http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/sean_deveney/20020822.html by Sean Deveney Exhibition provides first look at Yao August 22, 2002 Print it OAKLAND -- It's just a meaningless exhibition game here this evening, one that Chinese coach Wang Fei has little intention of winning. His focus for his very young team, he says, is to prepare for the Olympics in 2004. A World Championship warm-up against the heavily favored Americans, then, is merely a matter of survival for most members of the Chinese contingent. Ah, but of course, it's never that simple. Tonight's matchup also provides the first competitive glimpse of the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, 7-5 center Yao Ming, against NBA players. Yao spent two hours practicing Wednesday with the Chinese team at the Warriors' facility, then spent another grueling half-hour fielding questions from American reporters, and answering them through an interpreter. It's a little like the children's game "Telephone," where what you originally say gets passed around so many times that it does not resemble what you said to begin with. Asking Yao what his go-to move is might yield an answer like, "Purple socks." A sample: Q: How long will it take you to adjust to the NBA? A: Two or three years. Q: What do you think you should work on? A: You would have to ask the Rockets coaches. Q: Do you expect the Americans to test your toughness, test your manhood? A: That's their business. Heady stuff, I know. But the last question is an interesting one, because it does serve to predict how things will go tonight for Yao. There are two schools of thought on how the U.S. team will approach Yao -- either they will be relentless on him, get him in foul trouble and give him a rookie's welcome to the NBA, or they will build a big lead, call off the dogs in the second half, and allow Yao to get a crowd-pleasing 18 to 24 points. "Normally, NBA players have pride," says U.S. coach George Karl. "There is an instinctive attitude about welcoming a rookie. I think you'll see us go after him pretty hard." One player who can empathize with Yao a little is Elton Brand, who also knows what it is to have the spotlight of being a No. 1 overall pick. "No. 1 draft picks have high expectations," Brand says. "Trust me, I know. Not only your peers, the No. 2, 3 and 4 picks, but the veterans are looking at you, the fans are looking at you. They're after you. If you're No. 2 and 3 or anything else, you can take your time as a rookie and mature and grow. But when you are No. 1, they are looking at you to step in right away. I think we'll treat him like that, make him show us something." The guys who will do most of the work against Yao are a pair of great shot-blocking centers, Ben Wallace and Raef LaFrentz, with Brand, Antonio Davis and Jermaine O'Neal pitching in. Early in the game, Yao will be double- and triple-teamed, because the Chinese team really does not have other scoring threats (stay tuned for a Wang ZhiZhi update). Thus, the game will not be an accurate barometer of how Yao will do with the Rockets, where Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley are the show. But, assuming the Americans build a handy lead, Wallace, LaFrentz and Co. might take it easy on Yao, and we might get some glimpses of how good he can be when played one-on-one. "He will have a lot of people looking at him and how he is going to do," LaFrentz says. I would not mind seeing him do OK. Put it this way, we're not out to embarrass anyone." Where's Wang? Wang was not on the first roster the Chinese team put out when practicing in Denver, but it was speculated that he might join the team in California. Apparently, the Chinese Basketball Association is holding to its displeasure over Wang's failure to practice with the national team over the summer -- he instead worked out in Los Angeles -- by preventing him from playing in the World Championship. Wang did not practice in Oakland, and Wang Fei says, "I can't comment on it. You'd have to ask the CBA about it." Early baiting After the bizarre ending to the Canada-New Zealand exhibition Tuesday, in which New Zealand was not granted a timeout that it had called before its final possession and then kept the team on the floor for 15 minutes claming the 75-72 loss was not over, the level of officiating in the Championship has become a question mark. "Refereeing is going to be interesting," Karl says. There's only two referees, and they're foreign referees." Anyone needing a fix for their NBA jones has to love that -- George Karl questioning the refs 10 days before tip-off. Feels like May. The Haves and the Have-Stotts Karl wished former assistant Terry Stotts well in his new position as an assistant in Atlanta. Karl had hoped that Stotts would find a head coaching position, but with the Warriors hiring Eric Musselman, the Suns keeping Frank Johnson and the Nuggets opting for assistant Jeff Bzdelik, Stotts will have to settle for a return to assistant-hood. "It has been my disappointment," Karl says of Stotts' inability to get a head coaching spot. He added that the long association between the two has not hurt Stotts' chances at landing a head job elsewhere. "If you like how I coach and how I played, I would think, he knows how I do that better than anyone in the world," Karl says. "He knows better than I do half the time." The List The American roster goes like this: point guards Andre Miller, Baron Davis and Jay Williams; shooting guards Reggie Miller and Michael Finley; small forwards Shawn Marion and Paul Pierce; power forwards O'Neal, Davis and Brand; and centers LaFrentz and Ben Wallace. The question to you for this week's list, dear readers, is who's your starting five in that group? Here's what I have: Point guard: Davis. Tough call between Andre Miller and Davis, but with this starting unit, the team needs a penetrator and scorer, and Davis does that slightly better than Miller. Shooting guard: Reggie Miller. The tournament is in Indianapolis and, yes, it would be nice to have Reggie getting token starts. But these are no tokens. He has been the best player in practice games, the hardest-working and fittest guy on the floor. He is the captain, and one sign of his influence is how many guys are trying to draw those arm-flailing, gunshot-in-the-back fouls that are Miller's specialty. Small forward: Marion. Again, a tough call between Marion and Pierce, but Pierce has not been aggressive during practices. If he were to take the ball to the rim more, he might deserve the spot over Marion. Power forward: Brand. This spot could go to O'Neal, who seems to be a favorite of Karl's. But in my book, Brand has been the best player on the floor after Reggie Miller. Watching him practice against these guys gives you a new appreciation for how good Brand is. Center: Wallace. Rebounding machine, shot-blocker and all-around mean-looking dude (he's actually a very good guy). Wallace is exactly the kind of intimidator the U.S. team needs against foreign competition. Sean Deveney is a staff writer for The Sporting News. Email him at sdeveney@Sportingnews.com.
