The American sporting world has gone global of the past decade. The NBA now features great players from all over Europe and last year Yao Ming showed that Chinese players can definitely hold their own in the NBA. Nowadays NBA general managers like Glen Grunwald go all the way to the Far East to scout out Asian talent.

While Ming won a lot of fans here in North America he is perhaps the most recognized person in his home country. Last season the NBA allowed fans from China to vote for the All-Star team via the internet. They flooded the world networks with votes for Ming and he was named a starter for the Western Conference All-Stars ahead of such a basketball force as Shaquille O'Neal.

NBA Commissioner David Stern hopes to ride this new wave of global popularity. Last week there was some talk about expanding the league to Mexico City and eventually to Europe. But China remains the apple of the NBA's eye. There may be a plan in the works to play some regular season games in Beijing.

Until that comes to pass Stern has kept interest in the NBA in the Chinese news by announcing a list of the NBA's 50 Greatest Chinese Players of All-Time. Stern's press conference was held yesterday in New York. There was a buzz amongst the members of the Chinese media as Stern strode to the podium and began to announce the list.

"When the NBA has announced a list such as this in the past we've been vigilant not to attempt to rate the players on the list in any order," Stern stated, "This time however we'd like to reserve a special honour for three players from China: Yao Ming, Wang Zhi-Zhi, and Mengke Bateer. Now I turn the podium over to Number Two, er, I mean Stu Jackson to present the rest of the NBA's 50 Greatest Chinese Players of All-Time!"