Steve Nash and Yao meet at half court Friday night after the charity game they held in Beijing to benefit poor children in Western China. Yao scored 21, while Nash scored 13. Click here for photos from the pre-game warmup and introductions. Click here for photos from the game.

Yao Ming scored 21 points in his charity game played in Beijing Friday night in which the Chinese team won 101-92. Steve Nash scored 13 points, and interestingly, it sounds like Carmelo Anthony played for the Chinese team in the second half, not Yao Ming as was expected.

Yi Jianlian scored 20 points for the Chinese, and Phoenix Sun Leandro Barbosa led all scorers with 22 points.

Click here for photos from the pre-game warmup and festivities, which includes Jackie Chan making a cameo.

Click here for more photos from the game (and animated images of some cool Chinese team dunks!).

Our Raymond in China has posted in the YaoMania! forum photos related to the Steve Nash and Yao Ming charity basketball gala in Beijing leading up to their exhibition game tomorrow.

Click here for tons of interesting pics from the gala…

…and here for photos of performers at the event, as well as very cool items that were auctioned off in which Yao contributed US$ 33,000 of his own money to raise 7 million CNY (approximately US$ 931,000) for charity. Man, it looks like it was alot of fun to be there!

In Beijing on Thursday, Yao Ming announced that he has organized with Steve Nash a charity basketball game on September 14th between the Chinese National Team and a team of invited NBA players. Proceeds will go to the China Youth Development Foundation.

It’s cool that Yao and Nash have apparently become friends in organizing this game over the past 7 months. It probably doesn’t hurt that both players are represented by the same agent, Bill Duffy.

The list of NBA players expected to play is fairly impressive: Nash, Greg Oden, Baron Davis, Mike Conley, Carmelo Anthony, Leandro Barbosa, Bonzi Wells, Mike James, and Chuck Hayes. I think all of these players are represented by Duffy, so kudos to his players for flying all the way to China for a game to ‘give back.’

What’s also interesting is that Yao will play for the NBA team in the first half, and for the Chinese national team in the second half. There’s a joke there somewhere, but I can’t really think of one at the moment.

Click here for more photos from the press conference announcing the game in which Nash called in from Phoenix at 5:00am in the morning.

Thanks go to Raymond in China for the scoop.

Note: Since this story was first post, it was learned that Mike James and Mike Conley will not be able to participate because of scheduling conflicts, but in their place Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic of the LA Lakers and Alando Tucker of the Phoenix Suns will play.

On Sunday, Yao spent some time with children infected with the HIV virus in Shanghai as part of the Basketball Without Borders program.

Since Yao is a spokesperson for the HIV/AIDS prevention campaign in China, he asked for the public’s help to not discriminate against children like these and to provide more of a helping hand. To see more photos with Yao and the kids, click here and here.

In case you missed it in the forum, we have more photos of Yao in the YaoMania! forum instructing kids at the Basketball Without Borders camp in Shanghai. Here’s one of my favorites…

…and here’s more with Yao (with Scottie Pippen) at the Read to Achieve program on Saturday the 7th…

…with this being one of my favorites…

Raymond has some pics in the YaoMania! forum of Yao at the start of the Basketball Without Borders camp in Shanghai, where he is joined by Luther Head, Vlade Divac, and other volunteer coaches. Click here for more on Yao and the other volunteers coaching at the Basketball Without Borders camp.