Chron: Yao needs time to grow as a player and a person

It appears Blinebury has firmly attached himself to Yao's jock since Hakeems retirement. Here's yet another article from him on Yao.

Yao needs time to grow as a player and a person

By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

WHEN Yao Ming had finished chewing on a drumstick, tasting the mashed potatoes and savoring the chocolate dessert, he had only one question about his first Thanksgiving dinner.

Where were the turkey's feet?

"The rest was rather dry," he said. "I think it doesn't agree with my stomach. But in China, chicken feet are a delicacy, and maybe they would have been the best part for me."

This is all part of the cultural exchange. Some things are an acquired taste.

Unlike the yammering heads on ESPN, the cable access channel for amateur comedians that occasionally televises sports.

A few years from now, when Yao has made the full adjustment to our food, our freeways and the NBA, the boys and girls at ESPN will be clawing at each other's pancake makeup to do their "live shots" with him, to call him their "dawg," to maybe even share his chopsticks.

Boo-yah.

For now, they and most of the rest of the national audience have as much a read on Yao as they do the Dead Sea Scrolls.

They show him falling down while trying to guard Stephon Marbury. They show him missing shots, which happens infrequently. Then they are surprised when he plays well.

"Man, what did y'all do to turn Yao Ming on?" screeched one of the heads through the earpiece at Steve Francis during a halftime interview from Seattle on Friday night.

"It was just a matter of time for him to get comfortable," explained Francis, as if to a second-grade class.

"But what did you do all of a sudden?" the head continued.

"Nothing," said Francis. "He's only been here a few weeks."

"Must have taken him out for some sushi," said yammering head No. 2.

Right continent, wrong country. But if ignorance is bliss, surely there is another truckload of Emmys bound for Bristol, Conn.

The thing about Yao Ming is that he challenges so many of the fundamental precepts that drive today's 24-hour-news-cycle, starved-for-programming, snap-judgment, give-'em-the-slam-dunks-and-home-runs-and-touchdown-dances media.

For one, his game is far more complex and subtle than just rattling the rims with power dunks, though he is warming to the act. Yao is one who can see the whole court -- and not just because he towers above the crowd. He has great awareness of his teammates at all times and eventually should make their lives so much less stressful by feeding them a steady diet of passes for easy baskets.

To watch Yao catch the ball with his soft hands and to see him deliver it to the open man with a basic bounce, a cross-court toss whipped over the top, or a drop behind his back on the inside is to see the modern incarnation of Bill Walton or Tom Boerwinkle, the next to take the baton from today's best passing centers, Vlade Divac and Arvydas Sabonis.

Yao also is a 22-year-old kid living in a new country at a time when the country itself is on edge. How about if we dropped off one of the yammering heads at the airport in Shanghai, then told him to find his way to the TV studio and get ready to do that night's broadcast in Mandarin?

On second thought, some of them might actually make more sense. But you get the point.

For the moment, there will not be many nights such as the one in which Yao produced 30 points and 16 rebounds against the Dallas Mavericks. Not while he is still barely six weeks into his new life in a much faster, much stronger league and while his teammates are still making a Rubik's Cube puzzle out of the whole thing.

"I can't tell you how happy I am," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "I'm delighted at where he is in the process.

"The entire experience so far has been refreshing. He has given us not so much an attitude, but a presence. So warm, so friendly. He lights up a room when he enters and not just because he's so tall. He's genuine. He's a people person, interacting with teammates, everybody.

"I'm so fortunate, blessed, to have had the chance to coach guys who are not just great players, but also special people, the kind that other people want to be around. I've had Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, now this guy. People flock to them."

The notebooks, the tape recorders, the minicams flock to Yao at every port of call on his maiden voyage, wanting to see if this will be the night he suddenly explodes with muscles right through his uniform like the Incredible Hulk and starts bowling over defenders a la Shaquille O'Neal.

We need the fix today, the instant reward on the investment, whether it's from the Dow Jones index or the No. 1 pick in the draft.

Yao is by no means ready to hoist the Rockets upon his shoulders and carry them deep into the playoffs so soon. But when you look at the landscape of the NBA and disappearing of the classic big men, you have to like the outlook.

Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing, the ancient warriors, have finally retired. Alonzo Mourning has been short-circuited with a kidney ailment and a bad back. David Robinson is leaving after this season, and Shaq keeps threatening to take up a full-time career of rap albums and acting.

When USA Basketball goes searching for centers to reclaim the tarnished glory for the 2004 Olympics, it will be with a lineup of suspects named Elden Campbell, Brad Miller and Jermaine O'Neal or with converted forwards such as Tim Duncan, Elton Brand and Kevin Garnett.

So much of the talk is that the NBA is becoming a "little man's" league. How convenient then for the Rockets if they have the only dominant big man in their very midst in a few years.

It will take that long. For Yao to add the necessary bulk and strength in his upper body. For him to learn to establish position down in the low post, catch the ball, turn and score immediately. For him to grasp that he doesn't always have to leave his feet to block shots, thus not picking up extra fouls. That he would be a more effective defender if he simply learned to keep his arms raised straight in the air.

Everything about Yao says he will get there, from the raw skills he has put on display, to his work ethic, to the camaraderie with his teammates and communication with coaches, to his wit and patience in dealing with the demands of his mega-fame.

Yao went to see the new Harry Potter movie recently. "I give it five stars," he said, grinning and holding up an open hand.

Trouble is, we feel the need to wave a wizard's wand and rate everything right now, in the moment.

"We've turned into a business of extremes," Tomjanovich said. "Everybody expects things so quick. Whatever happened to growing up?"

It's something to chew on at least, along with the turkey feet.