At 7 o'clock June 22nd, Yao Ming was having dinner with his friends. Outside the window, Beijing was surrounded with the beautiful lights. Yao Ming knew that his destiny was announcing at the distant place, in one conference at his hometown Shanghai. However, what on the face of this big boy at this moment was still the pure smile as before . Eventually, that negotiation, which lasted one week, like a fierce battle, had the result four days before the Draft at New York. Everybody knows that the core of the negotiations is money. The core is how much money Yao Ming should pay for Shanghai. When Shanghai announced Yao Ming was already free under those spotlights , in fact, they gained an astronomical amount of US dollars from Yao Ming in the dreary shadow. Yao Ming does not care about money. Therefore he was still smiling. The amateur sports school only paid $4 to Ming's primary school when it recruited Ming. Now Ming already became the most giant treasure in the Chinese sports history . When $4 needs to be exchanged by astronomical amount of US dollars, the negotiation, which was concerned the destiny and development of Ming, occurred. Yao Ming once said: "Shanghai enables me to become a basketball star. It also makes me to be stronger." He said this at that raining night after he won the championship. At that night, Yao Ming also said: "The money cannot accomplish love, but actually may prove the love." When he said this, he was so lovely, like a philosopher. This is a battle of compromise. Both Shanghai and Yao Ming must compromise. But Yao Ming makes more compromise. Yao Ming knows the big responsibility on his young shoulders. Because of him, Chinese will receive the prostration to the hero in the American sports arena at the first time. In the past week, although he said he was not worried at all, actually, he was always grasping the cell phone in his hand and waiting for the information from Shanghai in the national basketball team's dormitory . In this night, June 22nd, Yao Ming is limpid, as the fresh air after the rain. He is not a person who likes disputing; He does not like negotiating. He does not like the dispute which aims at money. For Yao ming, who can let him happy and allow him to play basketball, who is his genuine friend. Three days later, NBA will make a decision about whether a foreigner will be drafted as the first pick in the history . Yao Ming cannot go to New York. Therefore he cannot see those expecting eyes at Madison Garden Square. Yao Ming said "I will not stay up late at that day. I want to sleep to the dawn". In his sleep, David Stern will extract their choice from the envelope of Houston Rockets . Yao Ming suddenly turned his head and asked me :"You guess whose name will be on that envelope?" (In another thread, we have known that how much Yao Ming should pay for his NBA dream. If his rookie contract is 14 million dollars, he will give CBA $7 million (then CBA will give $2.8 million to Shanghai from these $7 million.) Besides this $7 million, Ming has to pay another $10 million to Shanghai. 7 + 10 =17 17-14=3 Therefore, Ming has been in debt of 3 million dollars before he plays in NBA.) Can somebody offer a free apartment for this poor kid?)
Wow! Don't know what else to say besides this young man is unbelievable. Yao's desire,conduct and code of ethics puts to shame the motivation alot or most NBA players have for even playing the game. Unfortunately that apparently includes some of his soon to be Rocket teammates. Alot of these guys seem to have forgotten the sheer enjoyment of playing and the simple fun of seeing teamwork pay off. How can anyone,on the team or simply a fan,still doubt this guy's desire to make himself into whatever the team needs him to become? I urge those of you in H-town to show this guy a welcome at the airport like there's never been before. Show him the love and support by packing the house every game. He's showing alot of faith in Houston and the Rockets. Hopefully Stevie and the guys wake up and take him in,but H-Town don't let Yao down...return the faith!
I live in LA, but he can sure stay with me anytime...I can show him how to live with a huge debt Thanks again for the post windandsea...MVP!!
Yao will have a shoe contract and one or 2 other endorsements before you know it and rest assured, his debt to the CBA will be taken care of sooner rather than later.
And is it just me or does Yao remind us of Hakeem in alot of ways? Obviously the position and potential to start with. But they both seem to have a tremendous amount of high character traits such as honor,obligation,ethics,and behavior. On top of that they both appear to have the dedication,discipline and pride to work hard to become the very best they can be and an insatiable desire to learn the game from coaches,players or wherever possible. Here's hoping Yao's career finds similar success but in his own and distinct flavor!
Shanghai Sharks denied the rumor that Yao Ming would compensate them 10 million US dollar. "Sharks will get a very low percentage of Yao Ming's annual income, and there's definitely no pre-determined number." The link: http://www.xmwb.com.cn/xmwb/20020623/GB/14735^31062316.htm
Ming's love for basketball runs deeper. Dream was a business first, basketball player second. Ming on the other hand is paying to play ball at the highest level. I think that is one of the reasons I am Pro-Ming. You can see he trully still loves the game and its not all about money with him.
At that night, Yao Ming also said: The money cannot accomplish love, but actually may prove the love. Anybody else, get the urge to break into a Beatles' song right about now? "I ain't got much use for money. Money can't buy me love. Can't buy me looooooovee! Can't buy me looooooovee! Money can't buy me love. Seriously though, in spite of all other potential worries, how can anybody not like this guy?
I think Dream has <i>become</i> a business first, basketball second guy. At the beginning of his career, he really just wanted to play basketball. But now, he's played basketball to its peak, and his large contracts have enabled him to become a business man, although he never set out to be that.
What's wrong with Dream being a buisnessman? He's been a pretty good one at that too making much more money than he should have.
Not totally true. Remember that, in his early days, Dream was a trash-talking, elbow-flinging, referee-arguing fireball. It wasn't until his conversion to Islam that he began to mature as a person and his game got even better. Anyone who knew Olajuwon back then will tell you that he was all about the cash but not in the sense that he was some slick and sleezy salesman. He was really just naieve about the way things were. One person told me that he was like a little kid. He would sometimes demand things he didn't even know he could not have. He is just like that as a person because he was so talented and so insolated from all the business stuff as a young guy.
I have put this story on the another tread. But I want to post it again when I knew how much Ming needs to pay to Shanghai and CBA. A famous former bball player in China once heard that there was a tall boy in Shanghai who had a lot of talents. He went to see this boy, Yao Ming, and found that he was a very good project. But Ming was very skinny at that time. This person also found that economic condition of Ming's family was not good. So he applied a program to support Ming's family 10,000 Chinese dollars one year to buy some good food for Ming. A few years later, when he asked Ming's mother about this program, he found out that Ming's family only got 100 Chinese dollars one month. The rest money was grafted by all kinds of officials. I hope Ming can use his money to establidh a BBall center to support the kids in China. I know some of his money will be in the pockets of those officials if he gives them to Shanghai Sharks and CBA.
Other media have comfirmed that Shanghai will take $10 million from Ming. Yao Ming will pay them yearly until Sharks gets the whole $10 million. Another thing is: all the representatives of Ming are working free for him. I feel happy about that.
Man, one of you Houston Fellas find Yao a good girlfriend.... Sounds like the type of guy id want my daughter to marry... except he's 7'5 and i dont have a daughter.
Just push this thread because Yao Ming said in this interview :"I will not stay up late at that day (of the Draft). I want to sleep to the dawn". " Now it's night time of Beijing. I want to say :"Yao Ming. Don't worry about anything. Have a good sleep. Tomorrow is a beautiful, bright day."
This makes me think that Yao could possibily be reading ClutchCity forums. He lives in the dome and enjoy spending time surfing the net and playing computer games. Just a thought. -G'day-
