Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming will join the national
team late next month and play in a September 3 exhibition match
against the Melbourne Tigers, an official from Chinese Basketball
Association said.
It marks Yao's return after sitting out the Stankovic Cup and
extensive training in Europe due to injury.
He is expected to join the strong lineup includes former NBA
player, Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue, who were picked by
the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers respectively in this
year's draft.
It's not clear whether forward Du Feng will join the September
match because his is also injured.
The Melbourne Tigers ranked first in the Australian National
Basketball League in 2006.
China's national team has played the Tigers several times. China
won all the matches in 2003 but in 2004 Tigers won three times out
of the five competitions.
(CRI July 28, 2007)