That's ridiculous. Ming defecting and keeping his 50% would do nothing toward reforming China. All that would happen is he would help cripple the developing Chinese basketball system, maybe set it back 10 years or so. There would be less funding, less publicity, less government support, and less likelihood of cooperation between the NBA and China. And I don't care what you say, the vast majority of Chinese that I know (including myself) would *not* be understanding if Yao Ming chose to defect. We might not blame him (in the sense that we understand the appeal of the money), but we will never support and respect him the same way.
It's ironic that you would mention Falk, since he did in fact try and persuade him to defect, in vain. Yao was so insulted by the suggestion, that he sent out an official statement saying he'd never associate himself with Falk, and that he would never consider defecting. Needless to say, it was pretty funny, and should dismiss any such notions.
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=ethnocentric Where did you get yours? 1. the belief in the inherent superiority of one's culture. Yes, I feel that Democracy is superior to Communism. I don't think that everyone wants to be Americans. They should though.
My original definition was in my head from college (Poli Sci/ Pre-Law) but I needed verification from Lycos: http://www.infoplease.lycos.com/ipd/A0429490.html If we are intermingling political systems interchangeably with culture then perhaps Yao may rather defect to Switzerland. They are at least socialistic. Then again, they may windup taking more than the Chinese government. Perhaps I am overly sensitive to this issue, but I worked for a world-wide German company and had aquaintances on every continent. I am ecstatic to be an American (of European descent), but I take precautions not to flaunt it.
heech, Getting 50% of player's salary is wrong. If you agree with me on that, then somebody should do something about it. Ming should stand up aginst it because it is his money. If a compromise can be reached between Ming and CBA, it will be good for future Chinese NBA players. The CBA is reformed a little bit. I don't like to see Ming defect either. But if that happens, the CBA and Shark officials are the ones to blame. I trust Ming (and Wang) that they won't defect if the requests from CBA and their clubs are not too unreasonable. Even if the CBA is crippled due to Ming's defection, it is no big deal. For a developing country like China, we really don't need to put so much money into sports. Got to go home to do my home labor. Argue with you next time.
That's good to hear Ming say that. If Ming can stick with that mentality throughout his NBA career my faith in humanity will be restored. I just feel that money is the root of all evil and have a lets wait and see attitude. That's cool. Most of what I say is BS anyway so don't take it too seriously.
Obviously he loves living in China. Here's a question, say that you were working in another country and for whatever reason you were forced to pay major taxes to the United States, but you still obviously love living in the U.S. Would you take your 20 million dollars and defect, or would you take 10 million dollars and stay in contact with the United States? Either way you're basically set for life.
We have went through this multiple times. Here it goes again. Defection means he applies for political asylum in this country. For his skills, talent, and status, he does NOT have to do that to stay in the US. That's too dramatic and unnecessary. If he wants to, all he needs to do is to immigrate to US and claim the US as a permanent resident first and then become a neutralized citizen later. Like so many scientists, engineers, and scholars from China and other parts of the world do! Hey, probably like Hakeen did! In the future, there might be many reasons for him to stay in the US permanently besides money. Here are some of them: (1) He could fell in love with one of the Comet players and marry a US citizen! (then, to have a 8'5" son...) (2) He could get injured early and would want to go to Harvard law school after his NBA years. (then, to become a tall lawer!) As you can tell, life changes over time. There is nothing racial or ethnic about it. Then again, he may return to a free/democratic/rich/superpower China after getting his fifth NBA ring.... who knows! Don't worry. Be happy! Yao Ming! Yao Ming! Yao Ming!
