China searches for next Yao Ming

The search is on to fill Yao Ming's size-18 sneakers after China's biggest sports luminary announced his retirement, and Chinese scouts are combing city courts and pre-schools for a future star. But there are growing doubts that another Yao can be produced by China's Soviet-style sports development programme, which drafts toddlers as young as four, sometimes just because their parents are tall. One of the leading sceptics is Li Qiuping, who as coach of the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association -- a team that Yao now owns -- helped prepare Yao to become the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft. Li echoes the concerns of many over a state basketball player factory seen as rushing promising youths into rigorous training while ignoring the importance of being a well-rounded player -- and student. "Our children are trained professionally too early. Everyone wants them to play basketball from a very young age, but no one cares about studying," Li said. The retirement of Yao, who is 2.29m (7ft 6in) tall, has kicked off a debate among Chinese fans over whether the country's player-development strategy needs to be amended. In particular, many say China should not focus so much on height but on athletic ability and that it needs a well-rounded crop of ball-handlers and shooters to go along with the big men. Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey jokingly asked Yao at his retirement news conference last week if he could recommend any Chinese prospects he could sign. Yao quipped that they would have to negotiate his finder's fee first. He offered no player recommendation. Li said China's current system is incapable of producing another Yao unless it reforms in a way to put more joy into the game. "They are very relaxed in the USA. There is no pressure on winning there. They play happy basketball and they learn a lot of different sports -- not just basketball. The system is very different," Li said. Li -- often mentioned as a candidate to coach China's national team -- has set up a summer basketball camp as an alternative to a state sports system that requires 15-year-olds to train two to three hours on school nights. The camp offers ordinary kids who love the game a rare opportunity to develop their basketball skills with professional coaches. "Our (state) sports schools choose youngsters from primary-school age. They want to find young kids and their criteria are much higher than at my summer camp," he said. "They choose these kids on the basis of their height and if their parents are tall, and what their parents do." China's national team coach, American Bob Donewald Jr., told the New York Times that no one can identify future MVPs in primary school and Chinese basketball's structural problems were affecting the quality of players. "What’s amazing is that in a country of 1.3 billion I can’t find a point guard," he told the newspaper this month. Yao's legacy is clear at Li's camp, which is based in a Shanghai high school. The young players do not hold back when asked who inspired them to play basketball. "Yao Ming! Yao Ming! Yao Ming!" nine-year-olds Shen Zhoujun, Guo Mingze and Liu Zhihe all shouted in unison. The former Houston Rockets centre helped make China the NBA's biggest market outside the US, with an estimated 300 million fans. So from a market perspective, both the NBA and Chinese league would love to find another star in China as big as Yao. However, Li Zhangming, who coached the Shanghai-reared Yao when he was at sports school, dismisses the doubts about the state system and says the "next Yao" has already been found. "He is now in primary school. He was born in 1999 and is already 1.86 metres (6ft 1in) tall," said Li, of Shanghai's Nanyang Model High School. "He has very good potential and if he grows to 2.10 metres (6ft 10in), he will be the next Yao Ming."