One of the hottest topics among Chinese basketball reporters recently is what is the real target of the national men's basketball team at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Li Yuanwei, vice president of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and director of the Chinese Basketball Management Center, said the goal at the Olympics is to advance to the quarterfinals.

(L to R)China's Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi attend the kickoff ceremony of the game between China and Angola at the Stankovic Cup basketball Olympic warmup tournament in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

It would have been the fourth time that China enter the top eight after they finished eighth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2004 Athens Olympics as well as the 1994 World Championships, if they could fulfill the goal.

Most people don't think it is good enough for the highly-expected men's basketball team at the Games, considering the first-ever Olympic Games in China this summer.

Tickets of Olympic basketball matches are the most wanted on the Internet besides tickets of the opening and closing ceremonies and finals of the men's 110 meters hurdles, which is expected to feature defending gold medallist and local favorite Liu Xiang.

Price of the tickets of the men's basketball final match has vaulted to over 10 times of the original price.

Basketball has arguably become the most popular sport in China as soccer was haunted by corruptions, match-fixings and misbehaviors of footballers on and off the pitch.

The Chinese fans have huge expectations of the national team at the Beijing Olympics as it is the first time that NBA players Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian and former NBA player Wang Zhizhi join force at the Games.

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is one of the most dominant pivots in NBA. He has recovered from a foot surgery, which needed four-month recovery and ended his season earlier, and joined in the national team last month.

"I want to have better results than the eighth place at the Beijing Olympic Games. I think the sixth is what I'm looking for," Yao said during a tele-conference to Asian and American journalists in May.

NBA rookie Yi Jianlian proved the most dangerous shotgun during a series of warm-up series, which China won 10-0.

He averaged 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in his rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks and was traded to New Jersey Nets on June27.

Former Miami Heat forward Wang Zhizhi is a quality backup pivot. This is his first Olympic after he was kicked out of the team in 2002 when he refused to answer the call for the World Championships.

"I do want better results this time (at the Beijing Olympics). But for now, I think to enter the quarterfinals is realistic," Li Yuanwei said. "World basketball has improved a lot in the past four years. It'll be more difficult to get into top eight than the Athens Olympics in 2004."

China was bracketed with world champion Spain, Athens Olympics' bronze medallists the United States, Angola, Greece and Germany.

The host team has never beaten Spain and the U.S., so it has to defeat all the other opponents of the preliminary round to ensure better results than the eighth.

Now all the Chinese fans are waiting for some miracles to the host team.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)