Hey guys, Just got Yao's autobiography in the mail from Amazon today. The book is pretty thick, and its really cool reading. There's a black and white picture of Yao in the back of the book playing basketball-he looks about 7 or 8. (Maybe younger since he is really tall....) There's also a quote by John Wooden about Yao in the back as well. I'm sifting through it right now-- some interesting tidbits During the 2002 draft --Jerry West was one of the first people to call Caroll Dawson about doing a trade to get the # 1 pick---I thought this was funny since I remember Jerry West talking down Yao, and trying to convince people to draft Jay Williams #1 instead. (pretty sneaky...) There's a common Chinese word that sounds like the "n" word, and Cuttino got a little upset with Yao, and Colin Pine because he thought they were saying it. The Chinese word is pronounced "nay-guh" or something.... When the press reported that Yao invited Shaq to dinner before they played against each other for the first time -this wasn't really true. Phil Jackson told the press this for some reason. Yao said in his autobiography that he thought Phil did this so people wouldn't think Shaq was a racist... There's also quotes from Steve Francis, and believe it or not Tyson Chandler. I guess when Yao was a teenager he went up against Tyson Chandler in one of those basketball camps. There's funny stories by Yao's friends, family, and teammates including Teyo Johnson -the football player from the Raiders-from when he and Yao were roommates in the basketball camp... the language barrier, and culture barrier stories were hilarious... During his rookie year-Yao turned down 30 million dollars worth of endorsements. He also turned down doing the cover for Time Magazine, and GQ magazine. He was getting overwhelmed with all the attention. I think Bill Sanders from Team Yao said he was shocked that Yao was turning down stuff other NBA players would kill for.... I'll add more stuff as I read some more....
This don't make sense... If Phil didn't want people to think that Shaq was a racist he should've said that Shaq invited Yao to dinner instead. What Phil did just make Yao more of a nice guy than Shaq.
More stuff-- Remember when Yao's Pre Draft workout got mixed reviews,here is what Yao said about it P.82-83 " I've never told anybody this, but another reason I played the way I did in the big workout is that I knew Chris Christofferson,the center they brought in to play against me. .....Erik told me Christofferson would be in the 2002 draft with me and I thought, "If I play well against him, maybe nobody will pick him." I didn't want to do that to him. So there were times I could have dunked and I just shot it instead." Some more interesting quotes from Yao "Before I knew Houston got the first pick in the draft, Chicago was where I wanted to go. That was mainly because Erik (his cousin) lives there, and I thought that would make life easier for me. But after I talked to Krause, the Bulls GM, that's when I got scared. He said that if I was tired after the NBA season to tell him. If that meant not playing for the national team, he would arrange for that. ....That's what scared me. I wanted to play for the national team...That's why I didn't want to go to Chicago after that... By the way the word in Chinese that sounds like the "n" word means "that one" When Cuttino heard this he got upset and told Yao, and Colin "OK, Anyway, if you yellow people say that it's not so bad, but if a white guy said it. I'd fight with him." p.153 There's a whole chapter on Racism and Shaq that is really interesting...
I think he was just wondering what Phil's motivations were... This was one of Yao's quotes about the incident- p.156 "As for Shaq, I don't know if what he said was worse than what anybody else said. Paraphrasing-- Yao says the American born Chinese were more offended than he was-- since he really understand what Shaq meant when he mocked the Chinese language. I don't think Yao thinks Shaq is a racist, and they're on very good terms right now. Shaq told him "I love you; we're friends" as well as apologizing during that game....
I used to date a chinese girl and when she spoke to her mom, I swore she was using the n word all the time. I asked her about it, and she didn't know what the hell I was talking about.
yeah.. "nay-guy" is a common thing in mandarin.. meaning.."that".. or even for example.. you're trying to think of a word to say... but it's not coming to your mind... kinda like.. "uhm" ... but in a more,"that" kinda way.
oh and i think i might just buy the book lol. I can't believe i jsut said that. Buy and book in the same sentence.
that reminds me of a scene from family guy when peter talks about his ancestor huck griffin Jim "What did you say?!! That's our word!" Huck Griffin" Okay okay! Can you pass me the oar N-word Jim?" Jim"Certainly" Not sure if those are the exact words but that was the first thing i was thinking when i read about Cat flipping out
its has almost the same meaning in Cantonese as in Mandarin, as soon as I read that part, I thought he must have said "nee goh" which means "this one" Stuart
