HOT

Stephon Marbury

In the CBA, foreign fortune seekers come and go, but Starbury is forever. Or maybe we should call him "Commissar Ma" instead, after he put a cartoon image of himself dressed in a Chinese army uniform on Weibo. Stephon Marbury is truly in love with China and embracing its culture. He wears a smile all the time. And he takes the subway to practice. 

However, he turns cool and menacing once he steps onto the hardwood. His Beijing Ducks is the only unbeaten team in the league after six rounds behind Marbury's 23.8 points, 6 rebounds and 5.6 assists on average. FYI, he will turn 35 in February.

 

Lin Dan

To the surprise of no one, Super Dan made our list three times in a row, after taking down compatriot Chen Long to win the men's singles final at China Open on Sunday night. He has beat Lee Chong Wei in their last four meetings after defeating the Malaysian in a thrilling three sets in the semifinal. As fierce as the rivalry is, the two really enjoy an off-court friendship.

Sorry to bring this up, but Lin Dan has announced he won't participate in the Macao Open but gave no reason.

 

Ma Long

At the age of 23, Ma Long has won the International Table Tennis Federation's Pro Tour Grand Finals twice. The world No 1 cruised past compatriot Zhang Jike 4-1 to win the men's title in the Olympic test event at London's ExCel Centre on Monday.

It wasn't until I spent like forever to tell the two apart on the podium that I realized we are already way past the era of Ma Lin, Wang Liqin and Kong Linghui. With only two men's singles places for each country at the London Olympics, Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Wang Hao will face an internal race before they appear on the ultimate stage next August, one that is much more cruel and competitive than the international tests.

 

Not

Yi Jianlian

Yi Jianlian was easily the most unfortunate sports celebrity in China last week, since he did not do anything wrong on his part. He was just not standing at the right place. Yi got an unexpected knee injury when teammate Zhu Fangyu, who was trying to take a charge in a play, fell and crushed him in the leg. MRI tests shows he had a knee ligament strain that will keep him away from the game for at least two weeks. The incident adds doubt to the health of the injury-prone NBA free agent, who is returning to the US for a new contract. The Golden Warriors have expressed interest in him, according to media reports.

 

Ding Junhui

I'm reluctant to include Ding Junhui in the "NOT" category, after all he reached the final at the 2011 Premier Snooker League. But believing the saying that second place is the first loser, and out of consideration to the coming UK Snooker Championship on Saturday, I put him on this side. Ding lost the game to Ronnie O'Sullivan, with an embarrassing 1-7 frame score in their best-of-13 frames final match on Monday night at the Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea in England.

He played down the fiasco after the match, saying he just lost his momentum. But look on the bright side, he gained 31,000 pounds from the match and rose to the world's top three in terms of prize money, with a total of 100,000 pounds.

 

Yao Ming

I'm happy to see Yao Ming keep realizing his potential step by step; I just haven't figured out why everything he does dominates media headlines. This time, the Shanghai Jiaotong University freshman is reportedly having to skip class for a launching ceremony of a wine that is his new investment. He joked about skipping class, saying he has to give a bottle to his history teacher in exchange of a good grade. Well, in that case, that was a 1,775 yuan history lesson.