Talking Balls: Friday Night Lights

Talking Balls has been locked in meetings for the last few days. This report has been phoned into the office. Apologies, Balls fans.

NiuBBall has dropped the first CBA Power Rankings and the Beijing Ducks are top of the table. If they stay unbeaten they’ll deserve whatever plaudits come their way.

Ye Shiwen and Sun Yang have been named Pacific Rim Swimmers of the Year by Swimming World. People who say Pacific when they mean specific may be confused. Other people might be too, It means East Asian swimmers from what we can tell, not that they have been swimming the high seas.

Basketball fans are getting the NBA for Christmas. You’ll be seeing Yi Jianlian there. He’s binning off his hometown to get back to the big time.

Well done to the Beijing Devils for being the best team at rugby in China. There’s more on their site here.

Another well done to their sisters at the She Devils. They have taken their clothes off for rugby. See more in our Sports Feature here.

Yao Ming cut class to sell his wine and then he found time to give a soon-to-be-retired TV commentator a commemorative jersey. Yao is making the most of retirement.

The NFL is now on PPTV. Details can be found here. Touchdown.

Another week and another Who's Hot and Who's Not. This week going unbeaten is so hot right now and selling wine ain’t. Take that basketball.

And finally, Gorbachev has not been in the news for a while. He is now. The photo at the top of the page is him presenting chess grandmaster Hou Yifan with the Women’s World Chess Championship.

Photo: chinadaily.com.cn