http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/1622355 Oct. 17, 2002, 11:34PM There's plenty to smile about now By MICKEY HERSKOWITZ Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle His first time down the court, at the World Championships in Indianapolis, Yao Ming was minding his business when an NBA player, believed to be Ben Wallace, aimed a friendly elbow at his neck or jaw. Instead, the blow landed on the chest of this gentle giant from China, the equivalent of missing the backboard. In the stands, Rudy Tomjanovich, the coach of the Houston Rockets who owned the draft rights to Yao, laughed out loud. Yao is on his way to Texas, and no one connected to the Rockets can stop laughing. Rudy T and his staff are huddling in the laboratory, mixing their potions, giggling like schoolgirls. And Leslie Alexander, the luckiest owner in this town, maybe any town, can hear the laugh track in his head, the one that will accompany his trips to the bank. How good is Yao Ming? How much will he improve the Rockets? How long will it take him to change the game? No one knows yet, of course, but we are prepared to find out. What we do know is this: He is 7-foot-5 and weighs 287 pounds. He can dunk the ball without leaving his feet, and on an average night he can block between five and 10 shots. He is the most intriguing new talent to hit the NBA since Manute Bol came out of the Sudan in 1983. We exclude the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal because both had played college basketball in America and we knew they had greatness in them. Bol was a mystery. The San Diego Clippers had drafted him without ever seeing him play. He was 16 before he ever played a game in which he wore shoes. At 7-7 and 190 pounds, he looked, as one observer put it, like a clock with the hands stuck at six o'clock. The league voided San Diego's draft pick because Bol's passport said he was 21, and the league rules required foreign players to be at least 22. His passport also listed him at 5-2, but he explained that he was sitting down when they measured him. By contrast, Yao is from a country that puts a premium on efficiency and the proper paperwork. Getting him here was the better part of the battle, and hardly anyone questions the getting was well worth the waiting. This is no Chinese puzzle. The question about Yao is how great, how soon, and what he has in common with Bol is the depth and volume of the curiosity they inspire. Before the word spread, only two coaches knew about Bol. One was Jim Lynam of the Clippers, and the other was Frank Layden of the Utah Jazz. There was no chance Layden would draft him because Utah's fans had been disillusioned once before by a 7-footer who couldn't play named Mark Eaton. The entire basketball world knew of Yao and his potential, and when the Rockets wound up with the first pingpong ball every other team in the NBA let out a collective sob. A pingpong ball, for crying out loud! A Chinese center who is 7-5 and moves like an athlete. What did the Rockets ever do to deserve this? Well, for one thing they had really good intentions when they blew an entire season so they could draft Ralph Sampson, who was 7-4. But injuries and high expectations kept the three-time college player of the year from his destiny as the next Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Somehow you doubt the Great Wall of China will turn out to be a disappointment. He has the entire Orient cheering for him, and some 200,000 Asians in the Houston area ready to embrace a sport that was truly American-born. Barry Warner, who was known as the Sports Mouth in his earlier radio heydays in Houston and is now the president of a company called Asian Southwest Media, has a unique take on the current excitement. "I was doing the play-by-play on road games with Greg Lucas," he says, "when Olajuwon was a rookie. All over the country, I got questions from media guys who wanted to know if he spoke English, if wild animals roamed his village. "Hakeem spoke six languages, had four years of college and had been all over the world. With Ming, the attention is going to be five times as great, maybe more. After the Rockets drafted him, I heard from 30 companies who (earlier) wouldn't return my calls. They wanted to know if I could set up a meeting with Yao Ming. I haven't even met his agent." Warner represents three Asian radio stations and the South China Daily News. He sees Nike and Reebok among those battling for Yao's endorsement. He believes the rookie will be insulated, by the team and the presence of his mother, who is in the process of moving here. But no one is going to be able to contain the publicity boom that is coming. "I went to the preseason game with the Rockets," Warner said, "and the press room was overflowing with reporters from Korea. And the signing of Ming was not yet a done deal." The pressure on the media will be to quit looking for words that rhyme with Yao (pow, wow, now) and Ming (ring, string, king.) Suddenly, Michael Goldberg, the lawyer who did such a delicate job of negotiating past one hurdle after another, is the Rockets' MVP. If nothing else, the Rockets have proved the Cold War is officially over -- Welcome to Texas, Chairman Yao.
I'm smiling, too!! WELCOME TO HOUSTON, YAO!! A 3-0 preseason record is also worth a couple of more smilies. YEAH!!
I would think that Bol would be taller than 5'2" sitting down. Maybe he was sitting on the floor. What a joke!
Barry Warner used to say that if the Rockets ever won a championship with Kenny Smith as the starting point guard, he'd sit naked on top of the Astrodome. Anyone know if he ever came through on his promise? Idiot.
Contrast Bol claiming he was older than his true age, with Hakeem claiming he was younger than his true age.
