Was the hiring of Yi Jianlian, a 7-ft tall starter from China, a covert move by the New Jersey Nets to attract all the kids from Chinatown? That seems to be the assertion: some sort of national pride will attract the inhabitants of BeBo (below Bowery) to come see a fellow statesman in an NBA game.

It's not technically a bad idea, as the Beijing Olympics renewed China's interest in the American-dominated sport.

But according to the demographics, the majority of basketball fans in the country are Caucasian, while a large portion of players are African-American. So the New Jersey Nets logic of race-baiting to attract new fans seems like a backward tactic to encourage a new audience.

Still, Jianlian is an admirable power forward, and his draft may have had nothing to do with race until The New York Times got a hold of the story and went around interviewing everyone in Chinatown.