CBA. Meanwhile, the original Beijing Aoshen team was formed in 1997 as the Beijing Aosheng (), and in 1998 won the "B" league championship to win promotion to the CBA. Soon after that they represented China in the Asian club championship, changing their name to Aoshen at the start of that competition, which they won (some Chinese media reports at the time incorrectly gave their name as the "北京奥盛"). The newly promoted Beijing Aoshen then made their CBA debut in the 1998–99 season. A key player on the team was Ma Jian (). In an unprecedented move, they hired a female head coach, Li Xin (), who thus became the first ever female head coach in the CBA, but she was fired after only five games and replaced by Mike McGee, a former player of the Los Angeles Lakers, who then became the first ever foreign head coach in the CBA. Aoshen finished fourth and lost in the semi-finals to the Bayi Rockets. The following season, they merged with Vanguard, but struggled and finished sixth. In 2000–01 they continued to struggle: Ma Jian was dropped from the team in mid-season and they finished seventh. So far, they have never equaled their first-year performance. 2004–2005 suspension On May 17, 2004, the Beijing Olympians were suspended from the CBA for a year for refusing to release Sun Yue to the national under-20 team. On May 25, 2004 the CBA announced that the winner of the 2004 Chinese Basketball League (CBL) season would be promoted to the CBA to take the Olympians' place; that team turned out to be the Yunnan Bulls. While under suspension from the CBA, Aoshen played a seven-game tour in Taiwan against each team of the SBL, sweeping all seven games. 2005–2006 It was intended that the Olympians would return to the CBA for the 2005–06 season, as the CBA expanded from 14 teams to 16, but negotiations broke down and the league only expanded to 15 teams. As "Beijing Aoshen Olympian", they joined the new American Basketball Association for the 2005–06 season. WCPBL After the 2008–09 ABA season, it was announced that the Olympians would play in the West Coast Pro Basketball League for the 2009 season. Since the WCPBL was a spring basketball league, they continued playing in the winter based ABA. Notable players Ma Jian – first Chinese to play college basketball in the United States