Declining power

The women's return to top of the game helped ease some of the disappointment after the Chinese men's squad lost in the quarterfinals of the Asia Cup in Jakarta in July, bowing out of the continental tournament much earlier than expected.

The men's team's 69-72 quarterfinal loss to Lebanon, an opponent it had previously beaten 11 times, was considered a devastating blow to a national program that had won the Asian title 16 times. The team's poor performances, however, need to be put into perspective, with several key players struggling against fever and fatigue after getting infected by COVID-19 on their way to Indonesia.

Still, the performance slump sparked a backlash back home with fans criticizing the team's lackluster campaign under former coach Du Feng, who guided the team to qualify for the men's World Cup this fall, but was still replaced by Serbian tactician Aleksandar Djordjevic in November.

Reflecting on Team China's international performances throughout the year, Chinese Basketball Association president Yao Ming attributed the men's struggle to the lack of systematic support.

"It's unfair for the coach to take all the blame," said Yao, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was just re-elected the head of CBA last month for a second five-year term after taking on the role in 2017.

"We need to build a support system that the coaches could lean on, with input from experts in fitness training, health management, scouting and data analysis.

"We need to reduce the workload for the head coach and allow him to only have to focus on training and the competition on the court," said Yao, who led the men's team to the quarterfinals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics to equal the program's best result at the Games.

Entering his second tenure, Yao reckons that the most immediate goals for the national program are to make sure that the men's team qualifies for next year's Paris Olympics by finishing the World Cup as the highest-ranked Asian country, while maintaining the momentum of the women's squad to at least finish in the top-4 in Paris.

To further enhance Team China's international competitiveness, Yao said that the CBA remains open to naturalizing eligible foreign-born talent to bolster the men's team roster if feasible and necessary.

"We need to take the rules of FIBA, as well as all the relevant laws and policies of our country, into consideration. Technically, the player should be able to help the team on the court, while, culture-wise fitting in off the court," Yao said of the standards of selecting naturalized players.

"So far, we don't have a target, but we welcome any recommendations."