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Trailblazer Yao elected CBA chief
YAO Ming will cease to be the owner of the Shanghai Sharks after being elected the new president of the Chinese Basketball Association.
The 36-year-old Shanghai native is the CBA’s first ever non-governmental official to take up the job after being chosen unanimously in a single-candidate election at the association’s national congress in Beijing yesterday.
The new president is expected to have “real power” as the National Sports Administration hopes Yao will raise the level of basketball in China — in competitive performances and in the management of professional leagues. However, the new identity means that Yao has to adjust his role at CBA club Sharks.
“My role in China’s basketball will be very simple in the future,” Yao told a press conference in Beijing yesterday. “As for the Shanghai Sharks, all club issues will be handled by its board from now on, and I will find a new investor for the team.”
Yao played for the Sharks when he was a teenager before leaving the CBA for the National Basketball Association in 2002 at the age of 22. He bought the club in 2009 and has been the controlling shareholder ever since. Last year, Yao was elected vice president of the CBA League (Beijing) Sports Co. which would be in charge of the league’s management and business development.
The CBA Charter was revised at the Beijing congress, naming Yao the association’s legal representative. According to the CBA’s lately revised regulations, the association’s legal representative cannot become the legal person of another organization at the same time. The CBA president has a four-year term and can be reappointed consecutively.
The CBA league has always been managed by the basketball management center of China’s General Administration of Sports. After Yao’s appointment, the center’s role in the league’s operation is expected to be largely weakened.
“The association will learn from its foreign counterparts, while studying the practical situation within the country,” Yao said at the congress. “Basketball in China has a solid public foundation and social influence. I believe that as long as we heed advise from all sources with an open heart and attract enthusiastic and capable people to join us, the sport can achieve the goal of self-management, self-supervision and make breakthroughs.”
Yao said the CBA would create better training and competing conditions for players, an improved referee system and offer more study opportunities for coaches as well as a better development environment for clubs and investors.
The 36-year-old said he hoped that national teams would hold a series of reforms over player selection. Yao also wants to build basketball museums and China’s own basketball hall of fame.
The Sharks were quick to congratulate Yao on his elevation.
“As a member of the CBA, the club is aware of the difficulties China’s basketball faces with regards to reforms, especially in the league. We will continue to support the association and look forward to a bright future for the country’s sport,” the club said in a statement.
The Sharks had one of its best regular seasons this year after placing third in the 20-team CBA league. They are away to the Shenzhen Leopards for Game 1 in the playoffs quarterfinals today. The Shanghai club’s only CBA title was won in the 2001-02 season when Yao was there in his final year.
Yao, the best-known Chinese basketball player, landed in the NBA in 2002 as the first draft pick for the Houston Rockets for whom he played for nine years. He was the first player drafted No. 1 who didn’t play college basketball in the United States.
An 8-time All-Star, the 2.29-meter center is now a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Rockets retired his No. 11 jersey earlier this month.
Yao led the Chinese national team to the last eight of the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
With solid language skills and overseas experiences, Yao is considered by many as a successful businessman. He owns investment in more than 20 enterprises and funds, including the Sharks.
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