Chinese Culture & Famous People

Yao Ming

Yáo Míng, born September 12, 1980 in Shanghai, China is a popular basketball player. Yao Ming is the first Chinese player to have a major impact in the N.B.A. and the first Chinese athlete to become an international superstar.

Standing 7-foot-6-inch tall and wearing size 18 shoes, he was drafted No. 1 by the Houston Rockets and made the N.B.A. All-Star team his rookie year.

The American press heralded his arrival as beginning of Ming Dynasty and some regarded him a savior for the NBA, opening up new markets in Asia and giving the NBA a boost at a time when interest was sagging at home in the United States.

Yao plays center. He is regarded as a skilled team player, a fearsome shot blocker and, surprisingly for a big man, is a good at making three-point shots. Craig Smith wrote in the New York Times, He can run the floor like a small forward, find open teammates cutting to the basket, deliver a jump shot flawlessly and, unlike Shaquille O Neal, shoot 80 percent at the free throw line. In China they call him Big Brother Yao. He is truly a skilled and a flamboyant player for his team.

Yao is widely respected not only for his ability but for the fact he has remained modest and hardworking despite his wealth and fame. He has been held up as a personification of the spirit of China as it has embraced capitalism. Beijing-based lawyer Wang Sintao told the Washington Post, He handles national interests and his individual interests well.

The son of two former basketball players, Yao weighed 10 pounds at birth. His father is 6 feet 10. He played for the Shanghai city basketball team. His mother is 6 feet 2. She was captain of the Chinese national women’s team. His grandfather was a 6-foot-8-inch factory worker.

Yao was measured regularly from the time he was an infant to predict his growth. He lost 60 percent of his hearing in his left ear at age 7 when doctors gave him the wrong medicine for a kidney problem.

His parent’s marriage was arranged by the government. Yao’s mother was a Red Guard. Her activities endeared her to Communist Party leaders in Mao’s time but later came back to haunt her when an official she persecuted was rehabilitated and placed in charge of Shanghai’s sports program, leaving Yao’s parents wi th barely enough money to feed him.

Like his parents Yao initially hated basketball. It wasn’t until he was nine years old and attended a Harlem Globetrotters game with his mother that he saw basketball players enjoying themselves. Yao’s first coach told the Los Angeles Times, He didn’t like basketball very much in the beginning. He was so much taller than the other kids and was an awkward mover.

It took time to cultivate his interest, by playing the games and making him feel the fun of basketball. To make sure he didn’t skip practice his coach went to his house and accompanied him to practice every day.

Yao Ming was sent to a full-time sports academy when he was 12. At that age he was already 6 foot, five inches. By measuring his knuckles sports officials predicted he would grow to 7 foot five inches and special attention was given to groom him to be a future star.

Yao later said he didn’t even like playing the game until he’s 18 or 19. Yao was regarded as such a lucky find he was watched nearly 24 hours a day and served meals in special kitchen reserved for champions. Yao joined the Shanghai Sharks when was 13.