Raymond reports a couple of nights ago Shane Battier made a guest appearance on Phoenix TV’s very popular talk show “A Date With Lu Yu” ????, and talked about his family, childhood and his son, Zeke.

He also played guitar, and taught host Chen Luyu some basic basketball skills.

He could even recognize some famous Chinese celebrities just from looking at their photos, including Jackie Chan, Zhang Ziyi and Zhao Benshan.

Click here for more photos from Battier’s appearance on TV.

Raymond has photos from Luis Scola and Steve Francis’ visit to Anta’s headquarters and factory in Jinjiang from a couple days ago. They checked out the production line, inspected the entire shoe manufacturing processes, their R&D center, had their foot measurement taken, and reviewed prototypes of their signature shoes.

Later they went to their flagship store in Jinjiang along with Steve’s wife.

Click here for more photos from their visit.

You probably thought after the Olympics that it was going to be quiet here from a news perspective, right? Thanks to Raymond in China, not at all. Here’s Raymond’s latest update on Yao’s calendar:

* Yao left Beijing this morning (Friday, August 29th) for Shanghai to start his vacation.

* Before he left, he hosted a dinner for Steve Francis and Luis Scola on Wednesday night before Steve and Luis left Beijing for Guangzhou to continue their Anta China Roadshow on Thursday morning.

* He also hosted a dinner for Shane Battier last night (August 28th) upon Shane’s arrival in Beijing.

* He will stay in Shanghai and rest for a week or so before he resumes his rehab.

* He will pay a visit to the earthquake-affected areas of Sichuan mid-September (probably after his 28th birthday on September 12th). Tentatively, he will visit Qingchuan and Dujiangyan, two of the most severely hit areas.

* The Rockets will dispatch assistant coach Jack Sikma to Shanghai sometime in September and Yao Ming’s personal trainer, Anthony Falsone, will also return simultaneously to supervise and assist Yao Ming in his rehabilitation for 12 days to 2 weeks.

* The reason why the Rockets are dispatching Sikma to Shanghai is because according to Keith Jones, even though Yao Ming played well in the Olympics, his form and condition is still below NBA standards and requirements. The Rockets hope that with the help of Sikma and Falsone, Yao Ming can restore and his physical strength and be ready for the pre-season training camp that starts in early October.

Raymond reports that Shane Battier arrived in Beijing on Thursday to start his week-long China Peak roadshow.

Above Shane takes part in a press conference that China Peak and Sina.com co-hosted for him where his new signature shoe “Shane Battier III” was officially launched. He also received souvenirs and gifts from the two companies, including two special T-shirts from China Peak, one for Shane, and another for his newborn son Zeke. Click here for more photos from the press conference.

Shane will stay in Beijing for 3 days (August 28 ~ 30) to tape new commercials for China Peak to launch his new shoes before flying to Wuhan. He will participate in the NBA Big Bandwagon Roadshow there in Wuhan on August 31 before leaving for Chengdu of Sichuan in the evening of August 31 where he will visit some earthquake-affected areas of Sichuan on September 1st. Together with China Peak, he will donate some 200K RMB worth of food/camp/clothes for the earthquake survivors.

He will then stop in Hong Kong on September 2nd before flying back to USA.

Raymond has covered well the movement of a couple of Yao Ming‘s Rocket teammates in China.

First, Luis Scola stayed in China after the Olympics and visited Wednesday with Sohu.com to do an online interview.

He also stayed in Beijing to shoot a new commercial for Anta, now a Scola sponsor, and Luis started a roadshow to visit Anta’s headquarters and factory in Guangzhou and Jinjiang. Scola also participated in a friendly Anta-organized basketball tournament with reporters from 6 major Chinese media outlets.

Click here for more photos from Scola’s online chat and his basketball action with the media.

Like Scola, Steve Francis is also in Beijing as part of an Anta tour to launch his new signature shoes, and was interviewed by Sohu.com as well.

Click here for more photos of Francis meeting with Sohu. Below is part of the interview that Francis gave to Sohu.

Read the rest of this entry »

Raymond has translated an insightful interview that Yao Ming had with Sina.com on Wednesday.

In the interview he talks about:

* His feelings about the Olympics
* His much talked about embrace/hug of Lauren Jackson in the closing ceremony
* His feelings about Jonas Kazlauskas and the Chinese national team
* His anticipation of the Rockets’ new season
* His views of trades in the NBA
* Whether he will play in the 2012 London Olympics
* His lagging injury on his right shoulder, which he plans to have surgery on in the summer of 2009
* What he thinks about Sun Yue and his prospects in the NBA

Click here for the interview.

Click here for photos from the interview.

Raymond reports that The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) organized a gathering Tuesday night in the Great Hall of People in Beijing to greet and salute all the Chinese Olympians, and thank them for their great haul of medals in the Olympics.

Click here for lots of photos from the event.

Raymond reports that on Tuesday afternoon in Beijing, Yao Ming and the Chinese men’s basketball national team were invited as honorable guests to tape the first episode of a television series supposedly featuring the Chinese Olympians with various groups of surviving children from the Sichuan earthquake.

The theme of the series is to teach them some important ingredients in life: Teamwork, Persistence, Potential and Life.

Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian were asked to have a tug of war with the kids.

At first, four kids came on stage…….and Yao Ming & Yi Jianlian easily won.

Then 8 kids came on to the stage……and Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian still had no problem and won out the contest.

Then 14 kids came on stage and this time, and finally Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian lost.

The ‘captain’ for the Sichuan earthquake survivors was 9-year-old Lin Hao, who was the cute kid walking next to Yao Ming during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.

Click here for more photos from the taping.

Check out all the photos of the welcome party the Rockets and Houston fans threw for Ron Artest! What a turnout! Here’s one of them:

Raymond reports the following, with tons of photos in the forum:

The Chinese Basketball Association held a farewell dinner and party for the head coaches of the men (Jonas Kazlauskas of Lithuania) and women (Tom Maher of Australia) national team Monday evening in Beijing to thank them for their past years effort of leading the men and women national team for great results in the Olympics as their contracts are going to expire. Yao Ming represented the men national team to speak on the occasion and presented a farewell gift to Kazlauskas.