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Secretasianman

Tuesday - 1/27/09

Yao and Yi Injury Updates - It's been a tough basketball weekend with not a single Asian baller representing in the entire NBA, with both Yao and Yi sidelined with injuries. Luckily Yao's sore knee should be better enough for him to return to action tomorrow night against Philly. Yi Jianlian is not so lucky as it is reported he will be out for another month to heal his broken right pinkie finger. He has been limited to working with his left hand but is apparently in good spirits despite this very inconvenient setback. Yi was averaging 17.8 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 50 percent (25-of-50) over the four games before he got injured.

In a bit of irony, Yi's former teammate Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks is out for the season with torn knee ligaments. Redd was the leading scorer for the Bucks and a big fan of the trade that sent Yi to the Nets for Richard Jefferson. When asked if they had gotten the better deal in the trade Redd replied, "We did, oh we did, we did, we did, we did. We’re happy, no question.” OUCH, I guess he didn't think much of Yi! On paper Jefferson does looked better but only time will tell and Yi is definitely improving this year whereas the 29 year old Jefferson looks to have peaked and heading towards the twilight of his career. Just my observation.

Thursday - 1/22/09

Australian Open Update - One week into the Australian Open tennis tournament and the few Asian hopefuls on the Men's side are out. Newcomer Kei Nishikori was ousted in the first round by Jurgen Melzer in straight sets 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 and never put up much of a fight after the first set. The Japanese teen was bothered by a sore arm and was also clearly lacking in court knowledge and strategy as he was punished by the Austrian veteran.

Yen-Hsun Lu scored one of the biggest wins of his career when he defeated David Nalbandian in 5 sets in the second round. The Taiwanese tennis star who is ranked #61 in the world, would then follow up his brilliant performance with a stinker, losing in straight sets to Tommy Robredo of Spain.

No biggie cause Lu probably wasn't going to do much damage in this tournament but the Nishikori loss was a disappointment. On the ladies side, Anne Keothavong, Tamarine Tanasugarn, Su-Wei Hsieh, Yung-Jan Chan, Ayumi Morita and Meng Yuan were some of the early round losers. Still three Asian women are still in the running including Ai Sugiyama, Jie Zheng and Shuai Peng, so let's hope they do well.

Tuesday - 1/13/09

Yao is Proud to be a Role Model - Being the biggest guy in the NBA, it's safe to say that Yao Ming is one of the most visible and popular basketball players in the world. So does he shy away from his obvious position of being a role model to his millions of fans? Not in the least.

"It’s a lot of pressure, of course,” said Yao. "They don’t just look at you based on how you play basketball, they also want to know how Chinese people carry themselves. So sometimes you have to be very, very careful. I can't let them down,” said Yao.

Well said big man. Yao is not only a role model but also an ambassador for China to the world. So don't expect to see any Charles Barkley drunk-driving, hoe chasing antics from the great wall cause it ain't gonna happen. Yao simply hasn't let the Western lifestyle influence him negatively like some other Chinese stars like Edison Chen and Zhang Ziyi. The former was an untalented pretty-boy actor that became an unwilling porn star early last year after his taped escapades with Hong Kong actresses was spread over the internet from his pink Apple laptop. Zhang Ziyi is the Chinese flash-in-pan actress who was recently caught sunbathing topless on a beach with her billionaire fiance Vivi Nevo's Crouching tiger digging for her Hidden dragon. For shame! With that amount of money they should get a room, and a damn good one at that.

Chinese Hero

  Chinese Zero

Chinese Zero

Sunday - 1/11/09

OW-Yi!  Broken Finger, Out 4 Weeks - Man, poor Yi Jianlian! It seems he just can't get any breaks on the basketball court, not any good breaks anyway. Yi broke his pinkie finger in a game on Friday against his former team the Milwaukee Bucks. The irony is that he has been playing his best ball in months and was also playing well in this game with 16 points in the third quarter when he suffered the freak injury. He broke the finger trying to steal the ball from his former teammate Michael Redd on a night when he was jeered by the crowd everytime he touched the ball. Obviously the locals still have some hard feels against Yi for not wanting to go to Milwaukee after being drafted last year. The Nets went on to lose to the Bucks 102-104, but had Yi not been injured it would probably have been a different story.

Well them's the breaks. Sorry Yi, couldn't resist. Hope you come back soon and better than ever.

Kei Nishikori Withdraws from Heineken Open - Japanese tennis teen star Kei Nishikori was also a victim of the injury bug over the weekend as a sore forearm and bicep forced him to retire against Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round of the 2009 Heineken Open. This was a tune-up for the Australian Open that is coming up in a few weeks and Kei was given the wildcard thanks to his exciting and meteoric rise in the rankings inn 2008, up 218 places in the calendar year. He is currently ranked 61 in the world and has a great chance to move up even more if he can do some damage at the Australian Open. Hopefully his injury is not too serious because the tournament is just a little over a week away.

Ice that bad boy and get ready for the Aussie, mate.

Thursday - 1/8/09

Yi Scores 20, Nets Win Again - Yi Jianlian backs up his solid performance against the Kings with another strong effort on Wednesday as he scored 20 points to help the Nets defeat the Memphis Grizzlies 100-89. This was the first back-to-back 20 point games he has recorded as an NBA baller and it couldn't have come at a better time with his recent struggles and with Nets' Devin Harris on the bench. Besides the 20 points, Yi also had 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 assists but what was most encouraging was that he was playing with renewed confidence. In these recent games, he has been effective in the low post and has be more definitive in shooting the ball and playing defense. Yi will need to continue being aggressive as he will surely feel some nerves when he faces his old team the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow night. Since everyone thinks that the Bucks got a steal in the trade between Yi and Richard Jefferson, it would be sweet for Yi to put up some big numbers and show the Nets that they made the right decision in bringing him to New Jersey.

Yao and Co. Downs Struggling Celtics - Normally it would be a big deal for Houston to record a win over the defending NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics on their own court, but since the Celtics habe been in a runt recently, it didn't really come as much of a surprise. The Rockets defeated the Celtics 89-85 on Wednesday to snap their own three-game losing streak and hand Boston it's sixth loss in eight games. Yao led the way as usual with a solid 26 points and 8 rebounds. Hustle and defensive were the keys to the game and the Rockets showed heart in this game and earned a great victory that they can hopefully build upon.

Tuesday - 1/6/09

NBA Update

-Yi Jianlian redeemed himself somewhat yesterday scoring 22 points to help the Nets defeat the Kings 98-90. Yi scored 10 points in the third quarter alone and had a season high 13 rebounds overall.

-Yao Ming had another mediocre night scoring 14 points in a third straight loss for the Rockets as they went down 96-104 against the 76ers. Next up, defending champion Celtics.

Sunday - 1/4/09

Tough Weekend for Yao & Rockets - It was not a great start for the new year for Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets in 2009. They lost their first two games in the new year, first on Friday to the Toronto Raptors 73-94 and then to the Atlanta Hawks 100-103 on Saturday. Yao had 14 and 16 points respectively in those two games, far from anything special which was what they really needed from the big man.

The "Big Three" that everyone had hoped to see out of Yao-McGrady-Artest has yet to materialize as Tracy McGrady's injuries continue to haunt this team. Now with Ron Artest and Shane Battier also nursing injuries, the Rockets are essentially playing with just a "Big One". As great as Yao Ming is, I don't like those odds. With a .600 winning pct, the Rockets are currently in 8th place in the West. The only positive thing is that they are not that many games off from the rest of the Western conference teams as only the Lakers have separated themselves from the field. The only good thing that Houston has done recently is to sign Dikembe Mutombo for the remainder of the season. A 42 year old character with a soft heart and tough attitude on the court? You gotta love him.

The Sasquatch Fist Jab Club will survive another year. With Mutombo around, Yao will have someone with tall enough shoulders to cry on if the season goes south.

Yi Jianlian Shows he has a Pulse! - But it is still not a strong one. Yi scored 13 points on Saturday in a 96-101 loss to the Miami Heat. This was his highest scoring game in like forever but he still fails to impress with this shooting as he was only 4-11 from the field. Okay, to be fair he has actually been playing better as he has averaged 11 points in the past three games.

I guess I am still obsessing over his December 29th game against the Bulls when he scored only 2 points on 1-6 shooting. Damn, I'm only 5'9 and I could do better than that! Sorry Yi, but that was just terrible.

Beijing's Self Inflicted Olympic Blues - Well we could have all seen this coming like a giant fire breathing dragon flying through Beijing's now fairly clear and much improved blue skies. The Olympic host city is finding out that the financial hangover from hosting the most expensive games of all time is gonna hurt and hurt for a long time. Empty hotels, decreased industrial output and a slide in tourism may be all related with the recent global financial woes, but Beijing was pretty over zealous in their expectations too. The incredible bad timing didn't help either, but at least the locals can enjoy clearer skies and less pollution because of their Olympic legacy. It's like Al Gore said in his global warming presentations. On one end of the scale is gold bars and the other end of the scale is the whole planet. Make a choice?

No brainer. It's all about the planet people!

With over 80,000 seats, even American baby boomers will not be able to fill the tourism vacuum that has hit the city of Beijing and its crown jewel, the Bird's Nest.

Happy 2009 Everyone!  Like we will miss 2008, NOT!

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