Wang Zhizhi, the first Asian player to join the National Basketball Association, came back to China on Thursday after 45 days with the Dallas Mavericks which he claimed was a great boost to his confidence.

"The biggest profit I gained from these days with the Mavericks was an increased confidence," Wang said in a telephone interview with Xinhua. The 23-year-old cager had no luxury of time to stay any longer with his parents in Beijing and will fly to Osaka, Japan tomorrow morning to join his national teammates for the upcoming Eastern Asian Games.

Before getting a real experience himself with the world elite basketball league, the towering 2.16-meter center had thought there were yawning gaps between Chinese players and their NBA counterparts, Wang said. However, he's somewhat got it proved that Chinese have the caliber to play the NBA games.

"I would give myself seven out of ten points for my NBA debut," said Wang, who played limited time as backup center in a total of ten regular and playoff games. Wang scored an average 4.8 points for the regular season matches and 2.0 for the playoffs.

Wang said he was grateful for the Mavericks, who showed great trust in a Chinese rookie by putting him on in the playoffs which the team made for the first time in 11 years. Dallas eventually lost to the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in aggregate.

"I think I would have offered more if I had trained with the team for more time," said Wang, who made his NBA debut against the Atlanta Hawks on April 5--only five days after he set his foot on the United States.

For the time being, the most important thing for Wang is to help the Chinese national team bring home the basketball title of the East Asian Games, which seems to be a piece of cake.

"To play for the national side is always high on my priorities," said Wang, an officer in the Chinese Liberation Army.

(People's Daily 05/18/2001)