Orlando Sentinel: "Chairman Yao"

I just found this interesting article, it seems like Orlando is going to treat him well:




Chairman Yao

By Jerry Brewer | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 8, 2003





They laughed at him, and Paul Pressey had to grimace and take it.

When Houston Rockets rookie center Yao Ming played poorly at the beginning of the season, Orlando Magic coaches and players would tease Pressey, a Magic assistant. They were mocking a prediction he made before the season.

"He's going to be great," Pressey said of Yao, the first pick in the 2002 draft. "I'm not talkin' good. I'm talkin' great."

Then, Yao did not score in his first NBA game and looked lost early in the season. Pressey frowned.

"After the first two games, we were killing him," Magic Coach Doc Rivers said of Pressey.

They laughed too soon. Now, Pressey has all the fun. He was right.

Yao, the 7-foot-5 center from China, is the biggest thing to come into the NBA since, well, Shawn Bradley, but Yao already has dunked on him and distanced himself from such a comparison.

It looks as if the next great center has been discovered. Rockets guard Steve Francis, whose nickname is "Franchise," refers to Yao as "Dynasty."

O-Town debut

For the first time in his NBA career, Yao visits Orlando tonight. He will be welcomed instead of resented. There will be martial arts exhibitions and Chinese dragons on the court before the game and at halftime. Vendors will sell Asian food. The Orlando Asian-American Chamber of Commerce will have a special reception before the game.

Such treatment normally is reserved for a retired superstar, but there is money to be made in the novelty of Yao. And his popularity demands this kind of attention.

"I feel a lot of pressure on me," Yao said recently. "But I feel it every day. I am used to it. It is a bit of a burden on me, but I have to realize it's a responsibility I have to shoulder."

Unless Shaquille O'Neal -- remember him? -- comes from behind, Yao will be the starting center for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 9. He leads Shaq by more than 150,000 votes.

"One billion people -- that's tough to beat," said O'Neal, who will be the "Big Backup" in Atlanta.

This is bigger than Chinese people getting online and swaying the vote: The NBA says Yao also is ahead of Shaq in the "paper balloting" available in the United States.

Shaq, who has a deep love for needling opponents, actually is accepting this.

"It happens to the best of us," O'Neal said. "When I came in, I beat out Patrick Ewing. He is making history for his people. His people are proud of him. They should be."

There are few doubters now. There were plenty before, and rightfully so. No one had really seen Yao play.

When he worked out at a special event in Chicago last year, Los Angeles Clippers forward Quentin Richardson came away saying his team would bet on who would be the first to dunk on Yao. But Yao is having all the fun now. In his eighth NBA game, he hit all nine of his shots and scored 20 points against the Los Angeles Lakers, who played without O'Neal.

Then he dropped 30 points and 16 rebounds on Bradley and Dallas two games later. Then he had 27 points and 18 rebounds against Tim Duncan and David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs. Then came a slap pass to Francis and a no-look, over-the-shoulder pass to Moochie Norris and another no-look, over-the-shoulder pass to Cuttino Mobley.

"It was marvelous," Francis said of the pass to Norris. "I was surprised that he threw it. I know it's going to be a top-10 play."

Francis stopped and thought.

"Wait," he said. "It's going to be the top play in every country -- in China, America, everywhere."

Global power

Therein lies the greatest idea of what Yao could become. He's a nice player now, at 22, averaging 13.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and two blocks. He is the leading candidate for rookie-of-the-year honors. Once he figures out his teammates -- and vice versa -- domination will occur.

But this could be bigger than just a star athlete playing a game. Yao could grow to be one of the most significant factors in the globalization of the NBA and all of basketball.

The post-Jordan era of the NBA will be defined by how well the league's young superstars mature and how popular the foreign players become. There is a tussle between the two -- the young, urban star fighting for respect; the fundamentally sound international player receiving more attention than ever -- but it all comes down to two things: Who will win titles? Who will respect the game enough to become beloved?

So here is Yao, new and refreshing. It's not crazy to think he can be a major commercial icon if he continues to progress and grow as a player, even with the language barrier.

"I think Yao Ming is like the new Bruce Lee," Tang Yinjie, a graduate student from Shanghai, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "He introduced some new ideas to the American people."

There is a charisma about Yao, even when he is speaking his limited English, even as you wait to hear his translator interpret what Yao just said.

"Yao is the answer," a female columnist in the lifestyles department wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle last month. "He has sex appeal. . . . He's soooo cute."

When that story got back to Yao, he blushed.

The humility only adds to his mystique.

"I'm not the only thing that is exciting about China," Yao said. "There are a lot of things about China that are exciting. I'm just doing what I always do and doing what I think I should do. I don't think it's a burden. But if people can learn something from that, that's great."

He already has Bill Walton yelping, "Throw it down, Yao Ming! Throw it down!"

Outrageous fortune

Charles Barkley said earlier in the season he would kiss Kenny Smith's behind if Yao ever scored 20 points in a game on a TNT telecast. After that Lakers game, Smith walked out with a mule, and Barkley had to kiss its backside.

Magic players recently were caught singing the tune Houston plays during games at the Compaq Center. The song repeats the name "Yao Ming" throughout in a melody that is hard to get out of one's head.

The Rockets' marketing slogan this season is "Be Part of Something Big." No one knew Yao would be this big this quickly.

Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich has no trouble getting through to Yao. During a visit to China before the season, Tomjanovich was talking basketball with Yao, overly expressing himself in a conversation about the pick-and-roll.

Yao stopped him. "So, Coach, you mean a pick-and-pop?" he asked.

The center has all the tools -- midrange jumper, quickness, athleticism, an affinity for dunking on people. He can pass. He knows a couple of Hakeem Olajuwon fakes, too.

He also lacks the brute strength of an O'Neal, so his humbling will come Jan. 17, when the two play for the first time. "Every problem has to be faced," Yao said of the challenge.

Somehow, you can see Yao having a couple -- let us stress a couple --- of moments against Shaq. He has turned out to be that good.

"I think he's just going to be fantastic," Milwaukee Coach George Karl said. "I think Houston, they're going to be amazing in two years."

By then, maybe fans will give Yao the ultimate sign of respect when he passes through arenas on the road.

Boos.