Chinese Basketball Association Suspends Shanghai Sharks & Jiangsu Dragons For Match Fixing

The Jiangsu Dragons and Shanghai Sharks received the toughest penalty in league history from the Chinese Basketball Association on Monday as a result of the two clubs’ unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Chinese Basketball Association Suspends Shanghai Sharks & Jiangsu Dragons For Match Fixing

Following a contentious best-of-three playoff series between the two teams last week, the CBA announced on Monday that both clubs have been banned from the current 2022–23 CBA season, would each be fined 5 million yuan ($727,000), and their league standings have been cancelled.

Li Chunjiang, the head coach of the Sharks and a former mentor of the 11-time league champion Guangdong Southern Tigers, and Li Nan, the head coach of Jiangsu and a former coach of the Chinese national basketball team, will each be prohibited from registering as a coach for five and three years, respectively, starting on Monday, the association announced.

The general managers of Jiangsu and Shanghai, Shi Linjie and Jiang Yusheng, will be barred from working in any basketball-related positions for five and three years, respectively.

The severe punishment was handed following a league inquiry of the playoff series, which revealed that both sides had been “intentionally engaging in throw games.”

Shanghai unexpectedly rested the majority of its starters and foreign players in the pivotal Game 2, losing to Jiangsu 97-90 on April 11 before the contentious Game 3, which has sparked raging anger from fans and criticism from the media for what appear to be match-fixing plays during the game’s final stretch.

With 96 seconds left in the fourth quarter with a 100-96 lead, Jiangsu players committed five consecutive turnovers, allowing the Sharks to score 10 straight baskets without taking a timeout to modify their defensive strategy. While observing the odd performances of Jiangsu players, head coach Li and general manager Shi both appeared imposed on the bench.

President of the Chinese Basketball Association and NBA Hall of Famer Yao Ming described the news as “quite saddening” during a news conference on Monday. Before being selected first overall by the Houston Rockets in 2002, Ming spent seven seasons with the Sharks.

“We conducted a very prudent investigation to help us make the decision based on precise matters,” Ming said, per ChinaDaily.com. “We believe that everybody feels quite distressed about this.

“For sports games, the most important thing is reputation, rather than ability. Credit is what everybody, every team, the league, and the association is based on. We need to draw a profound lesson from this and change some things in the future to make what we have paid for valuable.”

 

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