The Budding Friendship of Yao Ming and Steve Francis

pryuen · Jul 23, 2007

As promised this is the article by Yang Yi, Yao Ming's close buddy, Chief Sports editor for Titan Sports and CCTV guest NBA commentator.

Interesting titbits about those very first acquaintences and the build up of friendship and trust between Yao Ming and Steve Francis in their early years.

ENJOY !!!

http://nba.sports.tom.com/2007-07-23/0424/85198677.html

Reporter Yang Yi reports

If Yao Ming had not run into Steve Francis in the very beginning, he definitely will not be the Yao Ming he is today. And if Steve Francis had not run into Yao Ming when he was a rookie, he will also not be the Steve Francis he is today.

5 years are gone and looking back now, a lot of those stories between Yao Ming and Steve Francis had lost some of its context and details, or even Yao Ming could have difficulties in recalling them in their full details. But yet he can never forget, when he first landed onto this strange NBA territory, the leader of his team, his Lao Da, his big brother; he might not be the most outstanding superstar of the entire league. But he is Steve Francis. Such stories occurred at those years but they still warm and tickle your heart……

The First Encounter

It was the night of October 20, 2002 that Yao Ming met Steve Francis for the first time. That afternoon, he just arrived Houston from Shanghai on CA929. Upon his arrival at the Houston airport, he saw group of fans greeting him with big banners with the slogan “Be Part Of Something BIG” on them; he saw Carroll Dawson (the General Manager) and Rudy Tomjanovich (his head coach) behind the maddening crowd. His mother, Fang Fengdi, who had arrived Houston earlier than him, walked up to him, embraced him with her forehead touching his Adam’s apple…and behind her is a piece of completely strange world.

That very evening, there was this preseason game of the Rockets (versus the Orlando Magic). Yao Ming walked into the old and destitute Compaq Centre and was introduced to a whole bunch of his future team mates that he hardly visualized before: the funky-hairy Moochie Norris; the ox-like centre Kelvin Cato; Bostjan Nachbar the handsome lad. And standing in front of them were two small fellows, but leaders of this team: Lao Da Steve Francis and Lao Er (i.e. 2nd in the gang) Cuttino Mobley. So with the number 11 jersey handed over to him, a picture was taken for Yao Ming with Lao Da and the Cat standing left and right of him. Steve Francis walked over to Yao Ming and held his hand, stood barely on the tip of his toes and said "******"; Yao Ming knew the guy to be someone important, and hurriedly replied in English: “I’m so pleased to meet you.” Some people asked Yao Ming afterwards: "What did he say to you?" Yao Ming said: "Actually I simply have not understood what he’s trying to say” Steve Francis afterwards explained: “I just told him that I have never met a real person as tall as he is.”

And in that preseason game, sitting at the far side of the court watching were the Orlando Magic team and their Tracy McGrady.

The First Sightseeing

It was an afternoon 2 days after arriving Houston. As the new poster boy of the Rockets, accompanied by Steve Francis, Yao Ming went golfing with a major client of the Houston Rockets. At his then English proficiency, he basically could not join the conversation; at his then skill level of golfing (which is the same now), he did not know and could not play the game at all. So for the whole afternoon that day, Yao Ming was just like a sign pole of the golf course, standing against the gusty wind.

So finally the torture was over. And at the front of the golf club house, Steve Francis drove his big hummer up to Yao Ming and yelled: “Hey ! Yao. Come up. Let me take you for a ride to see Houston.” So the hummer just encircled the 10th Highway and its flyover bridges; As the leader of the team and a rookie overloaded with hype and expectations, both were at a loss of finding the right discussion topic. And right at that moment, a red BMW with a blonde in it breezed by. Steve Francis stuck his head out of the car, whistled loudly and (turned to Yao Ming) with his short eyebrows jumping on his forehead, said: “Very good?” And for that whole afternoon Yao Ming was then able to reply smoothly only for the first time without any grammatical mistake: “Very good !!”, Then the 2 guys laughed heartily.

Upon sending back Yao Ming to the golf club for his car, Steve Francis told Yao Ming: “I have nothing and no one to fear now that I have a big guy like you with me. If you have any need from me, just say it out. From now on, we are brothers.”

The First Step Up/Confrontation

It was the later half of Yao Ming’s rookie season. Rudy Tomjanovich had taken his sick leave, and the black biggie Larry Smith was in as the stand-in interim head coach. And shortly right after him taking over, the performance and play minutes of Yao Ming dropped significantly. Yao Ming said: “He is a good man, but I felt he did not trust me.”

It was an away game and a heavy rout by the San Antonio Spurs; Yao Ming only got 16 minutes of play, and Steve Francis also played abnormally subpar and poor, and the 2 of them were benched in the fourth quarter. After the game, when the team returned to the changing room, the hot-tempered Larry Smith slammed the door behind him and started to shout abuses to each of his players. He severely scolded his players one by one, and of course Yao Ming was no exception. “@#$%^&*&^%$# you SOB !! Why did you not attack into the low post as I’ve told you??” Still not familiar with the NBA culture in the changing room, Yao Ming was first standing head off and hands down, but then sat down to receiving his beating from Larry Smith.

And it was Steve Francis that stepped up to break the silence. After the severe scolding of Yao Ming, it was Steve Francis that jumped up, pointed to Larry Smith and started to bellow: “All you know is to accuse others. It was you that created all these. Yao Ming originally played fine; everybody was playing great. It is you that messed these all up. Everyone just play as I told you, and stop taking these sh!!!t from him.”

That was a season-ending self-destructive morale sapping defeat. In midst of the chaos, some player came up to shut off Steve Francis’s mouth; some player had to come up to separate Steve Francis and Larry Smith. Yao Ming got his bag, stood up and pushed the door open, and found some San Antonio reporters huddling up at the door listening to the quarrel. Steve Francis rushed out in front of Yao Ming and said: “Yao, let us just leave this place.”

The First Good Bye

In Yao Ming’s second season to the Rockets, Rudy Tomjanovich who had been head coach for 12 years stepped down and bid farewell to Houston. Jeff Van Gundy emptied Rudy T’s office but he did not move in. Instead he moved to a smaller office near the players’ corridor. Jeff Van Gundy thought it would be easier to focus and concentrate his energy with a smaller office space; Jeff Van Gundy also slowly let the entire team start to feel his threatening makings: he is dead serious and no nonsense in his speech and manner; he is of an old-fashioned paradigm; he is pretty political and iron-fisted.

It was still during the preseason, and Cuttino Mobley already could not withstand the team’s atmosphere. He told one reporter: “I miss Rudy T so much.” Then Jeff Van Gundy benched him for 4 consecutive games with the reason that he had a sprained left buttock. Amidst such atmosphere, every player started to feel the pressure and the threat.

Then one day after the game, Jeff Van Gundy scolded Steve Francis for playing too selfishly, and Steve Francis also publicly voiced out his discontent, and it was very obvious that the personality clash and contradiction between the 2 of them were building up. Some reporters came to Yao Ming (to enquire about the quarrel), and Yao Ming said in Chinese (Mandarin): “At such odd time, I definitely cannot comment on this.”

However, after a team practice/scrimmage the second day after the incident, Yao Ming could not but expressed his opinion. Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley came to look him up; there were only the 3 of them with Lao Da and the Cat looking up to Yao Ming. The Lao Da (Steve Francis) said: “I don’t think Jeff Van Gundy suits our team. Let’s kick him out from this team. If the 3 of us join hands and step up, we definitely can get rid of him.” Yao Ming replied: “Let me think about this.” But he never gave Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley an answer.

Before that season ended, Yao Ming already had a premonition that Lao Da and the Cat would be traded away. He publicly said to the reporters: “If we must make some trades, I don’t think we should trade away Steve Francis.” But just like Steve Francis’s request to him, Yao Ming’s words were ignored and thrown into the wilderness.
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Yao Wink · Jul 23, 2007

Thanks for the translation. Is it me, or did this article seem incomplete?

durvasa · Jul 23, 2007

Is this journalism, or fan fic?

Adelman · Jul 23, 2007

even as the coach, i almost cried

Nice Rollin · Jul 23, 2007

and the black biggie Larry Smith???

BLACK BIGGIE...? Is that necessary?

devin23 · Jul 23, 2007

AWESOME. Thanks again pryuen, these articles are always very entertaining. I enjoyed it.

MLittle577 · Jul 23, 2007

Nice Rollin said:

and the black biggie Larry Smith???

BLACK BIGGIE...? Is that necessary?
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well..............at least it's better than black ni**ie

Nice Rollin · Jul 23, 2007

MLittle577 said:

well..............at least it's better than black ni**ie
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how about just Coach Larry Smith...

Dave2000 · Jul 23, 2007

umm wow....

fanfic is the first thing I thought, but I wouldn't doubt it. Wasn't there a time where Cat played like crap during the trade deadline? then all of a sudden came back as himself after it was passed?

I wish there was a mention of the pic above when Francis punked the hell out of Amare. I remember that game like it was yesterday.

Wonder if Larry Smith really did that, and I can see the threads now...

"Mr. Mean is the reason why we didn't make the playoffs in 2003!!!"

wizkid83 · Jul 23, 2007

Nice Rollin said:

and the black biggie Larry Smith???

BLACK BIGGIE...? Is that necessary?
Click to expand...

It was more or less the literal translation..... it's doesn't sound great but it's actually not that bad in Chinese.

MLittle577 · Jul 23, 2007

Nice Rollin said:

how about just Coach Larry Smith...
Click to expand...

that works, too, i guess

Dr of Dunk · Jul 23, 2007

It's like a Harlequin Romance.... except with sweaty basketball players who both happen to be male....

CBrownFanClub · Jul 23, 2007

OMG can I change my ID to "Black Biggie"? What the hell is that?

Great article other than the (likely unintentional) race bomb.

devin23 · Jul 23, 2007

Now that I think about it, Yao was pretty close with Mobley too, especially shown in Year of the Yao.

Carl Herrera · Jul 23, 2007

Nice Rollin said:

how about just Coach Larry Smith...
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It would make sense if a large portion of Chinese people don't have racist attitude agatinst black people.

SamFisher · Jul 23, 2007

Larry Smith, formerly Mr. Mean, now "the Black BIggie", sort of reminds me of "the Brown Hornet" from Fat Albert.

tsunami · Jul 23, 2007

why pryuen you opened another similar thread rather than put them in one thread?

tinman · Jul 23, 2007

Nice Rollin said:

and the black biggie Larry Smith???

BLACK BIGGIE...? Is that necessary?
Click to expand...

this article seems 'lost in translation'. i still don't get that its the 'budding friendship'. only at the beginning. the second part of the article just seems the beginning of the end for steve and cuttino.

MLittle577 · Jul 23, 2007

Dave2000 said:

I wish there was a mention of the pic above when Francis punked the hell out of Amare. I remember that game like it was yesterday.
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not to mention the sole reason Weisass traded us T-Mac for him!

dntrwl · Jul 23, 2007

looks like fiction

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