Chinese center Yao Ming said Tuesday that his national colleagues should not let slip from their mind the lessons they drew at the World Men's Basketball Championship in Japan.

Yao, set to leave for the Houston Rockets for the upcoming NBA season, helped China advance to the knockout stage of the recently-concluded basketball championship.

"Our CBA (China Basketball Association) players should remember about the tournament and draw lessons from it," Yao told the state-owned CCTV (China Central Television) sports channel Tuesday.

"It is hard to do pioneering work but it is even harder to keep the accomplishments. We have a good start, and I hope they never dump what they have learned from the championship in the less competitive CBA league."

The Chinese men's team reached the last 16 at the championship but only found them thrashed by European champions Greece 95-64 in the first knockout round on Aug. 27.

Domestic media said after the game that the Chinese players are unable to match foreign players in physical quality, tactics and will to succeed.

Yao, who had said during the Japan campaign that Chinese basketball was like making a cart behind closed door, suggested more players go abroad to collect more experience.

"As the 2008 Olympics are drawing near, we should send abroad the likes of Yi Jianlian and Wang Shipeng as soon as possible in a bid to raise our level in short term.

"Even our basketballers fail to play as regulars, we still could benefit at least from their training sessions. I myself played as substitute ten minutes per game initially, too. It depends on your will and work."

But it is impossible for the domestic clubs to send their key players to foreign leagues due to the demand to national success, admitted Yao.

It will serve as expedient for the Chinese side to see over 30 international games of high level while training in Europe next spring, deputy-director of the Chinese Basketball Administrative Center Hu Jiashi told the China Sports Daily on Sept. 1.

Yao, the leading player who scored an average of 25.3 points in his six games at the championship, was the only current NBA player from China.

His national teammate Wang Zhizhi, the first Chinese player to play in the NBA, returned home recently after four years of exile in the United States. He will rejoin the Chinese military club, the Bayi Rockets in the upcoming CBA season.

Chinese players will go in for club competitions which kick off in October before they are called up once again at the end of November for the Asian Games basketball events, which Yao will skip.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2006)