How can CBA catch up with NBA

The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league is really exciting in this season and I will watch almost every game. I became a fan of Beijing Jinyu Ducks especially Stephen Marbury.

When Beijing Ducks beat defending Shanghai Sharks on the road last week, I was as excited as one of the fans at the spot, but when it lost to Jilin Northeast Tigers last Sunday, I became very depressed. The games are fierce and even have strong smell of gunpowder.

The coaches are impatient and anxious when their teams lag behind and they even come into disputations with referees and scores recorders from time to time. Too fierce competitions certainly will lead to defeats, injuries, contradictions and dismissals.

The biggest news after the 19th round of game was that Li Chunjiang, known as "the fist-class CBA coach", resigned citing health reasons. Li's name immediately appeared in the most conspicuous place of sports news on Weibo.

Li had been the head coach of Guangdong Sharks for 11 years and helped it claim seven CBA league titles. He had a bad mood in the final of last season because his team lost 1-4 to Beijing Ducks, making him the focus of the public.

Guangdong Sharks was still defeated by Beijing Ducks at home on Christmas Day so it got more and more depressed under high expectations. People may feel sad and disappointed from Li's resignation but they knew that CBA league is not easy for both players and coaches.

The CBA season is just at the half way point, but the desire for victory, the struggling for rankings and the fierce competitions are turning increasingly white-hot.

Before Li's resignation, all the resigned coaches were foreigners who were not adapted for Chinese players and had a difficult communication with them. Making the head coaches resign is a good way to divert attention of the fans when a team fails to win a game.

At the day before Li resigned, the head coach of Shanghai Sharks Daniel Mauro Panaggio left for poor match scores. In addition, the chief coach of Foshan Longlions Joseph Wilton returned to the United States for "personal reasons." Before that, Spanish chief coach of Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons Jesus Matteo and South Korean chief coach of Qingdao Double Star Eagles Kang Jung-soo also left.