Former NBA centre Wang Zhizhi was hailed the king of Chinese basketball Thursday after overshadowing Yi Jianlian, "the next Yao Ming," as Bayi Rockets ended Guangdong Tigers' reign as national champions.

"The King has returned," trumpeted the headline in the Basketball Pioneers bi-weekly after Wang led the Bayi Rockets to their eighth China Basketball Association (CBA) title on Wednesday night with an 88-83 win over the Tigers.

Wang scored 21 points and had seven rebounds in game five of the best-of-seven series as Bayi ended Guangdong's three-year championship run.

"Before, a lot of experts and Internet blogs were saying that Guangdong was going to win in seven games," Wang said after the victory.

"After all these years, we have learned not to listen to this stuff."

The victory was a fairytale ending for Wang's first season back in China after languishing at the end of an NBA bench for four years with the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat.

Wang was China's first player in the world's top league, paving the way for the likes of Yao, now a superstar with the Houston Rockets, but his time in the United States was a public relations disaster back home.

During that time, China's national side kicked him off the roster for refusing to return for team practice during the NBA off-season, when he chose to hone his skills in professional summer leagues in the United States.

But after fulsome apologies the 29-year-old has been dominant this season, averaging 27.3 points and 10.2 rebounds a game to attain hero status once again.

Barring another invitation from an NBA club, Wang will look to repeat next year for Bayi while teaming up with Yao and Yi as the front line of China's national team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

During the finals Wang and Bayi's veterans schooled the up-and-coming Yi, 20, who was expected to sparkle in what may have been his last CBA games before a hopeful NBA career.

The seven-foot (2.12 meter) power forward, who has declared himself eligible for this June's NBA draft, is viewed as the best NBA prospect out of China since Yao and has drawn interest from several league teams.

Yao earlier said that Yi's performance in the CBA finals would determine how high he is picked in the draft.

"This is really surprising that Bayi could come out and win this series, every game I have seen I'm seeing new things," China's national team coach Lithuanian Jonas Kazlauskas said of the match-up that boasted most of the national side.

"Bayi has Wang Zhizhi who is a very strong player, they have good outside shooters, but Guangdong did not come up with enough defensive strategies."

Before leaving to the NBA, Wang won six CBA championships. Since returning he helped China into the second round of last year's World Basketball Championships and led the team to a gold medal in December's Asian Games.

(China Daily via Agencies March 30, 2007)