Taiwan NT center Tseng Wen-ting signed a four-year contract with Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
Terms of the agreement — a three-year contract with Shanghai could exercise a team option for the fourth year — were not disclosed, but it is believed that Tseng will be paid between one million to two million Chinese yuan annually.
Posted in china, tseng wen-ting
[No Tien Lei (middle) and Tseng Wen-ting (right) for Taiwan NT this year. Lee Hsueh-lin (left) returned from China to be back with the team.]
The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association on Friday announced the final roster for the upcoming East Asian Basketball Championship, the qualifying tournament for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship.
The 12-man lineup is led by three core players who played last season in China, including former Taiwan Beer forward Lin Chih-chieh and a pair of ex-Yulon Luxgen stars — forward Chen Hsin-an and point guard Lee Hsueh-lin.
Chen Tse-wei became the latest casualty down with injury as the 200cm Dacin forward withdrew from the national team training camp for the 2011 EABC, according to head coach Chou Jun-san.
So far, Chen, Tien Lei and Chang Chih-feng — coincidentally, all three came from Dacin, have decided to sit out the EABC.
Players reported to Taiwan NT training camp for the East Asian Basketball Championship (EABC) Tuesday as Taiwan NT head coach Chou Jun-san nominated Liu Hua-lin as his second assistant.
Nineteen of 24 players on the preliminary rosters reported to the camp in Taipei for the preparation of the EABC which will be held in Nanjing, China from June 8 to June 15.
Posted in east asian qualifier, men's nt, tien lei, tseng wen-ting
The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association approved the 24-man preliminary roster of Taiwan men’s NT for the East Asian Basketball Championship, a qualifier for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship for Men, submitted by Taiwan NT head coach Chou Jun-san Friday.
Six oversea players, including the trio playing in China — Lin Chih-chieh, Chen Hsin-an and Lee Hsueh-lin, Tseng Wen-ting, who is playing for BJ League’s Osaka Evessa in Japan, and the pair playing in the U.S. — Jet Chang and Chou Yi-hsiang.
Chang finished a brilliant junior season with the NCAA Div-II BYU-Hawaii, leading the Seasiders to the championship game and scoring 78 points in two games in the Final Four. He became the first Taiwanese player to be named the Most Outstanding Player in Div-II Final Four. He averaged 21.2 points during the season.
20-year-old Chou, a 6-4 freshman in Salt Lake Community College, averaged 4.6 points in 15.1 minutes in his first year in the U.S.
Preliminary roster:
Yang Ching-min, 188cm, 1984/01/22, 27, TB
Wu Tai-hao, 202cm, 1985/02/07, 26, TB
Cheng Jen-wei, 194cm, 1987/04/06, 24, KKL
Chen Shih-nian, 180cm, 1984/04/08, 27, TB
Ho Shou-cheng, 196cm, 1983/02/15, 28, TB
Doug Creighton, 195cm, 1985/03/07, 26, TB
Tien Lei, 202cm, 1983/06/01, 27, Dacin
Chang Chih-feng, 183cm, 1981/04/22, 30, Dacin
Chen Tse-wei, 200cm, 1985/01/30, 26, Dacin
James Mao, 196cm, 1982/11/16, 28, PY
Chien Chia-hung, 197cm, 1987/03/06, 24, PY
Lu Cheng-ju, 194cm, 1986/08/23, 24, Yulon
Chen Shun-hsiang, 190cm, 1985/05/02, 26, BOT
Su Yi-chieh, 182cm, 1987/01/28, 24, TM
Chen Ching-huan, 190cm, 1987/12/18, 25, KKL
Chang Jung-hsuan, 194cm, 1986/02/03, 23, KKL
Lee Hsueh-lin, 175cm, 1984/01/31, 27, Beijing (China)
Tseng Wen-ting, 202cm, 1984/07/06, 26, Osaka (Japan)
Lin Chih-chieh, 192cm, 1982/06/11, 28, Zhejiang (China)
Chen Hsin-an, 195cm, 1980/07/01, 30, Dong Guan (China)
Jet Chang, 192cm, 1988/12/27, 22, BYU-Hawaii (US)
Chou Po-chen, 196cm, 1990/08/08, 20, Taiwan Normal University
Chou Yi-hsiang, 194cm, 1991/02/04, 20, Salt Lake CC (US)
Meanwhile, Chou has nominated PY head coach Hsu Chin-tse as one of his assistants. The other assistant coach remains to be named.
Local media reported that former Yulon Luxgen center Tseng Wen-ting will sign with Osaka Evessa of Japan’s pro league BJ League next week.
Tseng is expected to receive more playing time in the BJ League, which allows teams to carry as many as five Western imports and one Asian import on their 15-man rosters.
The 204cm center chose the BJ League because Japan Basketball League (JBL), the other professional league in Japan, allows only two imports on each team.
BJ League adopts a 52-game regular season which ends in May. Top four teams in the Eastern and Western Division will advance to the playoffs. Osaka Evessa currently ranks second in the West with 19 wins and 11 losses.
Posted in tseng wen-ting
Yulon center Tseng Wen-ting played his last game with the long-time employer Yulon Luxgen Saturday and bid farewell to the SBL before going to China looking to sign with the Shanghai Sharks.
Tseng, 26, finished off his contract with Yulon Jan. 15 after both sides had failed to reach an agreement on the contract extension.
Coincidentally, the national team starting center had his first career triple-double — 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists — in a 100-72 loss to Dacin Tigers in his last game in Taiwan.
Tseng was in tears in the post-game interview, saying that he had never imagined he would leave Yulon and Taiwan.
The Sharks’ offer of a three-year, NT$21 million (US$720,000) contract was too good to pass up. Tseng could earn up to NT$10 million (US$345,000) per year plus incentives, according to Apple Daily.
His estimated annual salary with Yulon is around NT$3 million (US$103,500).
During his seven plus seasons in the league, the 204cm center took Yulon to five regular season champions and four titles. He registered 2975 points, 1765 rebounds, 578 assists and 452 blocks in 199 games, averaging 14.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.3 blocks per game, in his SBL career.
Tseng was named the regular season MVP last year and won the Finals MVP twice in 2005 and 2006. He led the SBL in blocks in all but one year during 2003-2010 and was a four-time defensive player of the year.
Looks like it’s time for him to compete on a higher level.
However, it’s possible that Tseng will not be allowed to sign with Shanghai this year because the deadline of signing a local player (Well, Taiwan is regarded as a part of Chinese territory. This is a political issue and I’d rather not to go into specifics about it right now) has passed.
Which means Tseng could end up signing with the Sharks next year, if his application is rejected, and being left without a team this season. We will have to wait and see.
Personally, it was sad to see Tseng go. After all, I have been following his career since he was a 16-year-old in high school. But I didn’t see any reason to stop him from going to China for better competition and salary after he had almost done everything he could possibly do in the league. He has also proved himself on the international level in the past Asian Championships.
Well, at least Tseng played out his contract with Yulon before leaving. It was what a professional player is supposed to do: honoring your contract.
Chen Hsin-an, who is currently playing for Dongguan, is another case. Chen’s attempts of going to China was blocked several times by Yulon as he tried to leave the team with two years left on his contract.
Here’s a video by Apple Daily on Tseng:
(Photos: ESPN Taiwan, Apple Daily)
Posted in SBL, tseng wen-ting
Taiwan had an easy 93-66 win over India after losing to Japan 63-57 in the opener to split its first two games of the 2010 Asian Games men’s basketball competition in Guangzhou, China.
On Wednesday, Lin Chih-chieh had 23 points and Tien added 20 in the rout. Yang Ching-min scored 13 pooints and point guard Lee Hsueh-lin dished out 10 assists to go with five points.
India was led by Jagdeep Singh’s 22 points.
Taiwan was not so fortunate the previous night, when it committed 15 turnovers against Japan, which took advantage of Taiwan’s carelessness for 14 fastbreak points. Japan also dominated the paint, scoring 44 points in the restricted area against Taiwan’s 24.
Taiwan managed to pull within 24-23 at the half after a dismal first quarter, during which it only scored seven points. However, the team could not match up against the more prepared Japanese inside, especially after losing starting center Tseng Wen-ting, who didn’t go to Guangzhou with the team due to injury.
Ryota Sakurai scored nine of his 12 points in the crucial fourth quarter to lift Japan for the victory. Joji Takeuchi paced the team with 15 points and 13 rebounds while his twin brother Kosuke Takeuchi also had a double-double of 13 points and 10 boards.
Yuta Tabuse had 10 points for the winner.
Taiwan has to finish in the top four of the six-team Group F to advance to the knockout quarterfinal round. After the loss to Japan, it needs to beat at least one team among Qatar, Iran and the Philippines to ensure the knockout round berth.
Asian Games standings as of Nov. 17
Group E
South Korea 2-0
China 2-0
Jordan 1-1
Mongolia 101
North Korea 0-2
Uzbekistan 0-2
Group F
Japan 2-0
Qatar 1-1
Taiwan 1-1
Iran 1-1
Philippines 1-1
India 0-2
(Photos: Liberty Times)
Posted in asian games, lin chi-jay, men's nt, tien lei, tseng wen-ting
