The CBA on Friday night had two special guests attending the game between the Guangdong Southern Tigers and the Jiangsu Dragons: China's top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan and his wife Li Shaofen, a former member of Chinese women's basketball national team.

Zhong has played an important role in China's ongoing battle against the COVID-19 epidemic and he offered tremendous help to Yao Ming, president of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) to bring the CBA season back. In Yao's interview with CCTV-5 before the season restart, Yao expressed gratitude to Zhong and called the 84-year-old the "son-in-law of Chinese basketball," thanks to his marriage to Li.

Li became a member of China's first women's national basketball team in 1952. In 1999, she was honored by CBA among 50 people for their contribution to basketbaal's development in China. After retirement, Li used to work as the head coach of Guangdong women's team and CBA's vice president.

Before Friday's game, Zhong and Li came down to the court accompanied by Yao. They received the No. 36 jerseys with their names on the backs as gifts and took photos with the two teams' players.

"Ms. Li here has so many titles but the one I like the most is deputy captain of the national team," said Yao. "As a senior of our profession, she has been contributing to Chinese basketball all her life in the position of player, coach, management in the Association. But I believe her most special contribution was that she brought us a 'basketball son-in-law.'"

"I think today's basketball players are much better than those of my generation and the games are very exciting," said Li. "I want to take this opportunity to greet all the basketball veterans, all the players, coaches of our country and say hi to all basketball fans around the world."

"I am so glad to attend tonight's game between Guangdong and Jiangsu," said Zhong. "I read about every game because I'm a basketball fan and because of who my wife is. From the 1980s, my colleagues and I played basketball every Saturday. We have watched a lot of CBA games."

"CBA is making a great example here because the CSL (Chinese Super League) is coming next and it is following its basketball peer's footprints. In other words, the CBA is making contributions for the whole country," said Zhong.

Zhong also recalled two of his highlights in basketball. One was the buzzer-beater by Wang Shipeng from downtown in the group game against Slovenia in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan. The other was the 1.7-second full-court game-winning alley-hoop by Shen Zijie (passed by Gu Quan) to help Shenzhen defeat Xinjiang in November, 2019.

During the ceremony, Yao asked Zhong a question that many Chinese basketball fans would like to ask themselves: When will fans be allowed to attend the games?

"My guess is that during the CBA Finals, some fans may be allowed to enter the arena. I heard that some 3,000 audience members were allowed to attend the show of the Changlong Circus in an 8,000-seat location. I hope we can do the same because our fans are desperate to watch the game in the arena," said Zhong.