By now, most Memphis fans should be familiar with the name William Wesley, more commonly known as “Worldwide Wes,” whose connection to top basketball prospects and relationship with John Calipari has been well-chronicled. (If you’ve never heard of Wes, do yourself a favor and click the link.)

Is a man named Xia Song the Worldwide Wes of China? That certainly was the impression I got after talking to Song for a few minutes on Tuesday upon the Chinese delegation’s arrival in Memphis. Xia, who essentially speaks flawless English, was both the interpreter for the Chinese delegation and the man John Calipari called “my partner” in the Chinese coaches exchange program. Xia described his role as, “the coordinator, the organizer of the whole event for the (Chinese Basketball Association) and for Memphis.” But when I asked Xia who he worked for, his answer was, “I work for my own. I’m more like a consultant.”

When he said that, the Wes comparison immediately came to mind. And so it was no surprise that when I came home and plugged Xia Song into my trusty Google search engine, numerous articles came up in which Xia was described as “one of China’s top basketball agents,” an NBA analyst, proprieter of a Beijing sports company, scout, translator for the national team, and on and on and on. Essentially, if you do any search for information about Chinese basketball or Chinese players who have tried the NBA, Xia’s name pops up. Obviously, in a country of 1.4 billion people, this is the one guy who makes things happen when it comes to big time basketball.

So when the Tigers land their first Chinese player — and I’m predicting it’ll happen by 2010 — Xia Song will probably be the man to thank.