The CBA, China's top basketball league, has upgraded itself once more by releasing the Top 100 lists of CBA career scoring, assisting, rebounding and leaders in other areas. This was the first time for the league to make the official announcement of such information.

In the past 2018-19 season, Yi Jianlian, Liu Wei and Lester Hudson all exceeded 10,000 points with their scoring and ranked No.2, No.4 and No.3 respectively on the list after No.1 Zhu Fangyu.

Yi (10,982 points) is only 183 points away from Zhu (11,165 points). Considering that he claimed 21.4 points per game with the Guangdong Southern Tigers, Yi will only need another nine games to surpass Zhu and become the No.1 scoring CBA player. Hudson (10,544 points) are 621 points away. Though he may not extend his contract with the Liaoning Flying Leopards, he is still a foreign player who is able to score 28 points on average, meaning that he only needs some 20 games to surpass Zhu if he stays in the CBA.

Unlike the above two, Liu (10,147 points) has 1,018 points to catch up. Considering that he's already 39 years old and could only get 8.1 points per game last season, even if Liu does not retire, it will be mission impossible for him to surpass Zhu in scoring.

Fortunately for Liu, he (2,591 assists) is only four assists away from Hu Xuefeng (2,595) on the career assist leaders list. As long as he plays next season, it's only a matter of time for Liu to become the No.1 assisting player in CBA history. Furthermore, the closest competitor Liu has on the list that is still playing is Zhang Qingpeng (1,883 assists). Since the 708-assist difference can take more than one season to wipe away, Liu will be able to stay in the No.1 position for a long time after he exceeds Hu.

Yi (5,158 rebounds)'s No.1 ranking on the career rebound leaders list seems unshakable. No.2 Mengke Bateer (4,978 rebounds) and No.3 Tang Zhengdong (4,888 rebounds) have already retired. No.4 Li Xiaoxu (4,061 rebounds) still has a long way to go to approach Yi who, by the way, could still grab 9.3 rebounds on average last season.

Statistics is a necessary part of a decent sports league – the NBA is the best example. The CBA in the past made more than enough jokes in this area and Yao Ming, China's basketball boss, finally decided to change the embarrassing situation. The announcement of the Top 100 lists is only part of Yao's reforms for the CBA, but it is a move in the right direction.

(Top image: Yi Jianlian #9, Zhu Fangyu #8 and Hu Xuefeng #55 are the career leaders in rebouding, scoring and assisting respectively in CBA history. /VCG Photo)