Yi's time will come, he has a bright future, But Yao has been in the league longer and more experienced. I expect Yao to perform better.
this is way too hyped by US media. truth is that people in china play bball, but not that crazy about this Yao-Yi game. 300M audience is impossible.
a chinese joke made by american! how the hell YI can compare with yao they don't even play in same spot. Yao is way much better than YI, NBA player VS a high school student!
generally, these sorts of numbers are worthless, more PR than study. I work in marketing and ask these sorts of questions all the time, depending on how you phrase it the same stat could get 10 million or 300 million. as high as that figure is, it certainly doesn't mean 300 people play ORGANIZED ball in a league or for school... it's more along the lines of have you picked up a basketball in the past 6 months... it could actually be a vague as living X kilometers from a basketball court/park, what you watch, if you own shoes... then the computer extrapolates based on age and sex some numbers. TBH, I'm surprised that they're only saying 200 million are gonna to watch especially given the great saturday morning timeslot. as much as david stern has promoted that basketball is becoming popular in china... taking the US population and Chinese population that means roughly HALF as many chinese will watch this game as Americans watched the last superbowl (15 v 30 percent). football isn't even the number 1 sport in the US (baseball is by the numbers and maybe MMA for popularity) I was under the impression that basketball was REALLY popular in china... I'd expect more people would watch this game
Obviously everyone expects Yao to outperform Yi, just like everyone expected Yao to get owned by Shaq in that first matchup. But that game was also ridiculously hyped, actually both here and in China; this one is only hyped in China.
bigger than the superbowl, but the rocket s are probably gonna blow milwaukee out. I hope the bucks prove me wrong and play a strong game against us
Another thing that makes this study worthless is that you can't get an accurate sample from the Chinese country-side. I seriously doubt any poller that the NBA uses has accurate info on how to accurate poll the rural areas. It would sort of be like the the polls that predicated the outcome of the Truman-Dewey election, which was biased towards the richer people with phones. Of course, the NBA can say whatever figure they want. At the end, the number of people doesn't matter nearly as much as the amount of income the NBA can generate. Or, as Rockets fans, how well we can attract free agents knowing that signing with the Rockets = $$$ from China. You must take into consideration the percentage of people in China that (A) do not have TV and (B) needs to work Saturday morning. Both of which are a lot higher than that of America. I was extremely surprised to find out how even office people needs to work on Saturdays in China. Regardless, I'll be watching on CCTV-5, despite the fact that Chinese announcers bore the hell out of me. Too bad there's no alternative, as internet streaming Gene Peterson is problematic where I live.
ummm......not professional bbl players....you know in china, nearly every boy through primary school to college actually played bbl at least once....
maybe not.. Basketball is more popular, has more fans, and is more played than Pingpong in China NOW....
maybe the greatest event in the history of civilization, i can't wait. yao ends up with 40 points tonight
It will be interesting to watch everyone play tonight. With this being potentially the biggest audience of a US sports event, who will be tempted to play selfishly. Afterall, this is big $$$ involved. Play well tonight, and you get a fatter contract with a international shoe company! Recognition across the world (OK maybe just China). I think Mike James is going to shoot ALOT tonight. Maybe Bonzi too.
dude, SF3 is a PG who doesnt pass, and Redd is a SG who finishs his shoots. they are 2 different things. and dont act like Chinese government forced Rockets trade Francis, Rockets trade him for their own good
