Hey there! So, you know how the NBA and China have had their ups and downs? Well, guess what? Retired basketball legend Yao Ming says that the NBA is still super popular in his home country. Yao, who used to play for the Houston Rockets and is now the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, became a big star in the US before retiring in 2011. He really helped boost the NBA’s popularity in China. But, yeah, things haven’t always been smooth between the league and China. Like, in 2019, Chinese broadcasters stopped showing Rockets games because the team’s general manager posted a message supporting protests in Hong Kong. And earlier this year, there was some backlash when a former NBA player called Taiwan a country. But despite all that drama, Yao says that the NBA is still top-notch in China. He thinks the players and teams are all still very welcome there. In fact, some NBA players have even had cool experiences in China. Like, Kyle Anderson from the Minnesota Timberwolves played with the Chinese team at the FIBA World Cup, and Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat went on a tour of the country. Pretty awesome, right? Yao recently visited New York for the first time in almost four years and met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. He thinks Silver is doing a great job running the league. Oh, and by the way, while Yao was in New York, the Women’s Tennis Association was also returning to China. They had suspended competitions there because a player named Peng Shuai went missing, but now they’re back. Yao is actually friends with Peng and said they had dinner together a couple of months ago. He said she’s doing well. So, there you have it. The NBA may have had some bumps in the road with China, but according to Yao Ming, they’re still loved over there.