Still More Fists of Fury...The Asian Invasian

Tien has a lot to learn in Las Vegas
July 10, 2005 - by Chris Wang

Tien Lei, whose name listed as Garrett Tien in Sacramento Kings summer league team roster, got his first taste of American basketball when he only got one rebound in his first game wearing an NBA uniform. Tien played two minutes in a Kings' 71-60 win over the New Jersey Nets in the Las Vegas Summer League.

Obviously Tien spent most of the game sitting on the end of the bench to watch and learn. He had a DNP-CD in the first game, which Sacramento lost to Phoenix Suns 81-75.

Tien was measured at 204cm without shoes, about an inch taller than what he was listed (202cm) in Taiwan. Playing mostly at power forward and center in Taiwan, Tien has to learn to transform himself as a shooting guard or small forward in America.

Sacramento has three games left (Bulls, Clippers and Mavericks) in the Vegas Summer League.

There are a [few] Asian players in the Vegas Summer League. 5-11 guard Shuji Takei from Waseda University plays for THE TICKET. Bang Sung Yoon, a 6-5 shooter from South Korea who spent last season in the NBDL, plays for Dallas Mavericks. 6-11 Menk Bateer from China plays for the Chicago Bulls. Jun Iwasa from Japan plays for P. MILLER team.

More Fists of Fury: Taiwanese Nats Get a Stint in SoCal

Taiwan NT 2-0 in SoCal Summer Pro League
July 10, 2005 - by Chris Wang

Taiwan NT, which entered Southern California Summer Pro League as Frontline Sports, won both of their games and finished a month-long U.S. training tour in a high note.

Taiwan edged Senegal NT 87-85 on a winning shot by Yang Yu Min (183-G-79) with 3.5 seconds left on July 9th. Today Taiwan NT beat NBA Pro 110-104. The REAL Frontline Sports will take over the remaining schedule in the summer league, while Taiwan NT heads back to Taiwan to prepare for the upcoming Jones Cup.

Yang Yu Min (183-G-79), who struggled quite a bit in the first half of the 2004-05 SBL season, kept his hot-hand going by scoring 53 points in two games. Center Wu Dai-hao, guards Chou Shih-yuan and Lee Hsueh-lin also played very well.

Taiwan NT finished a month-long training tour in Los Angeles, where they played with local college teams and mix-up teams before entering SoCal Summer Pro League.

In the second-half of the year, Taiwan NT will compete in three events--Jones Cup in Taipei, East Asian games in Macao and Asian Championship in Qatar.

Hot dog! Kobayashi wins 5th straight crown
5-7 champ misses world record, eats 49 dogs; U.S. woman 2nd with 37
Associated Press

NEW YORK - For the fifth straight year, it was a victory Takeru Kobayashi could truly relish.

Kobayashi, 27, captured the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest Monday, gobbling a nauseating 49 dogs in 12 minutes — but missing his own world record of 53, set at last year’s July Fourth competition.

The win means the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt will return to Japan for the ninth year out of the past 10. New Jersey’s Steve Keiner, who won in 1999, is the only American to capture the title in the past decade.

Kobayashi, of Nagano, stands 5 feet 7 inches and weighs just 144 pounds. ...read more.

Fists of Fury: The Next Chen Hsin An?

Tien Lei invited to Sacramento Kings summer league
July 3, 2005 - by Chris Wang

Two-time SBL regular season MVP Tien Lei (202-F-83) is among 17 players invited by the Sacramento Kings to participate in the 2005 Reebok Vegas Summer League (VSL) at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. He is the second Taiwanese player invited to NBA summer league or pre-season training camp.

Chen Hsin-an was the first Taiwanese player to play in the NBA summer league or pre-season training camp when he played with the Kings in 2002 and the Nuggets in 2003. Both times he was cut.

The Kings' summer league team will play five games in 10 days and will be joining 13 other NBA teams that will field teams in the Vegas Summer League.