Former NBA player Wang Zhizhi came back to the China domestic basketball league to produce high expectation for the new 2006-07 season though the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) was cut off almost one third of its regular season.

Wang, who left the Bayi Rockets to the Dallas Mavericks in 2001,scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Saturday's season opener when the Rockets lost to the defending champions Guangdong Hongyuan 104-98.

The first Asian basketball player who has ever played in the NBA, joined the national team this summer for the World Championships and reunited with the military team after his two-year contract with the Miami Heat expired.

Most predictions foresee a more competitive season between the former powerhouse Rockets and the three-time champions Hongyuan, which have five national team members in the squad.

The Rockets lost 4-1 to Hongyuan in last-season's final series without Wang. This year they missed the best shooter, Li Nan, and two other starters for the opener.

"We have built up more confidence to our team though we lost the first game," said Rockets coach Adijiang.

Li could come back to China in December after recovering from a knee surgery in the United States when the league is to be called for a break for the Asian Games.

The new season will be hung on in November and be resumed in January because of the Asian Games in Qatar.

The league also cut off 112 regular-season games when the State General Administration for Sports calls all sports for longer preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The CBA has to cancel the double home-and-away matchups between teams in the same conferences, with the best eight teams going directly into the playoff phase based on the results of their home-and-away matches.

It could cut more matches in the next season and most capped players might not compete in the domestic league to have a longer training camp and warm up trips around the world for the national team.

"The preparation of the 2008 Olympics is the most important program for the next two years," said Hao Guohua, director of the CBA league office. "Yes the league suffers a lot when one third of the season is cut off. But the 2008 Olympics is our utmost goal."

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2006)