Chron: China's Budding Dynasty- Yao & Basketball Now Rule Over The Masses

Oct. 10, 2004, 12:40AM

China's budding dynasty
Where Mao and the Red Army once reigned supreme, Yao and basketball now rule over the masses
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

BEIJING — From the 18th-floor window of a Western-style hotel in the heart of China's capital city, it is plainly visible: a rarely empty asphalt basketball court tucked between office buildings and apartments. Jump shots are launched with accuracy by lithe teenagers wearing the most stylish gear. Twisting drives attempted by younger players come up short of the rim.


Just across Chang'an Dajie, the majestic, 100-yard-wide boulevard that has hosted parades by the Red Army — complete with tanks and missile warheads providing fearsome images beamed round the world — is Dong Dan Park, now an oasis of happy shouts and the sound of leather balls being dribbled on concrete.

Barely a half-mile away, through the Tiananmen Gate, is the entrance to the Forbidden City, for roughly 500 years the grounds of the imperial palace, where only the inner circles of the Ming and Ching dynasties were permitted. But now you pay your 60 yuan (approx. $7.50), and the first sight to catch your eye is a pair of backboards frequently used by guards playing two-on-two during their breaks.

"Basketball is the game of the Chinese people," said Xia Song. "It is the game of the masses."

At a time when much of the United States is still getting used to the notion of imported Rockets center Yao Ming as literally and figuratively the next big thing, it can be surprising to learn that the "American game" has roots in China that are nearly as old.

Two sides of the same world. Can it really be so different when there are girls in miniskirts, midriff tops and boots with spiked heels walking along the Great Wall at Badaling? How different a place is this with KFC and McDonald's restaurants elbowing their way onto a landscape where the traditional vendors sell locust-on-a-stick and deep-fried scorpion from their carts?

It was in 1896, barely five years after Dr. James Naismith nailed up his first peach baskets at his gymnasium in Springfield, Mass., that a government official named Piengiang introduced the game to China. It caught on immediately and has always been a deeply ingrained part of the culture, even if virtually none of the outside world knew how important it was until a 7-6 prodigy was made the historic No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft and began to change the face of basketball in Houston.

Basketball participation never flagged during the Chinese civil war in the 1930s and was eventually given a prominent place in society at the birth of the People's Republic of China when Chou En Lai, the first prime minister, endorsed the game for its contribution to fitness and promotion of teamwork. The game even survived the dark days of the Cultural Revolution, when intellectuals and artists were sent to labor camps and jail, even executed. Basketball was not only tolerated but also encouraged during the reign of Chairman Mao Zedong.

The people's game, indeed.

"But turn the clock back just a few years now, and I could never have imagined that Chinese basketball would be at the level we are seeing today, with more great things ahead," said Xia Song, an agent who represents professional players and serves as a TV commentator.

Xia, who will be the public-address announcer for the China Games — the pair of preseason encounters between the Rockets and Sacramento Kings in Shanghai on Thursday and Beijing on Oct. 16 — is an all-around fixer, doer and promoter of the game. He learned about basketball as a child in the far southwest of China, sitting on the sidelines while watching his parents and other adults play.

"What we are seeing now are the kinds of things that I have dreamed about," Xia said. "This is only the beginning. But it can all go so far."

One need look only at how far the relationship between China and the NBA has come in so short a time. While the first Asian player ever drafted was China's Sung Tao by the Atlanta Hawks in the third round in 1987, the first to step onto a court in an NBA game was 7-footer Wang Zhizhi, a 1999 pick by the Dallas Mavericks who joined the team for five games in April 2001. Wang was followed by Mengke Bateer, who joined the Denver Nuggets in February 2002.

But Yao Ming truly opened the door to so many possibilities when the Rockets made him the No. 1 pick two years ago, and he quickly showed the kind of ability to stand up to the likes of Shaquille O'Neal and get himself voted as the Western Conference starter in the 2004 NBA All-Star Game.

Now every NBA club is scouting China for talent in one way or another, listening to rumors about the possibilities of there being dozens — or hundreds — more Yaos out there, maybe growing up in a poor mountain village. Scouts are calculating the statistical probabilities that can come from a talent crop harvested in a nation of 1.3 billion people.

The round, beaming face of the man they call Big Xu smiles broadly. He then laughs out loud at the talk of Yao's being the first of some kind of super race of basketball giants.


'The Steel Pillow'
"We did once have a player in the 1970s, Mu Tie Shu, who was 2.48 meters (about 8-2)," said Xu. "They called him 'The Steel Pillow.' But he was just tall, never very good.

"Yao Ming is quite special, probably unique. It is enough to think that there might be only one of him. But what is possible, I hope, is that what he can do for Chinese basketball is to continue to open the door and bring about the next generation."

Xu Jicheng stands 6-4 and fills up a room with his personality as much as his size. Still a writer for the Xinhua News Agency, he has become a larger-than-life cult figure and basketball ambassador — a Chinese Dick Vitale, if you will.

Big Xu does live TV commentary on NBA games several nights a week during the regular season. He got himself in on the ground floor at the dawn of the first NBA Dream Team that went to the Olympics in 1992 and has watched interest in the league explode since the 1994 meeting between the Rockets and New York Knicks was the first NBA Finals series televised live in China.

A 24-page newspaper, Basketball Pioneers, devoted solely to the game, starts up this week. It will publish twice weekly and is projected to have a circulation of 200,000 by next season.

"The game, the culture, the lifestyle has captured so much of the public," said Big Xu. "They know all the details about the different players. They have the jerseys, the shoes, all of the knowledge."

There are those who maintain that there are more Michael Jordan fans in China than in America. Qiao Dan, they called him. Not merely an Eastern pronunciation of Jordan's name, that is a combination of words in Mandarin — qiao, meaning "clever" or "ingenious," and dan, meaning "to carry the burden" and also symbolizing red — that is celebrated in the Chinese culture.

NBA commissioner David Stern likes to tell of his early visits to China when he would be asked feverish questions about the Bulls, the "Team of the Red Oxen."

"Chinese fans loved Jordan and still do," said Big Xu. "Part of it had to do with him being a handsome man with a wonderful smile. Much of it had to do with him not being the biggest man on the court but always somehow able to carry the day, find a way for his team to win. Those attributes of cleverness and great will are highly regarded in China."


Tales from Big Xu

Big Xu loves to regale visitors with the story of the visiting American professor who thought he would enlighten his class of Chinese students with tales of the great American superstar Jordan. He asked the students if they knew which team Jordan played for, and, of course, they replied correctly and began to cite his statistics.

One of the students then raised a hand and asked the professor if he knew Jordan's wingspan. When the professor said no, the student replied: "You are the only one in this room who doesn't."

During Jordan's career, a young girl named Zhang Si Lai wrote a daily Jordan diary and even hosted a TV talk show that dealt exclusively with Jordan. When asked on the show if she would one day like to meet Jordan, Zhang thought for a moment and replied: "No. I want him to always be a dream."

Newspapers in China treated Jordan's first retirement from the NBA almost like a death. Schoolchildren were seen reading the newspapers on the streets and crying.

Since Jordan's retirement from the Washington Wizards, there is a void still to be filled in China. The fans like Allen Iverson but believe he is too small to be the ultimate winner. They liked Kobe Bryant, but his off-court troubles made them uncomfortable. Tim Duncan is too placid. Shaq is simply too big.

"But the Chinese grandmas love Shaq," said Big Xu. "They love him because he looks fat and happy. He has that round face. He is always smiling. He is the big baby the Chinese grandmas want to hug."

Now the Chinese have one of their own in Yao Ming, possibly on his way to being a superstar, and the reaction is to both embrace him and not quite believe that it is true at the same time.

"He is the real thing, believe me," said veteran NBA coach Del Harris, who led the Chinese national team to an eighth-place finish at the Athens Olympics, its best performance ever. "I saw Yao Ming play through pain, with bloody feet every night, saw defenses come at him, and I never saw him stop working, stop carrying that team. If the Chinese can develop more like him, there is no stopping them."

The Chinese fans cannot get enough information on Yao or live coverage of his games with the Rockets. When he plays against O'Neal or Duncan, the TV ratings spike dramatically. It is not uncommon to see fans gathered around TVs in store windows if Yao is in action. When the Rockets met the Lakers last spring and Yao got his first taste of the NBA playoffs, TV-watching parties were all the rage. Tickets for Yao's first-ever NBA games back in his home country sold in some cases for well over $100, a princely sum, and were snapped up. Some fans camped out the night before tickets went on sale.

There are billboards all over town in Beijing and Shanghai featuring Yao and his new superstar teammate Tracy McGrady. At the Hongqiao Market, you can buy a knock-off jersey bearing Yao's and McGrady's numbers (11 and 1, respectively) for $12. At the Sports 100 store in the Oriental Plaza, a leftover Steve Francis Rockets jersey goes for $42. A collector's item, perhaps. The anticipation buzzes through the sports community like a live wire as the Chinese fans seem to want to see in person that what has happened with Yao is real.


Tracking the big guy

"The Chinese fans are discriminating," said Xia Song. "They don't want to be told that their own players are as good as the stars of the NBA. They have watched the NBA for years. They know who is truly great. They are still watching Yao. I think everybody in the world knows that he is real. But the Chinese fans might be the last to give that acknowledgement."

America's game. China's game. More than a century after Naismith's invention, two sides of a shrinking world find them one.


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