Young Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) center Tang Zhengdong of the Jiangsu Dragons team will go to the United States for a week-long NBA trial on April 27th.

During his stay in the US, 2.13m Tang will attend special training sessions held by the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors.

Jiangsu's Tang Zhengdong shoots against a player during a game against the Guangdong Southern Tigers in CBA.

Tang has quite good athletic ability and mobility; but isn't as athletic as fellow NBA prospect player Yi Jianlian or as quick as Chinese NBA star Yao Ming.

He knows how to use his body and strength to overpower smaller opponents and his strengths are rebounding and shot blocking - even Yao has trouble defending against him.

Tang, who turns 22 this year, has been automatically entered into the June NBA draft, but his agent Xia Song says the young athlete may have little chance to be picked up by an NBA teams after the trials.

Tang played at the 2001 ABCD camp and was one of the top rebounders. He averaged 12.2 points and 8.6 rebounds at the Junior World Championships 2002 in Greece.

Despite being the CBA's Most Valuable Player in the 2003-2004 season, Tang withdrew from last year's draft as he did not meet the criteria.

Another China's star basketballer Yi Jianlian withdrew from the 2006 NBA draft this summer, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) announced on Wednesday.

The CBA said Guangdong informed the decision to the Chinese governing body after an executive meeting of the club.

"It's not a good time for Yi to play in NBA," said Hu Jiashi, vice president of China's Basketball Administrative Bureau.

Hu said the club was afraid that Yi would have little playing time if he could be drafted by any NBA team.

According to the statement of the Guangdong Hongyuan club, Yi agreed on the decision and was ready to be recruited by the national team.

Sun Yue, guard of the Beijing Aoshen, announced for the NBA draft, according to local reports. Hu said the CBA received no confirmation from the Aoshen.

"Aoshen is traveling in Europe. We cannot get in contact with the club. We are not sure whether Sun will go for the draft. But we respect any decision from the club and the player," Hu said.

(Xinhua News Agency and China Daily April 26, 2006)