Yao vs. Yi: The showdown everyone in China cares about

The US has been kind of lukewarm to taking an interest in Yi Jianlian; if anything, it's been more of a Britney Spears-in-a-fishbowl look at Yi, a "what will he do next" odd view of his life. For Yao Ming, he was embraced quickly by the American public, not only with his warmth and grace, but his game was pretty great as well.

So now, we have the matchup of these two Chinese giants (literally), and in the US and the NBA, it's another game. But in China, it's a boon--let's just look at the figures: for the Super Bowl, it drew 93 million viewers--pretty darn good. For this matchup, the preliminary numbers is upwards of 200 million.

Wow. Seriously?

Yup. With a nation that is enamored by their athletes and especially those that make it in the sports mecca of the United States, this is an absolutely monumental event. The thing is, I'm not so sure it's worth it--Ming still has his game intact and one of the best in the NBA, but Yi has struggled immensely--if Yi's game was something like Ming's--even remotely--it would make sense. Good for the NBA, but isn't there something wrong with this type of idolization?

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