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The Beijing Olympians or Beijing Aoshen Olympians or Beijing Aoshen () was a Chinese professional men's
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
team that formerly played in the
Chinese Basketball Association The Chinese Basketball Association (), often abbreviated as the CBA, is the first-tier professional men's basketball league in China. The league is commonly known by fans as the CBA, and this acronym is even used in Chinese on a regular basis ...
and the
West Coast Pro Basketball League The West Coast Professional Basketball League, often abbreviated to the WCBL, was an American professional men's spring basketball minor league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also k ...
. They have also played in the
American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, leading to four A ...
. Some sources refer to them (slightly ungrammatically) as the Beijing Olympicians. They should not be confused with the
Beijing Ducks The Beijing Shougang Ducks (''simplified Chinese'': 北京首钢鸭俱乐部篮球队), also known as Beijing Shougang or Beijing Ducks, are a professional basketball team based in Beijing, China, which plays in the North Division of the Chin ...
, which is a different team based in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
. In the 2003–04 season, they finished 7th out of 12 teams in the CBA regular season, and were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the
Jiangsu Dragons Jiangsu Dragons Kentier (), also known as Jiangsu Dragons or Jiangsu Kentier, are a Chinese professional basketball team in the Southern Division of the Chinese Basketball Association, based in Nanjing, Jiangsu. History In the 2004–05 seas ...
. They were disqualified from play for the 2004–05 season (see below), and although it was intended that they would return for the 2005–06 season, negotiations to rejoin the league broke down at the end of June 2005. The Beijing Olympians joined the new
American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, leading to four A ...
for the 2005–06 season and played in the
Spencer Haywood Spencer Haywood (born April 22, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. Haywood is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2015. High school career In 1964, Hayw ...
Division of the Red Conference. In their inaugural season in the ABA they played their home games in Maywood,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
rather than
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
. In 2006–07, the team moved to the
Felix Events Center The Felix Events Center is a 3,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Azusa, California, United States. It hosts locals sporting events and concerts. It is home of the Azusa Pacific University Cougars men's and women's basketball teams and volleyball tea ...
at
Azusa Pacific University Azusa Pacific University (APU) is a private, evangelical Christian university in Azusa, California. The university was founded in 1899, with classes opening on March 3, 1900, in Whittier, California, and began offering degrees in 1939. The uni ...
, former home of the
SoCal Legends The Southern California Legends, known commonly as the SoCal Legends, were a team in the Continental Basketball Association. The Legends are owned and coached by former NBA player Gary Grant. They played their home games at Azusa Pacific Univers ...
, who switched their affiliation to the
Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball mi ...
, and relocated to
Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown. It is named after the many oak tree ...
. For the 2007–08 season, the team moved again, this time to
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. In 2008–09, the team moved back to
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, this time to Don Bosco Technical Institute in
Rosemead Rosemead is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 50,245, currently dropping. Rosemead is part of a cluster of cities, along with Alhambra, Arcadia, Temple City, Monterey Par ...
. The Beijing Olympians was officially disbanded on 4 December 2013. The announcement did not come as a surprise after the club's controversial and mysterious owner, a Chinese
real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...
tycoon and billionaire named Li Su (; often referred to in the Western media as Winston Li), suddenly died in mid September due to
acute myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may t ...
() at the age of 55.


History

For two seasons (1999–2000 and 2000–01) they were known as the Vanguard Aoshen (); this team represented a merger between Vanguard () and the then-existing Beijing Aoshen team. Occasionally the name Qianwei Aoshen was used instead (here, the word ''qianwei'' for "vanguard" is transliterated rather than translated). After that, however, the team used the Beijing Aoshen name once again. The Vanguard team had a long history. It was founded in the 1950s and had some success over the years. The team played in the first CBA season in 1995–96, but finished last out of 12 teams and left the CBA. Meanwhile, the original Beijing Aoshen team was formed in 1997 as the Beijing Aosheng (), and in 1998 won the "B" league championship to win promotion to the CBA. Soon after that they represented China in the
Asian club championship The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competitio ...
, changing their name to Aoshen at the start of that competition, which they won (some Chinese media reports at the time incorrectly gave their name as the "北京奥盛"). The newly promoted Beijing Aoshen then made their CBA debut in the 1998–99 season. A key player on the team was Ma Jian (). In an unprecedented move, they hired a female head coach, Li Xin (), who thus became the first ever female head coach in the CBA, but she was fired after only five games and replaced by Mike McGee, a former player of the
Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...
, who then became the first ever foreign head coach in the CBA. Aoshen finished fourth and lost in the semi-finals to the
Bayi Rockets The Bayi Rockets () was a professional basketball team based in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China, which played in the South Division of the Chinese Basketball Association. On 20 October 2020, Chinese Basketball Association announced that Bayi Rockets ...
. The following season, they merged with Vanguard, but struggled and finished sixth. In 2000–01 they continued to struggle: Ma Jian was dropped from the team in mid-season and they finished seventh. So far, they have never equaled their first-year performance.


2004–2005 suspension

On May 17, 2004, the Beijing Olympians were suspended from the CBA for a year for refusing to release
Sun Yue Sun Yue () may refer to: * Sun Yue (warlord) (孙岳, 1878–1928), Chinese warlord *Sun Yueh (孫越, 1930–2018), Chinese/Taiwanese actor * Sun Yue (singer) (孙悦, born 1972), Chinese female singer * Sun Yue (volleyball) (孙玥, born 1973), f ...
to the national under-20 team. On May 25, 2004 the CBA announced that the winner of the 2004 Chinese Basketball League (CBL) season would be promoted to the CBA to take the Olympians' place; that team turned out to be the
Yunnan Bulls Yunnan Honghe Running Bulls () or Yunnan Honghe or Yunnan Running Bulls were a basketball team in the Southern Division of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), based in Mengzi, Honghe, Yunnan (). They won the 2004 Chinese Basketball Leag ...
. While under suspension from the CBA, Aoshen played a seven-game tour in
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
against each team of the SBL, sweeping all seven games.


2005–2006

It was intended that the Olympians would return to the CBA for the 2005–06 season, as the CBA expanded from 14 teams to 16, but negotiations broke down and the league only expanded to 15 teams.Club Withdraws from Top Basketball League
/ref> As "Beijing Aoshen Olympian", they joined the new
American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, leading to four A ...
for the 2005–06 season.


WCPBL

After the 2008–09 ABA season, it was announced that the Olympians would play in the
West Coast Pro Basketball League The West Coast Professional Basketball League, often abbreviated to the WCBL, was an American professional men's spring basketball minor league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also k ...
for the 2009 season. Since the WCPBL was a spring basketball league, they continued playing in the winter based ABA.


Notable players

* Ma Jian – first Chinese to play college basketball in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
*
DeAngelo Collins DeAngelo Marquis Collins (born November 21, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. High school career The son of single mother Loretta Marie Taylor, he grew up in Stockton, California in a low-income neighborhood and since ...
*
Jevon Crudup Jevon Crudup (born April 27, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. After playing college basketball at the University of Missouri, Crudup was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the 1994 NBA draft. During his senior ...
* Kevin Salvadori * Roy Tarpley – Former
NBA Sixth Man of the Year The National Basketball Association's Sixth Man of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1982–83 NBA season to the league's best performing player for his team coming off the bench as a substitu ...
*
LeRon Ellis LeRon Perry Ellis (born April 28, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. Ellis was considered to be one of the premier high school basketball players in the nation among the class of 1987 while playing for the top-ranked Sout ...
*
Jason Michael Jason Michael (born October 15, 1978) is an American football coach who is the tight ends coach for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as an assistant coach for the Indianapolis Colts, Arizona ...
* Kaniel Dickens * Gabe Muoneke *
Paul Shirley Paul Murphy Shirley (born December 23, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for Unicaja Málaga in the Spanish ACB. Shirley is noted for briefly maintaining an online journal ( blog) while playing for the ...
– Former
Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...
and NBA player, and columnist for ESPN.com * Fred Vinson – Former
Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
and NBA player, and NBA Coach for the New Orleans Pelicans *
Sun Yue Sun Yue () may refer to: * Sun Yue (warlord) (孙岳, 1878–1928), Chinese warlord *Sun Yueh (孫越, 1930–2018), Chinese/Taiwanese actor * Sun Yue (singer) (孙悦, born 1972), Chinese female singer * Sun Yue (volleyball) (孙玥, born 1973), f ...
2008-09 NBA champion with the
Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...
and two-time CBA champion with the
Beijing Ducks The Beijing Shougang Ducks (''simplified Chinese'': 北京首钢鸭俱乐部篮球队), also known as Beijing Shougang or Beijing Ducks, are a professional basketball team based in Beijing, China, which plays in the North Division of the Chin ...


References


External links


Club official website
{{Los Angeles Sports Defunct American Basketball Association (2000–present) teams Chinese Basketball Association former teams Sport in Beijing Basketball teams in Los Angeles Basketball teams established in 1955 1955 establishments in China