<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class="bi">Get Ready For Yao vs. Yi</div> <div> <span style="font-style: italic">Nov 6</span> - Friday's regular-season game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets is being treated like a playoff series, creating considerable anticipation among the burgeoning basketball fan base in China.</p> </p> Game 1 of Yao Ming vs. Yi Jianlian will be huge.</p> </p> According to an NBA spokesperson, three national television stations will be in Houston to broadcast the game, along with an estimated 10-15 foreign print journalists, who already are in the country advancing the game. The NBA is hosting its own viewing party Friday night (which will be Saturday morning in China) in Beijing. -- <font color="#000000">Orlando Sentinel</font></p></div></div>
Yi had a great game against Chicago two nights ago, completely outperforming Tyrus Thomas. While him and Yao won't be directly matched up, this game will be huge.</p>
I am not giving Yi much chance in this game to do anything significant. His defensive abilities are completely questionable and Yao's offensive game to be frank isn't. Should be a big game though and both players should be pumped up.</p>
Considering how big this game figures to be in China, could this be the most watched regular season game ever?</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (durvasa)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Considering how big this game figures to be in China, could this be the most watched regular season game ever?</p> </div></p> That's what I was thinking. Better ratings than the Finals...or the All-Star Weekend.</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Considering how big this game figures to be in China, could this be the most watched regular season game ever?</div></p> </p> I don't know, but there WILL be a HUGE Asian turnout for Fridays game.........it should be fun.</p>
There are 1.32 billion people in China, if only a small percentage tunes in it should break the record easily. I think the only obstacle would be whether or not this game is shown live because of the time zone differences or if this game is shown on a tape delay. If it's shown on a tape delay during normal hours when people watch TV in China it will obviously be a larger number.</p> I wonder how much the ad spots are for this event?</p>
They are expecting 250 million households to watch this game in China.</p> </p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class="bi">Yao vs. Yi Is Huge</div> <div> <span style="font-style: italic">Nov 9</span> - Though ratings estimates in China are difficult and vary widely, today's game is said to be certain to draw 150 million viewers and could reach 250 million. CCTV-5 alone is available in 210 million households.</p> Yao Ming's first game against Shaquille O'Neal in 2002 drew an estimated audience of 220 million and the largest cable television ratings in the United States for a regular-season game since the 1995 comeback of Magic Johnson.</p> </p> "I heard there were close to 200 million people that watched," Yao said. "But come on, in our country, we have (1.3) billion. That's still a small part of it." -- <font color="#000000">Houston Chronicle</font></p> </p> </p> [*]In addition to the players from North America and Yao and Yi from Asia, the Rockets' Luis Scola (Argentina) is from South America, the Rockets' Dikembe Mutombo (Congo) is from Africa, the Bucks' Dan Gadzuric (Holland) is from Europe and the Bucks' Andrew Bogut is from Australia. [*] "This game shows more so than you've seen over the years, that players that can really play can come from anywhere in the world," Rockets CEO Tad Brown said. "If you can play the game and if you've got talent, then somebody in the NBA is going to find you and you're going to be on a team." -- <font color="#000000">Houston Chronicle</font></p></div> </div>
