FYI: Yao Ming "Dynasty" Poster

jxu777 · Feb 7, 2003

OK, my thread quota is up for today
Disclaimer: I am not associated with any sites I posted.

http://www.puresportsart.com/warehouse/yao02cos.htm

jxu777 · Feb 7, 2003

Yao Ming ball, 250 bucks, any takers?

http://autographsforsale.com/yaominhousro.html

jxu777 · Feb 7, 2003

What was this Pacer's fan thinking?

jxu777 · Feb 7, 2003

See, I like this kind of stuff...

jxu777 · Feb 7, 2003

From the Wall Street Journal:

Yo, Yao: What's Up With
The Chinese Ads in Texas?

By GABRIEL KAHN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

First came Yao Ming. Then came Yanjing.

Last summer, the U.S. distributor for Yanjing Beer Group Corp., of Beijing, leased billboards lining the Houston Rockets' arena, home court of the 7-foot-5-inch Mr. Yao. The advertising deal, valued at just over $6 million for five years, marks the first time a Chinese company has sponsored a National Basketball Association team. It probably won't be the last.

Chinese companies selling everything from cellphones to apple juice are signing sizable sponsorship deals with sports teams in the U.S. and Europe. For the sponsors, these agreements offer not only an international marketing platform, but also a chance to bond with a domestic consumer group: Chinese fans consumed with following the growing number of Chinese athletes playing abroad. About 30 Rockets games will be broadcast in China this season, where tens of millions of viewers will see Yanjing's billboards lining the Houston arena on television.

Yanjing executives in Beijing and at Freeport, N.Y., distributor Harbrew Imports Ltd. see the Rockets ads as the marketing opportunity of a lifetime. The deal itself was the result of a fluke. Harbrew's vice president, Ric Iversen, was attending a food convention in Houston in June, the day before the Rockets were expected to select Mr. Yao as the NBA's No. 1 draft pick. Mr. Iverson dropped off 20 cases of the Chinese beer at a local sports bar that was hosting a draft party; it sold out in 15 minutes. Several Rockets executives in attendance took notice.

"The next day I got a call," says Mr. Iversen. The Rockets executives "were amazed at the response, and asked if we were interested in a sponsorship deal."

Yao Ming and Yanjing beer ad at a Rockets game

Such a deal is possible as a result of China's gradual integration into the global economy. The country's domestic market has caught fire, fueling ambitions of newly aggressive local companies with the resources to invest in branding. At the same time, China's international emergence has sparked public interest there in global pastimes, such as basketball and soccer. The Rockets and a few other teams with Chinese players command a near-fanatical following in China.

The interest from inside China caught the Rockets off guard. "We knew we were entering into uncharted territory" by drafting Mr. Yao, says Tad Brown, the team's director for corporate development. "I don't think we had a complete understanding that it was going to be this much this soon." Mr. Yao, halfway through his rookie season, got more votes than Shaquille O'Neal, the Los Angeles Lakers' superstar center, for a starting spot in the NBA's All-Star Game Sunday.

To take advantage of the growing opportunity in China, the Rockets recently hired two Chinese-speaking executives for their front office. The team has launched a Mandarin-language radio program that also can be accessed from their Web site. Mr. Brown says the team is talking to several other Chinese companies about future ad deals. "Yao is about the best marketing plan you can have," Mr. Brown says.

Indeed, Mr. Yao turns out to be a dynamic product pitchman. He appeared in two Super Bowl commercials, one for Apple Computer Inc. next to diminutive actor Verne Troyer (Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies), and another for the Visa card. A line from the Visa spot -- "Yo, Yao" -- has become a catch phrase. "We hear it in restaurants and bars all the time," says Erik Zhang, one of Mr. Yao's representatives.

Thursday, Mr. Yao was in Orlando, Fla., shooting a Gatorade commercial. To date, he has signed just one deal with a Chinese company, cellular provider China Unicom. But Mr. Zhang says he has received more than 30 proposals from China. "For Chinese companies with multinational aspirations, [sports are] something that will help them get there," he says.

Soccer teams are tapping the Chinese market. Just over a year ago, British soccer club Everton, of Liverpool, was facing a crisis: It reported a $6 million loss for fiscal 2001 and had just lost its main jersey sponsor, T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. Then it received an offer from handset maker China Kejian Corp.

"We were a little bit wary," recalls Andy Hosie, Everton's head of marketing. Kejian insisted that Everton put at least one Chinese player on its roster; the team refused to sign a subpar player just to close the deal. It sent its coach, David Moyes, accompanied by Kejian Chairman Hao Jianxue, to South Korea during the World Cup to scout for talent. Mr. Moyes ended up signing two players from the Chinese national team (it has since released one of them). Kejian agreed to a two-year sponsorship valued at more than $3.3 million.

Kejian had its own doubts. It had just lost its sponsorship of its hometown team in Shenzhen. "Some executives just couldn't see a link between sponsoring an English team when our target market is China," says Li Haibo, Kejian's marketing and public-relations director. Others, though, argued that the popularity of British soccer teams was skyrocketing in China. It didn't hurt that Kejian's Mr. Hao is a die-hard fan.

Everton's popularity in China soared. Kejian's gamble paid off. "It has far exceeded our expectations," Mr. Li says. A British soft-drink maker and a British potato-chip company trying to enter the Chinese market bought Chinese-language ads around the stadium perimeter, and offers from other Chinese companies came pouring in.

To accommodate Chinese sponsors, Everton soon hopes to be able to superimpose different stadium ads on its television feed to Asia. The team is hawking merchandise in China and is about to start selling video highlights over its new Chinese-language Web site. In October, Everton announced a profit of $2.6 million for fiscal 2002 -- a turnaround it attributes in part to the Kejian deal.

There are some limits to expansion in China: Official Everton jerseys are already widely counterfeited, and Germany's Puma AG, which makes them, is reluctant to lower the price for the Chinese consumer for fear the cheaper jerseys will find their way into Europe.

Now, other European soccer clubs' interest has been piqued. Sheffield United, which plays in Britain's Division One, doesn't have a Chinese player, but it was able to land a jersey sponsorship with Chinese apple-juice maker Yangling Desun Fruits Technology Co.

-- Kelvin Chan and Stefan Fatsis contributed to this article.
Click to expand...

jxu777 · Feb 7, 2003

"Can't beat 'em, but can join 'em". A lot of good hints can learned by the Rockets.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/basketball/mavs/stories/020703dnspoallstar.2025f.html

Mavs' go-to guy? Dirk is developing
Nowitzki's performance crucial as Mavs prepare for playoffs

02/07/2003

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

If you were paying close attention to the Mavericks in the weeks leading up to the All-Star break, you noticed more than just a good team that can't convince anybody it's a great team.

While questions about Shaq and Sacramento aren't going away, the Mavericks aren't standing still. They haven't stopped evolving in the way they play in games that are decided in the final minutes.

With every post-up and 3-pointer, with every double-team that he draws, this is becoming Dirk Nowitzki's team.

"That's by design," said Donnie Nelson, whose assistant coach duties involve dealing with the Mavericks' big men. "Dirk's really the only guy we have over 6-7 who is going to draw any kind of double-team. When push comes to shove in a game, you have to have a guy who can draw the defense and make good decisions.

"You'll see us doing that increasingly as we go closer to the playoffs."

It is a sign of the organization's faith in Nowitzki that the Mavericks have entrusted the job of go-to man to the 7-footer who at 24 already is in his fifth NBA season.

Coach Don Nelson calls Nowitzki the Mavericks' "home run." As you try to build a team, Nelson said, you equate acquisitions as being singles or doubles – players who can help you, with the occasional strikeout.

If Nowitzki is a home run, he also has become a sacrifice bunt, and maybe even a third-base coach directing traffic around the field of play.

"Dirk is a forward unlike any other," said Avery Johnson, who has had the privilege of playing with San Antonio's Tim Duncan, one of the league's best crunch-time decision-makers. "Because of his size and his skill, he's got the chance to be one of the best at running the offense late in games."

As he arrives in Atlanta for the NBA's All-Star weekend, Nowitzki does so knowing that he truly belongs with the other headliners. In the last few weeks of the Mavericks' dazzling season, Nowitzki has done it like an All-Star is supposed to do it.

Example: With the game on the line against Minnesota, Nowitzki exploited the Wolves' refuse-to-double-team defense and scored seven of nine points in the difference-making final three minutes. The Mavs won by three.

Example: In Utah, he forced the defense to commit to him, then started the ball on a series of passes around the horn to the weak side, where Steve Nash and Nick Van Exel made a series of 3-pointers.

Example: Nowitzki got the ball in his favorite spot on the court in the final seconds against Sacramento. His shot missed, but the only mistake he made was not getting it off quicker so as to allow time for a possible rebound.

Players – even the best go-to players – don't deliver every time they are asked to make a game-deciding play. But the good ones convert opportunities more often than not.

The biggest hurdle in Nowitzki's development as a player who runs the show with the game on the line is his acceptance of that role. Even though he is the Mavericks' best player, Nowitzki still believes that having Nash and Michael Finley gives this team three go-to players at crunch time.

"It doesn't matter who gets the ball in those situations," Nowitzki said. "Mike, Steve, Nick, they have all made big shots for us."

And, while they now prefer to run the offense through Nowitzki, the Mavericks still often choose their last-chance plays based on who the opponents' poorest defender is on the floor. But it's not about making baskets; it's about making plays.

In the final 11 games before the All-Star break, Nowitzki averaged 3.8 assists. That's up from the 2.4 assists he averaged last season.

"His improvement in the passing area is the reason we can do that now," Don Nelson said of running the offense through Nowitzki. "He makes a good target to get the ball and is making better decisions."

And everybody is growing more comfortable with Nowitzki as a traffic cop with the game on the line, similar to Chris Webber for Sacramento or Shaquille O'Neal for the Lakers.

"You can talk about being 'The Man,' but until you actually put him in a situation where he's got to come through, then it's not legitimate," said Derek Harper, the longtime Mavericks standout now on the team's television broadcast crew. "There's no question he's growing from these past few weeks. And like players who have grown into that position before, when he comes through over and over again and steps up and gets it done, then he'll be legitimate."

And, as Nowitzki said, it's not so much about making the big shot, but making the big play. If he begins the sequence of passes that leads to an open jumper by Walt Williams, his end of the job has been a success.

"When I played with Rolando [Blackman], he was our go-to guy," Harper said. "But I can't tell you how many times we'd come out of the huddle after a timeout and he'd say, 'You're going to have to make the shot because they're not going to let me shoot it.'

"When you're the go-to guy, not only are you confident in yourself, but you also give the guys around you confidence that you are going to make the right decision."

Nowitzki's presence this weekend in Atlanta isn't the validation that he's doing that. Just watch the Mavericks play, and you'll see the results.

E-mail esefko@dallasnews.com
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vtkp99 · Feb 8, 2003

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=25165&item=2706350923&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=25165&item=2708115769&rd=1

jxu777 · Feb 8, 2003

Yao Ming's ride in the NBA?

http://survey.sina.com.cn/market/nike/yaoming/boots.html

dmkin · Feb 8, 2003

jxu777, i suppose you are the yao-only fan, maybe yao's agent!
frankly we all love yao ,but this bbs is on rockets not focusing on only yao!you are welcome if you can go into some other threads!

jxu777 · Feb 8, 2003

Originally posted by dmkin
jxu777, i suppose you are the yao-only fan, maybe yao's agent!
Click to expand...

Where did you get that from? I was a Rockets fan long before I knew Yao existed in my home town. And if I remeber correctly, this may be the 5th thread I started.

James23 · Feb 8, 2003

dmkin, you are right! this board is about the rockets.

Chance · Feb 9, 2003

And Yao is a Rocket. The board members tend to post about relevant topics. You saw the title of the thread. IF you are not interested in the Yao talk and hype then move along. Don't b**** about the people that are.

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