Highlights in the video below include:

- Beautiful drives to the rim throughout the game
- 2:27 - a gorgeous fadeaway bank shot high off the glass for a bucket
- 3:22 - a monster throw-down!
- Lots of cheering from the Washington crowd, many being Asian-Americans who came out to be part of Lin-sanity, just like YaoMania 10 years ago! Listen to them!
- On a couple of plays, former Rocket and 1st round draft pick Steve Novak scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting (5-of-9 from 3-point land).

Click here for more photos from the game, including a bad cut on Lin’s chin.

THEN LIN DID IT AGAIN TONIGHT. In his first career start, Lin scored 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting to lead the team in scoring against the Jazz in another win, while also and dishing 8 dimes against the Jazz in another win. See photos of JLin from the game here, and the video highlights below:

The Knicks needed Lin since Amare Stoudemire didn’t play because of the death of his older brother, Carmelo Anthony had to leave the game because of a pulled groin, and Baron Davis‘ comeback has been slowed by an infected elbow.

Lin played almost the entire game (45 minutes) and obviously was fatigued as evidenced by his 8 turnovers. Coach Mike D’antoni, when asked if Lin got tired because he had to play him extended minutes because of the other players who were out, he replied, “Yeah, I’m riding him like friggin’ Secretariat.”

In case you haven’t seen it, below is an amazing video of Lin’s points and assists from Saturday’s game. You gotta love how his teammates react from the bench when Lin is blowing up.

And here is JLin’s post-game news conference after the Nets game:

Obviously, the Knicks are playing much better with Lin leading the team, penetrating into the lane, scoring, or kicking out to the open man. You can bet Lin will be playing lots of minutes from here on out.

With Lin proving he’s for real, I wonder how the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets feel about having released Lin earlier this season? Granted, both teams were deep at the point guard position, whereas the Knicks aren’t. And the Rockets apparently wanted to keep him, but they signed Samuel Dalembert instead, who has been a great acquisition for them. But did they really have to keep Jonny Flynn, who has done nothing for them this season?

What’s also odd is that other former Rockets now with the Knicks showed they can play well, too. Steve Novak scored 19 points (5-of-8 3-pointers) in just 19 minutes, and Jared Jeffries scored 13 and grabbed 8 boards against a larger front line.

Previous reports said the Chinese basketball celebrity was in touch with Jay Cohen, an independent filmmaker in Hollywood and the two are planning to establish a film finance fund, according to TheWrap.com, a showbiz news website.

“They make movies for specific reasons,” Cohen told TheWrap. “Sometimes, it is to introduce the culture of China to other markets, sometimes for cultural history. No one is going to lose money, but sometimes they do it for a sense of cultural pride.”

Click here for more about the artist and the project.

First, you may have heard that Yao participated in the National People Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference in Shanghai last weekend. Below is a photo of the “exciting” meetings they must have had. Look at all the sleeping attendees!

As always, Yao is such a hard worker, when other people may be resting, he has the discipline to be a professional. Can you imagine what would happen if city council members or state representatives in the U.S. were caught sleeping on the job like this?

Earlier in the week, Aaron Brooks‘ Guangdong Tigers played Yao’s Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks. Unfortunately for the Sharks, one of their star players, former Houston Rocket Mike Harris, wasn’t able to play because he had to fly back to the U.S. to attend the funeral of his brother. Brooks and his teammates took advantage by handing the Sharks their third loss in a row.

A couple of days ago, Yao took part in a Shanghai Oriental TV taping for the Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese Lunar New Year) where he played a chef in a short film and sang some Chinese New Year songs together with a group of children.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the taping of the Chinese Lunar New Year television special.

Since all TV stations in China are competing for viewership for the primetime variety shows airing on Chinese Lunar New Year Eve, Hunan Satelitte TV signed Shaquille O’Neal to a six-figure (U.S. dollars) appearance fee for their own show after they learned Shanghai Oriental TV had invited Yao Ming to be one of its stars for their show.

Shaq flew to Changsha of Hunan on a chartered flight last Saturday and spent Sunday in the studio taping his antics doing a Chinese shadow puppet show, kungfu fighting, street dancing, and making Chinese dumplings.

In addition, on January 17th Yao Ming was also selected as the Vice President of the Shanghai Sports Federation, which is the overall controlling federation of many sports federations in Shanghai city.

Yao has become a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature. Below the photo is more on the story from the China.org.cn:

Click here for more photos of Yao from the closing ceremony for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee.

On Sunday, January 15th, Yao took his seat as a new member of the standing committee of Shanghai’s political advisory body during its annual session.

“There are about 142 members in the group, and Yao is the youngest,” said Kong Rong, who works in the service office of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Shanghai Committee.

Yao is not the first Chinese sports star to become a Shanghai political adviser. Former Chinese female football star striker Sun Wen took up this job five years ago.

“Yao said the new title shows trust coming from the people in the city. He had said before that once he decides to do something, he will try his best to accomplish it. So we can trust him that he can balance all aspects of his work and study, and do well in this job,” said Yao’s spokesman Zhang Chi.

But Zhang denied that Yao has any ambitions to have a “political career”.

“The responsibilities for a CPPCC member include offering political consultation, and supervision. What Yao wants is to use his influence to do good deeds for society but not to seek a political position,” Zhang said.

Under the new title, Yao is supposed to attend regular meetings, make suggestions or raise written proposals for the advisory body and government departments.

Yao has remained very low-key during the organization’s ongoing annual plenary session. The information office of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee said they have not received any proposals from Yao yet.

Yao explained earlier that he prefers to “listen and learn because he is new to the organization”.

“Raising proposals is very serious business, and I do not want to be hasty,” Yao said, adding that he is paying more attention to sports education, a field he is familiar with.

Zhang also said Yao is very interested in issues regarding sports and charity. “He will make proposals in future, of course,” said Zhang.

It’s also interesting the team they played are called the “Millionaires.” Both teams exchanged gifts before the game. I wonder if there was some cash in those gift bags the Millionaires gave the Chinese team? (although given the current global economic situation, it might have been the other way around).

Click here for more photos and details from the release of the pandas, and about the panda breeding program at the Dujiangyan Research Center where the ceremony was held.

Photo: Getty Images

One of many refreshing parts of the article is the following:

It’s said that her profile in China has overtaken that of the former NBA superstar Yao Ming.

”Yeah, because Yao Ming was retired,” she laughed, playing down the significance.

Not that she’s keeping tabs. ”I never think about who is the famous sports guy or sportsman in China because I mean, you know, China’s an amazing country, so I just try my best at tennis. I just think I’m nothing too much.”