China's Zhang Zhaoxu (center) leads the cheering before the team's FIBA World Championship game against Cote d'Ivoire on Sunday. [Osports]

Zhang Zhaoxu, a 2.21m center studying at the University of California at Berkeley, inspires his team from the sidelines, as Chen Xiangfeng reports from Ankara.

Surrounded by his teammates, Zhang Zhaoxu dances, waves his hands and shouts. The young center, who stands 2.21 meters tall, has had little playing time so far at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, but he is the team's prime motivator before games. He is not a pro in Chinese Basketball Association like Wang Zhizhi or an NBA star like Yi Jianlian. He is different from most of his teammates as his academic and basketball background is rooted in the United States.

"I'm very happy to play and live with all my teammates," said Zhang, 23, a junior with the Golden Bears of Berkeley. "The way of cheering before the match comes from my experiences in US.

"I am learning the American culture at university. What we do before games inspires every one of us."

Zhang, named Max in the US and the tallest player in Cal history, joined the national team for the first time four months ago, and he knows his primary contribution right now is to help American coach Bob Donewald Jr motivate the squad.

"We need to play with energy and fight as a unit. I'm vivid and energetic, so I think I am the right guy to play such a role," Zhang said. "Our coach is an American and he also brought some American styles to our game."

Donewald could not help but laugh when talking about Max's routine, saying, "Max is a terrible dancer. He's a crazy star. His dance is really funny, but it helps loosen up our players before games."

Donewald said he found Max's "funny dance" accidentally. "We had Yu Shulong dance before. One day, my video guy told me there was a clip on YouTube that showed Max was a dancer at his school," he said. "So I said I needed to see it. Then I made the whole team watch the video. Then we made the decision to let Max replace Yu.

"Because that would be the most amazing thing ... to see a big guy at 7-3 dance for the team. And the best part of it is that he actually thinks he's good at dancing.

"It's very good for our chemistry. The team is a very close unit now. The players will be sad after the tournament ends and they go back to their clubs. We have many special and emotional moments behind the scenes. You guys are fortunate see one of them - Max's dancing."

When asked if his and Max's American backgrounds helped fire up the young team, Donewald said: "I don't know (if it's related to American backgrounds). This is a young group and it has to have some fun along the way. They are young and eager for wins. Sometimes that puts on them, so I let them have fun. That helps our chemistry and gives them an outlet to release their energy."

One of Donewald's ideas, which is totally different from Chinese coaches, is to play a video rather than go over tactics before a big game.

"The coach puts on a specially-edited video. It shows ups and downs over the past year in training and competition," Zhang said.

"It's emotional, you know. We could not wait to run to the court to fight after watching the video. It's really an impr-essive way to motivate us. I like it so much."

Donewald said China is a very young team and he needs to communicate with it in a special way.

"Young players have good moments and bad moments," he said. "You need to get them focused. I am looking for different ways to communicate with this young group."