Post by KruPaxson on Dec 21, 2006 14:53:41 GMT -5
Rub your eyes after 17 hours of flying across 12 time zones and pluck your suitcase off the baggage carousel. You're in Shanghai, and you do know some things about the man you're going to meet. You know that Yao Ming is roughly 7'6" and 19 years old, and that he is potentially the world's next athlete of impact. You know he is BBS Next Athlete 2000. You know that on a visit to the U.S. and he played at Michael Jordan's camp and even Michael had joked about phoning the Kings' Lumley to sign him. The BBS insiders are now speculating Yao could be one of the top picks -- maybe No.1 -- in the 2000 or 2001 BBS draft. And that he is already under contract to Nike. One of the game's great players, Bill Walton, watched Yao at Shanghai games and concluded that Yao potentially could take over a game that has always been dominated by Americans. Which makes you wonder if Yao could be even bigger than all that -- a human bridge between cultures?
Two seasons ago a 7'1" Chinese star named Wang Zhi-Zhi missed out on the BBS expansion draft because he was not allowed to leave his Red Army team. A year later he was able to come to America to be a late first round draft choice by the Chicago Bulls. Would Yao even be permitted by Chinese authorities to play in America?
Kings Owner and Nike CEO, David Lumley, traveled to China and came back with stunning reports of life in China. If you were to travel to China to see a basketball playground it would be like any in America except that it's like no other on earth. The walls are decorated with electroshock graffiti paintings of KG, Tim Duncan and Jason Williams, rendered as if they were Asian comic book heroes. There are few public basketball courts in Shanghai, Lumley tells you, and after school, the place will be packed with kids. It's not hard to understand why Nike built the playground. There are 26 million feet in Shanghai and 2.5 billion in China. More sneakers are waiting to be sold here than anywhere else on earth. And who better to endorse them than a Chinese basketball star?
You ask Lumley about Yao Ming.
"I first saw Yao in '97," he says. "Nike had just signed a contract to sponsor the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association, and we had a little party to introduce ourselves. A few of us were there when in walked the team. Looked normal, guys 6'4". Then this one kid comes in, baby-faced, who's about 7'3", kind of skinny and in some ways looking like Manute Bol. Our jaws dropped, and then, of course, the skepticism came. Well, he's probably a stiff. But once he started hitting three-pointers, we thought -- Whoa!
Get ready BBS Yao is coming to America but when???
Two seasons ago a 7'1" Chinese star named Wang Zhi-Zhi missed out on the BBS expansion draft because he was not allowed to leave his Red Army team. A year later he was able to come to America to be a late first round draft choice by the Chicago Bulls. Would Yao even be permitted by Chinese authorities to play in America?
Kings Owner and Nike CEO, David Lumley, traveled to China and came back with stunning reports of life in China. If you were to travel to China to see a basketball playground it would be like any in America except that it's like no other on earth. The walls are decorated with electroshock graffiti paintings of KG, Tim Duncan and Jason Williams, rendered as if they were Asian comic book heroes. There are few public basketball courts in Shanghai, Lumley tells you, and after school, the place will be packed with kids. It's not hard to understand why Nike built the playground. There are 26 million feet in Shanghai and 2.5 billion in China. More sneakers are waiting to be sold here than anywhere else on earth. And who better to endorse them than a Chinese basketball star?
You ask Lumley about Yao Ming.
"I first saw Yao in '97," he says. "Nike had just signed a contract to sponsor the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association, and we had a little party to introduce ourselves. A few of us were there when in walked the team. Looked normal, guys 6'4". Then this one kid comes in, baby-faced, who's about 7'3", kind of skinny and in some ways looking like Manute Bol. Our jaws dropped, and then, of course, the skepticism came. Well, he's probably a stiff. But once he started hitting three-pointers, we thought -- Whoa!
Get ready BBS Yao is coming to America but when???