Chron: Asian Community Goes Wow for Yao

<i>Asian community goes wow for Yao
By RACHEL GRAVES
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

From the basketball courts where young Asian-Americans play pickup games to the airwaves of Mandarin-language radio, Yao-mania is the buzz of Houston's Chinese community.

Basketball fans and Asian-American community leaders are thrilled that the Houston Rockets may draft Chinese basketball star Yao Ming as the National Basketball Association's No. 1 pick on June 26.

For the Rockets, the 7-foot-5, 290-pound Yao has tremendous potential to fill a hole at center. For the NBA, he may be the key to tapping a fan base among Asian-Americans and the Chinese.

To Chinese-Americans in Houston, Yao represents an opportunity to change the perception of their people.

"It's like Tiger Woods starting in golf," said 22-year-old Nathan Chang between informal basketball games with other Chinese-Americans at a local church.

Chang and his friends, who plan to watch the NBA draft together, agree it is "huge" to have Yao, 21, as the likely No. 1 draft pick in a sport dominated by Americans.

"It helps break stereotypes," Houston City Councilman Gordon Quan said. "That has to make you feel proud as a Chinese-American, that black kids or Hispanic kids or white kids would also want to be Yao."

Although the Rockets apparently have decided to use their first pick on Yao, it's not clear whether the team can reach an agreement with the Chinese government to allow Yao to play here.

Chinese community leaders have taped video messages encouraging Yao to come to Houston and are planning parties to welcome him. They boast of Houston's hundreds of Chinese restaurants -- important because many think Yao needs to put on at least 30 pounds -- and offer their services as translators to Yao, a Mandarin speaker.

"For this community, this is incredibly important," said George Postolos, the Rockets' chief operating officer. "For a sports team, that's always what you want to tap into, that passion."

Chinese leaders say a Ming dynasty could also help change the perception of Houston as a cow town. Houston is home to 107,000 Asians -- 5 percent of the city's population -- a large percentage of whom are of Chinese heritage.

"Houston wants to become an international city, wants to get the 2012 Olympics," said Wea H. Lee, publisher of the Southern Chinese Daily News, a local Mandarin-language paper. Drafting Yao, he said, "would make Houston more exposed to the world."

KCHN, a radio station affiliated with the Southern Chinese Daily News, is planning to add daily Mandarin-language coverage of the Rockets if Yao joins the team.

One of Houston's oldest Chinese restaurants, China Garden, is across the street from the new basketball arena being built downtown. Owner Carol Churchill hopes Yao will stop by and boost business.

But Yao's welcome would be so widespread he could easily eschew restaurants in favor of a home-cooked meal with a different Mandarin-speaking family every night.

Joe Zhou, president of the local Chinese Basketball Association, which organizes amateur basketball games, said his group plans to invite Yao to meet with them so he will "feel like Houston is a hometown."

Like many other Chinese-American basketball fans, Zhou's group plans to buy a block of season tickets if Yao is drafted.

Eric Lee, a 25-year-old recreational basketball player who speaks fluent Mandarin and English, hopes to get to know Yao and has told the Rockets he is happy to help out in any way he can.

"I could show him around town," Lee said.

Grace Li, with the Chinese Civic Center, said Chinese-Americans are sending Yao e-mail and letters urging him to come to Houston.

"There's a pretty large Chinese community, so he will not feel lonely here," Li said.

Asian-American fans recognize Yao's weaknesses, though, and they say it may take him a few years to build the upper-body strength required in the NBA. He also needs to make a transition from the Chinese to the American version of the sport. Yao plays for the Shanghai Sharks.

"He's playing with a bunch of short Chinese guys, come on," said Dung Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American, during a recent visit to Hong Kong City Mall with two Chinese-American friends. "He needs to get bulky."

Still, the three were excited about what they called "an Asian guy in the NBA representing."

Back on the basketball court, Chang and his friends said their last trip to a Rockets game was to cheer on Wang Zhizhi of the Dallas Mavericks, one of two Chinese players in the NBA. Daniel Hung said he'll become a regular if Yao comes to Houston.

"I'll definitely support him," Hung said. "I'll buy his jersey too."

Chang, Hung and their friends research the ins and outs of the Rockets' quest for Yao on the Internet daily and hope to see him on Bellaire Boulevard, Houston's most concentrated Asian neighborhood.

"I'm sure we'll spot him in Chinatown," Hung said.

"Because where else is he going to get food?" Chang finished. </i>