The Stars Come out to Play

Tomorrow night basketball fans (and there are many of them in China) will be eagerly watching China vs the US charity game, pitting Yao Ming against Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash.

According to the story, after a Rockets-Suns game in March, Nash went up to Yao about doing a fundraising game for kids in China. Their agents and the NBA hashed it out so that other players like Carmelo Anthony, Greg Odin, Bonzi Wells, Baron Davis and Leandro Barbosa will come to Beijing as well. They will play against the Chinese men's national basketball team.

The money raised from the game will go to three different charities: Chi Heng Foundation, a Hong Kong-based group that works with children orphaned by parents who have died of HIV/AIDS; the Special Olympics, for mentally disabled athletes; and the China Youth Development Foundation that helps orphans.

Tickets ranging from 200 to 800RMB (US$26.62-$106.50) are already sold out. But if you're willing to shell out 1,600 to 4,800RMB (US$213-$639), there's still some seats left...

Here's a picture of Nash in action in a Nike ad.

On the left it says "left?" "right?" And then on the other side it says, "both wrong".

Post Game Report:
I caught the third and fourth quarters of the game on CCTV5, the sports channel here. And it turned out that the North American and Chinese players would periodically change sides so at one point Steve Nash was playing with the Chinese.

It was interesting to see the players' names in Chinese on the back of their jerseys. Only Yao Ming had "Yao" on the back of his...

In the end the Chinese Basketball All-Star Team beat the All-Star Charity Gala Team 101-92, and including an auction, raised US$2.5 million.