When will NFL be as popular as NBA in China?

The National Football League has been doing their best to increase its popularity in China, but from 2004 to now, it’s still a strange name to most people. Unlike the NBA, who has star Chinese players like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, the NFL is nothing about any Chinese, and the sports American football itself is nothing familiar to Chinese.

I’ve heard that some college football player of Chinese origin will put on NFL jerseys in new future. That is a basic step for the NFL to start its business in Chinese. If they want have more share of the China market, well, a lot more needs to be done.

First of all, the league really needs invest a lot to make American football a favorite sports to young man. As a matter of fact, what Chinese people called football is what is internationally known as soccer. This country has many soccer teams but none has played well enough to satisfy their fans ever. There are few professional football teams, let alone football games. I guess the league will have to spend quite a lot of time in promoting the real meaning of the sports. And that is only some of the first steps, so I guess it will take at least three to five years before NFL gets some popularity in China. To be as hot as NBA? Well, let’s say a decade.

Two starters returned to play against Bucks for Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks starting point guard Jason Kidd and starting center Erick Dampier both put on their Mavericks jerseys to start against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night for the Mavericks, after each missing last Sunday’s game.

The Mavericks played against the New York Knicks last Sunday, and Kidd sat out the game because of personal reasons instead of health problems, while Dampier missed that game because he had to take care of his injured left knee.

Well, since both starters returned to starting lineup, the Mavericks seemed hopeful to win their first home game since last Sunday’s road win over the Knicks. As I wrote down this blog, it’s been 6:24 left for the second quarter, and the Mavericks is taking a 44-39 lead still.

Following being waived by Nets, Shawne Williams was indicted on drug charges

Before Friday, we could still call Shawne Williams a New Jersey Nets forward when mentioning him in the case he was involved. But now he is commonly described as a former NBA player when he was mentioned in reports about the felony drug charges he has been indicted.

In a statement made by Nets interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe on Friday, he explained why the Nets decided to waive Williams just 4 days after signing him from the Dallas Mavericks in trading veteran forward Eduardo Najera.

“We brought him in to take a look at him and (he was) way out of shape … (we) didn’t like what we saw,” said Vandeweghe. “He said he had to go home for some type of medical emergency, for one of his grandfathers or something like that. We sort of made the decision at that time that this wasn’t going to work, so we waived him, and all this other stuff came down. We hope he is OK. We wish him well, but luckily (it’s) not our issue.”

However, the Nets keep the other forward acquired from the Mavericks, Kris Humphries. Williams’ performance has indeed not been good since put on NBA jersey as a first-round draft pick of the Indiana Pacers in 2006. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in his four seasons with the Pacers and the Mavericks and has not yet played any game this season.