[08.8.19 《今日美国》] 中国篮球步入黄金时代

sep123321

08.8.19 《今日美国》】中国篮球步入黄金时代
【媒体】《今日美国》
【链接】http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/beijing/basketball/2008-08-18-china-hoopla_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
姚明在奥运会开幕式上
　　据《今日美国》8月19日报道，在第29届北京奥运会上，相比起跳水、举重等优势项目，中国或许很难取得篮球项目的金牌，甚至尚不具备争夺奖牌的实力。尽管如此，中国人对它的热衷与关注程度依然是无可取代的。

　　      近几年，中国人对篮球的热爱程度已经开始超过乒乓球、羽毛球和排球，几乎成为民众的最爱。篮球在各大城市的户外运动场所中广泛普及。在本届奥运会开幕式中，姚明手举国旗带领中国队入场，他的出现赢得了中国民众的喝彩。可以说，姚明的受欢迎程度甚至超过了科比·布莱恩特。身着湖人队球服的21岁观众姜圣昆说：“姚明打开了篮球市场，中国篮球正一天天强大起来。”

　　      NBA全球业务总裁海蒂·尤伯罗斯表示，全球篮球市场大约兴盛于20年前，当时中国刚刚开始转播NBA比赛，而“姚明正是看着中国中央电视台转播的NBA比赛长大的”。

　　      也正是从那时起，随着篮球受欢迎程度的日渐增长，中国的篮球经济开始迅速发展。中国政府已开始致力于一场颇具规模的繁荣篮球事业建设。本届奥运会使用的五棵松体育馆，设有18000个座位，它不仅是奥运会篮球赛的比赛场地，也是中国篮球事业发展的中心。其馆内设置丝毫不逊于美国的任何一个NBA城市的场馆。 　　
  
   如果说五棵松体育馆是中国篮球发展的殿堂，首都经济贸易大学的篮球场馆则是其兄弟场所。29岁的毛川每周都在这里打5次篮球，他说：“越来越多的人参与到篮球运动中来，而且年龄越来越小。”对于中国篮球的未来，毛川相信，大约再过几年，中国将完全有实力与美国队以及其他篮球强队抗衡.
Make that huge.
The formidable Chinese Olympic team has won gold in more than a half-dozen events, from archery and diving to weightlifting and shooting. It is not likely to take gold — or even medal — in basketball. Yet there is little doubt what sport reigns supreme.
Even before Yao Ming carried his nation's flag into National Stadium at the opening ceremonies, basketball fever was surging past table tennis, badminton and volleyball as the favorite of the masses.
The most compelling evidence of that popularity is spread over dozens of teeming outdoor courts across the city, where the young and not-so-young are happily knocking down jumpers and aspiring to more than respectability.
The favored attire often has nothing to do with Yao or other members of the Chinese team. Many of those with jerseys have the names of other top NBA stars plastered between their shoulders — Pierce, Nowitzki, Anthony, McGrady, Iverson.
Of any individual athlete, Yao won the loudest ovation at the opening ceremonies. Not far behind, however, was the eruption when Bryant's face flashed on the stadium's big screen.
"Yao Ming opened the basketball market," said Jiang Sheng Kun, 21, decked out in a full Lakers uniform, "and Chinese basketball is becoming more and more strong."
Heidi Ueberroth, the NBA's president of global marketing and international business operations, said the market actually began to blossom about two decades ago — well before Yao's 2002 U.S. professional debut — when Chinese television began broadcasting NBA games.
"Yao grew up watching the NBA on CCTV (China Central Television)," Ueberroth said.
Since then, the business of basketball has been exploding along with the game's popularity.
The Chinese government has embarked on an enormous basketball building boom. An estimated 600,000 courts are being constructed across the country, Ueberroth said.
In China, the centerpiece of the lucrative business operation is the Wukesong Arena, home to the Olympic tournament.
The NBA is part owner of the 18,000-seat venue built not only for the Olympic games but as the headquarters for China's basketball future.
Inside the arena is like being transported to an alternate universe, or any other NBA city in the USA, not China.
If Wukesong is the palace for Chinese basketball, the weed-infested, cracked black-top at Capital University of Economics and Business is the sport's hutong, or residential neighborhood. On the back lot of Capital, the play is friendly and slow, but not lacking in enthusiasm.
Liu Yanan, 18, has been playing since elementary school. He's never seen the Chinese national team in person, but he doesn't seem to feel as if he has to.
There is simple enjoyment in firing shots at a bare rim where he can mimic his favorite player, Cha Don (Michael Jordan).
Liu Yao plays at Capital about five times a week. And his fluid ball-handling skills show it. Liu's parents played badminton and table tennis. "They think it's OK," Liu said.
At Dong Dan, players pay 15 yuan (about $2) for the privilege of competing on its modern, lighted courts. It's 29-year-old Mao Chuan's first time playing there, and he doesn't see anybody ready for the NBA.
"More people are playing, more of the younger generation," he said, adding that it could take more than a decade before China is competitive with the USA and other basketball powers.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence that Ueberroth can almost see Dong Dan from her chair on an upper floor of a Beijing hotel.
What is the future of Chinese basketball? In addition to Yao, two other players have made the cut in the USA, and she believes there is "no question" there will be more:
"All I do is look at those courts."

转帖自C.R.I (高山湖)

风来了

啥时候CBA和NBA一样激烈，中国篮球队才能成为真正的世界劲旅！

lezaiyisheng

不太容易啊，中国人天生就比较弱。