Conflict With The Chinese Officials
Wang's contract expired after the 2001-2002 season. With his future up in the air, Wang decided he would spend the summer in the United States, rather than returning to China for training, as the Dallas Mavericks had promised the Chinese basketball officials. Wang fired his agent Xia Song when the latter suggested otherwise, and following the advice of his American-born Chinese friend Simon Chan, moved to the Los Angeles area without telling either the Mavericks, or the Chinese side his intentions.
During the stay, the Chinese basketball officials faxed two letters to him urging him to return to China as soon as possible to train with the National Team. Wang ignored them.
A major blow to all parties involved was an article by Jodie Valade that appeared in The Dallas Morning News. In the article, Valade hinted that Wang, who had not yet stated his intentions, might "defect" to the United States. China sent two military officials who had known Wang very well to go to the United States for a final negotiation. Wang had been playing for the Golden State Warriors in the Long Beach summer league, and averaged 4.8 points and 1.4 rebounds in 7.6 minutes per game.
During a press conference Wang stressed that the relationship between him and the Chinese was like one between "a son and a mother", and the conflict is all but misunderstanding. Wang was ultimately dismissed from the national team for failing to return to China to practice in 2002.
He was signed by the Dallas Mavericks in 2001, and later played for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat. An athletic and tall player at 214 cm, Wang was primarily known in the NBA as a long-range shooter. However, he was previously crowned the slam dunk champion in China's CBA league. His minutes were very limited in the NBA, never averaging more than 10.9 per game in a season, and he became a free agent at the end of the 2005 season. In late 2005, Wang was not playing professional basketball in the NBA or China. He averaged 4.4 points and 9.9 minutes per game over 5 seasons in the NBA.
Read more about this topic: Wang Zhizhi
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