Yao meets Greek guard, and new Houston Rocket, Vassilis Spanoulis in Nanjing for the second annual FIBA Stankovic Continental Champion Cup. Click here for more photos taken upon the Chinese national team’s arrival in Nanjing, as well as their meal and workout.

Hopefully the photo taken above will be a historical one someday. Yao met Vassilis Spanoulis — the new Houston Rockets guard from the Greek national team — for the first time on Tuesday in Nanjing for a FIBA tournament. Click here for a recent article about Vassilis signing with the Rockets.

Click here for more photos taken upon the Chinese national team’s arrival in Nanjing, as well as their meal and workout.

Houston Rockets’ trainer Keith Jones, part of the USA Basketball delegation in China right now, gives an interview and talks about Yao’s progress as a player in the past and this off-season.

Raymond has provided another translation of an interview that appeared in Sina.com with Rockets’ trainer Keith Jones, who is in China with the USA Basketball team as part of the China Basketball Challenge.

Sina Sports: Keith, can you tell us the body condition of the players of this US team that have come to China to compete? Any major injuries or sicknesses?

Keith Jones: Yao Ming is getting stronger and stronger. He has been working hard with Anthony Falsone in the off seasons, and coupled with the help from the strength and conditioning coaches of the Rockets, Yao Ming has vast improvement in his body and physical strength. Now you can see the new Yao Ming on the court; he has completely changed to be extremely formidable and very aggressive. Moreover, he is very young, and he works very hard.

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Because they are recuperating from injuries, Yao Ming and Wang ZhiZhi had to sit out the entire game during China’s 119-73 loss to Team USA on Monday. To see more photos from the game, click here. To see more photos from events leading up to the game, click here to see the first page and keep clicking ‘Next’ at the bottom of the page to see more photos.

No surprise here. The Chinese national team lost to Team USA in an exhibition game in Guangzhou, 119-73. The game will air on ESPN2 later tonight at 9:30pm Eastern time.

To see more photos from the game, click here. To see more photos from events leading up to the game, click here and keep clicking ‘Next’ at the bottom of the page to see more photos where you’ll see the following:

*The hotel where both teams are staying
*Team USA’s arrival in Guangzhou
*Yao’s new Rocket teammate Shane Battier
*The Chinese team’s departure from Beijing and arrival in Guangzhou
*The Team USA practice
*The stadium where they played
*A welcome reception between the USA team in matching suits
*A translated interview with Battier

Thanks for all the work posting these photos, Raymond!

Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle has a good piece on Shane Battier and his importance to Team USA. He still may not make the 12-man roster (currently numbers 14) for the World Championships, but the attributes he is showing may be just what the Rockets need.

Also, I found this video diary of Battier taped in Vegas a couple of weeks ago when the USA team first started training. It should give you further insight into his basketball philosophy, etc.

Yao cools off after his first practice with the Chinese national team on August 4th. Click here for more photos taken after Yao’s practice.

Yao practiced with his Chinese national teammates on Friday for the first time, and showed up an hour early before everyone else to practice his shooting. After the two-hour practice he went for a run, then came back for another session with the team. Click here for more photos taken after the practice. Click here for a video from the practice (it may take awhile to launch a new window and steram).

Although Yao acknowledges the Chinese team’s prospects aren’t good in the World Championships because of youth and injury, he obviously is very fired up to represent his country well.

Hakeem “the Dream” is back in Houston this week teaching some NBA big men some of his moves. He lives in Jordan now, but is enjoying sharing his wealth of experience with guys like Ndudi Ebi (from Houston’s Westbury Christian Academy), Desagana Diop, D.J. Mbenga, Ike Diogu, Luol Deng (not really a big man), Mamadou N’diaye, and the Nigerian national team.

Missing on the list is Yao Ming, who is in China preparing for the World Championships in Tokyo later this week. Even though Yao’s competition is getting better through Olajuwon’s camp, Hakeem would love to work with Yao next year. Click here for the entire story.

Here’s what Hakeem had to say about Yao on Thursday:

“He is mobile enough to be a force. He runs the floor very well. He has a soft jump shot, good skills. For him, it is just the concept, the job description, that he must learn. That lane, it belongs to him. Everybody has to go through you. You reject everything that comes in there. It is your house.

“Maybe you say it is cultural. I don’t know. But he can change. He can be taught. Let him see how it’s done. I know he has obligations this year (in China) with the world tournament. But next year, maybe he is free. I plan to be here. Hopefully, with a bigger camp. I would like to work with him.”

We have lots of goodies again from Raymond today.

Just click here to see a page with more photos of Yao having a good time from yesterday’s online chat referenced in the post directly below. After you click, you can scroll down and see Associated Press and Reuters articles about Yao saying say he’s 80% recovered from his foot surgery (not really big news since that was in Raymond’s translation yesterday — good job Raymond). But there are some additional tidbits in those articles about the status of Wang ZhiZhi and recent losses for the Chinese national team.

Then keep scrolling and you’ll see photos of Yao at a “Save the Shark” campaign in his capacity as “Global Ambassador for Wild Aid.” There’s also an article where he vows to give up eating shark fin soup, and states, “As we progress as a nation and society becomes more driven by money and the increased desire to quench our taste buds, we should take a step back and reflect.” Good job, Yao. I agree with you.

Also on that page is an article referring to Yao’s love life. Man, from a media perspective, Yao has been one busy dude the past couple of days.

Yao receives a special jersey from former Chinese gymnast Sang Lan in a press conference on Tuesday. Click here for more photos from the press conference and online chat.

Yao received an oversized jersey Tuesday at a press conference from former Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, who was paralyzed in a practice accident in the 1998 Goodwill Games in the United States. The jersey had special blessings from fans wishing Yao well in his foot surgery recovery, and to obtain good results in the World Championships later this month.

Afterwards, Yao took part in a press conference and online chat hosted by Sina.com, McDonald’s, and askme.com.cn as part of a monthly series of chats with Asian stars called “Passion for Life” that provides consumer-focused education and to encourage active, balanced lifestyles. But these chats can also be considered a way for McDonald’s to ward off potential concerns about the nutritional content of fast food in China. For more information on the program, Ad Age China has an interesting article about it. Click here to read the story.

Below is a transcription from our Raymond in China of some of the topics raised in the press conference and subsequently, the online chat:

Reporter (from Guangming Daily): Mr. Yao Ming, you talked about a balanced diet a short while ago. Do you eat McDonalds? How many times a month? Do you think McDonald’s can be helpful to supplement your energy and strength?

Yao Ming: I felt that you can find lots and lots of happy moments and rewards in basketball. Not merely winning games, but also in training. It just motivates and spurns me on for more and more.

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Raymond has another translation from a sina.com article written last week by reporter Wang Meng in Beijing.

It had been raining non-stop these few days in Beijing. Suddenly the summer in Beijing had become cool and chilly. The early morning rain and wind brought shivers to pedestrians walking by.

It was like déjà vu. Here Yao Ming stood in the drizzling rain of a 2006 summer morning, but all of a sudden he felt he was back in the summer of 2004. It seemed like once again he would have to be on the road again alone, shouldering the whole national team again.

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Yao signs jerseys while visiting China Unicom’s headquarters on Wednesday, July 26th. He was accompanied by friend Ye Li. Click here for more photos from Yao’s visit.

Yao made an appearance at the headquarters for China Unicom, for whom he’s a spokesperson, yesterday in Beijing with friend Ye Li. Click here for more photos.

Also, his “Yao Restaurant” also opened up in Shanghai yesterday. It looks very similar to the Yao Restaurant in Houston, but is reportedly larger. Click here for more photos of the restaurant.

Editor’s note [8/2/06]: since posting this story, another story came out that affirms the restaurant has no affiliation with Yao nor his parents, who are investors in the “Yao Restaurant” in Houston. Click here for the story.