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Basketball gets bigger as China develops.

by Ron Thomas | The San Francisco Examiner | September 21st, 2001

When sports agent Bill Duffy thinks about the origins of his client, Yao Ming, it reminds him of the training grounds of his college teammate, Kevin McHale, at the University of Minnesota. McHale was a 6-foot-11 power forward with unusually wide shoulders and some of the more unorthodox post moves basketball ever saw. He grew up in Hibbing, Minn., a very small town located far to the north in ice-fishing country. It was the last place one would expect to spawn a future Boston Celtics star and Hall of Famer. "I'm from Los Angeles, where when you see where guys grew up, you can see why a guy can play," Duffy said. "He'd take me up to Hibbing, and he was so good I'd say, 'How can he be this good coming out of Hibbing?' There were no other big guys for him to play against. There was probably good, solid coaching but the competition was very mediocre. What I thought was this guy is just a natural basketball player." Duffy sees the same in Yao. "The skills he has, he has not been taught. He has an ability to watch and duplicate." If not for television, Yao wouldn't be a high-caliber NBA prospect. It was the tube that gave him the chance to watch the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan win title after title. "Michael Jordan was the hero for every kid in China at that time," he said via an e-mail interview from China. As Yao developed, televised games gave him role models from which he could learn the game. Portland's Arvydas Sabonis -- a 7-foot, 300-pound center from Lithuania who has 3-point shooting range and extraordinary passing skills -- is one NBA star who made a big impression on Yao. "I like Sabonis. I think he is an unselfish player, has great knowledge of basketball and his passing is fantastic and amazing," Yao said. "I watch a lot of games on TV and learn some moves that are used in real games," he said. "I am now practicing the hook shot. It is a pretty good technique for me in terms of my size and physical strength. I can use my height and body to shoot against the opponents." There are few tall players approaching Yao's caliber to practice against in China, and Nike representative Terry Rhoads said there aren't any coaches who can work with big men. So Ming mainly has taught himself how to become formidable, and at about 265 pounds and growing, he's got the weight to support those ambitions. "Don't think Manute Bol and don't think Shawn Bradley," Duffy said, naming two of the NBA's more slender 7-footers. "Think Arvydas Sabonis and Bill Walton -- that happens to be 7-6." "He's got everything," Walton said. "We're not talking about a finished product, he's only 20 years old. We're not talking about the explosiveness of Hakeem (Olajuwan) when Hakeem was 20. But we are talking about someone who thinks basketball, who can pass, who can move. He's not the most physically explosive player but he's 7-6. He's not a big slab of stone out there. He's fluid, graceful, and has a ton of things going for him." Including genes. Ming's father is 6-10, his mother is 6-4, and both of them were accomplished basketball players in China. "Yes, basketball has always been a part of my life and it became an important part since I played for Shanghai's junior team," Yao said. "When I was 11 years old, I started playing organized basketball. I don't think my parents spent much time with me on the court, but they gave me some advice and instructions sometimes after they watched my games and practices." There aren't many public courts in China, so when he first started playing basketball he practiced at a district sports school. The court was made of mud. Yao said he prefers passing over shooting because a good pass shows that a player has basketball knowledge and the vision to see teammates. This doesn't mean he can't shoot a jumper. Sometimes he would participate in shooting contests with the guards, which helped develop his outside touch. "We always put some bet or penalty on it," he said about the contests. Nike has been doing business in China since 1991 and has played a big role in making basketball the sport of choice among Chinese children. In 1997, Nike became the Shanghai Sharks' sponsor, which brought Rhoads and the then 16-year-old Yao together. "We had a party with the team and that was love at first sight," Rhoads said. "He just showed up and was hitting jump shots all over the court. He was just like a young colt, running up and down the court. "His trunk has to catch up, but he's had these tremendous legs since he was a teen-ager. Coaches always say, 'Wow, those are great powerful legs.' Then they look at his upper body and say, 'Wow, we've got to get him on a weight program.' " The next year, Rhoads took Yao to a Nike basketball camp in Europe, and when Yao was 18, Rhoads brought him to the United States to play on High 5 America, an AAU team based in San Diego. He also participated in a Nike All-America camp in Indianapolis, where some of the other players included Iowa star Luke Recker, Los Angeles Clippers rookie Darius Miles, who went directly from high school to the NBA, and Tyson Chandler, a current 7-foot Los Angeles prep star who might do the same this year. Yao had to make "some small adjustments" to food, cultural differences and languages in Europe and America -- he speaks a little English, which he began learning when he was 12, but he said that it wasn't difficult to learn. In return, he was exposed to a much higher level of basketball than in China. The games at the basketball camps were also more intense than at home and Yao learned to play with more emotion. "Most of the Chinese players are very gentle," Duffy said. "Yao's throwing his fist in the air." Duffy first heard about Yao from several friends who had seen him play in a Nike camp. "When he returned to China, I think the Chinese people were looking for someone to help pursue the NBA, and what I'm told is two or three NBA scouts recommended me." Duffy had lived in China for two years as a child. His father was in the Army and Duffy attended kindergarten and first grade there. Also, Duffy has a sister whose mother is Chinese. In early 1999, Duffy went to China, met Yao's family, and got his first in-person look at the big man. "I went to the gym with him, and I hit three NBA 3-pointers in a row, and he matched me," said Duffy, who played basketball at Santa Clara after transferring from Minnesota. "If you make one, you say whatever. If you make two, that's not bad. He hit three in a row. Before, I was comparing him with Rik Smits (who was Indiana's starting center in last season's NBA Finals). He's a better player than Rik Smits right now." Duffy has taken a holistic approach to courting Yao and Chinese officials. He believes China was looking for someone who wouldn't just raid the country of its top players, but would give them NBA exposure while also trying to improve the quality of basketball in China. Duffy, who has visited China about a half-dozen times before flying there last week, has established an office to set up sports marketing and sponsorship deals. He employs four people in Beijing and eventually may place some of his clients on Chinese teams. "I think I was able to convince (Chinese officials) that it's in their best interests to allow their best players to play here on the national stage where the best players are," Duffy said. Doing so would "improve the awareness of China basketball and inspire its players to be the best in the world instead of just the best in Asia." Email Ron Thomas at rthomas@sfexaminer.com

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