The Chinese Team's traditional Big Three

A few days before the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the Chinese men's National Team came into the spotlight of international basketball. It wasn't because they were medal contenders, or because they had a chance to upset their first opponents, Team USA. The reason was the team's new nickname: the walking Great Wall.

That name referred to three of the team's centers:  2.26m Yao Ming (he would be selected first overall in the NBA draft one year later by Houston), 2.14m Wang Zhizhi and 2.14m Menk Bateer. Wang had already been drafted and Menk would eventually play in the NBA, too. The team finished in an embarrassing 10th place in Sydney, but the nickname stuck.

Four years later, China appeared in Athens with former Los Angeles Lakers coach Del Harris and ex-Lithuania National Team boss Jonas Kazlauskas as his assistant. Yao, meanwhile, was an NBA All Star and the country's flagbearer for the opening ceremony. The big three players included Yao and Bateer, but not Wang, who was excluded after he refused to report to the team before the 2002 FIBA World Championship. The new member of the 'walking Great Wall' was then 16-year-old Yi Jianlian, a player who would go on to become the sixth pick in the 2007 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. The new Big Three helped China upset the reigning world champions Serbia & Montenegro in the preliminary round game. They ultimately finished eighth - equalling China's best ranking in the Olympic Tournament.

Another four years have passed and the 'walking Great Wall' tradition is alive and well. While Bateer retired from the National Team, Wang Zhizhi returned for the 2006 FIBA World Championship to form an imposing from line with Yai and Yi. Now, in 2008. there are even more NBA connections. The team's starting guard, Liu Wei, a very close friend of Yao since their teenage years, once spent a month in a pre-season training camp with the Sacramento Kings while another guard, Sun Yue, was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 2007 NBA draft. Neither has signed an NBA contract. China can put five guys who are connected, in one way or another, to the NBA on the floor at the same time.

Kazlauskas has guided the team as the head coach since 2005 and hasn't worked for any European clubs since the 2005-06 season. Donnie Nelson, the Dallas Mavericks' general manager and a former assisant to Kazlauskas at previous Olympic Games, has joined him as an assistant. After a memorable semi-final in Sydney when Lithuania almost upset the United States, Nelson said he would never sit on the bench in case the team he works with were to again face Team USA. Well, that may happen when China plays Team USA in the first round during the Beijing Games.

In their six appearances at Olympic Games since 1984, China twice came in eighth while finishing the other four other times far from the top eight. But as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese team is looking forward to beating three teams in the group stage and finishing somewhere better than sixth place. With Kazlauskas, the ever-dominating Yao and an improving cast of players, anything is possible.

How did they qualify?
The host of Beijing Olympic Games