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The stage has expanded to the NBA. Korean college basketball is receiving global attention. The Asian University Basketball League (AUBL) announced on the 10th that it has completed a Series A funding round with participation from global investors. AUBL views South Korea as one of its core strategic markets and plans to actively promote league operations and community expansion. AUBL is a pan-Asian university sports league launched with the goal of strengthening competitiveness and globalizing Asian college basketball. The 2026 season will be a pivotal year for league expansion, with the opening match and first home-and-away games scheduled to be held in South Korea. This investment round was led by Blue Pool Capital, the family office of Joe Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba and owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. Other investors included Avenue Capital Group, led by Marc Lasry, former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks; Bolt Ventures, co-owned by David Blitzer, co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers; Nan Fung Group, a Hong Kong conglomerate; HSG (formerly Sequoia China), a venture capital firm; and Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball legend.
Sean Highkin: "At the press conference to introduce the new ownership group, Andrew Cherng, who co-founded Panda Express with his wife, was asked why he invested in the Blazers. He said he's Chinese, he likes that the Blazers have a Chinese player, and he sees a lot of business opportunities in China because of that. One of the minority owners said that on the record. And then Sheel Tyle, the other public-facing member of the group, did an interview with The Athletic and talked about wanting to make the Blazers into Asia's team. He had dinner with Yao Ming, who talked about how popular Hansen is. So you've got one minority owner saying he only invested because they had a Chinese player, and another saying he wants to make them Asia's team. I think it's pretty clear (Yang) Hansen is very much a part of this organization going forward."
Paul Pierce: The two guys that should have been voted in for sure, 100%, should have been… Kevin Garnett: Jamal Murray. Pierce: LeBron James and Anthony Edwards should have been voted in. Q. Voting's only for the fans, only 50% now. Then it's 25% players, then 25% media. So, they changed the fan voting. Paul Pierce: We need to take the media out… Kevin Garnett: Take the media out of it, bro. Give it to the fans, this is a fan event… Q. But fans have like in years past like Zaza Pachulia, and Yao Ming, people were getting voted in like that. Pierce: But we running up. Hey, listen. If they got those people voting them in, right? That means more money coming in.
Given the nature of hamstring and adductor injuries as well as Zion’s injury history, how would you characterize what your level of concern is with him? Dunphy: “It’s crazy how many injuries he’s had. Zion is 25. So you wonder what that looks like in the future. You see these big guys. He’s not a Yao Ming kind of guy. But there are guys that just cannot stay healthy. They have all of these stress fractures and soft-tissue injuries, and it doesn’t look good. If you’re missing multiple sessions in one season, the odds of it happening again would probably be high. I wouldn’t say the recurrence rate is out of the norm. But if I was a betting person, I would say if he returns, he may have something else coming up. That’s always a concern. And why is he so injury-prone? That’s the question that someone closer to him would have a better sense of. Is it how they’re treating him? Are they pushing him too hard? Or not enough? I don’t know him personally, obviously. But those are the questions.” Shah: “It’s concerning given the fact that he’s had a plethora of injuries since entering the league. He started out with a meniscus injury. He’s had hamstring injuries. He’s had adductor strains. There are all indications that it’s a structural problem or overuse injuries. So it’s concerning that it’s been happening season by season. I don’t know if you can rank which injury is more significant than the other. But when you’re looking at the number of injuries he’s had and the types of injuries he’s had, the strength of those areas of the body to the level of play that he’s requesting his body to perform isn’t equal.
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Through 10 games, Ryan Kalkbrenner has hit 42 of 52 shots. That’s 80.8 percent from the field, the highest ever for any NBA player with at least 50 attempts over his first 10 games. Kalkbrenner surpassed the previous record holder, Yao Ming, who shot 72 percent (36 for 50) to begin his career with the Houston Rockets. “It’s just a credit to my teammates who let me get easy looks,” Kalkbrenner told The Associated Press after shooting 3 of 4 from the field and scoring nine points in a 121-111 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night. “I mean, it’s not my role to take tough shots, so of course I’m at a decent percentage, but my teammates do a really good job of finding me on dump-offs when I’m wide open and whatnot.
New Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont is poised to be promoted in March 2026 to chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns Venetian Arena within the resort property where the games were played. Dumont, who sat beside Chinese legend Yao Ming at Sunday's game, has been among the leading forces in restoring the league's business relationships with China and sources say that the Mavericks, as a result, are already being lined up to play two preseason games there next October.
Yang Hansen: At one point, a coach for that team asked me which centers I liked to watch, and I responded the same way I always had when someone asked me that question. Yao Ming or Shaq, basically. But this guy, he told me: “Pay attention to Nikola Jokic from now on.” From there, I studied Jokic. I learned everything I could from watching how he played as a big man who passed and saw the floor like a guard. (A couple of weeks ago, my manager surprised me with a signed Jokic jersey, and it is one of the greatest things I have ever received.) I modeled my game after his in every way I could.
Howard is one of 19 players in NBA history with five consecutive first-team All-NBA nods. The only other centers on that list are Shaq and George Mikan. The only other 21st-century players are LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, O'Neal, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant -- who, with the exception of the young Doncic, are acknowledged as top-25 players in NBA history. Critics would contend that Howard so thoroughly dominated the All-NBA voting because of a lesser caliber of competition in that era. This idea has some merit: Though the center landscape wasn't quite as barren during Howard's reign as it would be half a decade later -- the All-NBA centers in 2015-16 were DeAndre Jordan, DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond -- the second- and third-team All-NBA centers behind Howard were Amar'e Stoudemire (three times), Yao Ming (twice), Suns-era Shaq, Andrew Bogut, Al Horford, Andrew Bynum and Tyson Chandler. There are good players on that list, but few Hall of Famers.
Kyle Kuzma: “What’s your favorite U.S. city?” Yao Ming: “My favorite? Philadelphia” Kyle Kuzma: “Why?” Yao Ming: “Uh... cheesesteak. And I like museums.” Kyle Kuzma: “Oh, you like museums?” Yao Ming: “Yeah. Chicago’s got good museums too, but Philly definitely has a great museum. Good museum.”
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Jack Sikma: The interesting situation with Yao was—he was deaf in one ear. Oh yeah, pretty much deaf in one ear. So when you're talking to him, you'd have to turn your way. There was one time during the flow of the game, I was trying to yell something to him. And Yao goes like this [gestures]. So I’m saying, ‘You heard me? Or did you not hear me? Because you're going like this…’ He didn’t hear. But yeah, he was unique." The interesting situation with Yao was—he was deaf in one ear. Oh yeah, pretty much deaf in one ear. So when you're talking to him, you'd have to turn your way. There was one time during the flow of the game, I was trying to yell something to him. And Yao goes like this [gestures]. So I’m saying, ‘You heard me? Or did you not hear me? Because you're going like this…’ He didn’t hear. But yeah, he was unique."
Speaking on the latest episode of the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Mobley reflected on his time with Yao in Houston and expressed that the 7-foot-6 center was more than just a dominant post scorer. “What people don’t understand about Yao. He could pass the ball, like Joker, he could've done that,” Mobley said. “It’s just the offense didn’t. Say we would’ve had Rick Adelman, for a fact, you would’ve seen more of Yao Ming. Like that Chris Webber, that Vlade Divac, Brad Miller type of passing. He had all of it.”
"T-Mac, I'm telling you dog, listen — T-Mac was another level," Pierce said on Paul George's podcast. As terrific as McGrady was, he couldn't do it alone. In Orlando, the best players he played with were an oft-injured Grant Hill and a young Mike Miller. In Houston, he had the pleasure of playing with Chinese phenom Yao Ming. However, the 7'6" behemoth also dealt with a litany of injuries and was already out of the NBA after just eight seasons. "He needed that one other superstar. If you had to put T-Mac with KG, if you had to put T-Mac with Shaq, you know, yeah," Paul stressed. "People be like, 'Oh he played with Yao.' Yao was kind of hurt. He was in and out. And like, you put T-Mac with LeBron, man come on."
Jorge Sierra: Russell Westbrook passed James Worthy in playoff scoring for No. 29 all-time. He also tied Yao Ming in blocks.