Posted in Basketball at 12:21 pm by Nicole
Lots and lots of news out of the NBA China Games. Last night, ESPN broadcasted the Cavaliers-Magic game from Shanghai; Orlando faced off against a team of Chinese All-Stars from the CBA tonight (China time) in Macau.
The NBA in China: Opening a super market (Washington Post)
Magic defeat China All-Stars 116-92 (AP, via Sports Illustrated)
Magic beat Cavs in Shanghai (AP, via the Washington Post)
Report from Shanghai (TrueHoop blog report via ESPN)
NBA China Games to reach 209 countries (Press release from NBA.com)
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10.17.07
Posted in 2008 Olympics, Basketball, Doping, News at 6:10 am by Nicole
Press clips from today run the gamut from the latest LeBron James news out of China (where basketball is amazingly popular) to news of WADA recommending automatic four-year competition bans for first-time doping offenders, to controversy over Australia’s plans for future funding of Olympic sports.
Cavs star LeBron James looms large in Shanghai for NBA and Nike (The Canadian Press)
Four-year ban for doping (Daily Telegraph, Australia)
Olympics cash down to survival of fittest (The Age, Australia)
Olympic sports told medals key to funding (Herald Sun, Australia)
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Posted in 2008 Olympics, Track and Field/Athletics at 6:02 am by Nicole
Sun Haiping, coach of world champion 110-meter hurdler Liu Xiang, is a delegate to this week’s Party Congress in Beijing. He’s not often quoted in English, but the AFP has an excellent story today on Sun’s advocacy of a centralized sports training system. In China, of course, winning is everything, and if all of an athlete’s needs are taken care of, then of course they can devote themselves just to training. I wonder, though, if that system adequately prepare athletes for their lives after their competitive careers are over. European and American athletes might have to “book their own hotel rooms,” as Sun is quoted as saying in this article, because they don’t develop inside a centralized government-run system that takes care of every detail of their lives. But what about life after sport? Food for thought for a sports system that has seen more than one former champion slip through the cracks of society after the gold medals were won and forgotten.
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10.16.07
Posted in Figure Skating at 5:41 pm by Nicole
2006 figure skating pairs world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian have unveiled their new competitive free skate for the 2007-08 season to the music of Romeo and Juliet. Photos and an accompanying story can be found here.
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Posted in Basketball at 12:25 pm by Nicole
As the Rockets season prepares to get under way, here’s a link to a notable fan blog from a site touting itself as Yao’s official fan club:
Yao Ming Mania Blog
And for updated news on all things Yao:
Yao Ming News - Club Yao
The CSB has attended the last two days of media sessions after the Rockets’ practices at the Toyota Center. With twenty men on the roster competing for a maximum of fifteen positions for the regular season, Coach Rick Adelman has been pushing the players hard, setting up scrimmages between squads with full game conditions, including a buzzer, referees and a scoring table. All that’s missing are the cheering fans, and the players are coming off the court after practice looking completely exhausted. Yao talked with the media today after practice and seemed to be in good spirits; he said that he’s just about in NBA-level shape after an off-season filled with Chinese basketball and charitable responsibilities (”too many travels!” he told us in English), and that the Chinese national team has been played into the ground this year and that its upcoming game in Macau is one too many for such a young squad. More to come from Houston as the week goes on.
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Posted in Sports Business at 7:20 am by Nicole
Great article this morning in the New York Times about the ways in which Nike is changing its advertising focus away from big media to more consumer-service-oriented products and services. Short mention of the Olympics: General Motors is ending its Olympic sponsorship after 2008.
The new advertising outlet: Your life (New York Times)
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10.15.07
Posted in 2008 Olympics, Track and Field/Athletics at 5:47 pm by Nicole
WCSN hosts an athletes’ blog for track and field - a nice read by American stars Sanya Richards and Lauryn Williams, both of whom are sure to be big stories at the Beijing Olympics:
WCSN Track and Field Athlete Blog
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Posted in 2008 Olympics at 4:08 pm by Nicole
Foreign media raise fresh fears on 2008 Games coverage (South China Morning Post - subscription required; 7-day trial available)
World press meets in Beijing (International Paralympic Committee)
Rules not for breaking (News.co.nz)
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Posted in Volleyball at 3:29 pm by Nicole
The FIVB World Cup in Japan gets closer every day - the dates of the competition are November 2-16, and the top three teams advance to the Beijing Olympics. It’s the first Olympic qualifying event for a sport sure to bring down the rafters in China - as with most countries outside the United States, China is a hotbed for world class volleyball, especially on the women’s side.
Click here to download a PDF version of USA Volleyball’s weekly newsletter, with news of Jenny Lang Ping’s women’s national team and their recent results and aspirations for the World Cup.
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