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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.]
Any of you notice that the Turkish player in the NBA (Hidayet Turkoglu) has something Asian in his looks? Does he look typical Turkish, or is this the type of look more common to Central Asian Turkmens and Uyghurs?
I swear he looks so much like the son of my professor and his British wife when I studied in Sichuan, China couple years ago.
And, why is Mengke Bateer not in the Spurs lineup yet? Visa problems or China not letting him come back to play?
Great Wall trio
Saturday, October 26, 2002 at 23:38:55 (PDT)
[64.130.235.33]
Yao's not ready 4 bigtime.
What?! Another Kwame Brown? For your information that in the second preseason game that he entered, he scored 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks and 1 steal and assists that only made Steve Francis say, "Wow! That boy can pass." That's not bad at all for a rookie. The first game he got jitters that is all but normal for anyone. Only an idiot would compare a rookie to some of the worlds best basketball players in a preseason game. And there was also Larry Brown saying that he wish he had the #1 pick so that he could have Yao. You are a delusional loser who makes big deals out of people's mistakes and not enough with the good things they do.
For your information, Kwame Brown is a good player. He was basically overshadowed by the presence of Michael Jordan who took alot of minutes from him. Learn your stuff before you talk smack.
Remember them words "ROOKIE."
Rookie!
Saturday, October 26, 2002 at 07:24:12 (PDT)
[68.96.110.59]
[ "I'm just wondering, did Michael Ri of North Korea play on the South Corean side when they beat China?"]
no he certainly did not... S.Korea and N.Korea are separate teams and do not play together nor do they in other sports...
Tae
Saturday, October 26, 2002 at 03:27:22 (PDT)
[211.28.96.40]
Ri Myong Hun (Micheal Ri) is a North Korean player who stands 7'9" (NOT a typo... yes, he's 7'9"). He weighs no less than 300 pounds, yet he's skinny as a rail. Imagine what this guy could have been if he had filled out, say, to the size of Dale Davis, let alone Shaq. Scary... he would have easily weighed 350 pounds with little bodyfat...
Ri played on the North Korean squad at the 2002 Asian games. Yao said in interviews that he looked forward to playing Ri, who was the only other Asian player comparable (actually larger) to him in size. Unfortunately, the N Korean team fell out of contention early in the tournament. I've seen clips of this guy in action, and I have to regretfully say that he is not NBA material. Just think of him as a bigger stronger Manute Bol (from Sudan Africa, 7'7"), but a step slower. He has a SLOW first step, and average hands and strength. He is also in his mid thirties already.
I wanna be like Mike
Saturday, October 26, 2002 at 01:03:53 (PDT)
[128.253.186.46]
Wang Zhi Zhi is NOT 270 pounds! He was 220 last year. Are you telling me he bulked up by 50 freakin pounds? I'd like to know kind of diet he's on then, since I wouldn't mind packing on about 10-15 pounds of muscle myself. I'm gonna assume that that was a typo on your part. I'd say he weighs no more than 230 now, even if he did work out this summer.
U Sure bout that?
Saturday, October 26, 2002 at 00:57:45 (PDT)
[128.253.186.46]
counter puncher, in time, all those sports you mentioned will be won by china over korea. it is inevitable. you better enjoy it while it lasts, cause it won't......
haha...not in your lifetime! ain't it just embarrassing that a little country with limited atheltic gene pool of 47 million people can whip china's 1.3 billion in all those sports? now admitt it coreans are pound for pound the best athletes in asia. don't you think?
also, do you really believe korea is better than china in basketball? what a joke. let's see who wins the asian championships next year, which is the olympic qualifier......korea has no nba players......
realist
wooo..are you trying to deflect attention away from my real comments? where did i say corea was better than china in basketball? like to see that post. but who won this year???
which country won gold in baseball, rugby, hockey, volleyball, wrestling, judo, taekwondo, boxing? not china!!!!
clowns like you need to get grip on reality, china couldn't even beat corea or germany this year and you think they are on par with usa?? hahahahahahaha!!!
counter puncher
Friday, October 25, 2002 at 17:56:29 (PDT)
[64.12.96.205]
To the delusional ponderer who wants to be a Realist,
You just want to be me because you keep on naming yourself after me. You again come up with totally false and inaccurate information and nothing but wishful thinking. Everything that I accused you of from the former post still holds true with your last post. Do you have trouble learning and correcting yourself?
realist wannabe wrote:
"The Real Realist, let's go through your arguments one by one, to show how much of an idiot you are. "
You've been exposed as a big delusional idiot by me already, and now you try to cover yourself up? Funny. Very amusing. You're probably the kind to flunk a class and then call everyone else stupid. Look in the mirror. Do you see that big L on your forehead that everyone else sees?
*shaking head*
realist wannabe wrote:
"You claim that at the World Championships, that the rest of the world fielded teams younger than China. OK, let's look at the U.S.: Reggie Miller, Antonio Davis, Baron Davis, to name just a few. All well past their early twenties. Let's look at Yugoslavia's best player: Vlade Divac, in his early 30s. Let's look at China's best players: Wang, Batere, Yao, Zhu: all in the early 20s."
Let's look at Spain: all young guns. Let's look at Germany: all young guns. Dirk was a senior on that team, and he's no older than 24. Look at Canada. They killed ming with a 6'6" guy, and that guy's only in his mid 20s. Ming will be 22 soon this year. By today's NBA standards, that's a very very old rookie. So it seems that you really don't have a clue. Keep begging. I'll drop some knowledge on your head like birds flying over windshields.
realist wannabe wrote:
"At the World University Games, the U.S. sent a team filled with college seniors, all of whom were 22. Yao at that time was 19."
You either suck in math, or you're just a moron. I put my money that you're both. The University Games happened in the summer of 2001. yao's birthdate is 9/12/80. If you had ever paid attention in arithmetic in the 1st grade, you would know that he was almost 21.
Chump, schooling you is effortless.
realist wannabe wrote:
"You point to a couple of good foreign players in their early 20s, like Pau Gasol. Fine, I agree with you, he is a good player. But he was never a number one draft pick."
See, this is why you're so stupid because you assume just because a player is picked #1, he should have the most potential. Ever heard of draft busts? You probably thought Joe Smith was a great pick. Michael Olowokandi, the former #1 pick, is having numbers that are only similar to Lorenzo Wright, a bench center in Memphis.
realist wannabe wrote:
"As for your predictions of how much China will "suck" (and by the way, I truly admire how eloquently you speak), there is no way to decide on this but to wait and see what will happen.
More eloquent vocabulary for you:
In yo face. You a big disgrace.
It is really effortless, realist wannabe. I own you!
realist wannabe wrote:
"However, I must point out, almost all basketball experts in the U.S., such as Larry Brown, Rudy T, to name a few, believe strongly that China will challenge the U.S. one day for basketball supremacy."
Only a delusional kid that's been brainwashed with silly and meaningless propaganda would believe that it would happen soon. China can't even beat 3rd tiered teams in the world at this stage. Learn to walk a step before you even talk of big talk. Your thoughts are funny. What's even funnier is that you think you're realist but you're really the most biased and stubborn and closeminded person on here.
realist wannabe wrote:
"So, you think you know more about basketball than them? Goes to show, you are an idiot"
Knowing more basketball than you is no big deal because you don't even know jack shiiii. Are you the type to be proud of being smarter than a retard? I'm not, so I can't say I'm proud of schooling you here at all, but you deserve it. Hating me won't make you smarter. Do something appropriate for a change if you really want to be like me: the real Realist. Get your head out of your ass and see the light. If anything, you should be bowing down, thanking me and sending me gifts because I'm helping by trying to pull your head out. I really am.
The real Realist
Friday, October 25, 2002 at 12:42:17 (PDT)
[66.107.44.253]
Yao's not ready 4 bigtime,
Not true. 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 assists in 24 mins only in his 2nd NBA game. He did much better than 3/5 starters and won recognition in Houston.
FOP
Friday, October 25, 2002 at 10:37:14 (PDT)
[67.24.197.74]
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