from the field including 1-7 from three.  Also shooting 1-7 from three was Andres Nocioni, whom scored 15 points on 5-14 and pulled in 9 rebounds.  Carlos Delfino added 13 points and 6 rebounds.  Fabricio Oberto chipped in a near double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds.  (Argentina-Lithuania Live Discussion)

Links and Resources: Kleiza kills off Argentina with late three-pointer (FIBA), Argentina-Lithuania Boxscore (FIBA)

Croatia 97 : Australia 82 (Croatia-Australia Boxscore)
The story of the game was the Croat’s efficient three-point shooting.  They balanced their amazing 12-16 from beyond the arc, with fantastic defense.

Croatia limited Andrew Bogut to just one total rebound as well as four turnovers.  Bogut also had 10 points.

Though Croatia was able to hit 75% of their three-point attempts, they were surprisingly led by two players that did not even attempt a three pointer.  Croatia’s 6-10 center Nikola Prkacin and 6-8 forward Marko Banic each scored 16 points.  Prkacin contributions only took 11 minutes of play, he and Banic combined to shoot 12-13, all within the arc and 8-9 from the free-throw line.

With Prkacin and Banic holding down the offensive interior, it allowed for Marko Tomas (4-4) , Zoran Planinic (2-2), and Davor Rus (2-3) to bomb away from the outside.  Marko Tomas and Planinic scored 12 points each, Kresimir Loncar added 10 points, and recent Toronto Raptor signee Roko Ukic put in 9 points.

Matt Nielsen of Lietuvos Rytas, led the Boomers with 13 points with 5 rebounds, David Barlow had 12 points, and Patrick Mills scored 9. (Australia-Croatia Live Discussion)

Links and Resources: Croatia gun down Boomers in Beijing (FIBA), Croatia-Australia Boxscore (FIBA)

USA 101 : China 70 (China-USA Boxscore)
The home country crowd erupted as Yao Ming hit a three pointer China’s first possession, giving the home team a 3-0 advantage over the favored Americans.  It would become a theme throughout the first half.

Even though it was expected that China would come out energetic and focused, it wasn’t expected that the Chinese would be tied with the United States at 29 apiece with six minutes before halftime.  Bolstered by blistering three-point shooting in the first half, the Chinese hit 8-12 threes in their first 16 minutes before finally misfiring on the final four attempts.

And in the span of those final four minutes before halftime, the US outscored China 14-5, to open up a 12 point spread.

The third quarter saw the Americans more than double their lead by wearing down Team China, forcing them into seven of their 18 turnovers in the quarter and outscoring the Chinese 25-11.  The United States wouldn’t be seriously threatened from then on.

Despite the score, Team China played well and showed a greater understanding against the Americans.  However, the game showed that their guards still had some work to do as Dwyane Wade was able to easily pick both of China’s point guards’ pockets (Liu Wei and Chen Jianghua).  Yi Jianlian relied way too much on dribble moves that ended up in fadeaway jumpers that barely hit the rim.  Jianlian started out 0-7 before hitting some garbage time baskets that included a spectacular follow-up dunk dunk over Carmelo Anthony.

Dwyane Wade continued his efficient play with 19 points on 7-7 shooting in just 20 minutes of play.  LeBron James added 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 tremendous blocks.  Kobe Bryant shot 6-14, but only 1-7 from three, including a team-leading 3 turnovers (tied with Jason Kidd).

Yao Ming led the Chinese with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  Zhu Fangyu contributed 11 points, 8 rebounds, and outside of Ming, Zhu looked to be the most prepared player on the court.  As mentioned before, Yi Jianlian scored nine points, the 7 of which was during garbage time. Wang ZhiZhi and  Sun Yue, the recent Laker signing, added 8 points each. (China-USA Live Discussion)

Links and Resources: Americans win over China in thrilling Olympic encounter (FIBA), China-USA Boxscore (FIBA)