I was at the U.S.-Angola basketball game Tuesday night, setting my things down before play started when, suddenly, a wave of cheering erupted.

Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant had stepped on court.

The shooting guard has been enjoying a lovefest in China, eliciting almost as much enthusiasm as the home country's giant star Yao Ming.

Why Kobe? Well, he was last season's NBA most valuable player, and the Chinese do keep track of things like that. He's also a friendly enough guy, which is half of why Yao Ming is a star here.

But I think it's also cos the Chinese can say Kobe much more easily than LeBron James or Dwayne Wade, some other stars on the U.S. team. In fact, the word "LeBron" patently defies Chinese attempts to pronounce it phonetically.

Bryant was having an off-night Tuesday but was still getting the love. He scored 8 points and missed several 3-point shots, while Wade scored 19 and James scored 12.

But Wade received only a smattering of applause, mainly from the Americans in the crowd, when he stepped off the court, while Bryant got rock-star thunder. Lebron was the dominant force of the night, blocking shots, zooming around the Angolans, but still, no love from the Chinese.

The Chinese will really erupt when Bryant actually plays at the top of his game one of these nights.

-Jack Chang