You probably already knew that the Rockets had to waive Jeremy Lin earlier this week to make room for the signing of Samuel Dalembert. And you might have heard the New York Knicks snapped Lin right up. Here’s an article that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times about Lin’s chances to stick with the Knicks.

The Knicks’ other point guards, Mike Bibby, is old. Toney Douglas is still young and raw. And Baron Davis is going to be out for several more weeks while his back heals. So Lin has a chance to prove himself over the next few weeks more than he would have had with the Rockets, playing behind Kyle Lowry, Goran Dragic, and Jonny Flynn.

Good luck, Jeremy. We’ll be watching.

On Christmas Day in Shanghai, Yao Ming (and his wife Ye Li) watched his 6-8 Shanghai Sharks beat the 13-1 Beijing Ducks. Yao has attended all of the Sharks’ home games this season.

Beijing is led by Stephon Marbury, who only scored 15 points. Marbury may have gotten tired because he has had to play more minutes because his backup has missed several games in a row due to an injury.

For more game details and photos, click here.

The Sharks have been coming on lately, winning 5 of their last 6 games. The Sharks are now 7-8 and are in 10th place in the CBA (which has 17 teams). The top 8 teams make the playoffs.

Beijing still leads the league with their 13-2 record.

Raymond has done a good job of reporting in the forum the activities of some NBA players playing in the China Basketball Association this season. Here’s a summary of some of the recent highlights.

Kenyon Martin has been a disappointment, averaging “only” 14 points and 9.7 rebounds. Since each CBA team can only sign 2 ex-pat players, it’s expected that they at least average 20 points per game. There has been some speculation that his team, Xinjiang, could be releasing him. Martin is earning $2.65 million this season, and Xinjiang has gotten off to one of their worst starts in the past 5 seasons with a 7-4 record.

Bob Donewald, the American coach of Xinjiang who used to coach Yao’s Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks, has been forced to step down. Donewald, who left the Sharks before this season and signed a bigger contract with Xinjiang for 5 times more money, had talked trash about the Sharks before the season started.

Earlier this week, Aaron Brooks had his third consecutive double-double for his Guangdong team, scoring 27 points and dishing out 10 assists. Brooks has vowed to stay with the team through the playoffs, even if the American players are allowed to leave the CBA sooner than what their contracts require.

Click here for more photos of Brooks in action.

The most surprising success for an American player is Stephon Marbury, who has helped lead his Beijing team to a 12-0 record. Earlier this week Marbury scored 28 points on 10-of-16 shots, grabbed 5 boards, and had 7 assists.

Marbury has stated he has no desire to return to the NBA after starting a new life and finding inner peace in China. Ultimately, he would like the opportunity to coach the Chinese National Team. Here’s an interesting N.Y. Times article about Marbury’s new life in China.

Below is a video from the Wall Street Journal about Marbury’s new life in China.

Marbury is living a normal life compared to NBA standards. Below is a photo of him taking the Beijing subway to go to practice:

And below is a photo of Marbury visiting a sick girl who asked him to come visit her in the hospital, showing he is sincere about integrating himself in Chinese culture.

For more photos and stories of Marbury’s fascinating life in China, click here for Raymond’s updates in the forum.

To see the Rockets compete this year, Vivid Seats is the NBA ticket broker for you, with many sports tickets for sale. Also find a full schedule for Boston Celtics tickets and details for ordering Orlando Magic tickets on their website.

Rockets.com posted a video on Tuesday of an interview with new Rocket Jeremy Lin. You might remember the Rockets signed Lin last week (details here). Click this link or the image below for the video (a new window will open).

Yao Ming’s Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks arguably pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the Chinese Basketball Association this season. On Wednesday night in Shanghai, the Sharks beat the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers who are coached by Bob Donewald, the Sharks’ former coach who left this season for a bigger contract with Xingjiang.

Yao Ming and Ye Li watch the Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks play the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers.

To make things even sweeter, Donewald had raised the ire of Sharks fans earlier in the preseason when he said the Sharks weren’t very good, and that even with Yao Ming playing for them the Sharks couldn’t beat Xinjiang.

It has been a tough season for the Sharks this season, who are now 3-7 and have lost their last four road games. They also played against Xingjiang without their start guard, Liu Wei, because of an injury. But former Rockets’ player Mike Harris played another great game for the Sharks, leading the team with 24 points and 8 rebounds.

Former Rocket Mike Harris posts up for Yao’s team, the Shanghai Sharks.

Xingjiang was led by two former NBA players (no wonder this loss was an upset). Patty Mills, who played for Portland the past couple of seasons, scored 22 points (10-of-14 from the field), grabbed 7 rebounds, and had 3 assists. Mills scored 14 points in the third quarter, but was invisible in the fourth quarter.

Former Portland Trailblazer Patty Mills.

Former Denver Nugget Kenyon Martin played one of his best offensive games of the season, scoring 20 points (9-of-16 FGs) and grabbed 8 rebounds.

Click here for more game details, and here for more game photos.

Meanwhile, on the same evening in a different game, former Rocket Aaron Brooks had another standout game for the Guangdong Dongguan Bank Hongyuan Tigers, recording his second consecutive double-double in scoring 21 points (5-of-7 3-pointers) and doling out 10 dimes. It’s strange to see Aaron in a Chinese uniform playing for an all-Chinese crowd.

Brooks signed a $2 million contract (pretty big for the CBA) back when it looked like the NBA wouldn’t be having a season. Brooks can’t opt out of his contract in China, but the CBA regular season ends in February, which could give him enough time for him to sign-on as a free agent for an NBA team this season. However, because his team is doing so well and they are expected to play deep into the playoffs, he could be playing in China into April. That could make it difficult for him to sign with an NBA team before their rosters need to be set.

Here’s an excellent interview of Yao Ming from Wine Enthusiast magazine published on Monday.

It’s obvious that Yao’s decision to get into the wine business is something he takes very seriously. The article goes into great detail about Yao’s experience with wines in the past, what made him choose Napa Valley as the place to have his wine produced, how involved he is with the wine making process, the influence of wine in Chinese culture, the similarities between playing basketball and making wine, and much more!

With all the drama that went on with Rockets Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic over the past few days with the proposed Lakers-Hornets-Rockets trade being rescinded by NBA commissioner David Stern, there was some refreshing and happy news when the Rockets surprisingly signed Chinese/Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin.

For Rocket fans who are Asian-American sad that Yao isn’t representin’ any longer, having Lin around gives them something extra to look forward to.

Photo courtesy Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle

Lin was released from the Golden State Warriors on the first day of training camp. Apparently the Warriors are trying to save as much money as they can so they can have a better chance of landing a high-priced free agent. Lin’s contract pays him $800,000 this year.

More details about Lin’s release is here.

Since the Rockets are in a similar position of trying to sign a big free agent, you wouldn’t have expected them to add a 4th point guard (behind Kyle Lowry, Johnny Flynn, Goran Dragic). But you can probably expect Dragic will be traded one of these days (to our chagrin) since he was part of that rescinded trade with the Hornets, so maybe Lin could stick around as the Rockets’ third PG. Or the Rockets will be getting rid of Lin quickly like they do with other players where you think they will be around awhile, only trading them within a season or two for other “pieces” (Dragic, Trevor Ariza, Kevin Martin, etc.)

Here’s a link to a short article in the Houston Chronicle about Lin’s signing.

Here’s a video of Lin meeting Yao Ming in Taiwan (around the 1:10 mark) during Yao’s charity basketball tour in the summer of 2010 (and throwing down a dunk at the 8:10 mark), and photos of his meeting are here.

Update: Here’s a video brought to our attention from a commenter below of Lin being interviewed as a Golden State Warrior, along with his coach and fellow players.

Below is some video of Yao at an event this week in Shanghai to launch his new wine. In the story we’re told that beyond the 1,200 bottles that are for sale only in the Chinese market for approximately US $280 per bottle, Yao Family Wines will be producing bottles for the U.S. market in 2012 in lower price ranges as well.

The video also explains just how big the Chinese wine market is (125 billion cases per year!), and it’s expected annual growth: 10-15%. Wowza!