China men's national basketball team head coach Gong Luming (middle). (Photo : Getty Images)
Former Chinese basketball stalwart Gong Luming will remain as the head coach of the China men's national basketball team as they compete in the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this August.
Xinhuanet cited the Chinese Basketball Association's official website as the source of the news as the basketball governing body of the said country recently "released a list of the team's coaching staff with Gong still as the head coach".
The Chinese Basketball Association is the country top governing body in the sport and is not to be confused with the CBA, China's premier basketball league. Chinese Basketball Association represents China in FIBA.
There had been rumors since February that Gong, who led China to the title in last year's FIBA Asia Championship in the final versus the Philippines, is not a shoo-in for the head coaching position of Team Dragon in this year's Olympic basketball games as there were reports that claimed that the 59-year-old bench tactician "failed to reach a consensus with the association on his pay and bonus".
It was later reported that Gong is still negotiating with the said basketball governing body as his contract is said to be not yet finalized, although he is set to stay as head coach.
The report also noted that it took a later while than usual for the Chinese Basketball Association to announce the 23-man national team pool, which was released on March 31st. As of the moment, assistant coach Li Nan is still the one supervising the daily training of the squad.
"Our players are not in good form now. Without head coach, they cannot fully concentrate on training," disclosed Gong.
Meanwhile, recent news released from the official FIBA websiteMeanwhile, recent news released from the official FIBA website said that a new contract was already signed and Gong is officially the head coach of China.
Team Dragon is set to square off with Team USA in a Group A match in their first game of the Olympics, which is scheduled to run from August 6 to 21 this year.
The other teams competing in Group A aside from China and the United States are Australia and Venezuela.
