Exhibition games, live streaming in Mandarin and by next year a ‘Chinese-influenced’ team all on the agenda for Aussie’s NBL. [...] It’s all part of a master plan that NBL chief executive Jeremy Loeliger hopes will see the Aussie game take off among China’s army of basketball fans. [...] Loeliger believes there’s huge opportunities for China and Australia to work together; he even aims to have a ‘Chinese’ team in the NBL by next year.

As a shy, nervous 22-year-old NBA rookie, Yao Ming confronted the concentrated power of Shaquille O’Neal for the first time — and came out a winner.  The metaphors are perhaps too easy: basketball’s gentle giant aiming to save Africa’s gentle giants; the man who built a bridge between China and the United States now trying to bridge another vast cultural divide, between his nation’s nouveau riche and the people and animals of Africa.

Professor Jin Canrong with Renmin University of China said that non-governmental participation is the best way of doing public diplomacy, and Yao Ming is the most successful case of public diplomacy as he has greatly improved the image of Chinese people in the world.

Former basketball star Yao Ming has called for Chinese sports to get back to basics and not be viewed solely as a way of advancing national honour. The 2.26-metre-tall former Houston Rockets centre, who played in the United States' elite NBA competition for eight seasons and spearheaded a basketball boom in China, said he was feeling some pressure in his new role as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).