Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming may be best known for his on-court exploits, but he’s now facing a challenge of a very different sort as he looks to reform Chinese basketball. In a Chinese sports version of Bannon vs. Kushner, the big man is battling “the establishment” in order to gain influence behind the scenes. But the obstacles he’s facing may be so entrenched that the entire sports industry in China is affected.
Rumors started to circle earlier this year that Yao Ming would be appointed as the new head of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), and despite resistance in certain quarters – including this editorial from state-run news agency Xinhua which called him too young and too inexperienced [link in Chinese] – he seemed the obvious candidate.
He’s played professional basketball in both the US and China, he’s been an owner of the Shanghai Sharks in the CBA since 2009, he’s studious, respected for his achievements both on and off the court, hugely popular and is a towering presence in more ways than one. The only obstacle was that every previous CBA head had been a government official, but once the decision had been made to break with that tradition, there could be only one – and no one was holding out for Stephon Marbury to take the job, now that’s his six-year stint with the Beijing Ducks has come to an end.
But for all the talk about Yao being the man to bring about much-needed reform to Chinese basketball, there is now a real danger that he will end up being little more than a figurehead in a cat-and-mouse game between reformers and traditionalists – something that could have wider significance outside just basketball.
Chinese basketball: 2 for the price of 1