'Too entertaining' NBA play-offs are taken off the air in mourning China

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All entertainment in China was stopped last week for three days of national mourning for the victims of the massive quake that struck the western province on May 12.

State TV sports channel CCTV 5, like most other stations, returned to normal programming last Thursday and showed the Western Conference finals game between the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs on May 22.

But subsequent encounters in that series and the Eastern Conference playoff finals between Detroit and Boston were not shown.

In mourning: Yao Ming expresses his devastation at the earthquakes that have rocked China

"These games are not in accordance with the atmosphere of the nation after the devastation of the earthquake. They are too entertaining" said Jiang Heping, director of the state TV sports channel.

"We did show one game but then we were informed not to continue," Jiang added.

Basketball is one of the most popular spectator sports in China and NBA games have been shown on CCTV for more than 20 years.

When Chinese exports Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian faced off for the first time in the NBA last November, the television audience for the game between Houston and Milwaukee was estimated to be between 100 million and 200 million.

Jiang said he hoped games would be back on air by the time the NBA championship series starts next month.

The Sichuan earthquake is already known to have killed more than 67,000 people and injured nearly 362,000 others.