Yao-za: Ming mania grips the NBA

By Shawn Krest

Fans and media were able to do something that the NBA has struggled with all season. They managed to bottle up Yao Ming. The crush of humanity looking to get a piece of the league’s first Chinese star was similar to the crowd Michael Jordan draws. One big difference—Jordan has nearly two decades’ experience in handling it.

For instance, Jordan would never get trapped in the locker room—a fate that befell Yao on his first visit to Toronto’s Air Canada Centre late last month. The black curtains creating a temporary press room on the arena’s loading dock, and arrows reading "Yao Ming" pointing the way, gave the post game press conference the feel of a zoo exhibit. Yet the prize exhibit was nowhere in sight. Instead, Yao was in the visitor’s locker room, with a mob of people clogging the path to the press conference.

"We can’t get him out!" explained a frantic Rockets’ official when asked why Yao hadn’t reported to the conference. As the official huddled with Yao and his translator Colin Pyne, two people entered the locker room with cameras. They were whisked away, only to be replaced by someone holding a stack of photos and a Sharpie. Yao dutifully signed while a Chinese writer pulled Pyne aside.

The writer wanted to ask the first question at the press conference, should Yao ever manage to get there. Not only that, he wanted to ask it at that moment, so the rookie would have time to think about his answer.

Teammate Kelvin Cato poked his head into Yao’s locker. "There’s a lot of people out there waiting for you," he taunted.

Finally, 45 minutes after the game ended, the halls were clear enough for Yao to leave the locker room and begin his post-game press conference.

Just another day in the life of the NBA’s biggest rookie and the season’s biggest story. Is it any wonder that one of his criteria for success in the NBA (the Chinese writer’s long-awaited first question) is patience? "I need patience to deal with you (media) guys," he says through his translator.

The Rockets took a huge risk when they picked the 7-foot-5 Chinese star first in the NBA draft last June. No one expected it to pay off so soon. "He’s only twenty years old," marvels teammate Cuttino Mobley.

"He can play, especially for his age," says Toronto’s Vince Carter.

China is not exactly a basketball factory. Only two other Chinese players—Wang ZhiZhi and Mengke Bateer—have played in the NBA, and neither one earned significant minutes. In addition, league observers, burned by tall but ineffective Shawn Bradley, Gheorge Muresan and Manute Bol, were skeptical of Yao’s height.

Unlike his brittle and clumsy seven foot plus predecessors, Yao isn’t easily bullied. He held his own in a January showdown with Shaq, clearly dominating the first few minutes of the game. Yao also has been known to become Ming the Merciless, dishing out punishment underneath the basket. "He’s not a one dimensional guy," says Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "He’ll get dirty out there."

"He’s strong," says Toronto’s Antonio Davis. "His legs are strong and you just can’t move him." Davis matched up with Yao in the paint and had a late game shot spectacularly blocked by Yao. "I was trying to get it up on the rim," says Davis of the play, "and then I couldn’t see the rim any more."

Yao isn’t letting the early success and fan adulation go to his head. "Of course I’m happy with my progress, but I want to look to the future and not think of the past so much," he says. When asked about life as the NBA’s new superstar, he answers, "It’s tiring." Next question. Someone mentions Charles Barkley’s reluctance to serve as a role model. "I have the same feeling," replies Yao. When asked about his double-double against Toronto, he first apologizes for his poor play in the first half, then does the same for his second half performance.

He handles the press with a stony, almost bored expression, even when he’s dishing up one-liners for Pyne to translate. When asked about the support of Chinese fans, flocking to NBA arenas in every city, Yao replies, "It’s difficult to tell who they are because everybody looks alike." An uncomfortable silence descends on the assembled media, before Ming delivers the punchline. "The arenas are so big, you can’t see who’s Chinese and who isn’t. If you look in the crowd, all you see is a very small head."

When asked if his role as Chinese superstar in America can help break stereotypes between the two superpowers, he offers another solution. "I strongly encourage everyone to travel to China, and see the culture for themselves."

Still, Yao isn’t all modesty and jokes. When asked to compare practices in the NBA to his Chinese team, he grows philosophical. "It’s like a pen in two different persons’ hands. It’s used differently and writes something differently. But it still has use, and it still accomplishes something."

There’s plenty more to be written by the 7-foot-5 pen from the East.

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