03.20.07
Yi Jianlian in action
His name isn’t quite as easy to pronounce as Yao Ming’s, but Yi Jianlian (Yee Jen-lee-an) is the Next Big Thing coming out of China to the NBA. He’s a sure bet for the draft this June and my NBA scout friends tell me he’ll probably be a mid-20’s pick in the first round. He’s currently playing with his Chinese Basketball Association team, the Guangdong Tigers, for the CBA championship against the Bayi (bah-yee) Rockets. Trivial Pursuit tidbits: Bayi (“eight-one” in Chinese) is the Chinese national army team, and the first Chinese player to enter the NBA draft, Wang Zhizhi, is their star player.
Check out this link for Yao Ming’s thoughts on the young Yi.
NBA TV will broadcast the CBA finals. Check the broadcast schedule for all the information.
More on the teams from Wikipedia’s English-language website: