After a 1-4 start set them up to face one of the tournament's top teams in the knockout round, China made its exit from the FIBA World Championships (basketball) last night, losing to Lithuania, 78-67. more ›

This ad actually ran in the Wall Street Journal in the U.S.! In it, Chinese (nation-wise, not team-wise) basket ballers Zhu Fangyu, Wang Zhizhi, Sun Yue, Yi Jianlian and - of course - Yao Ming, hold up an American entrepreneur. The ad is for GMC, a Chinese manufacturer, and was part of a special Chinese advertising page in the first section of the paper, according to Copyranter. more ›

Yi Jianlian's return from the historically horrendous New Jersey Nets' injured reserve was delayed further when he took a hit to the face in a post-practice 3-on-3 game that required 50 stitches to his lip. Yi had been expected to return to the lineup against the New York Knicks Sunday. New Jersey went on to lose the battle of the embarrassingly bad Big Apple teams, and is now just one loss away from dropping five times as many games as Yi has played in this season. more ›

Yi Jianlian is so excited about not being forced to play in the Chinese National Games that the guy’s actually playing some good basketball. He scored 21 points and grabbed 11 boards in an exhibition game against the New York Knicks last Friday. In the Nets’ two previous games, against the Boston Celtics, Yi went for 20 and 8 in the first, but just 2 and 4 in the second. more ›

The NBA is touching down in China this weekend, with the Indiana Pacers and Denver Nuggets playing a preseason game in Beijing. Ahead of the game, the league issued a press release that it decided to call "Bryant's jersey remains top seller in China." more ›

NBA Commissioner David Stern is interviewed in a video from NBC Sports entitled "China's passion for basketball." Stern appears to have adopted his own passion for another Chinese invention: the comb-over. more ›

Forbes has released its list of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities, which surveys the who's who of China to rank them based on personal income, public influence, internet reach and commercial value. more ›

Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian square off in New Jersey Monday night. Notice how the I Heart China gang was there in full force. [H/t to John Shabe of NJ.com!]
more ›

The only two Chinese players currently in the starting lineup for NBA teams will face off in New Jersey Monday night, at 7:30 p.m. EST (8:30 a.m. Tuesday Beijing time). It is the third meeting, and the first this year, for Yao Ming (姚明) and Yi Jianlian (易建联). The game will air live on CCTV's sports channel. more ›

The NBA keeps doing its best to dominate the post-Olympic China sports news cycle. The latest: the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors will play a pair of pre-season games in China in October. more ›

Has Shrek always borne a striking resemblance to Yao Ming? Or is it the other way around? These movie posters of Olympic athletes, (well, the Chinese team and Michael Phelps) were posted on Chinese web site Mop.com and brought to our attention by Chinasmack. more ›

more ›

In its second matchup this summer with future Olympic opponent Angola, China's men's national team won 83-74, behind 21 points from Yao Ming（姚明) and a strong performance from point guard Liu Wei（刘炜, pictured above). The teams are playing in the the FIBA Diamond Ball basketball tournament in Nanjing. more ›

There's no Olympic medal for sports apparel marketing, but the race this summer between the category's top two brands is hotly contested. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, Nike and Adidas are employing very different strategies to court the Chinese market. more ›

Yao Ming made his return to competition Thursday night, in China's Stankovic Cup game against Serbia, played in Hangzhou. Yao, recovering from a stress fracture in his foot, did not start and played only about 12 minutes. He scored 11 points in his first pre-Olympic tuneup, and China won 96-72. Yao shot 7-of-10 from the free throw line and grabbed four rebounds. more ›

ESPN.com's David Thorpe recently published a look at the NBA's 2008 rookie class, suggesting for each one an NBA veteran they should study in order to maximize their potential. And according to Thope, China's Yi Jianlian (易建联), that reluctant Milwaukee Buck, had better start working on his tattoo collection. The veteran he should emulate is Marcus Camby (without all the injuries, we assume). more ›

Notorious NBA bad boy Yao Ming has done it again. He's late for national team training — and China's official sports association has made it clear they are sick and tired of his Rodmanesque antics: more ›

Chinese basketball fans held their collective breath this morning as the NBA draft took place a full 12 time-zones away. 22-year old 19-year old Yi Jianlian slipped past his projected spot at the number 5 pick when the Boston Celtics signed a draft-and-trade agreement with the Seattle Supersonics involving 7-time all-star Ray Allen. more ›

The NBA is coming to Shanghai again on October 17. This time the Cleveland Cavaliers, fresh off the worst NBA Finals performance we have ever seen, take on the Orlando Magic. If meaningless preseason hoops is your thing, start booking tickets to Minhang District now. The game is being played way the hell out there at the Shanghai Qizhong Forest Sports City Tennis Center. And for those of you who remember the 2004 Shanghai clash between the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings (tickets for which started at US$12) you might be interested to know that tickets for the 2007 version start at US$105. Now, we know the dollar has gotten weaker ... but this seems like a greedy move for a sport and league that should be trying to appeal to the common man. (UPDATE: According to the seating chart, it looks like very few nose-bleed seats were priced at RMB 200, but maybe they are sold out.) more ›

Because you're going to be hearing his name a lot very soon. ESPN.com says the 19-year-old 7-footer from Shenzhen is the third-best player in the June 28 NBA Draft. ESPN NBA expert Chad Ford had this to say (there is also a video that accompanies that story ... Yi Jianlian speaks very good English): more ›

After we heard about this magazine, we figured we should pick up a copy just in case this magazine meets the same fate that as the Chinese Rolling Stone. Flipping through the articles, we see that the cover is Yao Ming and that the magazine, while having snippets of other stuff, is fairly basketball heavy this issue, no doubt because of the FIBA competition currently being held in Japan. Aside from pieces on Yao Ming and teammates Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian, there are also pieces on Lebron James and the US basketball team. more ›

The China Daily called Friday's game between China and Puerto Rico in the Stankovic Continental Champions Cup the "most shameful night" in China basketball history. With 1:28 to play and China enjoying a comfortable 91-80 lead, Puerto Rico center Manuel Narvaez challenged China's Yi Jianlian with a foul to the face. Chinese players Mo Ke and Li Nan took offense to the foul, left the bench and rushed Navaraz. A "mass brawl" ensued. Soon fans at Beijing Capital Gymnasium were pelting Pueto Rican players with plastic bottle, cups and popcorn. One fan even threw his shoe. The Puerto Rican team left the court, shielding themselves with chairs. The game was called and two hours later China was declared the winner. The Chongqing Evening News has photos of the fracas. more ›