[Chron] Yao and Jeff's Excellent Adventure

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2845216

Yao takes coach on trip down memory lane
Shanghai tour gives Van Gundy glimpse of his star center's childhood
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

CHINA GAMES
• What: Rockets vs. Sacramento Kings (preseason).
• When/where: 6:30 a.m. Thursday in Shanghai; 11 p.m. Saturday in Beijing.
• TV: ESPN.

SHANGHAI - The local newspapers had already spent several days building it up as The Return of the Legend — Yao Ming's homecoming to China with the Rockets.

But for about two hours Tuesday afternoon, it more closely resembled Yao and Jeff's Excellent Adventure.

They were player and coach, tall and short, straight man and wisecracker, majestic athlete and unshaven bundle of rumpled laundry — yin and yang, if you will.

As they rolled through the crowded streets of China's most populated city in a small bus, Yao and Jeff Van Gundy couldn't have been having more fun, even if they were a bit giddy from lack of sleep after the halfway-around-the-world flight from Houston.

The Rockets' charter flight arrived at Shanghai's new Pudong Airport at roughly 8 a.m. China time, and barely three hours later Yao and his less-than-worldly head coach were being swept off to a news conference with about 200 members of the Chinese media.

"Hey, Yao, tell us about your city," shouted Van Gundy from his seat in the back row. "Show us the hot spots. Show us where you like to hang."

"Hang?" asked Yao.

"Yeah, where are the chicks?"

"Chicks?" asked Yao.

When interpreter/sidekick Colin Pine explained, Yao blushed.

"Don't worry," said Van Gundy. "I won't tell your girlfriend."

They were seated at a table inside a basement room at the Shanghai Arena, which was jammed with cameramen and reporters. They politely answered the questions and tried their one-liners.

When Yao gave one particularly short answer, Van Gundy said: "He's not revealing too much. He's trying to get you all to buy his book."

Van Gundy told the throng that Yao is an ideal role model. Then he paused and added, "Of course, I'll be telling him something else tomorrow in practice. But I'll stick with that line for now."

Somebody asked Van Gundy if he planned to learn any Chinese phrases on the trip.

"I tried that last year, and it didn't work," he replied.

"Maybe you need to learn from coach (Del) Harris (who led the Chinese national team in the Olympics)," Yao said.

"Does he know a lot of words?" asked Van Gundy.

"Yes," replied Yao. "Many good ones. Some bad ones."


Yao's road trip
After about 30 minutes, it was out of the arena and back onto the bus with just a handful of friends. And that's when the real fun began on an impromptu tour of Yao's hometown.

"Hey, Yao," yelled Van Gundy. "What would happen if we stopped this bus right now and you got out and walked through the park? Would it cause a problem?"

"Only if you never wanted to see me again," Yao answered.

"You know, if you keep running back down the floor on defense like you did the other night against Shaq, that might not be a bad thing," said Van Gundy.

As the buildings and familiar surroundings of his youth whizzed by, Yao began to point out sights. There were both famous and just personal favorites.

"Would you like to see the house where I grew up?" he asked.

The bus stopped on Wangping Road, and Yao was the first out to lead a group of six friends down an alley that opened into a concrete courtyard.

There was laundry hanging from long poles extended out windows.

There was the smell of fresh vegetables.

There was the sound of voices coming through open windows.

"Up there, on the sixth floor, at the very top," Yao said, pointing. "That's where I lived from about age 3 to age 9. This is where I have my first memories of growing up."

Not much had changed from the exterior of the brown and beige building, except for the addition of air conditioners. Still no elevator to the sixth floor.

"It's where I got my early conditioning, walking up and down all those steps," Yao said.

"Yeah, then you moved when you were 9, and you've never been in shape since," Van Gundy said.

An old man opened a wooden door and peeked out at the tall, familiar visitor.

"I remember him from when I lived here," Yao said. "He recognized me right away."

Soon there were other faces at windows, and a half-dozen women — some new residents, some who asked about his parents — came out to greet Yao.

The next stop was just a few blocks away at the No. 1 Gao'an Road, Primary School, which Yao attended from ages 6 to 12.

Most of the students were away from the school on a field trip. But one boy of about 14 was standing inside the gate when Yao stepped off the bus. The boy's jaw dropped, and his eyes widened, and then he began jumping and dialing all of his friends on his cell phone.

Yao pointed to the basketball courts with the old wooden backboards and the bent rims.

"This is where I played," he said. "We were outside, and the teacher, who knew that my parents had played basketball, asked if I wanted to attempt a free throw.

"I took a basketball in my hands for the first time right here, and I shot an airball."

A short time later, somebody found a ball. Yao stepped back to the foul line and missed badly on two shots.

"Some things never change," said Van Gundy.


Fitting in nicely

Yao ducked his head to go through the door of the classroom where he sat as a child at the tiny desks.

"Remember, I wasn't always this tall," he said. "I could fit at those desks. When I attended school here, I wasn't the tallest boy at school. Not by far. I didn't really grow a lot until I was 15."

Yao told stories of how he'd curry favor with his teacher by washing the first-floor windows. He told of walking home each day to have lunch.

"What kind of food did your mother make you?" Van Gundy asked.

"Chinese food," replied Yao, laughing out loud.

Van Gundy stepped to the blackboard and decided to leave the kids who were gone for the day a message. With chalk, he wrote: "The Rockets were here."

Then Yao and Van Gundy left autographs in English and Chinese.


A special reminder
Basketballs began to appear in the hands of the staff members in the hallways, and Yao graciously signed them.

Van Gundy grabbed one ball, dribbled right out the door, scored a layup and shouted, "It's 2-0, Yao! I'm gonna take you right here on your home court!"

Yao finally made a free throw. Then he pointed out the painted dots, spaced about three feet apart, that were all over the concrete playground.

"Every student had a dot," he explained. "It's where you stood in the morning to do your exercises before class and studies."

"Show us your dot, Yao, " Van Gundy said.

The 7-6 NBA All-Star walked to the far side of the yard, to a dot not far from the fence. He stood there, looking back at the school building and maybe through the years.

"See this flagpole?" he said. "Once a week, the student in the school with the best academic achievement got to raise the flag of China. It was a great honor. It was always my goal."

"So, Yao, how many times did you raise the flag?" asked Van Gundy.

"Never," said Yao, grinning sheepishly.

"So you were a goof-off? Van Gundy asked.

"I wouldn't say that," he answered. "Just not the best. Hey, Coach, did you ever carry your country's flag at the Olympics?"

On the far side of the world, Yao and Jeff's Excellent Adventure just rolled on.

fran.blinebury@chron.com