Basketball Diplomacy for Milwaukee?

You have to have a few gray hairs (or just few hairs, period) to remember the hub-bub over Ping-Pong Diplomacy (April 6 - 17, 1971), when ping pong helped open the door to China. It's hard to imagine todays that neither the US nor anyone else did much trade of ny kind with China just three-plus decades ago. The American Experience Nixon's China Game People & Events ...

New new phenomenon of basketball diplomacy has hit - Milwaukee?

The Milwaukee JS recently reported (Off-court diplomacy) on the buzz created by the Milwaukee Bucks' rookie forward Yi Jianlian and his battle with the Chinese-born star of the Houston Rockets, Yao Ming. According to the MJS: "Chinese dignitaries from Washington and Chicago came to Milwaukee for a basketball game dubbed the 'Chinese Super Bowl'....[and reached] agreement to inaugurate an annual 'Milwaukee-China dialogue'."

I don't know whether Yi will ever pan out as an NBA pro and if he does whether the Bucks will be able to hold on to him, but Senator Herb Kohl (who owns the Bucks) may have the state's people and economy more good with this signing than anything he's ever done in the U.S. Senate.

The MJS story continues, "An estimated 200 million viewers in China tuned in to watch the 'meeting of the two dragons', as some Chinese sportswriters called Saturday's match, which Houston won 91-83." In other words, this otherwise rather pedestrian mid-season NBA game drew more than twice as many viewers as the NFL's Super Bowl.

(BTW, I've just given you killer trivia: What the most-watched sporting event so far in 2008? A Milwaukee Bucks game won't be high on many people's list. Just cut me in for 10% of your winnings.)

The story quotes Bob Kraft, a Milwaukee businessman and co-chairman of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's China Council: "Milwaukee is now as prominent in China as Los Angeles or New York." Taking into account a measure of hometown hyperbole, the Yi presence has put Milwaukee prominently on the map in the world's most populous country.

Yi Jianlian in Bucks' game_Basketball--China Economic Net

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