Chron: Olympics Places even more focus on Yao in China

Olympics places even more focus on Yao in China
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
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In time, Yao Ming might allow himself a deeper look at the desires and expectations of the world's most populous nation. To some degree, those hopes are already unavoidable, and Yao might -- in small, private ways -- accept the demands of his people.

He knows that much of China has become fans of the Rockets and follows the accounts of his life in Houston and travels through the NBA. Every trip home brings a reminder of the sort of celebrity, even hero, that he has become.

The Olympics will turn all that up even more. While other teams are far greater medal contenders -- Yao considers just reaching the medal round a sensible goal -- few players will be more compelling. There will be plenty of time to see Manu Ginobili or LeBron James, but there is a sense that it might be best to quickly catch Yao and a Chinese national team so determined to improve that it hired Del Harris to be its coach.

Still, that will be in Athens, far removed from China's obsession. And there are many Chinese athletes -- especially divers and gymnasts -- with far greater medal chances.

But by 2008, when the Games move to Beijing, China will want more. The weight of desire will be focused on Yao. He will have had enough NBA seasons to become the kind of star who wears medals. So much national athletic pride will be turned toward those Games, a full decade removed from Yao's first steps on the national team that made everything seem possible.

By then, Yao will have to look squarely in the eye of a nation's hopes, its expectations even, because they will be inescapable.

But for now, he would just like to eat lunch in peace.

"I act natural, but when people see me, they don't act naturally," Yao said. "It's like today at lunch. There was a big glass into the restaurant. There were about 10, 15 people leaning on the glass trying to peek inside. We closed the blinds, but they still tried to look through the blinds.

"I'm aware of all that. I know it's happening. But I'm still not used to it. Or maybe I should say I'm used to it, but I don't like it."

This is the paradox that is Yao's life, never more so than in the intense focus of the Olympics. He is special and cannot deny it. He is also ordinary, or as Steve Francis put it, "He's just like us, only 7-foot-6 and Chinese."

Francis inspired laughs with that observation during Yao's rookie season. But Francis turned out to be more insightful than comedic.

On these occasions, Yao becomes undeniably unique. More than other NBA stars who now dot rosters throughout the Olympic basketball tournament, Yao stands out and relatively alone. And with so many games in such a short time, the focus increases.

"It's an honor to represent your country in the Olympics," Yao said of his potential burdens and the decisions by so many other NBA players to take the summer off. "It's something that I feel. It's something I want to do.

"As far as a basketball team, I think I have less pressure because it's a team sport. I'm used to it. For a lot of people in the Olympics from China, it's in individual sports. When they represent China, they are only allowed to get a gold medal. With the basketball team, they only expect to go to the top eight. For a lot of people from China, if they don't get a gold medal and only get silver, it's a failure."

That latitude, if it exists, will be temporary. The decision to hire Harris, while not unique to international basketball or even in Harris' career, was a radical departure for China. And just as having players in the NBA was once unthinkable, the idea of bringing in an NBA coach to lead, rather than help, the national team signals the Chinese determination to become far more competitive than when it finished eighth in Atlanta in 1996 or 10th in Sydney in 2000.

Yao likely knows better than his teammates how much they must learn -- and in a short time. Just two years since the World Championships in Indianapolis and just four seasons since he was a child in the Olympics in Sydney, Yao has become a veteran of the highest levels of competition.

"It's kind of hard for our young players to get used to that," Yao said of the team's new NBA style. "When a coach says the strategies on the court, they know they have to go this route or that route to get the results. But they don't understand exactly why they get that result. That's going to take time. It could take a few years."

The team would obviously rather not wait that long. Harris was hired to prepare and coach the team in these Olympics. But with 2008 in Beijing always peering over the shoulder of 2004 in Athens, there might be as much to gain through the lessons that stick with young players over time.

"The problem for our national team is all our players are the best players from their clubs," Yao said, sounding very much like an NBA player heading to the Olympics. "They are all scorers. Not rebounders. Not defenders. They are all the guys who can score the most points for their team. We don't have any guy that can attack the basket, get rebounds, run the fast break. We don't have guys who set screens for a guy to shoot the ball. Their job is to shoot the ball. Scoring is their only job.

"The last time, in Indianapolis (at the 2002 World Championships), the players, the older generation, played very conservatively. Of the 15 players, I was the second youngest back then. Now I'm one of the most experienced, seven years. I think by the Olympics, players will not be as conservative and will get better results.

"What I'm concerned (about) is after the 2004 Olympics, will Del Harris come back? Right now, we have such a high level of coach to teach us. They teach us. We're understanding. But after he goes back, those players go back to their own clubs to play. They become the top level. I'm afraid they're going to lose some of the high-level stuff he teaches. It accumulates, but I worry they will lose it."

For Harris, such thoughts would be presumptuous. Coaches coach. As with players, who much concern themselves with the job at hand, he must ready this team for this tournament.

"I don't feel that burden on me," Harris said. "I want to do that, but of course, that's their responsibility going on forward. My responsibility is more to these guys (on the team). I like them so much I want them to do well. I want the Chinese program to do well. I don't know that I can affect it that much at this point, but it is a point I want to continue to work on.

"Coaching the Chinese is like coaching back in the '50s and '60s as far as the response. These guys are so respectful and eager to do right, it's the way life used to be in the U.S.. It's just great from a coaching standpoint to have guys respond almost without question and just try to do the right thing."

Harris has coached internationally before, in Puerto Rico from 1969-75 and in Canada. His love of the game has always been infectious. There was a time when coaches spread the word with religious conviction.

"Basketball is a very good ambassador for many parts of life," he said. "It's such an obvious team game. Baseball is a team game, but it's highly individualistic. Football is a team game, but it is highly specialized. Basketball, there are only five guys, and all five guys have to do all of it.

"This sport does lend itself to so many of the best social values that man can have. When it's done right, you learn all the fine things of life: cooperation, teamwork, sacrifice, unselfishness, how to make friends, how to compete, how to get through disappointment, how to handle success, how to encourage, and so many other things that can carry over into other aspects of life. On an international level, it breaks down so many barriers that naturally stand between countries in times of politics and philosophies."

Perhaps no athlete is as responsible for breaking down barriers and representing his country as is Yao. He has said there are qualities valued in China, particularly humility, that he hopes to demonstrate. Not so much to represent China, but because he believes it's how he should behave.

"I just want to be myself," Yao said. "I don't want people to think I'm acting in any way. However people see me, that's me. I don't want to ever be acting."

But he does seem increasingly comfortable with his fame.

At the front desk of the Frisco hotel in which the Chinese national team stayed during training, a clerk jokingly pretended to bill Yao for a service that comes at no charge. Yao answered with: "Can I write a check?" -- the punch line from one of his commercials.

If he encounters new products he especially likes or dislikes, Yao considers their worthiness for future endorsements, determined never to support a product he does not use or at least like.

He is even willing to address questions about his girlfriend, Ye Li, a player on the Chinese women's national basketball team. He showed off the new red keepsake wristband she made for him and the old worn one that went with him through his first years in the United States.

"I want people to think I'm a basketball player," Yao said. "I want to talk about basketball first. If you write basketball and sometimes write something else, I will answer you. But a lot of people are like gossip writers, like gossip magazines. They make a living off that, but I'm not used to it."

Yao is not unaware that unlike the divers or gymnasts whom most of the West cannot name or will not see for four years, to many he represents China and the country's increasing openness. That might be more daunting than carrying the hopes of a country.

But as with everything else, Yao said he will look the other way for now and be like all the other athletes -- except that he's 7-6 and Chinese.

"I don't worry about it," he said. "I like it. But I think more about what happens on the court.

"I just do my job. I do what I'm supposed to do and what I want to do. Any politics that result are not something that I'm concerned about. I'm playing basketball. But I would be happy if this brings us together."

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