Yao Ming
National Basketball Association is a very elite closed society for the best of the best only. NBA is all about the high jumps, three-pointers, dribbling, rebounding, two teams and one winner. However, one pattern distinguishes it from most American professional sports – racial dominance. According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, the NBA in 2015 consisted of 74,4 % black players, 23, 3% white players, 1,8 % Latinos and only 0,2 % of Asians (Lapchik, Guiao).
Yao Ming, a boy born in Chinese family of two basketball players. In Shanghai, the biggest city in China he could become anyone but he was destined to continue his parents’ path. Not only he did so but he also managed to enter the 0,2% of the basketball elite. In this paper, I would like to analyze the transition from one from the billion to one of the most renowned basketball players in the history of the game.
On a September day in 1980 in Shanghai a 5-kilogram boy named Ming was born to a family of two unusually tall by Chinese standards people – Yao and Fang. From the very beginning, it was clear that the boy possessed extraordinary sport skills. As for Ming himself, he dreamt of becoming famous and successful in his profession, whatever it was to be. Deep inside he always knew that there would be a day; he would make the whole nation proud. Still there was a long way to go.
As a child Ming loved books, history and to eat. China was not in the best economical place in early 1990s, so his parents had to use all their sources to feed the young growing only child. As his height grew in an almost geometrical progression, sport schools started to pay interest to him and eventually Yao Ming ended up in a Shanghai sports school.
At the time, soccer was the nation’s most popular sport game. Girls wanted to be with the players and boys wanted to be them. Posters of famous soccer players hanged around the majority of adolescents’ bedrooms. However, during the 1990s, largely due to the spectacular NBA performance, the popularity of the game flew around the globe to China, attracting an increasingly wide audience to the sports. By the age of 16 Yao Ming was a player of Shanghai Sharks and at the same time a part of the Chinese national basketball team.
Chinese society saw the immense potential in a young boy, but so did the international scouts. During his high school years, Yao Ming was repeatedly invited to the United States to the basketball camps. It was there when he first realized that he was actually quite good at what he did. Back at home, in China, because of his extreme height, especially for the locals, Ming was put to play with more mature players and therefore he always felt like he was lacking in technique. It was in America that he felt for the first time how truly good he is at basketball. Playing with his peers gave his a boost of confidence and a great desire to play for the best basketball league there was – the NBA. Although, at that time it was hard to imagine the realness of it for there were no Asian players in the NBA then.
The Chinese Basketball Association felt the threat from the American scouts that were paying too much attention to their local superstar- Yao Ming. So, when by the end of the 1990s the NBA started to propose contracts to Yao Ming, the Chinese officials started to put obstacles along the way. There were various excuses; including cancellation of Yao Ming’s trip to the United States because he allegedly needed to practice for the summer Olympics in the early spring and thus could not leave the country. As most things in China, this was a matter of money. Money could be trouble, but they could also solve everything. When the NBA promised some 5% of the Yao Ming’s contract profit and promised that he would still play for the national basketball team, the Chinese side gave their blessing for the boy to leave the country.
Although there already were two Chinese players in the NBA, the arrival of Yao Ming raised a great interest along the masses. People wanted to know how did he grow so tall. Was it what he ate or how he was brought up (Hsu)? He was seen as a result of some scientifically Chinese GMO experiment. At first, nobody noticed his game, but his nationality and his unusual height and behavior.
At the same time, in China, the popularity of Yao Ming rose to that of ancient Emperors. He was considered as the eighth world wonder and the Savior at the same time. He called the same feelings in immigrants. For them he was a connection between the land they so much loved and the one that gave them hope. It was amazing for the Chinese people, who were oppressed and generally undervalued by the Western world to have one their ones to be at the top. The TV broadcast of the NBA games in China increased to the unprecedented levels during the games of Yao Ming.
Back in the US, Yao Ming faced another difficulty – the language barrier. At first, there were interpreters who translated the interviews for him. However, since the questions were mostly directed at his personal life and had at times ironic character, it seemed that Yao Ming was not too bright, especially when he was talking the unknown and funny for the English ear – Chinese language. But that changed very fast, and soon enough Ming mastered the oral skills of the foreign language and was able to talk for himself. This way journalists and people learned that he had a very easy-going character. For his game at the court and his attitude in public, he gained the nickname of a “Gentle Giant”.
As for the games, Yao Ming was a very talented but under skilled player. Despite the obvious athletic prevalence over most of his team colleagues, he lacked in craft. That changed very soon for him and he became one of the most important players for the Houston Rockets. From the very start, the audience of the games became very Chinese. The Chinese would buy out whole sections of the seats, making it very home like for Ming. During his good seasons, the prices for the tickets went several times up. At one of his first games, at the entrance they were giving away fortune cookies. As he never saw this in China, Ming supposed it was an American way to say “hi”, through invented orientalism. He was not sure how to respond to that.(Hsu) .
As his fame grew, so did the interest of different companies towards his persona. His popularity was enough to attract potential buyers, so Visa, Apple, Nike and Reebok signed commercial contracts. This is regarding the international names. Now, in China, he became a national treasure. He was involved in all the grandest sports events of the country; from holding his country’s flag at the Olympics to television commercials to multi-national telethon.
Apart from commercials, Yao Ming had enough to say that he released a book and a movie. “Yao: A life in Two Worlds” and “The Year of Yao” respectively. The book focuses on the differences of two places that he now calls home. In the book, one can find remarks and contemplations, but also some beautiful personal stories that make that basketball guy from China a human being with a story worth telling. The book is built on dedication, will power and peculiar national differences.
However, despite all the fame and appreciation, he never felt in the States as if he belonged there. Hosts of different TV shows still called him “Chinaman” and “Yellow peril” but it did not seem to bother his as long as he had a goal ahead. , He always knew he was Chinese and he never wanted to be American. He respects his country and tries to do as much as possible to promote an image of China as not only a conveyer for model minorities. While he was finally gaining respect in the team and around, while his heroic image continued to take Asia over. In one of his interviews, the first Korean player for the NBA confessed that out of all he would like to be like Yao.
Despite his rising stardom, he had no enemies inside his team. With his skills and good temper, he managed to be on good terms with all his basketball mates. Except certain seldom cases of misunderstanding, as he considered them to be, there were no major racial issues that guided his career. His tolerant attitude towards everything outside the game only underlines his greatness.
It is believed, that the start of recent dilution of black players is due to the fact that different race players raise more interest and that they attract more money through their different communities. Until 2000’s there were only few players from other ethnic groups – now the diversity is more evident at the court. This may be also due to the expanding trend of equality, which I believe is at times abused. One way or another, it is clear that Yao Ming was in the NBA not to state the diversity but because he is a truly outstanding basketball player.
Yao Ming announced the end of his professional basketball career in 2011 Because of his multiple injuries it became too hard to perform 100% at the court. So, Yao Ming enrolled to a university in China. After his retirement, Ming became involved in so many things. For most part – charities and various philanthropic projects. It seems like he is not going to tie his future life to basketball or coaching, on the other hand, he bought his first major team “Shanghai Sharks” because they were at the edge of bankruptcy. He invest a lot in basketball in China. Thanks to his effort and to celebrity players that he had attracted to China, basketball is living up its rebirth.
Yao Ming is a rare case of dignity and common sense. Coming from a very simple background, he learnt to fight for what he wanted, but perhaps due to his enormous height size he learnt to do it in a non-aggressive way. On the way to his dream, he faced injustice and prejudice and managed to remain the same person. His language, his nationality even his own government were planning to stop him along the way. His talent and personality gained his respect from his fellow players and a name in a Basketball Hall of Fame. He brought basketball to so many homes in China and overall popularized the sports.
After fighting the Chinese corrupt system, he came to the dreamland to become the greatest player. There was discrimination, names, prejudice and stereotypes (Wang). People are hard to blame. China is a land far-far away. “Made in China” and rice noodles was probably just as much as an average citizen knew about China. Yao Ming was given names not to be hurt but just because the media did not know what to tie him to so that it would be understandable for the audience. He brought interest towards his persona not because he wanted to but because lie an “exotic pet” everyone wanted to get a hold of.
He gained respect and conquered the world in a way. He is praised for the game by professionals, including the man who thought of him as only a Chinese upstart – Shaquille O’Neil. He made everyone respect him and his country, becoming the best central player in history in the season of 2003-2007.
One man said: “Yao is important to our hearts; he went to America and returned”. This is an unprecedented case. For Yao Ming it was important to the whole generation for he showed that “Han dynasty vases” and “The Great Wall of China” are not the only things that matter in China. In a way, Yao becomes a brand. His talent and actions made people understand that it does not matter where you are from as long as you are a professional. And Yao Ming certainly is one!
Works Cited
Hsu, Hua. “When Yao Ming was the center of the world”. The New Yorker. 8 April 2016.
Web.
Wang, Yanan. “How Yao Ming subverted stereotypes and brought basketball to millions”.
The Washington post. 5 April 2016. Web.
Lapchik Richard, Guiao Angelica. “The 2015 Racial and Gender Report Card: National
Basketball Association”. 1 July 2015. Web.
