Fiba Asia elims: When Yi hurts, China hurts

MANILA, Philippines - Just how serious is the injury that’s been keeping Chinese superstar Yi Jianlian in the current FIBA-Asia elims in MOA?

It’s a question not even his coach could answer.

“At this moment we are waiting,” said China’s head coach, the legendary Panagiotis Giannakis, of the situation that has kept a lot of people guessing.

Yi, the heart and soul of the Chinese team, has missed their last four games due to a groin injury made worse by a hurting hamstring.

The 7-foot veteran of the Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks in the NBA has only played one game, the one against South Korea on opening day.

Yi had 23 points and 10 rebounds in that game but still failed to carry his team to victory. Even before the start of the game he seemed bothered by his injury.

“I’m still bothered by my hamstring,” he said after the game.

Since then he’s been sitting on the bench as China defeated Malaysia, lost to Iran and won a very close game against Kazakhstan in the first round.

Again, he sat out yesterday’s game against India.

The coach of the reigning champions said they can’t force the issue and would rather let Yi feel better until he feels fit to play.

And that should be in the quarterfinals – possibly against the Philippines.

But the possibility of aggravating the injury has made some people think that Yi might no longer see action here.

If he does, then it’s good for the Chinese. If he doesn’t, then it’s good for the rest.

“For me as we said before as long as we play good then we can wait for him. We know that we need him,” said Giannakis.

“That’s why we need to play smart and strong so we wait for him to come back as soon as possible – maybe tomorrow. He’s getting better.”

With Yi sitting on the bench, China is trying to draw another NBA veteran, Wang Zhizhi, and the youthful Wang Zhelin.

Giannakis is still counting on his starting center.

Because where Yi goes, China goes.