Yao's rise enraptures homeland

Yao's rise enraptures homeland

By GEOFFREY YORK
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail


Beijing — It was early morning, snow was falling heavily and class assignments were due, but nothing could deter the five students from the opportunity to see their hero: National Basketball Association rookie sensation Yao Ming.

They bicycled through the snow at Tsinghua University, postponing their homework and crowding into a small room to watch the live television broadcast of Yao and the Houston Rockets.

They cheered, they screamed, they pounded on the furniture whenever he sank a basket and they roared for him to shoot again in the final moments so he could eclipse his season-best total of 30 points. "Give the ball to Yao Ming," they shouted.

Only two months into Yao's rookie season, the 7-foot-5 phenomenon has developed a fanatical following in his homeland, awakening Chinese national pride and creating lucrative new marketing opportunities for the NBA in the world's most populous country.

Yao is only 22 and had never played a professional game until late October, but the spectacular successes of his first two months have attracted huge audiences on Chinese television and World Wide Web sites. Even with a 14-hour time difference, which means that Houston home games are broadcast live at 10 a.m. the next morning in China, he is causing Chinese fans to skip school, avoid work, crowd around television sets and stuff the electronic ballot boxes with thousands of Chinese-language ballots in the voting for the NBA all-star teams.

"When I was young, I always watched the NBA games with Michael Jordan, and I always thought that the NBA was for Western athletes," said Hao Jiang, 24, the sports editor of sohu.com, a leading Chinese Web site. "I never thought that one day a Chinese player would be in the NBA. Yao Ming brings credit to our country and our people and he strengthens the patriotism of our fans."

Zou Feng, a 23-year-old university student in Beijing, never misses a game when Yao is on television. When no television broadcast is available, he follows the games on Chinese Web sites or Internet chat rooms where he can hear an update on every point Yao scores within moments of it happening. "He's so great," Zou gushed. "He's brought great honour to our country and he makes the Chinese people feel proud and elated. He's the spokesman for our young generation. He lets the Americans know the new image of the Chinese people."

Yao is not the first Chinese player in the NBA. He was preceded by Wang Zhizhi, who joined the Dallas Mavericks two years ago and now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, and Mengke Bateer, who was signed by the Denver Nuggets last year and now plays for the San Antonio Spurs. But he is unquestionably the most talented and charismatic of the three members of China's Walking Great Wall. And he has by far the greatest potential to unlock the commercial gold mine of sports marketing in China.

His predecessors were often seen as egotistical individuals -- especially Wang, who provoked the fury of the Chinese Basketball Association when he refused to play on the Chinese team in the world championships and Asian Games last summer. Yao appears to be more humble and patriotic, and his exploits in the NBA so far have been superior to anything achieved by his predecessors.

"Yao Ming's charisma can be seen in his sense of humour when he deals with the media," said Hao, the sports editor of the Chinese Web site. "Another reason we like him is that he loves video games, which makes him close to our own Web users. And from the answers he gave in our chat room, we could see that he has a deep love of China."

Yao is sparking plenty of hype in the United States. He is already the NBA's leader in field-goal percentage and one of the top 10 rebounders and is among the leaders in all-star votes in the Western Conference.

Former NBA great Bill Walton has called him an unbelievable talent who has the potential of changing the future of basketball. Sports Illustrated has put him on its cover, calling him "the next big thing." The owner of the Rockets, Les Alexander, has predicted he will be bigger than Michael Jordan in the world and the biggest athlete in history.

The hype was a little slower to get rolling in China, where Jordan footwear is still the top-selling basketball item. Yao merchandise has not yet officially entered the market, except for older endorsements from his days with the Shanghai Sharks.

But television audiences for NBA games have soared dramatically here. When the Rockets played the low-ranking Cleveland Cavaliers last month, the Chinese television audience of 5.5 million viewers was five times greater than the U.S. audience, even though the game was broadcast in China on a Wednesday morning. An audience of 11.5 million watched the game when it was replayed that night.

A record 12 television channels are carrying NBA games in China this year, and overall NBA ratings on Chinese television have more than doubled this year. For the first time, basketball is threatening to overtake soccer as China's most popular sport. Chinese media outlets have sent reporters to Houston to follow his every move.

The NBA is salivating at the opportunities in China's untapped market. The league, which now has a staff of 20 in its Hong Kong office, has recently opened an office in Beijing and plans to create Chinese Web sites and fan magazines. A bonanza of Yao merchandise and endorsement deals is expected within a few months