Repercussions!

Wang's disappearance will have repercussions


The search for the 7-1 soldier from China turned up no sightings Thursday, and calls to his cell phone went unanswered. The closest you could get to the missing Maverick, even though he's reportedly somewhere in town not far from the NBA Finals, was this short message before the beep. "His name is Wang."

Marc Stein of the Dallas Morning News reports that Wang Zhi-Zhi has let two deadlines pass without responding to a mandatory national-team recall back home.

Not only is Wang’s future with the Mavericks and the NBA in doubt, but his disappearance would also serve as an embarrassment to the Chinese government who value reputation as much as currency.

That, of course, is the last thing the Houston Rockets will want to hear, knowing that negotiations with Yao Ming were going to be tough enough, given that Yao's rights are held by at least five entities in China. Any fears in China, from any of those entities, about losing control over their prized asset if he's allowed to come to America won't be eased by Wang's refusal to return on demand.

"This is all new territory to us," said Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson. "To me, I feel pretty sure that [Yao] wants to play in the NBA, and it seems like the Chinese government wants him to play in the NBA, too. We will make it clear to them that we would just like to have him from October until the playoffs."

The Rockets still plan to send a contingent to China to meet with officials. Dawson won’t know where they stand until the talks start, but they still have three weeks to make a decision on who to choose with the first pick in the draft.

For the Mavericks, and the league as a whole, there aren't nearly so many Wang options. If Wang returns to China, after the negative attention went worldwide, it's highly possible he won't be allowed to return to the NBA. If Wang stays in the States, any team that signed him in free agency would be threatening the years of NBA goodwill that were required to convince the Chinese to finally let Wang come to Dallas almost two years after he was drafted.

Commissioner David Stern, also in town for the Finals, refused an interview request Thursday to discuss Wang's situation, relaying through a league spokesman that "this is a personal matter, and we have absolutely nothing to do with it."



Why are they printing this? Didn't we just hear that Wang had already notified his own people, and that they were ok about him staying in the US instead of coming back to China to workout?
Is it possible that the whole news office of "Dallas Morning News" had no idea that this had happened? I don't want to start another "conspiracy theory" thread, but it just seems odd that Rocket fans on a message board would know more about whats going on than the whole city of Dallas.

Also didn't some official from China also state that this incident shouldn't hurt negotiations of Ming to the US?

Sounds fishy to me...

But then again, I could just be wrong and a little parinoid...

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap.php

 

Yeah, this one, http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthrea...&threadid=35005, was the actual one that i was referring to.

 

I think Cuban has relized that with his current line up, he will never make it to the finals. Sure they can score, but what they need is defense, and what better player to help with defense than Ming? (Well there are alot of players, but what better one coming in young and from the draft.)

He thinks if he can at least make Ming drop a few spots in the draft, he could possibly trade some of his offence for some defence.

Well actually my personal thoughts are: Stern and Cuban are trying to work together. In return for convincing China to not allow Houston to draft Ming, Cuban receives enough "Phantom Calls" to make it to the Finals next year. Of course, their calls are extinguished when they get into the finals, and the New York Knicks, with their new center Ming, beat them in 7 games.

Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.