Before Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night in Oakland, NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a press conference during which he spoke on a number of big picture topics surrounding the league. One of them was the lack of Chinese players in the NBA.
Silver said he is "frustrated" by the fact that there are currently no Chinese players in the league. Via Reuters:
"It frustrates me that there are no Chinese players in the NBA right now," he told reporters prior to Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Oakland on Thursday.
"There's probably more basketball being played in China than anywhere else in the world. And more NBA basketball is being watched in China than anywhere else in the world," he said.
There were two Chinese players drafted last summer in the second round of the draft, as Zhou Qi was taken by the Houston Rockets with the 43rd overall pick, and Wang Zhelin went 57th to the Memphis Grizzlies. Both of them, however, played in their native China this season.
In order to help improve the state of Chinese basketball, Silver said the NBA is working with the greatest Chinese player of all-time, Yao Ming.
"One of the things that we have worked on with Yao is the creation of academies in China," Silver added.
"We need to increase the pool of top-notch Chinese players," Silver said. "I think it will have a great impact on our league, and I think it will be good for Chinese basketball as well."
With as many people as there are in China, and as popular as basketball is there, it would seem likely that we'll soon see another Chinese player enter the league.
