The old-time glory and domination in the continent are nowhere to find when the Asian Games are coming back to China after a 20-year span. Instead, the Chinese basketball are seeking for a trip of salvation in Guangzhou next week.

Winning the trophies is not the ultimate goal of the Chinese basketball, unfortunately. Winning back the fans appear more important than the gold medals.

The men's team humiliated themselves in a warm-up match against a Brazil team on October 12, just a month before the Asian Games. They were invovled into an on-court brawl with the Brazilians. As a consequce, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) had to suspend the training camp.

Local media critisized the team as ugly as the soccer national team. The Chinese soccer are enduring the biggest scandal in the history, which swept dozens of top officials, leading referees and national team players.

Fans abused them "humiliating the basketball and the nation", and refused to accept their appologies and the punishments of the CBA.

A month before the incident, the women's team finished the worst-ever 13th in the world championships in the Czech Republic.

The results were only a part of the predicament of the Chinese women, which finished fourth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They showed no interetes in winning and fighting during the championships trip. The contridiction between the coaches and the players also emerged after the competition.

China have no clear advantage to win the gold medals at the Guangzhou Asian Games even without these drawbacks.

The men's team struggled during the Asian Championships in Tianjin last year and lost to Iran in the finals when Yao Ming was watching on the stand with injury feet.

Yao will be absent again this time and the starting power forward Yi Jianlian is fighting for his starting place in the Washington Wizards when his hometown hosts the continental gala.

China is to facing a more difficult trip in Guangzhou than that in Tianjin as the top scorer Zhu Fangyu was one of the punished players for the brawl.

The women's team has to take up the challeng of South Korea and Japan, which finished 8th and 10th at the world championships.

The national team is an aging team while the youngsters showed no signs of taking down the leading role.

The success of the Beijing Olympics leaves no room but winning the gold medals at Guangzhou for the national teams to satisfy the local fans. Furthermore, the basketball teams must produce one of the best competitions to win back their reputations.

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