Elsewhere in the newspaper was a report about American cheerleaders, Chinese troupes and a Ukrainian dance group “all set for the razzle dazzle” of the match.

Some narratives to account for China’s desire to excel at basketball are similar to the one in India inquiring into its obsession with cricket, a story going back to the first encounters with Western colonialists. Basketball, notes writer Xu Guoqi, came to China with the YMCA missionaries carrying “the thirteen rules of basketball” just years after the game had been invented in 1891.

Jiang sees the current obsession in more contemporary terms. There are two factors, he says. One, China’s failure to break into football’s serious league. Two, the appeal of the NBA. “The NBA is very much related to the American and pop culture,” he explains. It ties in very well with the hip-hop and the bling-bling so attractive to the urban youth.

The NBA is broadcast live each season, and the popularity can be gauged by the sale of 400 million NBA-branded products in the country in 2005. So, the match-up on August 10 could extract excruciatingly complex emotions, says Jiang. He can’t keep the excitement out of his voice: “We will be tortured.” Millions like him “love” Yao Ming, they want to see China do well. But they also want to see something spectacular from American NBA star Kobe Bryant.

Can it get any tougher than that?