The Western world doesn't often associate China with basketball but the ties have existed for over a century. Basketball was introduced to China by Dr James Naismith who invented the sport in 1871. Dr Naismith was working with missionaries(传教士) when he travelled to China, bringing with him China's first basketball. Since Dr Naismith shot his first slam dunk(灌篮) on Chinese soil, the sport has been steadily growing in popularity. None could deny, however, that China has recently gone basketball mad. Is it all thanks to the stardom of China's prize NBL player, Yao Ming, or are there other reasons for basketball fever in China?

　　Soccer is still China's most favourite sport, but basketball is quickly catching up. Some suggest that one reason is the dense nature of the urban environment here - 14 million people live in Shanghai, for example. It is difficult for children to find a soccer field to kick around on. There simply isn't the space. Basketball, on the other hand, just needs a ball and a rim.

　　Of course, in recent years, the popularity of basketball has skyrocketed with the success of Shanghai's Yao Ming, the 7-foot 6-inch All Star centre who has taken the NBA and the world by storm. With millions of fans in China, the NBL website saw a 3000 per cent increase in visitors from China last month alone. Chinese television is showing more and more NBL games and basketball courts are being built in Chinese cities at an amazing rate.

　　The tale of the growth of basketball in China and the celebrity status of Yao Ming can also be seen as the tale of a relationship between America and China. Some optimistic journalists have even been claiming Yao Ming has been instrumental(起作用的) in changing the relationship between China and the States in a way not seen since the days of ping-pong diplomacy(外交) thirty years ago.

　　While Yao may have turned the Houston Rockets into a team not to be messed with, what excites the NBA the most is not his height but his reach - right across the pacific. China opens up a huge potential market - a television audience four times that of the United States.

　　Regardless of basketball's long history in China, it is exploding now. Whether this is due to the practicalities of the urban landscape, the rise of Yao Ming or strategic marketing on the part of Nike and the NBA, we are in the midst of a basketball revolution. Perhaps in Beijing 2008 we will see the Chinese team take on the United States and the world...captained by none other than Yao Ming.