Yao! Utah Fans Were Expecting a Better Show

Yao! Utah Fans Were Expecting a Better Show


www.sltrib.com/2003/Feb/02132003/sports/29138.asp

LEWIS: Yao! Utah Fans Were Expecting a Better Show




Carlos Arroyo gets stopped short of the basket by James Posey and Yao Ming of Houston, in Jazz-Rockets action at the Delta Center. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)
BY MICHAEL C. LEWIS
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE COLUMNIST

Good thing we have seen all those highlights to prove that Houston's Yao Ming is an emerging superstar, because if we had to judge strictly on his Utah debut against the Jazz on Wednesday night, we might not believe it.
Yo, Yao?
That's Greg Ostertag and John Amaechi guarding you. Maybe something a little more, you know, spectacular?
Alas, the 7-foot-6 Chinese sensation had few dazzling moments in his first game at the Delta Center, though he did show an occasional flash while his Rockets exacted some two-fisted revenge for a heartbreaking loss the previous night with a 106-76 victory.
"He had a nice little run there," Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.
Sure, a nice little run. A few buckets and a blocked shot or two late in a blowout to help him get to 15 points and six rebounds. But that was nothing like the previous night, in which Yao ravaged the Jazz inside for most of the first half, en route to 25 points and 10 rebounds.
Part of the reason, of course, is that the Rockets hardly needed him.
With point guard Steve Francis seemingly intent on getting back at the Jazz all by himself from the moment Yao lost the opening tip to Ostertag -- there's your straight line for the day -- Yao was left with little to do but perfect his impression of the Great Wall -- visible from space, perhaps, but seldom going anywhere.
"With the long season, of course I'm starting to feel a little bit tired," Yao acknowledged. "But I'm getting used to it."
Yao didn't play poorly, but nor did he give the behind-the-basket fans much of a reason to make distractions of the orange cards the Jazz distributed with "Brick" printed on one side and the Chinese translation for "Brick" printed on the other. A clever giveaway, for sure, and far less exploitative than the first-time game sponsorship of the Panda Express restaurant.
But hey, that's what the Yao phenomenon is all about, isn't it? Marketing? The opportunity to sell beer and cell phones and replica jerseys to billions of Chinese fans around the world?
That certainly is part of it, although Yao's remarkable talent is far from a negligible ingredient.
He's one of the tallest players in NBA history, and almost certainly the most skilled for his size -- light years ahead of his Chinese predecessors in the league, Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer. The No. 1 pick in last year's draft is averaging 13.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and nearly 2.0 blocks per game, and players and coaches everywhere have praised his extraordinary ability. Michael Jordan said he's "for real" and Allen Iverson called him a "gift from God."
Thousands of Asians have become overnight Rockets fans because of Yao, and the stalking media horde has started to resemble the ones formerly attending Jordan or Kobe Bryant. The attraction of having Yao as a pitchman has overwhelmed the advertising world, too, as evidenced by those Super Bowl commercials and the billboards that have sprouted around Houston featuring nothing but Yao's face and Chinese lettering. A beer company has become the first Chinese company to sponsor an NBA team.
Everyone agrees, it seems, that Yao has the tools to be one of the greatest of all-time.
And though Yao went nearly the whole first half against the Jazz without a basket, he showed his agility and range in that "nice little run" that Tomjanovich was talking about. First, he hit a 10-foot turnaround over the Jazz's Tony Massenburg, then move out and hit smoothly from 17 feet on the next possession.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Yao even connected an underhand scoop from behind the backboard as Massenburg put him in a bear hug to try to stop him.
Impressive, sure.
But far from dominating.
Yet the result might be the surest indicator yet of Yao's pending greatness, considering that neither Jordan nor Bryant nor Shaquille O'Neal nor Hakeem Olajuwon won his first game in Utah. In fact, it was nearly a decade to the day since O'Neal made his debut here with the Orlando Magic. He scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, but managed just one basket in the five fourth-quarter minutes against Karl Malone in a 108-96 loss to the Jazz.
And look how he turned out.
mcl@sltrib.com