Basketball Career
As a member of the Beijing Ducks, Bateer made his debut for China's basketball team in the 1994 Asian Games, aged 19. Three years later, although a regular fixture, he was cut from the team after "disciplinary problems". A filial son, Bateer had several times in his career attempted to voluntarily leave his teams to be back in his hometown with his family.
In 1999, while training with the national team, Bateer was invited to play in a pre-draft tournament held in Phoenix, where he suffered from jet lag and did not impress. He also made a short appearance in another pre-draft venue, in Treviso, Italy.
In October 2001, Bateer joined the Denver Nuggets in the side's preseason training camp. He was cut after 2 preseason games, but in April, already deep into the season, he would join the team again, as the Nuggets were in desperate need of a big man after trading Raef LaFrentz.
Bateer played the remaining 25 games, averaging 5.5 points while battling foul problems. Because of the shortage of the big men on the Nuggets, he ended up starting 10 out of those games, and became the first Chinese player to ever start an NBA game, as the first to join the competition, Wang Zhizhi, never started while with the Dallas Mavericks.
In the summer of 2002, Bateer was traded to the Detroit Pistons with Don Reid, for Rodney White and a future first-round pick. However, after an impressive showing against Team USA in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, where he scored 19 (also leading China in scoring 5 out of 7 games in the tournament), for a team that already included recently drafted Yao Ming, American assistant coach Gregg Popovich, of the San Antonio Spurs, decided to take a chance at Bateer and dealt for him for a second-round pick. Internationally, the trio of 7'1" Wang Zhizhi, 7' 6" Yao Ming and Bateer were known as the "Walking Great Wall".
Although playing occasionally, Bateer was a member of the Spurs' 2002–03 championship team. The following season, he signed as a free agent with the Toronto Raptors. He was later traded by the Raptors to the Orlando Magic who would waive him just 3 days later. In October 2004, the New York Knicks signed Bateer as a training camp invite. He was waived prior to the start of the 2004-05 NBA season.
After being waived by the Knicks, Bateer played for the Huntsville Flight of the National Basketball Development League for a while. He rejoined the Ducks, in the Chinese Basketball Association, in mid-February 2005, a couple of weeks before the end of the 2004–05 regular season, also being named MVP of the 2005 All-Star Game.
After carrying the Ducks team to a franchise-best CBA North Division title while averaging 25 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, Bateer failed to receive the season's MVP due to a rule forbidding suspended players from any awards (in mid-season, he received the heaviest fine in the competition's history for arguing with a referee and sat out two games as a result). Bateer played for the team until the end of 2006–07, being traded to fellow league team Xinjiang Guanghui.
Bateer has ventured into acting in recent years.
Read more about this topic: Mengke Bateer
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