First KG, Now Amare?

We're certainly not against hype--have you seen our basketball league?--but first they compare Chinese-born NBA prospect Yi Jianlian to Kevin Garnett and now Yao says Yi is the next Amare? There is such a thing as too high an expectation. I mean, he plays in the Chinese Basketball Association. Almost any athletic 7-footer in the NBA would look like the aforementioned. Then again, KG/Amare were playing high school ball before they jumped.

But NBA TV is playing the CBA Finals right now, so see for yourself. Just mentally plug in Mark Blount or Jonathan Bender and see if you wouldn't get the same results. Not that we don't like Yi, but what's wrong with just being a sleeper pick from time to time?

Golden State of Mind trudges on in their campaign for Yi undaunted. Even by the fact they'll probably make the playoffs (and might win?).

Is It Kobe Time Again Already?

I believed... and my colleagues and I disagree on this... that Kobe's sudden unselfishness in last season's first round playoff series with the Phoenix Suns was merely a diabolical ruse to prove that team ball with this L.A. Laker team wouldn't work. I also believed that this season was only the continuation of the same elaborate and epic ruse... and now, after losing their previous seven games... the charade is over... it's finally Kobe Time again.

115 points in two games. And Kobe thanks his teammates for making good passes. Call me a purist, but thank God it's Kobe Time again.

Jack McCallum knows what I'm talking about.

China's G.E. Labs Have Done It Again

First, there was Wang Zhi Zhi, Mengke Bateer, then the master stroke... Yao Ming. Now, they're just churning them out. Watch yourself, Red Chinese genetic engineering labs! You're getting cocky.

A 13 lbs 12 oz baby? Good God... what's wrong with putting hormones with unknown long-term effects in all the food the American way?

The picture is not actually of the baby. But of a perfectly titled entry by Pan Asian Biz blogger Bill Belew regarding increasingly fat wallets and fatter waistlines in China.

Rockets in the Head: Yea, Good No Call, Ref...

Off the Yao Wire: The Kid is Back

Yao Ming is cleared to play tonight in Cleveland. We all know what happened last time they saw Bron-Bron & Co.

Yao Central is worried the comeback might be too soon. And they got T-Mac's back vs. Yahoo! Sports.