Since 2017, Yao Ming was the strong man of Chinese basketball. Both president of the Chinese basketball league and the Chinese federation, the former first draft pick was involved at all levels.
The problem is that the last 18 months have been very complicated for basketball in the Middle Kingdom.
In the Chinese championship, there were stories of match-fixing last year, and Yao Ming was ejected from the presidency of the league, while remaining at the head of the federation. But he has also just left this second chair, “based on considerations related to the development of Chinese basketball” and to devote himself to “personal projects”he informed the body this Thursday, as reported by AFP and L’Equipe.
A crisis of results
Two years before the end of his mandate, the former Rockets player “takes responsibility” while deploring “the results of the national selection which unfortunately did not meet expectations”.
On the men's side, times are indeed tough, with China failing to qualify for the 2024 Olympics after finishing in 29th place (out of 32) at the 2023 World Cup.
Among the women, on the other hand, there was a silver medal at the 2022 World Cup, including a victory against France in the quarter-final, but it was not followed up, the Chinese did not having failed to get out of the groups during the Paris Olympics, overtaken by a small point by Belgium on the “point average” of the best third.
Guo Zhenming, its vice-president, will now take over, with the very difficult mission of carrying out the necessary reforms to help China become a heavyweight in world basketball.
