It's a bad day for Chen Hsin-an and Taiwan NT. Chen re-injured his left knee late in the first quarter of the Taiwan NT-Jiangsu friendly game last night in Quanzhou, Fujian province, China and will be out of the Asian Championship.
Chen was rushed to the hospital and took the MRI test. The results didn't look good as he probably tore his left knee ligament again. Chen tear his left knee ligament in the final game of the SBL Finals in May and thus sat out the Jones Cup. He joined Taiwan NT in Korea and played well in the first three games in China.
Ironically, this will be the third time Chen, regarded the best player in Taiwan, misses the Asian Championship. And this is the second time he is injured in China prior to the Asian Championship.
In 2001, Chen injured his eye in a warmup game in China and almost lost his eyesight. He missed the Asian Championship in Shanghai that year. In 2003, Chen was suspended by CTBA because he withdrew from the NT training camp and went to the Sacramento Kings training camp the previous year.
Till now, Chen only played for Taiwan NT in 1999 Asian Championship when he was a rookie on the team. Without him, Taiwan NT's hope to make the final eight doesn't look good.
Taiwan NT lost to Jiangsu 103-100 last night. Tsun Wen-din had 24 points and 13 rebounds. Yang Yu-min had 18. Jiangsu was led by Zhang Chen's 22 and Yi Li's 19.
Taiwan NT suddenly looks short-handed. They already lost Lin Chi-jay to knee injury, will be without Chen, and probably loses Chang Chi-feng also to knee injury. That means Taiwan NT will go to Doha without three of its best SF/SG. If Wu Dai-hao goes to BYU-Hawaii, he'll also out of the lineup.
Head coach Lee Yun-kwang tries to look at the bright side and says he's still confident the team has enough good players and will do well in Doha. For Taiwanese fans, all they can do is trust Coach Lee and the team, and pray for Chen.