CBA changes their schedule

I'm quite suprised to find that no sites have reported this (not YaoMania, InterBasket, or even AsiaBasket), so I'll be the first to break the news.

According to People Daily Online, the CBA has cut off a huge chunk of their schedule (112 games to be exact) in order to help Chinese players spend more time preparing for not only the Asian Games in December, but also for the Beijing Olympics, which is rapidly approaching.

I can see the perspective of the Chinese officials on this,and understand, and I don't think it's a bad thing...BUT, the one absolutely necessary thing is if the national team players are going to take time off this summer to do extra training, then they need to play against European teams. When Yao talked about sending Chinese youngsters to foreign leagues, he also mentioned that the first good step in this direction was that China spent the summer playing against European teams. This summer, doing that again is a must, an absolute.

If the CBA isn't going to send off Yi Jianlian or anyone else to a foreign league (and that's becoming more and more likely, once again), then the least they can do is let them face top-flight teams with NBA talent.