FEBRUARY 15 2009
AMERICANWAY 49
and45 languages.
“Thatwas akey liftoff point for that, and
in someways, probablymore profoundly, a
key liftoff point for millions of potentially
elite basketball players around the world
deciding tobounce theball rather thankick
it — which is something I often say, and
which I think is true.”
IN 1994, AT ROUGHLY
six o’clock on a
steamy June evening in Shanghai, China,
the world began to change for a skinny
Shanghai youngsterwho, at age 13, already
had sprouted to seven feet inheight.
Surrounded by friends with whom he
shared a passion for basketball, a teenage
Yao Ming watched his first live telecast of
anNBAgame.
There, before his eyes, on a TV set in a
small apartment, New York Knicks center
PatrickEwing andHoustonRockets center
HakeemOlajuwonmatched up in amem-
orable battle of big men in the 1994 NBA
Finals.
“We were excited,” Yao recalls. “We hear
abouttheNBA,butatthattime,NBAhadn’t
come toChinayet.Wewouldonlyget to see
games that were played three months ago,
something like that.
“Then, with the game played live, we
watched a lotmore of themascots and just
the show.”
Still, Yao was drawn to the battle of the
centers, never once believing that just eight
years later he would wind up in Houston,
daring to carry onOlajuwon’s legacy. Back
in 1994, an Asian playing in the NBAwas
toopreposterous even todreamabout.
“We knowNBA basketball is the best in
the world,” Yao says. “You never imagine
you canplay there. AskanyAmericankid if
they dream to play there, and they say yes.
But forme?No. Inever even thought itwas
possible. It is really too far.”
Today, mere months removed from the
Beijing Olympics but 15 years since Yao
watched his first live telecast of an NBA
game, theChinesehoopdreamerswhohave
followed Yao into the NBA include New
Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlian and Los
AngelesLakers guardSunYue.
“Maybe the kids right now in China are
starting to thinkabout it,”Yao says.
It isnothard to imaginemanymoreChi-
neseplayers in theNBA, especiallynow that
the league has partnered with Anschutz
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