BEIJING -- Li Yimin, an economics student who was playing a pickup game in the Beijing smog, said he got his moves under the basket from watching Shaquille O'Neal on television. Li Yuan, who was working on backward layups at a neighboring court, said he learned leadership from watching Kobe Bryant. And a shy friend who barely rose above five feet in his best sneakers expressed admiration for nimble playmaking by the retired Utah Jazz guard John Stockton.

Nobody mentioned Yao Ming.

Although 7-foot-6 Yao Ming of Houston is a national icon, Li Yuan and many Chinese high schoolers fashion their games after smaller NBA players. (By Zhang Jing For The Washington Post)

The National Basketball Association, which seemed to explode in popularity here when the 7-foot-6 Yao started playing NBA ball in 2002, has gone on to become way more than a showcase for the Houston Rockets giant from Shanghai. For Chinese fans who have been saturated with television coverage and advertising, NBA games this season have come to mean Bryant, Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady in addition to the legendary Yao.

McGrady, merchandisers reported last month, has the best-selling jersey in China, followed by Iverson and then Yao.

Although some American players have surpassed him in popularity in China, Yao was still the top vote-getter globally in balloting that determines starters for this weekend's NBA All-Star Game, receiving more than 2.3 million votes. On Sunday, fans in the United States, China and 213 other countries will tune in to the game to watch their favorite stars.

Cheong Sau Ching, senior communications director in the NBA Asia office in Hong Kong, said Chinese youths tend to identify with relatively shorter players noted for agility, personality and on-court leadership. In that light, China's Li-Ning sportswear manufacturer recently signed a two-year promotional contract with the three-point specialist Damon Jones of the Cleveland Cavaliers, whose showmanship is rated higher than his scoring average.

Yao generated a lot of attention for basketball among his countrymen, but Cheong said American players have always enjoyed a popularity here independent of national pride in Yao's achievements. Recognition surveys back in the 1990s, she noted, showed Michael Jordan outranked even Zhou Enlai, the revolutionary hero and companion of Mao Zedong who figures prominently in Chinese schoolbooks.

The broadening appeal of the NBA in China has grown from relentless marketing and steady growth in the number of NBA games being broadcast. But the salesmanship has found a ready ally: the tendency among Chinese young people to regard imports from the West as sophisticated and with-it. If basketball is fun, the adolescent reasoning goes, then basketball from the United States must be even better.

"I think Yao Ming came along at just the right time," Cheong said. "He came at a time when China was stepping out on the world stage, and Yao Ming came to represent that."

Television broadcasts of NBA games began in 1987 and went live in 1994. This season, 24 Chinese stations have signed on to broadcast games, double the number from four years ago and reaching 30 million viewers weekly. In major markets such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, NBA officials calculated, Chinese fans can see six different games a week, live or delayed for prime time, and several related shows such as "NBA Jam."

Similarly, newspapers have begun regular coverage of NBA games and stars, sometimes assigning sportswriters to follow the season. That is a far cry from a decade ago, Cheong said, when editors used to tell her to stop sending faxes with NBA news because it used too much paper, or suggest that coverage of NBA games would come only at a price. Now editors and reporters call her, she said, and write informed commentary on the games.

"We knew it was going to be big, but we had no idea how big," she said.

The NBA, which has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, began its presence in China with a pair of exhibition games matching the Washington Wizards, then the Bullets, against the Chinese national team in 1979. The Houston Rockets, with Yao, played the Sacramento Kings in preseason matches in Shanghai and Beijing in 2004. Since then, the NBA has worked to expand its appeal with tours by well-known players, weekend clinics for aspiring stars and a Junior NBA China program that results in a national championship playoff.

This year's winner, No. 9 Middle School in Nanjing, got an expenses-paid trip to the NBA All-Star Game in Houston this Sunday for Coach Cai Yongning, his chief assistant and eight of their 14- and 15-year-old players, including a 6-foot-5 prospect in whom Adidas representatives have expressed interest.

Cai said that when he was a student at No. 9 Middle School, he was the only one in his class who could afford basketball shoes, and he used to lend them to classmates eager to see what they felt like. With China's growing economy, he said in a telephone conversation, the players now pick whatever shoes they want and eat healthier diets, raising his hopes that China will produce more Yaos in the future.

"I hope I can play on a professional team some day," said Li Ruji, 15, who was one of those on the way to Houston. "My biggest expense is sneakers. I wear out three pairs a year, and each pair costs between 800 and 900 yuan [$100-$115]. My parents are very supportive."

His teammate, Zhen Wen, 15, said most of the 54 students in his class like to watch basketball on television. "I love watching NBA shows," he said. "I hope I can get a picture taken with Kobe when I visit the States this week."

In a country of 1.3 billion people with rising disposable income, such popularity has naturally attracted the attention of advertisers. The Li-Ning deal with Jones was the latest in a growing list of product endorsements aired during games and sponsorships tied to NBA broadcasts.

Amway, which makes Nutrilite health products, helped sponsor the middle school tournament. Adidas and Nike have signed advertising contracts, and Reebok, which will be worn by Iverson and Yao at the All-Star Game, participates with the NBA in sportswear shops across the country.

Not all of the marketing has been smooth. Nike was forced to pull an ad 14 months ago because Chinese authorities took offense at a scene in which LeBron James of the Cavaliers trounced cartoon versions of ancient Chinese characters, including a kung fu master and dragons.

The latest deal involves Homenice, China's leading flooring company. It announced a marketing partnership with the NBA at a Beijing news conference Friday at which Hall of Famer Dave Cowens, 57, showed up to tell assembled sports reporters that he likes quality wood flooring because he used to fall down a lot during games.