by Alan Paul I hooked up with TMac and the Adidas Caravan on the first full day of their three-city China tour to launch the TMac 5. We met at the five-star Kerry Center Hotel downtown and piled into two leather-seated vans for a short, police-escorted trip to Chaoyang Stadium for the official launch of the shoe, the first NBA player’s kick to be launched outside the U.S. TMac said over and over that they chose China because “of all the love the people here have shown me” and no doubt that’s true. No doubt also that there are 1.4 billion Chinese people and basketball is the nation’s most popular, fastest growing sport with unlimited shoe sales potential down the road. Lebron was here recently and he’s on Nike billboards all over the city. When Jordan came a few years ago, the pandemonium was such that he had to climb the Great Wall at 4 am. Here, there is no competition to become the next Jordan – that’s Yao. By virtue of being his teammate and having all his games televised here, however, Tmac is in great position to become a true superstar. By all his accounts, the greeting he received at the airport indictaed he’s well on his way. The sirened escort was a treat in this traffic-clogged city and actually arrived at the event early, a Beijing rarity. ESPN Hollywood has a camerman/producer trailing TMac throughout his Asian jaunt and he was taping in the VIP room. I asked Tmac about his rock-star-like airport welcome and he seemed genuinely moved. “it was amazing. I had some idea what it would be like, having been here last year, with Yao, but being the center of that was just incredible.” I asked him if it was scary at all, and he emphatically shook his head. “Not at all, because I know it’s all coming from love.” McGrady said he’s “very excited” to get the season under way and that he has high hopes to wipe away the bitter taste of last season’s climactic 40-point playoff loss. “I’ve been working really hard and I feel great and really ready to go,” he said. “I’ve been working on everything – conditioning, ballhandling, shooting, strength training.” The latter is readily apparent; TMac looks big, more pumped than at the end of last season. No doubt that‘s what happens when you travel the world with your personal trainer by your side, and hit the gym for a good workout after a 16-hour flight. Next came a quick meet and greet and photo shoot with Chinese retailers, who filed up one by one to shake hands and have their pictures taken – pics which no doubt are already be hanging in shoe stores from one corner of Beijing to the other. I wandered out to check out the launch setting and was was impressed by the elaborate set design that had transformed the drab gym into a futuristic planetary set. A few Chinese ballers were running layup lines and tossing themselves oops on a court in thje middle of the solar system. When it was time to move. Tmac strode through the darkened, backstage hallways amidst an entourage, including several local security guys who took their jobs very seriously. Think Secret Service – dark suits, ear phones, forearms to the back of anyone in their way. We walked out to the area where he would be introduced, then TMac’s crew and I peeled off, joining some Adidas bigs in the front row as Tmac emerged amidst swirling smoke and booming applause. Eventually, he descended to the floor and a giant basketball planet slowly lowered to his side. The smoke dissipated and a new Tmac 5 was waiting to be proudly displayed. (It won’t be launched in the States for another month.) The mc, who effortlessly switched between Mandarin and English, interviewed Tmac about the shoe, then they held a dunk contest, with Tracy judging. The dunkers, who range din size form about 6-5 to 6-8, included one dude with cornrows and another with tats and a bushy permed out fro, started out a little tentative but got on a pretty good roll. After the winner received the first pair of 5’s, the top two three-man squad, from Adidas’ recent china streetball tournament rolled out and flipped a coin to see who got TMac on their side. “it’s, uh, flower!” Tmac proclaimed, putting himself on the side of Beijing. Shanghai was rounded out by a top Chinese pro center and they played a 10-minute game, with Tmac walking a fine line between involving his teammates and putting on the expected show, displaying a nifty streetball handle, tossing some laser passes for backcuting layins, threw down at least one nasty, rim-hanging dunk, and tossed in a bunch of threes. After the event, we piled back into the vans, and, again guided by a police escort, set out for the 90-minute drive to the Great Wall. Following behind was a bus full of China media and Adidas reps. As we trekked up a steep hill towards the cable car that would take us to the Wall, we came to a sleepy, decrepit-looking camel and its keepers. Tmac was determined to take it for a spin. The camel was rather forcefully prodded to stand up as we approached. As McGrady climbed a little ladder to get on, the handlers gave the beast a kick and a pop with a stick and Tmac backed away, saying “Hell no!” I thought he was an animal rightser until he said, “Why you got to make him mad just before I get on?” The camel people looked puzzled and McGrady warily climbed on for a rather short and bumpy, humpy ride. Then it was on to the cable car. TMac got in one with his boys and Issy, the ESPN camerman The car looked full but the Chinese security detail was not about to let him out of their sight and they jumped in as well. They had to be pushing the weight limit. At the top, we clambered out and trekked down a stretch of the Wall, where McGrady signed some sort of Adidas Beijing 2008 Olympics banner, had his picture taken eight-million times and filmed a little commentary. As we were up there, atop a little mountain, feeling mighty exposed, the sky darkened and thunder started rolling in. A cooling rain fell as we made our way back. Waiting for the cars to resume running, amidst a bunch of Euro tourists, I chatted some more with Tmac, about a whole bunch of nothing. He’s a very laidback dude, easy to BS with, relaxed and pretty open. Back at the bottom, the vendors were relentlessy aggressive. You could say they smelled money in the air, but this was their normal behavior. Tmac actually bought this crazy, foldable straw which looked so surprisingly good, before getting into some souvenir haggling for himself and his boy Ira, seeming to enjoy the intense back and forth which is standard business in China. While this was going on, I asked H, his bodyguard and longtime friend, how he enjoyed being in China. “It’s cool,“ he said, nonchalantly, dollar sign glistening off his front right tooth. “It’s all the same to me – another day out with Tmac. Don’t really matter to me if it’s in China, Houston, Orlando, wherever.” As he was talking, a young woman brushed by, a little too close to his charge. Without taking his eyes off me or changing his blasé expression, H gave her a shove back and a strongly worded “Hey!” Purchases tucked under his arm, TMac moved back towards his buggy. On the long ride back, trainer Wayne and the Adidas guys plotted out what drills Tmac would run two days later at a Shanghai camp for the top 10 or 15 ballers from last May’s 18 and under camp. It was agreed they should make the kids really sweat and show them how hard Tmac works. Just the description of Wayne’s drills had me reaching for a water bottle. “Everyone over here thinks he just runs out and plays,” someone from the stripes said. “They have no idea how much work goes into it.” We got back to the hotel around 5 pm to find a group of fans clutching Rockets jerseys in the lobby. 24 hours after landing in a time zone half a day ahead, jet lag had finally kicked in and Tmac needed to catch a little shut eye before dinner. He didn’t want the meal to run too late, either, he said; he had to get back to hoist a few jumpers before calling it a night. Here's the link and a couple of photos
