Worlds collide

All eyes are on US-China basketball matchup

BEIJING - It's a David-vs.-Goliath global sporting event that could be viewed by a billion-plus people worldwide and a half-billion folks in China alone. Matched up today against the United States in men's basketball, the Chinese understand that they are huge underdogs. But the game is in their country, in their new beautiful arena, and you still have to play it.

And they are hoping, praying, and dreaming that with their beloved 7-foot-6-inch giant, Yao Ming, leading the way, they can upset the US.

Yao and China, however, are also very humble and realistic; deep down they are hoping for just a competitive performance against the heralded American squad in an Olympic opener that will make the already rapidly growing interest in basketball here even stronger.

"They are very excited," said Boston native Mark Fischer, senior vice president of NBA Asia. "They have a lot of high hopes riding on it, but they are also realistic. They still call [the US] the 'Dream Team' here. We at the NBA don't call it that anymore. We sort of resigned to call them the 'Redeem Team.'

"Yao Ming is the No. 1 athlete in China and very big here. They are very excited, win or lose. It's probably going to be the most highly watched basketball game in history."

A missionary from the United States first brought basketball to China in 1896, and the orange ball has bounced here ever since. The first Chinese player to make it to the NBA was Beijing's own Wang Zhizhi , who was drafted in the second round by the Dallas Mavericks in 1999 and made his NBA debut in the last five games of the 2000-01 season. From 2001-05, the long-range-shooting 7-footer played in 137 games for Dallas, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Miami Heat but was nothing more than a decent reserve.

Mongolian big man Mengke Bateer was the next from China to make the NBA, playing sparingly for Denver, San Antonio, and Toronto, and was the first Chinese to start in a game, for the Nuggets in 2001-02.

But it wasn't until the Rockets drafted Yao, the Shanghai Sharks superstar, with the first overall pick in 2002 that the country really began feeling that the NBA was fantastic. He was the first player from China to make the NBA All-Star Game (2003), has been named an All-Star five times, was All-NBA second team in 2007, and is considered one of the top big men in the league.

"Yao Ming is treated with such respect here from political officials, by the media, by the fans," said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball managing director. "He's been a gentleman. He's been revered. He's done an incredible job for his country and himself."

Yao is back playing again after suffering a stress fracture in his left foot that sidelined him during the second half of this past season and the playoffs. The 27-year-old seemed strongly recovered from the foot injury during China's pre-Olympic exhibition games.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Yao will be healthy," said US forward Carmelo Anthony. "For this game, right here, he'll be healthy."

China has two other players with NBA ties - Nets forward Yi Jianlian and new Lakers guard Sun Yue, who has been nicknamed "The Chinese Magic Johnson" and recently agreed to a two-year deal.

But Yao isn't getting his hopes high about upsetting the star-laden American squad. He even caused a stir in China by joking that if they beat the US, he would retire from playing for the national team.

"We are not at the same level with the US team," said Yao to the China Daily. "But we won't give up the chance. It isn't so easy to compete with a team composed of the best basketball players in the world.

"That I said I would retire if we beat the US team was a joke. I just wanted to show how difficult it is to beat them. For now, I think we should focus on how to do well at this Olympics because it has been a dream for us all."

US guard Kobe Bryant and coach Mike Krzyzewski, however, say the Americans aren't underestimating their opponent.

"The one thing about these games is that they are shorter games than NBA games," Bryant said. "Teams can get hot and stay hot and all of a sudden you find yourselves in a dogfight. I think that's a danger you face."

Krzyzewski said, "With Yao, you play against the biggest man you're going to play against, so that will be a challenge. But overall, just try not to complicate things."

Fischer said the game is played by 300 million people in China. The China Daily has reported that there are 450 million NBA fans in the country, and interest is growing fast because of government support for the sport. The NBA opened a one-person office in Beijing with Fischer in 2002; now there are two offices with 110 employees.

"It's fantastic," Fischer said. "We've been growing at a very strong pace. It's going to continue. People love the game of basketball. People love the NBA. It is working with the CBA [China Basketball Association] on how we build local basketball to our level. They have 14 teams. We want to grow that and its profile to improve the level of play."

NBA teams have come to China twice to play, during the NBA China Games. The Chinese version of NBA.com averages 10 million page views a day and 2-3 million unique users a day. With the right television package, Chinese fans can watch 5-7 live NBA games per week and see most of Yao and Yi's contests. NBA jerseys are also hot sellers, from Yao to Yi to Bryant to Kevin Garnett to Tracy McGrady.

"Certainly, Yao was a great spark and put a Chinese face on the NBA," Fischer said. "There were Chinese in the NBA before. But to put a Chinese All-Star in the NBA put more fire in the game here.

"People here love a winner and are rallying around a winner here like the Celtics. KG is very popular. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are recognized. The Rockets are very popular. The Lakers have the second-best selling jerseys and the Celtics are in the top five."

The 18,000-seat venue is in the Wukesong section of the Haidan District and covers 168,000 square meters. It consists of one competition court and two warmup courts and is equipped with China's first high-definition LED display system. USA Basketball and NBA official Brian McIntyre compared it to Houston's Toyota Center.

"It's a beautiful building," Colangelo said. "I was here two years ago when it was just starting to be under construction. And of course, as we look around the city, the venues look unbelievable. They've done an incredible job.

"It's an intimate arena. The seating is pretty good. I like intimacy in an arena, and they accomplished that."

Adding to the hype of this Group B preliminary-round matchup is the expected attendance of President Bush. The China Daily compared the contest to "the Ping-Pong diplomacy of 1971, which set the base for the China-US exchanges during the Cold War." There is hope that the showdown will help improve relations between the two world powers.

"We're very delighted about it," said Yao. "We are honored to shoulder such a mission."

Marc J. Spears can be reached at mspears@globe.com