A swarm of cameramen fought for positioning around the Lakers’ player. For the first time in 20 years, the hubbub did not involve Kobe Bryant.
Instead, plenty of Chinese media members wanted to catch every glimpse of Lakers forward/center Yi Jianlian, who has starred for both the Chinese national team and professional team (Guangdong) for the past four years.
Yi’s stature hardly comes close toward Bryant, who won five NBA titles with the Lakers and became the NBA’s third all-time leading scorer. Yi also brushed off any comparisons to former Houston Rockets center and Chinese star Yao Ming, who recently earned an induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.