What now for Hong Kong basketball? Naturalized players, expanded league between recommendations

Naturalizing players, hiring foreign coaches and improving the level and scale of local basketball could “save” the sport in Hong Kong, players, basketball officials and executives said Thursday.

Earlier this week, the city’s men’s and women’s teams revealed their regional rankings of 26th and 21st respectively were not good enough to qualify for the Asian Games in Japan.

It will be the first time in more than 30 years that the men have missed the games. It would have been the fourth consecutive appearance for the women, starting with their debut in Incheon in 2014.

The general manager of the city’s youth team, Benny Chian, said naturalizing players would be one way to elevate the teams.

“We were and still are working on some words,” said Chow, who is also vice president of the Hong Kong Basketball Association, China. “We knew this was one way to take our team to a higher level, to be on par with other teams in the region.

“But there are limitations. It might not be possible to speed up the processes, because everything was written in the basic law – the seven-year permanent residence requirement is right there.”