The Chinese Government Needs to Stop Killing Their Athletes!

A few days ago, word came out of New Jersey that their Chinese PF Yi Jianlian might miss the season opener for the Nets to play for his Chinese team. This comes immediately after a season which saw Yi shoot 40% from beyond the arc and score 10 or more points 20 times in 37 games until breaking a finger on his shooting hand. After the injury Yi was never the same, scoring 10 or more points only 3 times in the 29 remaining games. On top of the significant drop in scoring, Yi's FG%, FT%, and 3pt% took a huge nosedive as well. This led to him being benched with 11 games left, and even being completely dropped out of the rotation at times as he had 6 DNP's. Yi later stated in an interview that playing for China in the 2008 Olympics left him tired and worn out. It was a very disappointing end to a season which started out so promising with so much expectations.

This also comes after a season which saw Yao Ming suffer another stress fracture in the same foot, the exact same injury he suffered a year ago when the Rockets were in midst of their improbable 22 game win streak. Both Yao and Yi suffered season ending injuries in the 07-08 NBA season, both were forced to play for China in the 2008 Olympics. In Yao's case, he suffered his initial stress fracture in April, the Olympics were in August, a short 4 months, most stress fractures take at least 6 months to completely heal properly. Despite this, the Chinese government forced Yao to play even though it was clear that his injury hadn't fully healed and even if it was fully healed, it had to be very fragile at best. After the Olympics, Yao would still go on to play 77 regular season games and lead Houston out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. In fact he carried Houston to a game 1 victory against the Lakers and looked to be on track to doing it again in game 3 until he broke his foot again in the second half. The injury initially appeared to better than the one he suffered the year before, but later it was discovered that the bone wasn't healing properly and the injury required an intense, risky, new-age surgery that might force him to miss the entire 09-10 season and even be potentially career-threatening. Even though I hate to say it, we all saw this coming. It's hard enough being 7'6", 310lbs and playing an entire 82 game season without getting injured, when you throw in the fact that he suffered the same injury the year before and was forced to play in the Olympics with only 4 months to recover, his body just couldn't take it and gave out.

My only question is, when is the Chinese government ever going to learn? When are they ever going to change? Are we going to have to deal with this again when Yao comes back? Are they going to force Yi to play international ball every year until his body gives out too? He's only 21 and has already suffered 2 major injuries in as many years. I don't think the Chinese government understands that every athlete needs rest and time to recover, but especially tall athletes like Yi and Yao who are 7' and 7'6" respectively. And if Yi has to miss the season opener for the Nets to play in China, he will literally have no time to rest. When a 7' man has to play 82 games, then play internationally the whole summer, then immediately jump right back in and play another 82 games, that's nearly 2 years of constant basketball with no rest. You get the picture, its a recipe for another major injury, another disappointing season, another sad story of an athlete who changed so much for their country and all they got in return was being constantly used, worn-out and run to the ground by their country and government who was supposed to be looking out for their best interests.

Rod Thorn recently stood up to the Chinese government about the issue and made it clear that Yi needs to be back for the Nets for their season opener. It's about time someone did something about this, hopefully this will be enough for Yi to get the rest he needs and avoid getting injured again so he can reach his potential. Sadly, it's too late for Yao, after 7 years of being run to the ground, his body has now completely collapsed under the pressure of being tossed around from entire summers of internationall ball and 82 NBA regular season games. We'll never know how good Yao could've been, in 06-07 he was putting up MVP numbers of 27ppg and 10rpg until he broke his leg mid-way into the season. In 07-08, he and Tracy Mcgrady carried the Rockets to a 55-27 record including a 22 game win streak, but Yao missed the playoffs with an injury. And of course this year, Yao finally carried Houston past the first round and even to a game 1 victory in L.A but suffered his worst injury yet. Word has now come out that he is healing well and that the injury is no longer career threatening, but even if he comes back he may never be the player he once was. As much as I've blamed the Chinese government, the Rockets organization needs to take responsibility as well, not once did anyone within their organization try to negotiate and express their concern to the Chinese government. Jeff Van Gundy, former coach for Yao Ming and the Rockets publicly pleaded that somebody within the Rockets organization needed to learn the word "No". Instead, they allowed the Chinese government to simply do whatever they wanted, and the result has been disastrous.

I hope the Chinese government recognizes what happened to Yao and to an extent what happened to Yi, and stop treating their athletes like this. I understand China is a nation with a tremendous need for pride as shown by how spectacular their 2008 Olympics were. Like any country they want world-wide respect, but forcing their athletes to play internationally year after year with no regard for their well-being is not the way to earn it, if anything it might have the opposite effect. How many more athletes career's do they need to kill before they finally get the point? Sun Yue just signed onto the Knicks where he is sure to get more playing time than when he was on the Lakers, is this going to happen to him as well? Are they going to kill the careers of the next 3 Chinese NBA players? The next 4? The next 5?

My thing is, as a Chinese-American, I just hope the Chinese government can get their priorities straight. China is one of the most powerful countries in the world, economic wise, technology wise, political wise and athletic wise because of it's population of 1.3 billion, the biggest population of any country. And the world gets it now, especially after the 2008 Beijing olympics where they showcased just how advanced they've become as a nation. Losing a few international tournaments because their best athletes aren't playing won't make the world look down on them or think of them as a lesser country, so for the sake of the health and basic needs of their best athletes, please! Give them a break!