Talking Balls: Finalized Fixtures, Distasteful Ice Cream & Ladies In the Ring

Jeremy Lin. That's all the sports news you need to linform you enough to talk to anyone. The phenom (as the US sports media loves calling athletes) is all over the media like raw meat on Lady Gaga. As ever, it's not all peachy when it comes to the Asian-American hoop star. Famed cream-icers Ben & Jerry dropped their "Taste The Lin-Sanity" ice cream flavor at their Harvard Square location (this is where we are legally obliged to mention that Jeremy Lin went to Harvard and that the school is not famed for its basketball). The new flavor left a sour taste for many as it contained (wait for it) chunks of fortune cookie. After the obvious ingredient came the inevitable backlash and then the expected apology. We doubt this will be the last time that a company cynically uses stereotypes to get some cheap PR.

You'll soon be able to get an official Lin jersey at the Adidas store at Sanlitun Village. That's if you haven't got a fake already. There's no news on when we can all start sporting J-Lin sneakers.

Back on the court, Lin's Knicks beat the Cavs. He got a bloody nose for his troubles. Luckily, it's not "brooking." In an even better Jeremy Lin spot of Internet nonsense, you can find out Could Your Dog Jeremy Lin Jersey Have Anemia. More interesting is that Barack Obama knew about Jeremy Lin before he was cool. This officially makes the President of the United States a hipster.

Look out for Beijing bar owners to capitalize on Linsanity soon. We fully expect that the first one will be The Stumble Lin. Anyway, that's one of the bars we'd recommend to watch the NBA. Others would include Union and Paddy's but lucky for you it's on terrestrial TV so all you need is a color TV so you can see the Knicks play basketball. No more puns ... otherwise we'll need a Lintervention.

If you are in any doubt as how you should talk about Jeremy Lin, you may want to consult this guide from the Asian American Journalists Association. Either that or you could double up on him. Zinger! (Talking Balls promises never to try to make a basketball joke ever again.)

In other news:

The Beijing Ducks' goose is not yet cooked. They are through to the Final Four of the CBA playoffs.

The CSL fixture list has been finalized. Here's Beijing Guoan's schedule.

Ding Junhui will be glad that he's got a girlfriend as he's been knocked out of the 2012 Snooker Haikou Open.

And finally, here are some pictures of China's women boxers. That doesn't mean sexist undertakers but female pugilists and they are training for the Olympics.

Photo: China Daily