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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.]
Shaq should have known better considering he lives in LA. We can't let people get away with this kind of crap!!"
LAKA
I remember about a month ago up here in San Jose downtown nightclub area. Two nightclubs exiting at closing time happened to be one Black and the other frequented by Asian Americans. Words were exchanged back and forth of the same type we're complaining about. News showed actual fighting in the streets between these two groups picked up by someone with a camcorder. Anyway it ended when someone from the Asian side pulled out a gun and let off three shots, not killing anyone but wounding three people.
I recall the very next day at least three separate occasions when a Black male was staring at me lock on style without averting their eyes when you happen to catch them looking. Once at Nations Burgers, another at Safeway and still another somewhere else. I remember thinking, why are they giving me the eye? Then when I flipped on the boob tube, it was all over the three local network channels about the incident. In addition, news does spread quickly among the African American community as I used to chill with many Blacks during my high school days and I'm aware that they can be tight knit in many ways.
You can bet your sweet asses that Yao Ming is all abuzz around the Black community. He is the first line of penetration into this all Black male turf. They've got more eyes on him than we do in the Asian American community!
Asian Brother
Monday, September 16, 2002 at 04:57:54 (PDT)
[205.188.209.43]
philthethrill,
Post up the nba email and I'm sure some body at goldsea will send the NBA a well written letter.
Isn't there an online petition site, wehre poeple can just make up a public petition.
AC dropout
Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 21:01:19 (PDT)
[208.59.247.9]
AC,
Well, hypothetically speaking, if Yao dominates and becomes super good. Teams will start looking at more Asian players. Say more Asian players come over, then the current black players will be less valued because teams can go elsewhere. It's supply and demand.
That's what I'm saying when I say he might feel like his turf is being threatened.
huu76
Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 19:31:55 (PDT)
[64.231.98.171]
Phil the trill
I agree, our society has gotten
so political correct that a black man can just about say anything and get away with it. Why is that? Its really
an insult to blacks as well, its like we
are treating them condescendingly,like we don't expect them to know any better.
If a person of any other race would of made fun at blacks, we would have Jesse Jackson parked outside of our door protesting all day. I will also write to the NBA.com about this incident, more asian American remain passive about these matters it'll only continue.
Shaq the baffoon
Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 17:25:29 (PDT)
[64.12.96.205]
Some of you are sad,
You're not even Asian so you most definitely don't know how we feel. Asians react to things differently than blacks and whites. We are more serious in the things we do, therefore, we take things more seriously. We take pride, education and respect in all the things we do. Yes, we are sensitive. I wonder why. Could it be that we were raised differently than you guys? Things that might seem harmless to you is not to another.
Stop talking like you know how we feel. You don't know how we feel. You will never understand as we will never understand you.
Wang Zhizhi Fan
Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 11:31:25 (PDT)
[68.96.110.59]
It's so unfair...shaq made these comments and theres like NO news about it...nothing...seems like these days black people can get away with anything because of what history has done to them...who cares about the past, every race had a bad history one point in time...if a white guy said that it would have been in the news...when a black guy says something racist its a joke...man first shaq does it next thing you know ben wallace is doing it, then jermaine o neal, then gary payton, then michael jordan...man make that lump of log apologize...see this is the difference between blacks and chinese...blacks make ignorant jokes that hurt other people's feelings and chinese people make smart jokes that dont offend anyone...we gotta make shaq apologize...im gonna write to the NBA about this...just go to nba.com and write an email...who wants to join me.
philthethrill
Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 07:24:07 (PDT)
[169.226.236.30]
Yao Ming is potentially the best big man to ever play the game of basketball. He may also become another Shawn Bradley, another potentially "revolutionary" player, who fell flat on his face. It appears from the World Basketball Championships that he has more ability than anyone with his size and proportions who has entered the NBA before. It also appears he has won some respect from some of the upper-echelon players in the league already.
I've heard about some of the comments that Shaq made and it's hard to say whether they were made as a result of racism. It's more likely that Shaq, the way the great boxers have, was just talking trash knowing that the world has finally produced a young big man who may provide a challenge for him.
I am a 29 year old asian american male and a huge nba fan. The day Yao Ming was announced as the #1 pick was an extremely proud day for me, and I am not even of Chinese descent. I suggest that we all calm down and allow this young man to get adjusted to America and the nba lifestyle and be as supportive as possible. He is already feeling the pressure of an entire nation on his back, I'm sure. We don't need to add to it.
The bottom line for Yao Ming is how he performs when the season starts. If he plays the way he played this past month against Shaq and all of the other big men in the league, they will all stop talking trash and accept him into their fraternity.
tlsphilly
Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 06:04:52 (PDT)
[155.247.166.23]
huu76,
I never describe shaq as ignorant. I stated it was tastless, like his rap CDs.
What does he have to feel threaten by? They're going to be on different teams. It not like him and Kobe with the co-captain of the Laker deal.
AC Dropout
Friday, September 13, 2002 at 13:37:44 (PDT)
[24.90.98.143]
Some of you asians are ridiculously sensitive. Some of you have probably been badly picked on when you were a kid to leave you with such bitter feelings. Lighten up. There's real racism hatred, and there's harmless humor. Grow up and learn to DIFFERENTIATE those. They are different. And please.... stop releasing estrogen on every remark. You must be an extremely depressed person if you get offended at anything. That's you, LAKA. That's you, Slab.
*shaking head at the sensitive fools who get their panties tied up over nothing*
Some of you are so sad
Friday, September 13, 2002 at 10:21:24 (PDT)
[66.107.44.253]
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