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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
Yao Ming for a guy his height was an incredible player, such good soft hands good shooter good at everything except jumping, but you cant blame him for that...
All this Jordan China talk just reminded me, i was watching the '86 dunk contest on nba tv the other day and heard the funniest fckin thing in a while....
MJ goes up for his baseline windmill and the commentator goes, "MJ with what I call the Chinese Superman dunk" I'm trying to process that, failing... then the guy finishes what he was saying "You see how he takes off SLANTED and hits the superman pose while in the air"
haha, so racist but too funny, that shit wouldnt fly today for sure Posted via RS Mobile
Forgive my limited frame of reference for a person of such global impact on the basketball scene, but all my thoughts on Yao Ming keep coming back to events at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Maybe that's a true measure of how grand the scale of Yao was, that so many small moments could essentially summarize the man, the player, the marketing phenomenon.
To begin with, Staples Center was the first place I ever saw Yao in person. It's a moment that sticks with me like the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower. Some things just need to be witnessed yourself, and Yao is one of them. It was Nov. 17, 2003. (That also happened to be the first time Yao scored more than 19 points in an NBA game, which led to this unusual method of honoring a bet by Charles Barkley.)
A couple of hours before the Rockets played the Lakers, Yao was shooting jumpers on the court, and I stopped in my tracks to marvel at just how tall a human being he was. I covered Gheorghe Muresan on the Washington Bullets before. Muresan was 7-foot-7. But Muresan moved awkwardly, like those stop-motion-animation monsters in the "Jason and the Argonauts" movies. Yao was smoother than Muresan, but thicker than the freakishly thin Shawn Bradley and Manute Bol. He was big, yet normal, if that makes sense, and that's what made him so unusual.
He was so tall that even the 7-foot-2, 300-whatever-pounds Shaquille O'Neal said: "That's a big dude."
Yao brought out the worst and the best in Shaq. The worst was when O'Neal went on television and used a cheesy kung fu movie dialect to issue a challenge to Yao. The best came the first time they squared off in the playoffs (at Staples Center, of course) and O'Neal played the most inspired defense I've ever seen from him. He jumped out on screens, recovered on pick-and-rolls, dedicated himself to preventing Yao from being a factor and held him to 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting. It was actually a sign of respect from Shaq, that he took Yao seriously enough to exert maximum effort.
Shaq respected Yao because Yao was a big man who relied on skill in addition to size, but never to the point he set up shop 20 feet from the basket. The NBA needed more of those players, just as the NBA needed more stars from China. Yao did his part -- more than his part, really -- in establishing the connection between the league and the most populated country in the world.
Which brings us to his legacy. Another notable Yao Ming Staples Center memory came when Yao wasn't even playing. It was about an hour before this year's All-Star Game, and the media interview room was taken over by Sprite's China division. There was Sprite signage everywhere, TV monitors and speakers blaring loud music. There was a crowd of Chinese journalists. Then out came Kobe Bryant, who sat down and took questions from a moderator, all to promote an ad campaign with Taiwanese star Jay Chou.
I can't imagine Kobe doing any other corporate promotion right before the All-Star Game, not even for Nike. But that's how much these players value Chinese endorsements. We've seen players such as Steve Nash and Baron Davis sign deals with Chinese shoe companies. Maybe these things would have happened eventually without Yao. But not as quickly, and not for as much money.
Yao doesn't get credit for taking the NBA overseas. You can thank Detlef Schrempf, Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc and the Dream Team's triumphant run through Barcelona for that. But Yao certainly gave the league entrée to Asia. For now there's a trade imbalance, with more Americans heading to China to seek profits than Chinese players entering the NBA for their own benefits. Maybe it will take 19 years after Yao for his influence to come to fruition the way the Dream Team was reflected in the number of foreigners selected in this year's draft.
Yao will always be the precedent. Not only because he was the first foreign player selected with the No. 1 overall pick, but because of the way he blasted through any American cultural ignorance and won a place in our hearts with his sense of humor.
Just as his career was cut short because his body kept breaking down, I'm disappointed we didn't get the full scope of his jokes because of the language barrier, despite his rapid acclimation to English.
I'll leave with one more impression of Yao I picked up at Staples Center, albeit one I found on a quote sheet laying on a table in the media room during the 2004 All-Star Weekend in L.A.
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"A chicken crossing the street is poultry in motion"
I actually hated Yao because anytime anyone would ask if I followed the NBA, after I respond not as much as I used to but occasionally, they would without fail say, you must be a Yao Ming fan just because I'm asian
If lebron should be pissed at anyone. He should be pissed at yao ming. They won the same amout of championships. Yet yao is still loved by a billion + Posted via RS Mobile
If lebron should be pissed at anyone. He should be pissed at yao ming. They won the same amout of championships. Yet yao is still loved by a billion + Posted via RS Mobile
that's cuz yao is humble, a nice guy, and isn't selfish
oh, and he can actually hit jump shots when needed
Keep it on topic, please. I deleted the posts because this thread was ruined beyond hope. A misunderstanding on both sides led to this mess. Let's let the thread continue on topic. If you want, I don't mind addressing comments in PM, as there still seems to be some major misinterpretations going on for some reason.
Yao Ming didn't do shit to promote NBA worldwide. He is very well known in China, but they don't give a shit about NBA, they like Yao Ming. In fact after his retirement from NBA, he will probably return to China and become an even bigger star doing whatever...
And "worldwide".... come on. Ask anyone in Europe or Australia or Brazil or Asia outside China, who is more familiar - Yao Ming or Michael Jordan...
These are only a few examples, but most of what I've read, and my experience in China, seems to suggest otherwise. I'm not saying Jordan is bigger than Yao in China, but to say that they don't care about the NBA? The NBA was being televised in China before Yao's arrival and people line the streets just to get a glimpse of Kobe Bryant.
"Yao generated a lot of attention for basketball among his countrymen, but Cheong said American players have always enjoyed a popularity here independent of national pride in Yao's achievements. Recognition surveys back in the 1990s, she noted, showed Michael Jordan outranked even Zhou Enlai, the revolutionary hero and companion of Mao Zedong who figures prominently in Chinese schoolbooks."
"Michael Jordan is still a household name in China. In one popularity poll he ranked higher than Mao. Many Chinese will tell you that his team, the Chicago "Red Oxen," is their favorite NBA team. Allen Iverson is also very popular.
There is a Nike-sponsored LeBron James Museum in Shanghai.
The top-selling NBA jerseys in China in 2007-2008 were: 1) Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers; 2) Kevin Gannett, Boston Celtics; 3) Tracy McGrady, Houston Rockets; 4) Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics; 5) Allen Iverson, Denver Nuggets; 6) Gilbert Arenas, Washington Wizards; 7) LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers; 8) Dwayne Wade, Miami Heat; 9) Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic; 10) Yao Ming, Houston Rockets. Many thought that Yao Ming only managed 10th because most fans had purchased his jersey some time ago."
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