NBA Eyes China’s Rare Ming

Watch out, America. A Chinese kid might be on his way to rock your basketball world.

He stands 7 feet 5 in his bare feet. (Shaquille O’Neal? A diminutive 7 feet 1.) And he once shot a three-pointer over Michael Jordan.

Some in the National Basketball Assn. love his height and his potential so much, they expect him to become this year’s top draft pick. He would be among a handful of foreigners to reach that stature in the world’s premier basketball league.

You might say it’s the dawning of the Ming Dynasty. The reign of Yao Ming, a 21-year-old native of Shanghai.

To be sure, there remains some skepticism.

After watching Yao at an NBA-sponsored practice this year, some scouts questioned whether the young man with the nice shooting touch could transition to the faster, rougher NBA game.

But it’s a gamble some teams seem willing to make.

“In one national game, he shot 21 times and made 21. How often do you hear that?” said Carroll Dawson, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, winner of this year’s first pick in the June 26 draft, who have indicated that they are serious about drafting Yao.

But all good things come with a price.

This once-in-a-generation basketball prodigy is no mere athlete. He is China’s national treasure, a symbol of growing Chinese status--and a priceless bargaining chip.

Any team that wants Yao in its uniform must first duke it out with the Communist sports machinery.

For Americans, it’s a crash course on the vast cultural difference between the capitalist assumptions of U.S. professional sports and the paternalistic power of the Chinese state.

For the Chinese, it’s a golden opportunity to flex their diplomatic muscle and remind the world that China’s got what everyone wants.

“America has Michael Jordan, and China has Yao Ming,” said Li Yaomin, the manager of Yao’s current team, the Shanghai Sharks.

“If I were the NBA, I’d give anything for a player like Yao Ming,” Li said.

Yao’s personality, however, seems at odds with such a ferocious sport.

He used to refuse to dunk because he didn’t think that it was nice. He likes to read ancient history. He hates to show off his height: The first thing he does when he walks into a room is sit down, even if it’s on his duffel bag.

His looks are equally disarming.

His skull almost scrapes the ceiling in corridors of the modest Lushan Hotel here, where he stayed last month during a warmup game with the Chinese national team for upcoming competitions. His size 18 footsteps echo off the walls. But compared with 335-pound Shaq, he’s practically scrawny. And his pensive brow, forlorn stare and graceful arms give him more the look of a schoolboy in love than a gladiator in the hard-core world of basketball.

Few dispute that Yao has talent.

But many caution against high expectations. They say Yao will have to put on some weight--he could stand to add about 30 pounds to his roughly 300-pound frame--and become accustomed to NBA play before his talents and potential can truly be evaluated.

“He’s got incredible skills. For a guy his size, that makes it more unusual.... He’s really coordinated,” said Mitch Kupchak, Laker general manager. “But the No. 1 concern is that he needs a lot of work on his upper body.”

Former NBA star Bill Walton has described Yao in terms of potential, which he called “huge.”

Coach Larry Brown of the Philadelphia 76ers said of the Chinese standout: “In four years, he could be one of the best players in the world.”

Money Matters

If Yao is picked first, the NBA’s rookie salary structure could pay him about $12 million over three years, plus endorsements. That’s a big raise from the $70,000 a year he earns now. But according to NBA rules, Yao’s home team is only entitled to a transfer fee of $350,000.

That is not what China is expecting.

The central government is demanding 50% of Yao’s earnings and endorsement income--for the rest of his career. Yao must then split the remaining half with the Sharks, his coaches and his agents.

On top of that, the Sharks want the NBA team that signs Yao to supply training camps in the U.S., coaching help and NBA-level American players to help them become the Lakers of China.

“In the U.S., parents spend money to train athletes,” Li said. “In China, the state pays for everything. We feed him, we dress him, and we house him. When a child grows up, he must take care of his mother. There’s nothing strange about that.”

So for the Rockets, a lucky draw has turned into an international gamble.

“This is all rather new and very interesting,” Dawson said before he left for China this week to hash things out face to face. “Basketball-wise, that’s a slam dunk. He’s got finesse, he’s got strength, he’s got scoring capacity. His athletic ability and his size are outstanding. He makes everybody play better. That’s the kind of man we want.”

Politically, it’s still a bit up in the air.

A breakthrough appeared possible this week after two days of meetings in Shanghai: The Sharks said they would allow Yao to go to the NBA. But they won’t sign any agreement with the Rockets, or confirm the final conditions, until the Rockets draft Yao later this month in New York.

“What if they don’t choose him? Then we would have signed a contract for nothing,” Li said Wednesday.

The Rockets still need further approvals from sports authorities in Beijing, the Chinese capital, including working out details allowing Yao to return home to help China with international competitions.

Even when a deal is reached, everything is subject to change in China. So technically, the Rockets could yet walk away empty-handed.

The Chinese make tough negotiators. They know the NBA’s weak spots--a dearth of really big players and a shrinking domestic audience. China offers a star center with the rare combination of a giant’s size and a little guy’s skill. The country also boasts 300 million hoop fans and 1.3 billion potential television viewers and customers of sports gear. It doesn’t get more enticing than that.

The Sharks turned down the NBA last year when the team needed Yao to help win the national championship. He did. That put the Sharks in an even better bargaining position.

“I just hope they don’t price him out of the market,” said Billy Hunter, executive director of the National Basketball Players Assn. “The question is the ultimate cost. Even if an agreement could be made, we’ll have to wait and see how well he performs in the league.

“Basketball doesn’t get better than in the NBA. He’s going to be encountered with the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo. They’re really going to test Yao Ming’s mettle.”

There are several cases of top picks who couldn’t make it in the NBA. Still, few other draft picks have come with this much mystery and uncertainty.

Perhaps the simplest thing to explain about Yao is his height. His parents were basketball players. His father is 6 feet 10, and his mother is 6-4. He played for the Shanghai team, and she was captain of the Chinese national women’s team. His grandfather, a retired factory worker, is 6-8.

“My parents would probably prefer for me to go to college and play basketball only as a hobby,” Yao said in his calm baritone at last month’s warmup game here in this central Chinese mountain retreat. “I like history and archeology. I wish I could visit Egypt.”

‘Maybe It’s Fate’

But in a country’s where the nation’s interest precedes one’s own, basketball could be Yao’s only calling. “Maybe it’s fate,” Yao said, but he wouldn’t elaborate.

He’s not allowed to. He is on loan to the Chinese national team for the upcoming Asia Games and the World Basketball Championship for Men. His Beijing handlers have ordered him to avoid the media and the subject of the NBA.

But watching him dominate the game in China, it’s obvious that he’s exhausted the local competition and itching to move on.

“He’s unstoppable when he gets close to the basket,” said Tab Baldwin, coach of the New Zealand national team, which lost to the Chinese in a game here. “He was able to move through people. Once he gets more strength in his upper body, he’ll be an outstanding NBA player, possibly an All-Star in two or three years.”

For now, not even Yao’s parents are sure how things will work out for their only child.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s up to our country,” Yao’s father, Zhiyuan, said in Shanghai. “My hope is he can go to the NBA, improve his skills and come back to serve his country.”

At the Shanghai sports schools where Yao spent most of his life, it’s clear that the making of a basketball legend is no family affair.

Chinese basketball remains a relic of the country’s planned-economy days. Government scouts comb the nation’s elementary schools looking for children with above-average height. They enroll them in after-school programs to see how they develop. They move the most promising into full-time sports academies. Some join the junior division of the local basketball team.

The very best leap to the adult league. The teams now are run by clubs but still funded by the government. The Sharks, for example, are backed by a state-owned Shanghai TV station.

Slow Beginnings

“He didn’t like basketball very much in the beginning,” acknowledged Li Zhangming, who was Yao’s first coach, when he was 9 years old. “He was so much taller than the other kids and an awkward mover. It took time to cultivate his interest, by playing games and making him feel the fun of basketball.”

But since Yao’s first contact with the sport, no Chinese coach has treated him as an ordinary talent. By looking at his parents and X-raying his huge hands, they knew how tall he was going to be.

“There are now plenty of Chinese over 6 feet tall,” said Wang Qun, another Shanghai coach who watched Yao grow up. “But there’s only a small handful in a billion Chinese who are over 7 feet.”

The other two, part of China’s “Walking Great Wall” trio, are already in the NBA. But Dallas’ Wang Zhizhi and Denver’s Menk Bateer are somewhat shorter and older, no comparison to Yao in potential drawing or earning power.

To make sure the 9-year-old Yao didn’t skip training, coach Li picked the boy up from school every day and rode his bicycle beside him to the gym. While other kids paid 70 cents for a school meal, a high price in the 1980s, Yao got a free lunch.

Government scouts considered him such a rare find, they wanted to keep an eye on him 24 hours a day. So they persuaded his parents to enroll him in Shanghai’s elite sports academy as early as possible.

“He was only 12 but already 6-5,” coach Wang said. “We knew he would keep growing. We didn’t trust the lower-level sports schools. We wanted him here so our specialists could make sure he got enough to eat and sleep and that his bones were growing properly.”

Food was a big part of his royal treatment.

“Everybody else ate in the cafeteria, but Yao ate in a special kitchen reserved for champions,” Wang said. “Only Olympics and world competition winners could eat there.”

Ask him if he would make his own children play basketball, Yao grimaced and said, “Basketball is too bitter.” Then he doubled back to add, “That’s too far down the road to think about. I’m still a child myself.”

Yao won’t blame the sport for robbing him of a normal childhood. But he has plenty of sympathizers back at his old sports school.

“I was picked out of a lineup in second grade,” said Ji Bing, 14, who is 6 feet 1. “I didn’t even know what basketball was.”

Like other tall Chinese children, Bing has been shooting hoops every day, including Saturdays and summer vacations, since he was a small boy.

“Even during our day off, we have to jump rope at home and get our parents’ signature to prove it,” Bing said. “But none of us will ever be as tall as Yao Ming.”

Legions of young fans across the country can’t wait to see their idol conquer the NBA. They believe there is no question that he will.

“He is so tall and so handsome, he is our Prince Charming,” Chen Chen, 16, gushed during the game here against the New Zealanders. “If he goes to the NBA, he’ll be in basketball heaven.”

Otherwise, there’s still a roommate and an extra long cot waiting for him back at the Sharks’ third-floor dorm.

“If we don’t approve, he doesn’t go,” said Li, the Sharks’ boss.

No one knows better than Yao how delicate the situation is. But he’s pro enough to hide his true emotions.

Just ask him how he feels about wearing the No. 13 on his national team jersey. Not every Chinese knows about its spooky connotation. Yao clearly does.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Yao said just before the game here started. “Haven’t I been pretty lucky so far?”