How mighty China has fallen

MANILA, Philippines - The situation couldn’t be worse for once-mighty China in Asian basketball. Last Friday night, the Chinese weren’t only booted out of title contention at the 27th FIBA-Asia Championships but also suffered the humiliation of losing to archenemy Taiwan, 96-78, in the knockout quarterfinals at the Mall of Asia Arena. The speculation is as penalty for failing to make it to the semifinals, new coach Panagiotis Giannakis of Greece could lose his job despite signing a four-year contract last May. The contract is not guaranteed.

Since joining the FIBA-Asia Championships in 1975, China has won 15 of 19 championships and missed qualifying for the Final Four only once when the country entered a B-team in Tokushima in 2007. No Asian country comes close to China in terms of podium finishes with the Philippines, showing five gold medals, a distant second. South Korea, Japan and Iran are tied in third place with two titles each.

Basketball historians discount the 2007 debacle as a Chinese aberration. With an inferior B-team, China lost to Jordan, 78-65, the Philippines, 79-74 and Iran, 77-68 in the first round of eliminations. The Chinese bounced back to beat Hong Kong, 93-69, Indonesia, 102-47 and United Arab Emirates, 100-55 before bowing to the Philippines, 78-76, in a rematch. China wound up 10th while the Philippines finished a notch higher. Both didn’t advance to the eight-team quarterfinals.

This year, China was coming off a forgettable showing at the London Olympics where American coach Bob Donewald couldn’t deliver a single win in five outings. After Donewald got the pink slip, China turned to another foreign coach but David Blatt and Ilias Zouros rejected offers to take over. Finally, Giannakis came to terms although the negotiations were far from smooth. Giannakis, who piloted the Greek national team to second place at the 2006 World Championships in Saitama, dilly-dallied because of an existing contract with the French club Limoges. Eventually, Limoges released Giannakis on the grounds of “serious misconduct.” How much Giannakis signed for isn’t known but when he was the Greek national coach, his annual salary was the equivalent of at least P60 Million. Giannakis, 54, is the fourth foreign coach hired by China after Del Harris, Jonas Kazlauskas and Donewald.

For this year’s FIBA-Asia Championships, China initially submitted a 24-man roster that included veteran point guard Liu Wei. When the lineup was trimmed to 12, it didn’t include NBA veteran Wang Zhizhi but Wei remained in the cast. About a week before the tournament began, three players were struck out of the 12-man cast and replaced by Zhizhi, Guo Ailun and Zhu Fangyu. Cut were Wei of Shanghai, Han Shuo of Bayi and Li Muhao of Dongguan. According to a FIBA-Asia official, China paid a fee of $3,200 for each late replacement. It was rumored that Giannakis preferred to leave Zhizhi out of the squad but was overruled by the Chinese federation.

With Wei gone, China lost its stabilizer in the backcourt. Former Los Angeles Laker guard Sun Yue was not in peak form and didn’t even score in three attempts in 19:44 minutes in the loss to Chinese-Taipei. Giannakis tried to stave off defeat by playing Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian together but not even the Twin Towers could overpower the Taiwanese. Jianlian, who sat out four games with a groin injury, delivered 22 points and 10 rebounds but couldn’t stop Chinese-Taipei from scoring more points in the paint, 42-26. Taiwan’s naturalized player Quincy Davis was a tower of strength in the frontline, finishing with 26 points on 12-of-13 field goals and two-of-four free throws in almost a no-relief job.

It was the first time that Chinese-Taipei showed up with an American import in the FIBA-Asia Championships and the move paid off handsome dividends. It’s not likely China will ever recruit a naturalized player. Losing to Taiwan had to be painful. Taiwan used to be known as the Republic of China until it lost its United Nations seat in 1971 to the People’s Republic of China. In 1979, Taiwan became known as Chinese-Taipei in the Olympics and other world sporting events. China has a population of 1.3 billion while Taiwan only 23.3 million so Chinese-Taipei’s victory could be considered a victory by David over Goliath.

Before the quarterfinals, China displayed harrowing lapses in losing to South Korea, 63-59 and Iran, 70-51. The Chinese were unforgiving in mauling Malaysia, 113-22, using a 31-2 surge in the first period to trigger the juggernaut. They had shaky moments in barely beating Kazakhstan, 73-67, and were outscored 37-31 in the second half. And in beating Bahrain, 88-68, China was outpointed, 23-19, in the third quarter.

Against South Korea, Jianlian scored 23 points but lacked the lateral quickness to defend veterans Kim Joo Sung and Lee Seung Jun. The Koreans were outrebounded, 38-28, but had more turnover points, 14-10, more assists, 14-10 and more free throws, 24-17. In the Iran contest, Jianlian didn’t play and the Chinese were brutalized inside the paint, giving up 30 points while scoring only 18 in the interior. Iran also had more second chance points, 15-4. China was forced into 22 turnovers. Chinese-Taipei torched China with a sizzling 60 percent clip from the field, exposing the Chinese’ weakness in defense. China was up by 10 at the half but couldn’t sustain and was blown out, 31-12, in the third quarter.

Although China sent its A-team to Manila, Giannakis had to make do with six players 23 and under, including Wang Zhelin and Guo Ailun, both 19. Only three players were 30 and over – Zhizhi, 36, Wang Shipeng, 30 and Fangyu, 30. Jianlian, a five-year NBA veteran, is only 25. China couldn’t advance to the semifinals despite three 7-footers in the lineup, an indication that a team won’t go far just with size. Chemistry was clearly a missing ingredient as it appeared that Giannakis had difficulty communicating with his players and earning their respect.

“China’s problem is in the Asian level, they’re used to blowing out opponents that when they fall behind, they panic under pressure because it’s an unfamiliar situation,” said a long-time FIBA-Asia observer. “The problem becomes even more pronounced when they don’t have a point guard who can stabilize the team on the floor and act as a court general. They may have three 7-footers but if they don’t have a point guard who can run the offense, the big guys are left on their own.”