体坛英语资讯：Mens basketball preview: High expectations push China for breakthrough_娱乐

体坛英语资讯：Mens basketball preview: High expectations push China for breakthrough

BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- One of the hottest topics among Chinese basketball reporters recently is what is the real target of the national men's basketball team at the Beijing Olympic Games. Li Yuanwei, vice president of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and director of the Chinese Basketball Management Center, said the goal at the Olympics is to advance to the quarterfinals.

体坛英语资讯：Mens basketball preview: High expectations push China for breakthrough1

(L to R)China's Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi attend the kickoff ceremony of the game between China and Angola at the Stankovic Cup basketball Olympic warmup tournament in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2008.

It would have been the fourth time that China enter the top eight after they finished eighth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2004 Athens Olympics as well as the 1994 World Championships, if they could fulfill the goal. Most people don't think it is good enough for the highly-expected men's basketball team at the Games, considering the first-ever Olympic Games in China this summer.

Tickets of Olympic basketball matches are the most wanted on the Internet besides tickets of the opening and closing ceremonies and finals of the men's 110 meters hurdles, which is expected to feature defending gold medallist and local favorite Liu Xiang.

Price of the tickets of the men's basketball final match has vaulted to over 10 times of the original price.

Basketball has arguably become the most popular sport in China as soccer was haunted by corruptions, match-fixings and misbehaviors of footballers on and off the pitch.