DC media on Yao

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8232-2003Feb26.html

The Tao of Yao
Towering All-Star Helps Attract Asian Fans

Eight-year-old Tony Huon asks Richard Willis, 18, about his shooting style. (Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)



_____From The Post_____

• Michael Jordan may miss Thursday's game against the Rockets.
• Yao Ming has helped the NBA attract Asian fans.
• The Chinese embassy welcomed Yao on Wednesday.
• Colin Pine is more than Yao's sidekick.



_____Wizards Basics_____

• Wizards Section
• Roster
• Schedule
• Statistics




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By Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 27, 2003; Page A01


This much we know: He comes with a jump shot, a wicked inside game, a Visa card, an Apple laptop computer and a Chinese interpreter. He has gotten more attention than any novice professional basketball player in a long while, and he has awakened interest from a burgeoning segment of the United States that once was largely indifferent to the game.

The giant frame and boyish visage that have grown ubiquitous through television advertising and a rookie season that won him a trip to the National Basketball Association's All-Star game make their debut on the hardwood in Washington tonight.

Tonight also will mark the first trip to MCI Center for Jeff Li, 17, of Rockville, and his dad, Ge Li, who has never so much as watched an NBA game on television.

"We've never even been to an arena," said Jeff. "Yao Ming has changed everything."

Call it "Yao-Mania."

Just as Arthur Ashe and Tiger Woods expanded the horizons of professional tennis and golf for many African Americans, the very talented and very tall Chinese basketball player is challenging the stereotype of Asian athletes. Just as the NBA searched to find new markets for the sport here and abroad, Yao has given them a new niche of fans.

Across the country, Asian Americans are turning out in droves to see Yao in action, proud that someone who looks like them (although 7 foot 5 inches tall) is on the verge of dominating a major league sport. Hundreds of new fans are expected at MCI Center as Yao's Houston Rockets compete against Michael Jordan's Washington Wizards.

Weeks ago, a Wizards marketing director sent e-mails to Asian American groups in the Washington area, offering discounted tickets. Asians make up more than 6 percent of the region's population, and in counties such as Montgomery and Fairfax, they represent more than one in 10 residents.

Rockets officials estimate that Asian American organizations have been responsible for 12 percent of their group ticket sales this year, compared with 1 percent in previous seasons.

Yao (pronounced yow) is the latest and largest star in the constellation of international diversity that professional basketball has become. Pro rosters now include more than two dozen players from foreign lands, and the audience for the league has expanded globally.

The 22-year-old from Shanghai is not the first Asian to play in the NBA. Two other centers from China play in the league, and in 1946, a Japanese American played briefly for the Knicks. But Yao is the first to gain All-Star status and to appear in television commercials for Visa and Apple.

As in other cities where Yao and the Rockets have played, their visit to Washington will feature a traditional Chinese lion dance and a martial arts performance at halftime. An Asian American will lead the crowd in the national anthem. Last night, Yao was feted at the Chinese Embassy.

Matt Williams, senior vice president of Washington Sports and Entertainment, said that the Asian community has been an untapped opportunity until now.

"The response of the Asian Americans in the United States to Yao Ming is off the radar," said Williams, a spokesman for the Wizards. "Everyone thought there was going to be some response, but they didn't think it was going to be this great."

Never have so many Asian Americans, particularly newer immigrants, been so basketball-crazy.

Part of the reason has been cultural. Some parents steer their kids to sports such as volleyball, soccer and ping-pong because those were the games popular in Asia when they were young. Many parents have also told their children to focus on school, rather than sports.

"It's social pressure," said Peter Roby, director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society, a part of Northeastern University in Boston. "The family culture and what kinds of things that your family enjoys or participates in affects what is passed on to your kids."

Then, there's the height thing.

William Yu of Germantown, like many Asian Americans, has heard his share of short jokes. Yu, 26, said that when he was growing up, other kids would sneer when he approached a basketball court.

"They say white men can't jump. Well, when it comes to Asians, they say we just can't play," Yu said. He relied on speed rather than his 5-6 size and proved his peers wrong when he made the team at Richard Montgomery High School and, later, a semi-pro team.

At the Laurel Boys and Girls Club, Martin Ford said that his son Connor, who's half-Chinese, used to feel self-conscious.

Connor, 10, was usually the only Asian at the club and at basketball camps, and some kids would tease him because he looked different. He got nicknamed "Chinese boy."

But last summer, Yao became the No. 1 draft pick around the same time Connor attended basketball camp. Connor became known as "Little Yao."

"They said I looked like Yao," said Connor, giggling. "I didn't really mind it. It felt kind of good."

Yao has produced the same giddy effect on Lihua Hou, a scientist and Olney mother.

Hou has never before been interested in sports of any kind, but she's going with a group of friends to see her new hero play.

Hou said she's proud that a Chinese person has done so well in the NBA. But then, the bigger reason for her sudden interest in basketball spills out.

"He's very charming, very handsome," she said. "I'm middle-aged, but I like him. I think a lot of Chinese feel that way."

She might even bring a sign to the game.

Her daughter, LiJia, was in shock: "Whoa. . . . It'll be okay if I want to make a sign because I'm 16. But this is my mom. This could be embarrassing."

And this, she said, may be where Yao-mania has crossed the line.


© 2003 The Washington Post Company

 

http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20030227-42976112.htm

Pressure cooker
By Jon Siegel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Yao Ming sat at his locker after an overtime victory over the Boston Celtics, surrounded by shopping bags. Top Stories
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• Old Man Winter wears out his welcome
• Suspicious minds


It was Asian-American night at FleetCenter in Boston, and a sellout crowd had come to get a glimpse of the NBA's first Chinese star.
They didn't come empty-handed.
A local chef brought Yao a warm dinner of Peking duck. Others brought gifts of a more traditional and less-filling variety, enough things to fill up the three bags next to Yao. Fans in the crowd held up handmade signs lettered in Chinese and posters bearing the likeness of Yao's face.
The 7-foot-5 rookie center for the Houston Rockets also drew the attention of the Celtics, who double-teamed him every time he touched the ball and banged his slender frame at every chance. After the game, Yao met with the media, just as he does before and after each game in each city he visits.
The constant attention is draining for the 22-year old phenom, who is tired after another emotional and physically difficult game in a seemingly endless season.
Yao fulfills his obligation and speaks to some 15 media members — including several from Chinese newspapers who ask questions in his native Mandarin — but the charismatic smile that made him a Madison Avenue darling is nowhere in sight.
"The cost of enjoying the season is being very tired," Yao said through an interpreter. "Every game there is a new challenge. Facing up against every different player presents new problems. And each city also has new media problems, too."
One reporter launched into a long-winded question that doesn't seem to have a point. Yao interrupted and said in clear English, "Are you going to ask a question of me?"
He is asked how he will unwind following the tense victory.
"The best way is to get out of here a little earlier and avoid the media," Yao said, with a deadpan expression. The comment makes his interpreter laugh, but it is clear the constant scrutiny has taken a toll.
Yao acknowledges he is homesick. He rarely goes out in public because he draws too much attention. He lists naps as one of his favorite hobbies and rarely leaves his hotel except for team functions. The media and public circus stop only when Yao is out of sight.
"Sometimes on the road, some of us will go to dinner," Houston guard Cuttino Mobley said. "Yao brings too much attention, so he can't come. I have never had that kind of pressure. The only one who has is Michael [Jordan]."
Yao has heard the comparisons to Jordan, not because of his game but because of his marketability. Yao was a big hit in the recent Visa "Yo-Yao" commercial and in a spot with Verne Troyer ("Mini-me" from two "Austin Powers" movies) for Apple computers. But no more commercials will be shot until after the season in an effort to limit Yao's schedule to NBA commitments.
In New York, he is questioned about being the marketing heir to Jordan.
"I don't really understand the perspective of that," he says. "I'm a basketball player, not a businessman."
Although Yao can be overwhelmed by the endless attention, his sense of humor helps him deal with it. Before the Boston game, a petite Asian woman asks how he got to be so tall. "Can you tell me why you are so small?" Yao replies with a sly grin.
When asked about the result of the Visa check commercial, he answers, "Next time I bring a check and buy the Statue of Liberty."
He also jokes with his teammates. Before the Boston game, he was reading a Chinese newspaper that had a picture of him that took up most of the back page. When Mobley walked by, Yao tried to hand him the paper.
"The jokes that he does know, he tells very well [in English]," forward Glen Rice said. "And they are some pretty harsh jokes. To everyone's surprise, he's a funny guy. He gets in there with all of us. When we laugh and joke and talk about the clothes the other guys are wearing, he's right there with us"
But although he apparently speaks better English than he lets on — particularly to the media — there is a huge cultural gap between him and his teammates. To most of the Rockets, he is still a bit of mystery, just like he is to the public.
"A lot of us are from the same neighborhoods except Yao," said Mobley, who has held off on teasing Yao except for his dramatic falls on the court. "He has his moments when he jokes, he hugs you. He's playful. He's just a real gentle dude."
That easygoing personality, his workmanlike approach and team-first mentality have helped smooth Yao's transition from the Shanghai Sharks of the China Basketball Association to the NBA.
"There is something about him that is just so warm. We love him," Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "When the world finds out about this guy, you are going to fall in love with him. He's easy to smile, has a sense of humor, his values are right on the money. He is almost a throwback to a different era.
"I think he understands pretty much what [the attention] is. He does it with common sense and balance. We talked a little bit about that. It's just sort of the way it is in China — don't get too overexcited or too low."
Yao lives in Houston with his parents and translator Colin Pine. The basketball prodigy recently bought a Toyota Sequoia and initiated it by denting the rear fender backing up in the Rockets parking lot.
He has developed a fondness for Texas steaks but doesn't care much for America's version of Chinese food. Yao enjoys playing video games and watching movies, particularly action and comedies.
"He keeps up with [Chinese current events] on the Web a lot," said Pine, whose job includes helping ease Yao into American culture. "We'll talk about American government. We'll talk about China. We talk about Chinese politics. ... The last movie I think we watched was 'The Bourne Identity,' but he got bored. I ended up watching it alone."
That's the quiet part of a crazed life that Yao couldn't have imagined when he came to Houston in October. He has gotten a crash course in fortune and fame that shows no signs of slowing down.
"I didn't really have a conception of what the NBA was like, because I never played in it," he said. "Everything is new and fresh to me — the game and the NBA lifestyle."
And unquestionably Yao is new and fresh to the NBA.

 

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030227-12615746.htm

Translating for Yao a big-time assignment
By Jon Siegel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Colin Pine's plan was to enter law school at George Washington University in the fall. Mr. Pine traded in that plan for a very tall order: serve as the English voice of one of the world's most popular basketball players, 7-foot-5-inch Yao Ming.

Mr. Pine is there for every victory, loss and tiresome question experienced by Yao, the Chinese basketball star playing his first season in the NBA.
"It's been a whirlwind," said Mr. Pine, a 29-year-old Baltimore native who graduated from James Madison University. "I never imagined all the things I would get to do and have to do. It's been exciting, demanding and tiring."
Every time Yao speaks with the media, Mr. Pine translates between Mandarin and English. He sits behind the Houston Rockets' bench during games and listens in the huddle, making sure that coach Rudy Tomjanovich and Yao understand each other.
But Mr. Pine's job extends beyond the basketball court.
He lives with Yao and the player's parents in a house in Houston (For the record: Yao's father, Yao Zhi Yuan, stands 6 feet 7 inches tall, and his mother, Fang Feng Di, is 6 feet 3 inches tall). The two men have become close friends. They travel together, eat together — Yao dislikes America's version of Chinese food — and discuss everything from sports to politics. They also watch movies, a recent one being "The Bourne Identity."
"He got bored," Mr. Pine said. "I ended up watching it alone."
The interpreter is the main link between Yao and his teammates and the media, but he also presided over Yao's introduction to American life.
That is no small matter for the 22-year-old Yao, the first Chinese player to become a star in the NBA. Yao has captivated fans and impressed coaches with his skills and long-term potential. He also has impressed the corporate world, striking endorsement deals with such heavyweights as Apple Computer and Visa.
Mr. Pine has been essential to helping Yao make the transition to a different culture and meet the demands and pressures of top-level athletics and the big-dollar business world.
The translator, in the process, has become a minor celebrity himself, thanks to the media frenzy that follows Yao wherever he goes. On Tuesday, Yao sat in front of 50 reporters in a cramped room in Madison Square Garden. To his right was Mr. Pine, performing the arduous task of translating English questions into Mandarin and Yao's replies in rapid fashion.
"I have never been a person who wanted to have a high profile and be in the public eye," said Mr. Pine, who drew a handful of reporters himself after Yao finished. "And I am only here because of him. It's interesting to have to go in front of people and speak for somebody else."
Mr. Pine became interested in Chinese culture because he had Chinese-American and other Asian friends at James Madison, where he got his degree in English. After graduation, he asked his parents for a crash course in Mandarin and a plane ticket to Taipei, Taiwan.
The short trip abroad that Mr. Pine planned turned into a three-year stay. He prepared English-teaching materials for grammar school children and taught English at night. He studied at National Taiwan University to master the language.
"I fell in love with the culture and the language," he said. "I picked up Chinese just living there. But I wanted to go the next level."
Mr. Pine returned to the United States in 1999 and worked briefly for a commercial real estate company in Bethesda.
"I couldn't stand it," he said. "I was miserable not speaking Chinese."
He got a job as a translator for the State Department. Then came Yao.
Mr. Pine first learned of the job with the Rockets when a friend forwarded an e-mail advertising an opening. He was particularly excited about it for another reason: He is a big Maryland Terrapins fan, and former Terps star Steve Francis is on the Rockets team. Mr. Pine sent a resume but figured it was a lost cause when he didn't get a reply after a month.
Then, suddenly, he was meeting with Yao over a Chinese dinner — and moving to Houston.
"I learned a lot about myself and made a great friend," Mr. Pine said. "I've been able to do things that a lot of people only dream of."
Yao rarely lets his guard down or goes out in public, but he is at ease with his new American friend. The playful center was asked before the Rockets' trip to New York to play the Knicks how he felt about visiting the United States' biggest city.
"If Colin treats to pizza, I will be even more excited," Yao said, flashing his now-famous smile.
Mr. Pine has a one-year contract with the Rockets and is again considering attending George Washington this fall. He might return to work with Yao another season. But he knows he will be needed less as Yao becomes acclimated to his new country and learns more English.
The role as Yao's translator is challenging, and Mr. Pine walks a tricky line each day between reporters, coaches and Yao, who can get testy as he is required to speak before and after each game. It's all part of being the English voice of one of the world's most popular basketball star.
"It's difficult and tiring," Mr. Pine said. "But at the end of the day, it's a lot of fun."

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8288-2003Feb26.html

'The Golden Bridge'
Rockets' Genial Yao Helps China, U.S. Connect
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Yao Ming listens as his interpreter, Colin Pine, talks during a reception Tuesday night at the Chinese Embassy. (Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)



_____From The Post_____

• Michael Jordan may miss Thursday's game against the Rockets.
• Yao Ming has helped the NBA attract Asian fans.
• The Chinese embassy welcomed Yao on Wednesday.
• Colin Pine is more than Yao's sidekick.



_____Wizards Basics_____

• Wizards Section
• Roster
• Schedule
• Statistics




E-Mail This Article

Printer-Friendly Version

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By Gene Wang
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 27, 2003; Page D01


Accustomed to receiving dignitaries from President Jiang Zemin to other high-ranking Chinese officials, the Chinese embassy last night welcomed a visitor with a different sort of celebrity in Yao Ming. The 7-foot-5 center from China did not disappoint the throng of well-wishers who braved another round of snow to get a glimpse of and perhaps meet the most recognized Chinese face in America.

"I feel very honored to come to this place," said Yao, whose Rockets are in town to play the Wizards tonight. "To be here makes me nervous. To see all these lanterns makes me feel like I'm home. My impression of the embassy is like a fantasy, something from television or a movie."

When Yao arrived, he was greeted as if he were a star of the big screen. Adoring fans mobbed him as he tried to make his way to the entrance of the embassy. Yao obliged many of his supporters by signing basketballs, jerseys or whatever was put in front of him.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life. These people love him," said Colin Pine, Yao's interpreter.

And how the Chinese community in this area does treasure the player known as "The Golden Bridge" when he was playing in the Chinese Basketball Association. "The connecting of different continents," Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich explained.

Walk into most any Chinese restaurant or other Chinese-owned business around MCI Center this week, and talk of Yao quickly fills the place. It isn't just idle chatter either. Chinese in D.C. and nationally aren't so much interested in Yao's scoring average or how a player standing so tall can move with such agility or pass like a point guard.

Yao's appeal instead is far more substantial, far more reaching than statistics or basketball fundamentals. In the way Jackie Robinson forged a path for African Americans, Yao is doing much the same for another race.

"I think it's somewhat similar," said James Sasser, the U.S. ambassador to China from 1996 to 1999 who had a hand in helping Yao gain clearance to play in the United States. "Jackie Robinson was breaking racial barriers. It's a little more complicated than that for Yao. I think he carries the responsibility of the Chinese race. He also carries the responsibility of showing that the Chinese can compete effectively, not necessarily against Americans but as part of this society. He carries the banner of the Chinese people."

In the role of cultural phenomenon and pioneer, Yao is guarded. He is most at peace on the basketball court, where he thinks of jump shots and the pick and roll and not about the charge of representing Chinese here in addition to 1.3 billion in China, including some 40 million from his home town of Shanghai.

"I try not to think like that," said Yao, who is averaging 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and is third in the league in field goal percentage (52.2). "It's a lot of pressure. I just want to be an athlete. But this is something that can't be avoided."

Yao is not the first Chinese to play basketball in the NBA. Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer came first. But Yao's rapid ascension to elite status -- he started ahead of Shaquille O'Neal in the all-star game -- has made the first pick of the NBA draft the most visible and marketable Chinese athlete in professional sports history.

Commercials featuring Yao are commonplace these days. In one clever ad campaign for Apple computers, Yao is seated on an airplane next to Vern Troyer, better known as "Mini Me" from the "Austin Powers" movies. Yao begins working on his smaller-screen laptop, but not to be outdone, the 2-foot-8 Troyer pulls out his laptop with a 17-inch screen, drawing a big smile and a chuckle from Yao.

Yao's popularity among Chinese and Chinese Americans is most evident in Houston, where an estimated 1,500 fans of Chinese heritage attended the Rockets' home opener Nov. 2. That figure is close to 10 percent of capacity at Houston's Compaq Center. By contrast, the entire Asian population in Harris County, the most populated of Houston's three counties, is 5.1 percent, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.

More recently, an estimated 1,300 Chinese attended a Feb. 2 game to show support for Yao on Chinese New Year -- the Year of the Black Sheep, which portends peace and goodwill, according to the Lunar calendar. Banners with Chinese writing wishing Yao a happy new year hung from the walls, and fans carrying other signs with words of encouragement made sure they were conspicuous.

At halftime, performers staged a traditional dragon dance, much to the delight of Yao's cheering Chinese supporters.

"It's really amazing," said Michael Chang, the founder of the Houston-based Yao Ming fan club. "It really creates a lot of Asian basketball fans. I know wherever he goes, attendance goes up. Chinese people who may have never cared about basketball come to see him. It creates a new fan base for the NBA, which is a good thing for everybody. Also, it naturally enhances the awareness of Asians. Whoever thought an Asian guy could play center this well?

"We're oceans apart, these two countries. The general American public doesn't get the chance to go to China. It's the same with people in China not getting a chance to come over here. He can have a great impact on helping the understanding between the two cultures."

Tomjanovich knows well how special his center is. "It's been amazing the way he's handled it all. . . . There's something about his personality that brings people together. He's very warm. People love him. He has a great relationship with everybody on our team. I feel very comfortable around him, not only in basketball, but when you talk to him. He looks like a man who loves life and loves people, loves the differences in people."



© 2003 The Washington Post Company

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8103-2003Feb26.html

This Guy Can Sure Talk the Talk
Yao Ming's Trusty Sidekick Is His Translator
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By Gene Wang
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 27, 2003; Page D04


The jump shot could use a little work, and at 5 feet 10, he's not exactly an inside presence. Yet Colin Pine has played a unique and important role with the Houston Rockets this season.

Just watch a game or practice closely, and that becomes clear when all conversations cease, except for the sound of Pine's voice. As the interpreter for Yao Ming, Pine's job is to make sure the Rockets' No. 1 pick understands everything from the finer points of the team's defensive schemes to what time he needs to be at a certain photo shoot.

So it's no surprise Pine often commands as much attention as Coach Rudy Tomjanovich, who along with his players must stop talking so Pine can start.

"I've had to get used to an echo," Tomjanovich said.

That was not the only adjustment Tomjanovich and his players had to make when Pine, a Baltimore native and graduate of James Madison University, first became part of the Rockets' payroll. The most unusual was becoming accustomed to having what was then a complete stranger in the locker room listening to their private conversations.

These days, however, players embrace Pine as one of their own. Television cameras capture that image most every time the Rockets play a game on ESPN or TNT. After Yao's first head-to-head meeting with Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal, for instance, all-star guard Steve Francis had his arm around Pine as Pine was translating questions from a sideline reporter about the Rockets' 108-104 overtime victory.

"The players have just been super to me. They make me feel like part of the team," said Pine, 29, who continues to be amazed at his journey from State Department employee to Yao's indispensable sidekick, recognized by millions of Chinese basketball fans.

The sudden fame is largely the result of some advice he heeded from the brother of one of his Chinese-American college roommates. Unsure of his plans after graduation, Pine asked about going abroad, specifically to Asia. Soon after that conversation, Pine was on a plane to Taiwan, where he spent three years absorbing the culture and language.

"I had a lot of Chinese friends in college," Pine said. "The people and culture [in Taiwan] were great. I fell in love with it."

When he came back to the United States, Pine worked briefly in commercial real estate before tiring of it. Graduate school was a possibility, as was law school, but neither had anything to do with Chinese culture. So Pine took a job with the State Department translating newspapers, magazines and Web material.

"It wasn't the most exciting thing in the world," Pine said, "but I was translating."

While with the State Department, Pine's life began to change dramatically last year when he followed up on an e-mail from a friend. The attachment detailed an on-line search for a full-time interpreter for an NBA team. Yao's agent, Erick Zhang, had launched the search, to which an estimated 400 applicants replied.

"I wrote a cover letter and sent them my résumé, but I didn't really think I would hear back," Pine said. "It was something I thought I could do, but to actually have it happen is pretty wild."

Approximately one month after applying, Pine received a telephone call from Zhang, who proceeded to interview him for half an hour in English and half an hour in Chinese. Then in the first week of October, Pine got another call from Zhang. It was good news.

"He basically told me to get on a plane to Houston," Pine said.

A few weeks later, Pine met Yao for the first time as the 7-foot-5 center stepped off the plane at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

"I thought you would be older," were Yao's first words to him, Pine recalled.

Since then, the two have become fast friends. Pine lives with Yao and his parents at their house west of downtown Houston. He eats dinner with them after each home game and whenever the Rockets are not traveling. He teaches Yao about American culture and coaches him in English, which Pine says Yao strives to speak without help.

"He doesn't want someone speaking for him all the time," said Pine, whose contract will expire in June. "What that means for my future, I don't know. Yao and I have become good friends, so it's whatever he wants. If he says he wants me back next year, I'll stay. It's been a great ride no matter what."


© 2003 The Washington Post Company