I would put Yao the most intelligent player in NBA..... http://english.people.com.cn/200607/26/eng20060726_286937.html Success out of my reach, says Yao Ming At the press release for the Shanghai Special Olympics 2007 commercial, held in Beijing at the Millennium Monument, the figure of Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming appeared. The Shanghai native, still recovering from a foot injury, is an ambassador for the Shanghai Special Olympics. He presented a pair of sports shoes to one athlete on the stage, saying with a smile, " hope you run faster in them!" It is not the first time Yao has attended a community event. The "Yao brand" has come to encompass more than Yao's skills, salary, disposition and conversational style. Yao has achieved incredible sporting and commercial success, and has an outstanding reputation both in China and around the world. People no longer regard him as simply as sportsman. Individual and team From the benchwarmer in 2002 who only saw a couple of seconds of play - and who managed to fall over several times on the court when he did - to the double-digit rebound scorer he is nowadays, Yao has improved his game slowly and surely, guaranteeing his reputation beyond the basketball court. Unconcerned by fame and fortune, Yao has devoted himself to basketball. "My parents keep the money I earn; my job is to play basketball well. If I spent all my time thinking about what I should do with my money, it would be time for me to leave the basketball court." Yao remains modest despite his fame, and he often puts his star-struck fans at ease by joking with them. Yao attributes his success on the basketball court to persistence. He owes his commercial success to the "Yao Team", who manages his brand image and commercial interests. It is believed that no domestic enterprises have yet adopted such an approach. The "Yao Team" was built even before Yao entered NBA. Zhang Mingji, the head of the team, is a distant relative of Yao's. He received his MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. The team also includes John Huizinga, a professor at the University of Chicago, Yao's agent in the US, Bill Duffy, a famous agent in the NBA, his Chinese agent, Lu Hao and lawyer, Wang Xiaopeng. According to Zhang, the team was formed and now operates along specific structural lines - its members include public relations and media management personnel, basketball agents, prestigious professors, agents who have worked in both government and the sports industry in China, as well as a specialist in marketing NBA players. The team deals with all Yao's commercial and community concerns, making decisions on his behalf. Yao does not necessarily bother about everything, but he has the right to veto. Business and community The "Yao Team" is maintaining a cool and cautious attitude towards the enormously lucrative advertising campaigns that keep coming Yao's way. Yao has now been with the NBA for four seasons, but he has advertised for less than ten brands. When selecting a brand for Yao to represent, the team opts for a brand to which Yao's commitment will not affect his training or matches, and that is in line with Yao's healthy personal and public image. The painstaking efforts of the "Yao Team" have yielded fantastic results. According to information released by the China Brand Research Institute in April this year, Yao topped the 2006 list of the Top 100 Chinese Personal Brands. When choosing brands, the principle of the "Yao Team" is always to "put quality before quantity" - Yao may advertise for a small company but it must be an excellent one. Zhang noted that many companies both from the US and China have asked Yao to represent them, but the "Yao Team" has always stuck by its principles and proceeded according to Yao's personal interests, refusing a lot of big names in the process. Besides shooting commercials, Yao also happily participates in activities promoting community welfare. Recently, he performed a "slam dunk" in a community welfare commercial. Instead of blocking the basketball, he blocked the bullets of animal hunters - "When you stop buying, people stop hunting". Yao has also lent his image to the fight against SARS, the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the campaign for blood donations for the China Marrow Donor Programme (CMDP). The spiritual rewards from these kinds of activities are great, and this is the part of the Yao brand that cannot be measured by money. Something tangible; something intangible Zhang noted that while the public may be familiar with some of Yao's public activities, they may not be aware that Yao has made some personal financial donations. Yao explains that he hopes to lead by example. When Yao donated blood to CMDP he touched people's hearts and inspired many to do the same. In this situation, Yao is using his brand power for the good of the community, and this cannot be measured. Yao believes that community welfare and commercials should be separated, although it is undeniable that he can do a great deal of good. Although Yao's personal wealth is increasing with amazing speed, he has never lost his innocence. The growth of the Yao brand can be divided into two parts: the tangible part has been realized by careful and hard work while the intangible part has only been achieved through the talent, wisdom and personal attributes of Yao Ming. By People's Daily Online
Or you can go the Lebron route and hire your high school buddies and posse. Cause you know what i've seen Lebron doing no real marketing other than obvious sports tie ins.
Wait, what now? Was I watching some other giant asian man play 30 minutes a game on my favorite basketball team back in 2002?
wow.......his parents keep all the money he gets? That's already well over a couple of millions! And with land being so cheap in China, gods knows what they will buy, oh wait, they live in USA. To the next sentence, if only Mike James thought of that.
WOW - Yao really impresses me. He gives his money to his parents? That's amazing. I will bet that no other NBA players does that.
Yeah, maybe that's what they meant.. but it says in "2002"... he played like 10 mpg maybe his first two games with a 23 minute home debut and was up to 30 with about 10 games under his belt... not a big deal it just seemed like a big exagerration in the article, but we all know no journalist eeeeeeeever exagerates...
Yeah. I read the whole article without understanding what the title meant. And then it dawned on me that they were just making a reference to how he's so hands-off in terms of his business ventures. As in his "business success" is out of his reach.
Just wondering. If it's "Team Yao" making all his decisions outside of basketball, how much credit should we give Yao for what he does off the court?
Actually, Yao used a direct quote from his favorite singer Emneim "Success is my only Mofu option, failure is not" The Chinese reporter first didnt quite grasp it, second didnt quite like the roughness of the language, so it spinned the quote a liltte hoping to capture the essense of Yao's words "Success out of my reach"
I'm sure they negotiate commercial deals and make the phone calls even for the public interst stuff, but in the end, the decision is still up to the player himself. None of the stuff could have happened if Yao himself said "no", he's still the guy who has to physically show up to the public interest events.
OK. I just get the feeling that it's more a case of Yao passively saying yes to whatever "Team Yao" dictates, rather than him actively being involved in it all. That's the impression I got reading the article.
I remember readinga about Yao donating some money a couple years ago to the family of a young fan who died (of cancer? I think) and this summer he promised to pay for the education of a couple of poor students (work some really hard job to support family and kept going to school, accepted into university but can't afford to go) whose story he read about in the papers. These would seem more like his personal acts rather than anything his managers would put him up to. The management team would be more likley involved in the commercial aspect of things and maybe even some of the public interest ads, but it sounds like he really does have the heart to help some people in need. Having the team is probably more about him not being experienced in the whole US sports marketing world and needing some people he can trust (didn't his book say something about some agent tried to sign him to some horrible deal while he was in Shanhai?) Also, the whole thing about the team limiting his marketing deals rather than going for maximum exposure and max dollars would seem to be a result of respecitng his personal wishes. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who wants to spend days and days shooting commercials just to cash in on his popularity right away, sounds like he just wants to play basketball and fit in the promotions when he can.
Agreed. Also, most likely, the primary function of Team Yao is to protect the brand. Just like how the Cokes, Nikes, and XBoxes of the world are very careful about their cross-promotions and media placements. You'd never see Coke advertise in Playboy, and you won't see Absolut Vodka advertise on TBS. (Even though both moves, from a stricly dollars and demographics perspective, might make sense at first blush.) Team Yao is unique. They employ the same marketing strategy -- the big picture stuff -- as the corporate big boys. Unlike, say, most athelets who use an agent to rack up as much $$$ as possible. In their persuit of short-term endorsement deals, they might, paradoxically, stunt their long-term endorsement earning potential. Smart.
