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Slow boat from China has arrived
February 26th, 2002 by aswitzer
That’s correct Nuggets fans, a little front line help has arrived from China in the way of Mengke Bateer. Mengke is a 6′11, 290 pound center, that is known as “The Walking Great Wall”. He played for China in the Olympics in 1996 and 2000 and has recently been playing with the Chinese National Basketball Team and the Beijing Ducks Basketball Club.
Bateer played this preseason with the Denver Nuggets, appearing in 2 games and scoring 4 points and grabbing 2 rebounds in 16 minutes. I don’t remember seeing him, so I don’t have much to add to the facts and statistics. At this point though, anyone will help the Nuggets at Center, as Scott Williams nor Juwan Howard are not really suited for it. Both at much better off at PF. Hey, we’re used to seeing the Nuggets stretch the definition of center though, as we had 6′7 Danny Fortson playing that position when LaFrentz got hurt in his rookie year. Mengke is expected to play on Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors.
February 28th, 2002 at 2:15 pm
I figure at this point in the season, it certainly can’t hurt to give him a shot. They have nothing to lose.
February 28th, 2002 at 2:52 pm
He looked sloppy last night (but so did most of the team) with 5 fouls, no points, a few pretty passes, and one big air-ball. His one shot looked pretty nervous, but hey, I shoot like that all the time in games.
I heard he doesn’t speak a lick of English so it’s got to be a pretty interesting adjustment - on top of that he probably still has jet-lag from that long flight!
March 3rd, 2002 at 9:57 pm
I like the way the big guy looked for his first couple of games. Once he gets used to the way we play in the NBA, I think he will be a good help on this team.
March 19th, 2002 at 2:59 pm
I actually lmao when i saw him played…like 2 yrs ago
March 19th, 2002 at 3:09 pm
Forgive me, but what does "lmao" mean?
March 28th, 2002 at 11:04 pm
Don’t wanna hate on the only true center the nugs have, but c’mon. I mean this guy should of seriously considered a broncos training camp before weighting down an already sinking ship. He definetly has the size to play in the NBA but he definetly doesn’t know how to use it, he’s a hack machine. And this addition to the squad definetly makes me wonder how low our nugs have to go to fill a roster.