Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is known as one of the hardest working men in basketball.
Now his hometown of Shanghai wants to make the title official by nominating him for Model Worker honors, the Shanghai Daily reported on Monday.
Also nominated was Liu Xiang, gold medalist in the men's 110m hurdles in the Athens Olympics last summer, the paper said.
PHOTO: AFP
"Both are world class athletes," the report quoted an unidentified official with the Shanghai Trade Union as saying. "What's more, they have good characters," the official added.
The Model Worker title was one of China's most prestigious under the former planned economy, often bringing promotion, better housing and political notoriety.
Its glimmer has dimmed amid the market economy's rise in recent years, but China's communist rulers keep the honor alive as a way to inspire discipline, loyalty and hard work. Shanghai is nominating 135 individuals for the award from fields such as private business, medicine and education.
Yao became one of China's biggest sporting heroes after joining the NBA in 2002 as the No. 1 draft pick.
But he has won accolades back home for returning to play with the national team during the NBA offseason, helping China reach the quarterfinals at Athens.
Kevin Garnett had 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter in leading the Minnesota Timberwolves over the Los Angeles Clippers 89-85 on Sunday.
Garnett struggled for the second straight game, making just 8-of-24 field goals. Sam Cassell scored 16 points off the bench to help Minnesota win its fourth straight game. The Timberwolves moved within 2{ games of idle Denver for eighth place in the Western Conference.
Elton Brand had 25 points to lead Los Angeles, which twice rallied from double-digit deficits.
Spurs 83, Rockets 70
In San Antonio, Brent Barry hit three 3-pointers during a 21-2 run in the fourth quarter to help San Antonio rally for a win over Houston.
The Rockets, who trailed by as many as 12 in the first half, went ahead 60-55 on a 23-foot jumper by Tracy McGrady with 10:31 left in the game. The basket was the last of the game for McGrady, who finished with 26 points.
It was the Rockets' lowest-scoring game of the season.
76ers 96, Lakers 89
In Los Angeles, Allen Iverson scored 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and tied his career high with 15 assists, and Philadelphia overcame his horrendous shooting performance for its third straight win.
Iverson, who entered shooting 42.1 percent and averaging 30.5 points, shot 2-for-20 in the first three quarters and 5-of-28 overall along with 10-of-14 from the foul line.
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
RSS