China

China announce final squad for basketball World Championships

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-25 13:31

BEIJING -- China announced Wednesday a young national team without Yao Ming to compete at the 2010 FIBA Men's Basketball World Championships in Turkey.

Washington Wizards forward Yi Jianlian and former NBA player Wang Zhizhi will herald the team.  Half of the 12 members were awarded the first cap and seven of them will have their first World Championships experiences on Saturday in Turkey.

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Yi, Wang, guards Wang Shipeng, Liu Wei and Sun Yue are the only players who had played at the 2006 World Championships in Japan. It is the second spell in the national team for Ding Jinhui from Zhejiang, but the first at the World Championships

New faces like Su Wei, Zhou Peng, Jin Lipeng, Yu Shulong emerged from the domestic Chinese Basketball Association league while the national team recruited Guo Ailun from the youth team and Zhang Zhaoxu from UC Berkeley.

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is still recovering from a foot surgery while former national team top scorer Zhu Fangyu were also excluded due to injury.

China will face the 2006 runners-up Greece in their opener on Saturday, and will take on Cote d'Ivoire, Puerto Rico, Russia, and Turkey in sequence according to the schedule of Group C.