Yi Jianlian, considered by most NBA scouts up until today to be one of the top prospects in the world for the 2006 draft, surprisingly had his age changed by the Chinese Basketball Federation (CBA), according to a report on Sina.com yesterday (July 13th), the largest website in China. (Link: http://2004.sina.com.cn/bk/2004-07-13/31357.html)

Up until yesterday afternoon Jianlian's birthdate was believed to be in June of 1987, making him first eligibile to be drafted in the 2006 draft. His age has now been "relisted" for the upcoming Olympics in Athens, which he will be attending along with Yao Ming on China's national team.

The CBA submitted a list of players for the Four Nations basketball tournament in northwest China, and had Jianlian's age on the list.

His "new" birthday is in October of 1984, making him nearly 3 years older then he was first believed to be, which deals a major blow to his potential to be drafted as the #1 pick in the 2006 or any draft.  

This comes amongst news by asiabasket.com that three young Chinese players -- Yang Ming, Wang Zhanyu and Chen Jianghua -- did not show up at the Adidas Superstar Camp (ABCD) in Atlanta last week because of questions around their ages.

Jianlian has been competing for years on the national team level with players in the 1987 group--against teenagers three years younger then him-- dominating for most of the way as he should have and impressing scouts with his smoothness, athleticism and precociousness. This was until he was invited to San Antonio for the Hoop Summit game to compete with other top players who are in his real age group or younger such as Al Jefferson (3 months younger then Yi) and JR Smith (1 year younger).

Jianlian could not find a way to help out his team there which was made up of the top International prospects in the world and was abused by Al Jefferson in their time together on the floor. Jianlian finished the game with 7 points on 2-6 shooting and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 turnovers in 28 minutes.

His average performance in the game was explained by experts as a result of the two to three years his counterparts had on him, along with his extremely thin frame--which was supposed to eventually even out--that made him drift towards the perimeter.

To Jianlian's credit, he participated in the World Championships for Juniors in Greece last summer against players we now know are his age such as Andrew Bogut and Linas Kleiza (the top two players there) and performed extremely well, averaging 19 points and 11.5 rebounds in the tournament.

Jianlian's age has been considered a question mark for quite some time now, the biggest question now is whether his new age can be believed either. The article linked below claims he is 18, not 19 as the CBA states.

Yao Ming said in that article: "I'm not talking nonsense, I think that Little Yi will one day be better than me," Yao told China Soccer News on Tuesday.

"Look at his build, his jumping ability, I don't have that at all. If he can continue to develop in the right way, he will be able to surpass my achievements," he said.

The NBA all-star centre from the Houston Rockets added: "Little Yi, he will rise, without a doubt."

The assistant coach of the Chinese national team Jonas Kazlauskas from Lithuania says about him: "The only problem is that he is still too young, he is thin and immature and his technical ability is rough. But all of these can be developed."  

The question is exactly how much upside does Jianlian have now in the eyes of NBA scouts? There is no doubt that he is talented, but the obvious flaws in his game just became that much more glaring considering that he would be entering his Junior year of college if he were American.

Luckily for Jianlian, there have not been any 7 footers emerge from the pack yet as guaranteed top 10 picks in next years draft. The closest things to that so far, Martynas Andriuskevicius from Lithuania and Johan Petro from France are both squaring off in a youth tournament in Spain as we speak. Those games will be broadcasted on fibaeurope.com starting this weekend.

This also adds another twist to the Athens Olympics as a strong performance for Jianlian next to Yao Ming can give his stock a large boost. He certainly needs to at least play and hold his own before he returns to the Chinese league when the games are over, where the level of competition he goes up against might be questioned, and he only managed to average 8 points and 5 rebounds last year anyway.