April 9, 2001

The missing Chinese star

By Steve Friess, Special for USA Today

CHANGCHUN, China - They were called the Great Walls of China, a trio of centers over 7 feet tall who set NBA scouts abuzz by causing headaches for the 2000 USA Dream Team at the Sydney Olympics.

Yet eight months later, with Chinese basketball constantly in the news, the focus is on 7-foot-6 Yao Ming's draft potential and 7-foot Wang Zhizhi's precedent-setting NBA contract.

Menk Batere, 26, is the conspicuous odd man out. What happened to his NBA chances?

Call it the Jackie Robinson effect, the sense that the first to break any color line must be a bona fide star. Wang conceded as much last week when he noted he that "the first thing I do is prove that Chinese people can play with the best in the world."

Were Menk an American, scouts say, he'd already be an NBA player and a solid, if unspectacular, addition to most teams based on his height alone.

But with the complications that Dallas encountered in drafting Wang and the agonizing deliberations involved in extracting Yao, the path needs to be a bit easier before a team will risk betting on Menk, who is already 26.

"My timing is bad," says Menk, a fearsome-looking 275-pound brute with a crewcut and menacing eyes, who wells up when he discusses his waning NBA prospects. "Being in the NBA was always my dream, I can play at the NBA level. But I think my chance has passed."

He's come close. He played in a tournament in Phoenix in 1999 as a de facto tryout for scouts, but he was rusty because he was thrust onto the cour t the same day he stepped off the plane. That event was unfair and intimidating, says Asian Basketball Confederation Promotions Ltd CEO Tom McCarthy, whose company markets Asian leagues and who serves as a part-time scout for the Orlando Magic. McCarthy, a Bostonian living in Hong Kong, says he still holds out hope that Menk, a friend, will be snapped up by an NBA team "with a specific need."

"He's better than the 11th or 12th player on 27 of the 29 NBA teams," McCarthy says. "He's got an 18-foot jump shot, makes 80% of his free throws and he's built like a rock. If that kid is white in America, he's got a job. But he's playing in a league that nobody knows, so nobody knows about him."

Still, it would be a significant risk that few would take, says Damon Stringer, an American from Cleveland who played against Menk in the Chinese Basketball Association this season. "At the age he's at, to have to change his game to conform to the NBA might be tough. Once you get to a certain age, you get stuck."

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