There was more than one winner in the November 9 NBA game between the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks. While the Rockets overwhelmed the Bucks 104-88, two Chinese players, Yao Ming (left) and Yi Jianlian, dominated the so-called "China derby."

In their first ever matchup, Yao scored 28 points, in addition to 10 rebounds and three assists, for the Rockets; Yi, the Buck's rookie, finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Prior to this game, the Chinese national teammates had never donned different jerseys and confronted each other in any regular basketball competition.

More importantly, the duo helped the game, reportedly "the biggest individual sports story of all time," draw a global audience of up to 250 million, mostly in China where the event was broadcast live on 19 TV networks and two webcasters.

The 27-year-old Yao, standing at 7-foot-6 (2.26 meters), was selected by the Rockets with the first pick in the 2002 NBA draft. After five years of playing in the NBA, he is now one of the sport's most formidable centers.

Yi, 20 years old and 7 feet (2.12 meters) tall, first gained worldwide recognition when he was proclaimed as "the next Yao Ming" in a Time magazine article in 2003. The sixth overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft, he has a long-legged, easy stride that makes him one of the fastest big men in the league. He also shoots well from the perimeter and the free-throw line, and dribbles well. Before entering the NBA, Yi won three straight Chinese Basketball Association League titles with the Guangdong Tigers in the 2003-06 seasons.

Yao and Yi have proved very successful, not only on the court but also in pushing the NBA's penetration into their homeland. According to a recent survey held by the NBA, 83 percent of Chinese males aged between 15 and 24 years admit that they are NBA fans. In the meantime, nearly one third of the visits to the NBA's official website are from China, and there are more than 50,000 stores selling NBA merchandise across the country.

In October, NBA Commissioner David Stern estimated that the league's profits in China, which stood at $50 million, would increase by more than fivefold in the next two to three years.

"It doesn't matter who wins. It's the best thing that can happen in China, because people will be excited either way."

Titan Sports, a Beijing-based newspaper, commenting on the Yao-Yi matchup on November 9

"China is the fastest-growing market in the world, and Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian are very, very important economically and socially."

Nine-Min Cheng, the Community Outreach Director of the Chinese Community Center in Houston

"I'm aware that even a 1-yuan ($0.13) increase in prices will affect people's lives."

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, assuring more measures to stabilize prices when he visited Beijing residents on November 12. Official statistics show China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 6.5 percent year on year in October

"The lifting of the ban will help create a less discriminating environment for HIV/AIDS sufferers, who will be more willing to cooperate with the authorities for treatment and control efforts."

Wu Zunyou, Director of China's National Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and Control, responding to an announcement by the Ministry of Public Health on November 12 that the Chinese Government would lift a ban on foreigners with HIV/AIDS entering China

"I told them all about it before the elections so that I would be able to do what was necessary afterwards."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, vowing on November 13 to continue his domestic reform programs despite nationwide strikes in protest of recent government proposals on the overhaul of the pension system

"Children from middle- and upper middle-class black families xperience a generational drop in income that is in sharp contrast to the traditional American expectation that each generation will do better than the one that came before it."

Brookings Institution scholar Julia Isaacs, revealing in a report released on November 13 how black Americans are failing to climb the social ladder, while a worrying number born into the middle classes are now actually poorer than their parents

"Our customers like this kind of fashionable product. The biggest issue is the business model."

China Mobil's Chairman, Wang Jianzhou, speaking at a conference in Macao on November 13 referring to the $399 iPhone handset made by Apple. Apple's shares rose more than they had in over a year after China Mobile, the world's biggest wireless operator, said it was in talks to sell the iPhone