Australian Tom Maher, who replaced Gong Luming as head coach of
the national women's basketball team, said he was quite familiar
with Chinese basketball and ready to lead the team to a new
level.?
Maher arrived in Beijing midnight on Friday when he was welcomed
by officials of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and a
bunch of journalists at the Beijing International Airport.
"I've been watching Chinese basketball for 13 years, and I've
spent lot of time studying Asian basketball, like South Korea,
Japan and China. I'm familiar with the teams, because they were all
at Athens (Olympic Games)," Maher said.
The CBA announced on Wednesday that Maher, former boss of New
Zealand's women's team, will be the new head coach of the Chinese
team, who lost to New Zealand 79-77 and failed in earning a berth
into the top eight in the Athens Games.
The 52-year-old Maher led Australian national women's team to
the third place in 1996 Atlanta Games, and to win silver medal in
2000 Sydney Games.
He became the first Australian to coach in the WNBA (Washington
Mystics) in 2001.
In 2004 Athens Olympics, he sent New Zealand to the eighth
place.
"Who wouldn't be with the Chinese basketball program to make
them a better team? They have a lot of young players. Any coach
would want to be part of the Chinese program," Maher
said.?
(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2005)