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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Yao Ming: The Next Asian Superstar?
(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:38:56 AM)
he sweetest moment for Asian men in American sports came on June 26, 2002 at Madison Square Garden. The Houston Rockets had just spent their number one overall draft pick on 7-5 Chinese center Yao Ming over 6-2 Duke guard Jay Williams. The largely black crowd of draft prospects and their contingents booed. They had reason to be displeased. For the past quarter century black athletes had dominated pro basketball and they saw Yao as a subversive force, an alien threat. Even Charles Barkley -- Yao's basketball idol -- sniped at Houston's choice and hinted at bad consequences.
David or Goliath?
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What's wrong with this picture?
In the global sports scene blacks have come to represent all-around athletic prowess. Asian athletes, on the other hand, have been painted as disciplined and skilled but lacking power and size, able to excel only in sports no one cares about. For an Asian to get the top pick in a black-dominated sport was heresy.
To appreciate what Yao represents to Asian American men requires a quick trip down memory lane. And we do mean quick. The lane is short and sparsely populated.
In the beginning there was Sammy Lee, the first Asian American to win Olympic gold. He did it with 10-meter platform diving at the 1948 London games and again in 1952 at the Helsinki games. Not exactly a marquee sport, but inspiring nevertheless at a time when Asian Americans hardly knew what to call themselves.
Then came Michael Chang whose 1989 French Open championship has passed into tennis legend. Cramping and down two sets to Ivan Lendl in the round of 16, the 17-year-old phenom dared to discombobulate the Ice Man with moonballs and an underhanded serve. The ploy worked. The proof that Chang's nerves and speed were real came in the classic 5-set finals victory against Stefan Edberg. But Chang's recent ignomious descent into tennis twilight raises the suspicion that he simply lacks the size and power to stay in the power game.
It wasn't until Hideo Nomo joined the Dodgers in 1995 that an Asian athlete was able to inspire sustained frenzy in one of the big-three sports. Nomo's martian windup and delivery proved so effective that he set Dodgers strikeout records, made the All-Stars and inspired Nomomania.
By 2001 when Ichiro Suzuki joined the Mariners, Asian imports taking Rookie of the Year honors had practically become a Major League tradition. But none had done it with Ichiro's flair or sunglasses. It wasn't enough that he led the game in hitting and basestealing, he seemed determined to make it look easy. Sex appeal had finally come to the image of the Asian male athlete.
But the image still lacked something in many AA minds. Sure, for a leadoff hitter Ichiro hit his share of home runs, but he was known for speed and finesse, not power. Having chafed so long under stereotypes denying them size and strength, AA men longed for a star who could knock those assumptions back into the last millennium.
Eyes turned longingly to football as the obvious arena for the ultimate stereotype smasher -- and saw only Dat Nguyen of the Dallas Cowboys. As a promising linebacker, Nguyen doesn't enjoy the cache of a star offensive back. And at 5-11 and 240 pounds, Nguyen isn't exactly in the 99th percentile in terms of size and power among football players.
Asian American eyes were drawn to basketball by a trio of giants known collectively as "The Great Wall". They were very big for the Chinese national team. First to make his NBA debut was Wang Zhizhi (7-1, 220 pounds) in April 2001. As a center for the Dallas Mavericks he has averaged 5.5 points per 10.6 minutes of playing time per game. A respectable stat for any rookie but disappointing for those who had hoped for an instant Asian star. Then came Mengke Bateer (6-11, 290 pounds) in February of 2002. Despite 15.1 minutes of play per game as a center for the Denver Nuggets, he too disappointed some with an average 5.1 points and 3.6 rebounds.
Enter the Dragon. At a height variously described as 7-5 or 7-6, Yao Ming, 22, is at once the tallest and youngest of the trio. In the past two years his weight shot up from 255 to 295 pound -- and he's still growing. His gifts extend beyond size, however. He moves a foot shorter. Born to a pair of former stars for the Chinese national teams, his court instincts and skills are practically dyed-in-the-wool.
And yet Yao isn't a lock to defy the darker prognostications of his prospects as a Rocket. He was regularly outplayed by Wang Zhizhi when both were playing in China. Even with Yao, Wang and Mengke, the Chinese national team routinely lost to second-tier powers like France and Lithuania. Yao has never gone up against the likes of Shaquille O'Neal. The adjustment to life in the U.S. will be long and difficult. In short, Yao Ming is ideally positioned to become the biggest disappointment in the history of Asians in American sports.
Is Yao Ming the next Asian superstar? Or is he more likely to reinforce the image of Asian men as also-rans in power sports?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
Kerry,
Potential is the topic here not how the NBA compares to any other league. You're too busy bragging about how good the NBA is and not enough on fair things.
What an excuse. Tony Parker is black. Don't you think I've noticed that by now? He is black sure, but he is still foreign.
When a Filipino or another foreign non-black player comes to the NBA under 6'6, I will make you eat the rubber of the basketball. You're not even an NBA analyst. That makes your remarks prejudicial. I'd rather listen to professionals thank you! My analysis might be boring, but it speaks the truth. I said that the point guard was going to go to the NBA, but negotiations did not work out. It will happen soon because scouts are very much intrigued by Qingpeng Zhang, a 6'1 point from China. Be prepared to eat!
What were you thinking about when you compared Wang to Kobe, Pierce, and Mcgrady? You must be smoking something. They are not even centers. Kobe and Mcgrady are guards. They wouldn't even know how it feels to play the position even when their lives depended on it.
Get a grip, man. You are running out of remarks. You focus on insulting rather that reasoning.
Chris,
Wang outplayed Yao at times, but it doesn't mean that their potential is the same. He's still growing, in fact. That's what the scouts were refering to, potential.
2004 is expected to be another international draft with the 1st pick expected to go to a white European. The game is changing. Accept it. Black-Americans have forgotten how to play the important fundamentals of basketball, focusing only on fancy dribbling and dunking and making money. That doesn't cut it. Look at the Clippers and other fancy dunking franchises. That includes the Rockets and Golden State Warriors as well.
People can stay ignorant, but it doesn't change the reality.
Ray
Wednesday, August 14, 2002 at 10:25:30 (PDT)
Kerry,
Wang showed those skills in the season and the Summer League. He averaged about 25 points in the Summer League.
The kid's still growing. Give him a break.
By the tone of your writing, you must be black. No wonder you're biased.
The Philippine League is also very poor.
A team called the "the Slashers" recently got bankrupt. It can not provide talent as much as any other league because it can not pay talent. Be reasonable when you make comparisons.
The Yugoslavian League can't even afford a locker room, but still it has brought some talent in the NBA like Divac and Peja Stojocovic.
The NBA is rich, it can buy a lot of talent.
You ignore talent like Larry Bird and other non-black players and only acknowledge black players, which is cool, but you are racist. I'm sorry man, I can see that you're confused. You're too busy criticizing and not enough time reasoning.
To all,
Oh, by the way, Shaq did not just get swept by Hakeem of the Rockets and Karl Malone and John Stockton, he also got swept by the "Admiral" David Robinson and Tim Duncan of the Spurs.
Ray
Tuesday, August 13, 2002 at 20:44:02 (PDT)
lol. i'm from the bay area, and all the filipinos here definitely suck in hoops. they talk a lot and bring their thughood with them, but they never have any game to back it up. all they know how to do is smoke a bowl and turn the ball over consistently and then foul like stupid cheap f...ers. you'd see a bunch of these fools if you go to daly city or the lowell courts.
D handlez
Tuesday, August 13, 2002 at 14:22:09 (PDT)
"If Wang gets minutes, he will score 15-25 points easily. "
25 points a game? uh huh, a deep bench guy from last year is suddenly going to be put on the same elite level of mcgrady, paul pierce, and kobe this year. uh huh. okay. whatever.
Seriously, you're spewing waaaaaaay too much nonsense. Do you ever write anything that makes sense?
*shaking head*
Kerry
Monday, August 12, 2002 at 14:35:10 (PDT)
Ray,
tony parker is black. forget your wishful thinking. you have to wake up and come back to reality. NBA GM's will NEVER draft a foreign white or asian player under 6'6". it's just too much of a risk, and the payoff is not that impressive. your analysis of foreign players was pretty boring and bordering ridiculous. Suuuuuuuuuuure, we're going to see a 5-10 filipino guy in the nba soon!!!!
Say no to drugs, man. damn
kerry
Monday, August 12, 2002 at 14:22:56 (PDT)
unanimous decision: filipinos can't play ball. not over here. not over there.
the filipino league is to the chinese league what the chinese league is to the nba. it is not very hard to figure that out.
kerry
Monday, August 12, 2002 at 14:13:28 (PDT)
Ray,
I read somewhere that Mark Cuban is not so thrilled to have back Wang. He said something like whether Wang is on the team or not does not matter. His team is overloaded with talent now. Wang is not going to develop by being with that team now.
I once followed Chinese basketball in Guangzhou. I have seen that Wang can even be better than Yao Ming at times.
Chris
Sunday, August 11, 2002 at 22:09:45 (PDT)
Ray,
Thanks for sharing with us. I'm just like you and agree totally with the quote under this. You wrote, "I follow Basketball in particular."
What you wrote was very descriptive with a lot of fact and details. Very nice, so how old are you?
Azn-Pride
Sunday, August 11, 2002 at 19:51:04 (PDT)
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