Yi Jianlian, 1984 Evidence? (Real year of birth)

[DarknessFalls]

http://mengxiaowan.blog.sohu.com/106788872.html




On another note, looks like there's been other photos posted as well:

[rikhardur]

Don't know if it's authentic, but it looks like it.

[DarknessFalls]

Someone also pointed out that in the teacher's comment section, the comments are pasted. Could this be a Anti-Yi fan who made this?

[sinobball]

Originally Posted by DarknessFalls

Someone also pointed out that in the teacher's comment section, the comments are pasted. Could this be a Anti-Yi fan who made this?

Ridiculous. Are you suggesting the reporter, who writes for China's Sports Illustrated -- a magazine who had featured Yi on its cover multiple times no less -- is forging the document to make the story? Think about it this way: if you were to forge a document, would you paste and cut something so irregularly shaped (and tearing out a line of words) onto the document? If anything it would indicate more authenticity than upon first look if you analyze the psychology behind it.

[DarknessFalls]

Originally Posted by sinobball

Ridiculous. Are you suggesting the reporter, who writes for China's Sports Illustrated -- a magazine who had featured Yi on its cover multiple times no less -- is forging the document to make the story? Think about it this way: if you were to forge a document, would you paste and cut something so irregularly shaped (and tearing out a line of words) onto the document? If anything it would indicate more authenticity than upon first look if you analyze the psychology behind it.

Ridiculous? I'm actually not referring to the China's Sports Illustrated reporter specifically. Where did I specifically say that it was the China's Sports Illustrated reporter who is forging this document? Please show me.

Funny how you don't even question the title of this topic, if the document shown in the picture is 100% accurate...you should protest to the mods that they should remove the question mark where it says "1984 Evidence?" and change it to "100% Real Evidence of Yi Jianlian's birthdate".

The reporter obviously had to obtain these documents and information from someone, and it's possible the information that was given to the reporter wasn't entirely accurate. Information that is reported isn't always 100% accurate.

There's stories of China lying both ways, whether it's underage athletes or athletes who are older than the ages that they are listed at. A great example of the underage accusations would be the Chinese female gymnasts. I've even read stories of people who admit that they were underage in China, but their ages were changed in schools so they could compete in sports competitions/move up in grade levels.

Again I'm not questioning the reporter specifically, I'm questioning if the information provided on those documents is accurate to begin with.

Wasn't there also a bone test that was supposedly done on Yi that revealed he was born in 1987? I would question that too. At this point, it's already clear that China has lied about their athletes ages and forging documents isn't something new on their part.

So I don't think it's ridiculous questioning the authenticity of anything that is reported on these documents, since China already has a history of lying about ages.

[ballerwannabe]

old news bro. With the technology these days it is almost impossible to tell the real from the fake. Anyways it's how good the player is and not how old he/she is that is important to the coaches

[DarknessFalls]

Originally Posted by ballerwannabe

With the technology these days it is almost impossible to tell the real from the fake. Anyways it's how good the player is and not how old he/she is that is important to the coaches

Very good and obvious point about technology.

[Charbel Sakr]

Originally Posted by DarknessFalls

http://mengxiaowan.blog.sohu.com/106788872.html

several questions comes to my mind:

1) is this a personal case or is the Chinese federation responsible for?

2) how old is Yao? Sun Yue?

3) How good are Chinese Under 18 national teams if they actually have players that are 20 or 21 years old?

[yaofan11]

Yao and Sun's age are legit, i have no doubt about their ages and no one else should. I always knew Yi was older than listed anyways.

[damelo]

Was he at least a good pupil?

[Khalid80]

I hope this info. gets sent to FIBA and whoever is responsible for changing Yi's age gets punished.

[stuart]

I wonder if this evidence came in part of the recent crackdown by Chinese Authorities to end age-shaving in basketball.

Stuart

[sinobball]

Originally Posted by stuart

I wonder if this evidence came in part of the recent crackdown by Chinese Authorities to end age-shaving in basketball.

Stuart

Several things.

1. That "recent crackdown" is nothing. So the CBA said they caught 36 who shaved ages. But who are they? Names were not released, no punitive measures were taken. All they said was it was a "historical problem" and pleaded the fans for "understanding". Nobody could confirm whether they really sent the list to FIBA, which is equally corrupt anyway and won't ever take any action. But the list is beside the point anyway. 360 is more likely the number of players (out of 400+ registered players in the CBA including junior and division II teams) who had shaved age. This "news" is nothing but a public announcement to the media of an attitude. Now the attitude the CBA has towards age shaving is applaudable, but it is unlikely to amount to any substantial action. The reasons is very complex, involving local corrupt governments (namely 1) sporting bodies and 2) police departments), the central sports governing body, the army, and ALL teams in the CBA. Therefore, it is almost beyond doubt that China will continue to send overaged players to international junior competitions like they had always done in the past.

2. Sun Yue. How old is he? I think he was born in 1985, but his listed DOB on nba.com is still wrong. He is listed 1985/11/06 but he really was born in 1985/12/06, for a different reason (think "typo"). Sun did not shave age like most other Chinese players -- only because he belonged to the only private team Aoshen -- a "rebel" team who has challenged the Chinese system so many times it's hard to count.

3. Yao Ming. His listed DOB is legit beyond doubt. In general native Shanghai players are less likely to shave ages because of their intense and modern registration process -- a process designed to control the migratory population. However the team Shanghai Sharks contain a number of non-Shanghainese players and many of these have also false ages.

4. Yi is not a personal case and the ones directly responsible are his club team Guangdong Tigers and its affiliated local governments in Guangdong. The CBA (central governmental body) is not responsible for shaving age but may be directly responsible for covering up. The reasons I have already explained in the other thread "
http://forums.interbasket.net/showthread.php?t=3916

[Phantim3dx]

http://www.chinasportsreview.com/200...3-years-older/

up top is more info on it, and im also wondering what will happen to yi, the nba, fiba, etc etc.



just believe what sinoball says the man is an expert on chinese basketball and open to praise and criticize the bejesus out of it, i wish more were this way.

[sinobball]

I'll copy and paste the blog entry since I can't open it at first.

Age Scandal Continues, Yi Jianlian Proved to Be 3 Years Older
December 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Basketball, Government, Sports Regime, Sportsmanship |

China Sports Review previously told you about the age scandal over Chinese basketball and football players. Li Zhigang, a reporter from the Chinese version of Sports Illustrated (体育画报), posted an article on his blog yesterday about the investigation over Yi Jianlian’s age. Yi, now playing at the New Jersey Nets, entered NBA in 2007/2008 season. For those of you who’re not familiar with the story of his age, below are some excerpts from Wikipedia:

''
Although Yi is officially listed as being born in 1987,there have been several allegations that his date of birth was intentionally falsified so that he would be able to play longer in junior competitions. However, Yi has refused to comment on his age.

Yi is not the first Chinese player to come under scrutiny, as former NBA player Wang Zhizhi has been listed as being born in both 1977 and 1979. In 2004, Yi was listed as being born in 1984 in China’s Four Nation Tournament,although Chinese officials said that it was probably a typographical error. Two years later, Fran Blinebury of The Houston Chronicle reported that Yi told Shane Battier he was 24 in an exhibition game before the 2006 FIBA World Championship, although the story was refuted by both Yi and Battier. However, in November 2006, a senior CBA official admitted that past youth squads had indeed included players above the permitted age.

In 2007, a Chinese government registration site was made public by hackers, and Yi’s date of birth was shown as being in 1984. American center Jason Dixon, who had been Yi’s teammate during Yi’s entire career in Guangdong, said to Chad Ford in June 2007 that Yi was “21 or 22…It’s pretty common over [in China] to change ages”.
''''

Li went to Yi Jianlian’s hometown, Xitou Village in Heshan City(鹤山市沙坪镇坡山村西头村), Guangdong Province for interviews in November. He found Yi’s senior high registration form at Binhe Middle School(滨河中学) which seemed to be filled by Yi himself, listing his date of birth as Oct.27, 1984, 3 years older than his NBA registration age. The reporter also found an elementary graduation group photo of Yi taken in 1997, which pretty much says it all. Li later received floods of nasty comments after posting the article and he published a new post today to those he referred to as ‘bystanders’. Below is our translation:

''''
First, I’m a sports journalist and it’s my responsibility to report. Let’s set aside morals and patriotism and only state the facts. Truth can not be falsified.

Second, we can see the governing body of Chinese basketball’s willingness to make an improvement from the emergence of age-gate news per se. Even the widely scolded bureaucracy is now willing to change. How come a group of bystanders can’t stand a registration form?

Third, I’d like to quote Li Yingfa, a football coach I interviewed this September, who won ten consecutive league championships back in the 80s. “Our young team was playing older players at the time. It’s not like Chinese football today, trading their ages for only some good results. Players now all change their ages by 2 or 3 years. This is what keeps trapping Chinese football, as our players can’t compete with others when they get older. Our team didn’t care about the results back then. We had gotten a number of young talents and that’s what made the team successful.”
''''

The new round of age-scandal questions all begins with Arthur Volbert’s article last month, who found 22 players changed their ages before the new season. CBA, the government body of Chinese basketball, then told media that Arthur’s number is not accurate and there’re actually 26 players changed their ages after checking their IDs together with the police.

A major mistake by the blog author is that the document is not from Binghe Middle School but Jingying Bilingual Experimental Middle School which Yi attended prior to Binghe. Yi attended Buxin Elementary --> Xinxiu Elementary and those 2 middle schools before enrolling full time in the Shenzhen Youth Sports School in May of 1999. It's very obvious he could not have been born in 1987 with that kind of a schooling history. Since 1999-1987 = 12 (technically 11, since Yi's birthday fell in October), and most kids at 12 years of age were just graduating from elementary school, and could not have attended 2 different middle schools.

I personally thought Li's investigative article contained much more overwhelming evidence than those 2 little pictures which as someone pointed out could have been photoshopped at this time of age. I could translate it but it's long as hell and since it was published in China's "Sports Illustrated" I personally think the American version of the magazine may pick it up very soon.

Only way to settle it is to show the pictures to Yi publicly and bug his schooling history. Like this:

[ricodgame]

well i do have a magazine that features future NBA Asian Superstars.

Yi was 17 then, and i bought that magazine 5 years ago.

and this allegations are true, will FIBA forfeit the Asian Junior Championship China won with him playing? will they suspend China in FIBA tournaments?

[Khalid80]

Originally Posted by sinobball

Several things.

1. That "recent crackdown" is nothing. So the CBA said they caught 36 who shaved ages. But who are they?

Yo Sinobball! Do u know if the 22 names mentioned below could be from the original 36?

Below is the name, club, old birth year and new birth year of the 22 players whose birth years changed.

1. Tang Zhengdong Jiangsu 1984 1982
2. Hu Xuefeng Jiangsu 1982 1980
3. Yi Li Jiangsu 1987 1985
4. Han Shuo Jiangsu 1989 1986
5. Fang Hui Jiangsu 1986 1982
6. Meng Da Jiangsu 1984 1982
7. Lu Wei Liaoning 1987 1985
8. Gu Liye Liaoning 1986 1985
9. Yang Ming Liaoning 1987 1985
10.Zhang Qingpeng Liaoning 1985 1981
11.Liu Xiangtao Liaoning 1983 1980
12.Xu Guochong Xinjiang 1983 1981
13.Mai Wulan Xinjiang 1983 1984
14.Lu Yan Jilin 1984 1981
15.Tian Yu Shaanxi 1980 1983
16.Yu Junkai Zhejiang Guangsha 1977 1976
17.Du Feng Guangdong 1981 1982
18.Zhang Bo Bayi 1986 1988
19.Men Wei Beijing 1987 1984
20.Zhang Yunsong Beijing 1977 1981
21.Ji Zhe Beijing 1986 1989
22.Li Yiding Qingdao 1984 1981 "

I have attached the post of the thread in case u haven't read it.

http://forums.interbasket.net/showthread.php?t=8536

[b3lowzro]

Originally Posted by ricodgame

well i do have a magazine that features future NBA Asian Superstars.

Yi was 17 then, and i bought that magazine 5 years ago.

and this allegations are true, will FIBA forfeit the Asian Junior Championship China won with him playing? will they suspend China in FIBA tournaments?

yeah good point, what punishment would fiba asia if those allegations are really true?

[Shin_Dong_Pa]

Concerns such as that probably have kept 6-11 forward Yi Jianlian out of the NBA draft in recent years and playing for the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Yi is long and athletic, with good instincts and quick moves around the hoop. The NBA received a notice at the start of last season that Yi was 19 years old and would be draft eligible in 2006. Then another notice arrived in January, informing that Yi was only 18 and too young for the draft. Most insiders believe he is 22. During an exhibition game two weeks ago, Yi told Shane Battier he's 24.

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...d=2006_4178585

The article was in 2006. He's 26 now. LOL at them

[Shin_Dong_Pa]

Originally Posted by b3lowzro

yeah good point, what punishment would fiba asia if those allegations are really true?

None frankly speaking...