Forget The Score, NBA Wins Yi Jianlian-Yao Ming Duel

November 10 07

The Associated Press reports on last night’s battle of China between Yi Jianlian’s Milwaukee Bucks and Yao Ming’s Houston Rockets:

Yao Ming thinks Yi Jianlian will be a better player than him some day.For now, Yao still is the king of basketball in China.Yao and Yi each had their share of highlights in the much-anticipated first matchup of the country’s greatest player and its top rising star, and Yao’s Houston Rockets beat Yi’s Milwaukee Bucks 104-88 on Friday night.Yao, the five-time All-Star, had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Yi, the 20-year-old rookie, had 19 points and nine rebounds.

My Quick Take: Forget the final score. And disregard the boxsheet, too. The NBA was the unanimous winner in last night’s Bucks-Rockets game by continuing to capture the hearts, minds, and purse strings of the lucrative Asian market.

After all, 19 television stations covered the Yao-Yi duel, beaming this master-student standoff to 200 million Chinese basketball fans. The ratings were huge, especially for the regular season.

Now consider the future. Yao Ming is the NBA’s best center. Last year, the skilled post was having a stellar campaign before sustaining a mid-season injury. This year, his game has taken another step and the re-tooled Rockets are legitimate contenders.

In Milwaukee, Yi has exceeded expectations. The rookie shook off this summer’s controversies and beat established pro Charlie Villanueva for the Bucks’ starting small-forward position. His skill and height reminds fans of another international star, the great Tony Kukoc.

Yao and Yi’s on-court future is bright, which is why David Stern is probably humming 50 Cent’s I Get Money around the league’s head office the last few days.

The commissioner gets it. 200 million Chinese citizens watched their favorite stars in a mean-nothing regular season contest. How many would watch Yao and Yi in the playoffs or NBA Finals? And how many would support a Chinese NBDL team or an NBA sponsored league?

Last night’s final score and boxsheet really are irrelevant, when stepping back and considering the possibilities in China. More and more, it appears the future of the NBA is overseas.

Should the NBA expand to China? Get at us in the comment box below with your thoughts.

Click here to read and subscribe to Oly Sandor’s NBA Blog.

9 Comments: Forget The Score, NBA Wins Yi Jianlian-Yao Ming Duel

Posted by
varasi
on 11.19.2007

I was born and raised in the United States of America. My first car was Ford and my favorite foods are steak and burgers off the grill. Hell I even made the mistake of voting for George W. As an American and someone who would have not voted for Yi Jianlian, I must say that the NBA’s decision to leave Yi off the All-Star ballot yet put Luis Scola and Durant on is a very regrettable decision. Already the AFP has reported that the Chinese government and media have turned this into an issue (and rightfully so.) I believe this is a clear act of racism against Chinese.One can argue all they want that this was done because somehow Yi was left off because of uncertain minutes but that is clearly not the case. Villanueva’s minutes were just as uncertain as Yi’s. The real reason why Yi was left off was because of the NBA’s fear that the voting population in China would have stuffed the ballot box.What is the All-Star game really about? Is it really about the best players in the East playing the best in the West? It really isn’t. If this was the case then the NBA shouldn’t allow fans to vote at all and have either the coaches or the players pick them. They should also take off from the ballot all players who might gain the popular vote because of past heroics despite their current lackluster performance. It’s not right that players like Shaq or Cal Ripken Jr. play in an All-Star game when they are clearly past their prime. (I voted for Cal and would do so again.) Now if the NBA is really worried about players getting an unfair representation because of nationality why put Scola on the ballot? All logic would have Scola’s European and Argentine fans placing higher number of votes than his performance would have warranted. Any way you argue it the facts remain. The All-Star game is about fans. From the television ratings received from the latest Rockets-Bucks matchup, there are at least 200,000,000 NBA fans in China. There level of NBA fanaticism is debatable but that number watched the hyped Yao versus Yi Superbowl. The NBA’s second biggest market in the world is in China. That said, the NBA has made many efforts to profit off of its newly gained popularity in China by selling jerseys, NBA licensed products and advertising from television rights. It appears that the NBA clearly wants the Chinese NBA fan bases’ money but not their right to vote as a fan. .

Posted by

on 11.11.2007

This is a wakeup call to US citizen Basketball Players. Because talents comes with discipline and attitude. International players have that traits. Stern awakening that future is not bound only to US is frightening to US Basketeers but Glorious to NBA to reach Global Profit. .

Posted by
Sandler or Sandor don’t matter, dude’s nice
on 11.10.2007

Call him Sandler or Sandor it don’t matter-his work is all good. Great call on the Asian market. This was under-reported, the future is abroad for Stern .

Posted by
Happy Gilmore
on 11.10.2007

Yo the Adam Sandler punch-line, funny! Anyway I agree with the rest of you, that this is the positive for the nba .

Posted by
Oly
on 11.10.2007

To ’I mean Oly Sandor’ and ’Opps they did it again’, Happy Gilmour remains my favorite guilty pleasure flick of all time ... In fact, my friends and I always recreate the Bob Barker scene on the pitch-and-putt course ... Thanks for reading and thanks for the compliment-even if that wasn’t the intention! .

Posted by

on 11.10.2007

The Adam Sandler call is funny, but Sandor makes a great point , the NBA is bound for Asia, especiually with resources and money available ... author is on-point .

Posted by
C. Low
on 11.10.2007

Just think had Yi been able to go to a bigger city more chinese influence. Match ups like these would bee sell outs just from the Asian community. That’s the only downfall in this so far. I also must admit Yi has exceeded expectations ans has shown he was worth the drama. This is definitely a bright spot for the the nba, because they haven’t had too many lately .

Posted by
Opps they did it again
on 11.10.2007

LOL! That’s funny! .

Posted by
I mean Oly Sandor
on 11.10.2007

I totally agree with you Adam Sandler. .

Post your comment:

No profanity or inaproppriate remarks. All i.p. addresses will be saved and abuse/hate posts will be reported to providers and authorities as part of the anti-spam act of 2003, thank you for posting comments on the articles only.

	About Oly Sandor
Daily take on NBA Oly Sandor is an NBA analyst and sports journalist based out of Vancouver, Canada.After years of the free-lance game, Oly Sandor is bringing his unique brand of NBA analysis exclusively to (...) More

Forget The Score, NBA Wins Yi Jianlian-Yao Ming Duel

AboutOly Sandor

About
Oly Sandor