CBA News: Guangdong’s Yi Jianlian, Beijing’s Jeremy Lin Lead CBA All Star Voting

Perennial CBA All-Star Yi Jianlian of Guangdong Southern Tigers and NBA champion Jeremy Lin of the Beijing Ducks topped their respective divisions as the Chinese Basketball Association closed the public voting for the league’s all-star game.

Per reports from the CBA site, Yi, a former first-round pick of the Milwaukee Bucks in 2007, got the highest number of votes in the south division, and in the all-star voting overall, with 192, 084. Per Xinhua News, this will be the fifth time that the seven-foot forward/center ended up as the top vote-getter in the annual league event – his third straight year as the number one.

For the northern division, Lin led all players in the number of votes garnered with 109, 969. The former NBA sensation with the “Linsanity” in New York is averaging 24.5 points, six rebounds, and 5.9 dimes in his 20 games with the Ducks.

Both Yi and Lin will be participating in the league’s 1-on-1 basketball as the platform will be making its debut in the all-star activities that will be held in Guangzhou on January 11 and 12, 2020. Yi will be facing 7-foot-2 Zhou Qi of the Xinjiang Flying Tigers. Zhou also had a short stint in the NBA as a back-up center for the Houston Rockets and is also Yi’s frontcourt partner in the Chinese Men’s Basketball Team.

On the other hand, the 31-year old Lin will be matched up against Guangdong point guard Zhao Rui. A new face in the Chinese basketball team, Zhao is averaging 13.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game this season.

Joining Guangdong’s Zhou and Lin as starters for the North team are Beijing teammate Zhai Xiaochuan, and Han Dejun and Guo Ailun from Liaoning; while Hu Mingxuan from Zheijang, Wang Zhelin of Fujian, and Shenzhen’s Shen Zijie will be joining Yi and Zhao as South team’s starters.