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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
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Last week on ABC News they had a brief telephone interview with Shaq, who commented on Yao Ming and complained that Yao had been saying Shaq’s name a little too often, apparently challenging him.
At the end of the interview, Shaq said:
“Well, you can tell Yao Ming...”
...what followed after that was either Shaq’s attempt to speak Chinese, or a downright racist mockery of the language. I really hope it was the former, otherwise I’d be sadly disappointed in the poor taste of such a celebrity. I’ve done some searching on the internet since, and haven’t seen a single thing regarding that broadcast. Am I really the only one who heard and saw that?
Bionic Ears
Monday, September 09, 2002 at 14:15:07 (PDT)
[134.139.116.44]
http://fiba.com/oneplanet/world/main_newsarticle.asp?CC=WMM&YearBegin=2002&IncludeNr=225
China's Yao Ming, who averaged 21.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.25 blocked shots and shot an astounding 75 percent from the field (55 of 73) was the center of choice.
Steve Wang
Yao Ming, Best Center of FIBA World Championship 2002
Sunday, September 08, 2002 at 18:34:14 (PDT)
[162.119.64.100]
as of today yao ming is in the top five for points/game, blocks, rebounds and field goal percentage and overall shooting percentage.
www.fiba.com
Jj
Saturday, September 07, 2002 at 05:36:35 (PDT)
[202.129.95.21]
Wang Zhizhi Fan,
Argh what happened to our dream team. The best of them probably were too busy making sneaker commercials.
AC Dropout
Friday, September 06, 2002 at 13:29:45 (PDT)
[24.90.98.143]
How incredibly stupid you are!
There was still a lot more people who watched Yao than Shaq, therefore, alot more people will know him partly because people will be curious.
Shaq did shock a lot of people, of course. I acknowledge that.
Even George Karl said size will always prevail. Shaq had size and continued to grow to be at least 345 pounds. He was tall and wide even back then.
And yes, there is a difference between popularity and awareness. Black-Americans and White-Americans hated Yao, but in Asia and some parts of Europe he is loved, partly because he has opened a new threshold for foreign players around the world. Yao is just the first. There will be another in 2004. This trend will continue and it will be harder for Americans to earn a slot in the NBA. There will always be more Americans in the NBA, but the numbers of foreign players will not be too far behind in the near future. Well, the same thing was said when there was an African invasion that was started by Hakeem Olajuwan ant Dikembe Mutombo. Who knows what will truly happen in the future.
You have a point, but that is only part of the reason. Yao did not shock anyone, of course.
Let's try to cut off these insults. There's really no use for them to make a point. Don't be too angry when one makes a contradicting remark. This is afterall a discussion forum and everyone has a point of view of everything. You may live in the East and I may live in the West and you may live in the East and I may live in the East in different area so no one's going to view the world or a topic the same. I realized that these insult are useless. Heck, I even tried to use them against you because you used them against me.
NBA scouts are currently scouting Chinese players to play in the future, but most are too young. This tells you that the NBA hungers for big men with most of these kids are around the age of 12-17 and have already grown between 6'11 to 7'3. I don't really know why they're looking at kids who may not have even gone through puberty yet. The height factor is bound to make heads turn of course, but I guess they thought that if they could start them young, why not? Pretty much the same is going on in Europe.
To all,
I regret to inform you that the U.S. is no longer in medal contention after losing to Argentina and (Y)Jugoslavia
consecutively. Anyone who watch the Jugoslavian game could tell that the players in the slot were NBA material with five of them actually in the NBA.
NBA vs. NBA. Ummm. That makes a fair game. The lost to Argentina made other teams realize that the U.S. could be beaten, therefore, Jugoslavia had nothing to lose. Please, don't blame or chastise the U.S. players. Keep in mind that they were playing against teams with some NBA players and all of them play professional ball in their homeland. Yugloslavia had pros and 5 NBA players in their slot along with many other teams like Spain, Germany, China, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and etc. So these guys are not push-overs. They know and understand the game better than many might think. And with the NBA gone global, things will be more competitive. The U.S. has nothing to be ashamed of because they are afterall the best in international competition with a 58-2 record after they began using NBA players. Well, people might say that this is not fair. Keep in mind that they are playing against players who get paid in their country to play basketball. NBA players get paid too. That makes the game pros vs. pros. Expect a better game next year when the U.S. are once again going to be a powerhouse. Nobody's perfect. They are only humans and humans are not perfect.
With the U.S. no longer in the picture, I'm root'in for Germany, a team with one of the best in the NBA, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. You go Dirk!
Wang Zhizhi, by the way is speculated to play in the Goodwill games along with hiw fellow NBA comrades Bateer and Yao. Yao, by the way had an excellent performance against New Zealand scoring 27 points, 8 rebounds, 11 of 11 free thows, and about 4 block shots. Regardless of his performance though, China lost by 4 points.
And for those of you who want to know what the deal is regarding Wang.
There is a 99% chance that he will leave the Mavericks for either the Knicks, Blazer, Warriors, or Heat.
Peace....
Wang Zhizhi Fan
Friday, September 06, 2002 at 08:56:27 (PDT)
[68.96.110.59]
yao is playing quite well in the world championships he is among the leaders for field goal percentage, free throw percentage, points per game, rebounds per game and blocks per game.
just check out www.nba.com
jj
Thursday, September 05, 2002 at 21:47:25 (PDT)
[202.129.95.21]
FOP,
Maybe we should recruit from Argentina next year.
AC Dropout
Thursday, September 05, 2002 at 10:12:09 (PDT)
[24.90.98.143]
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