Chinese star's arrival fuels franchise's excitement
The savior of the Houston Rockets, Yao Ming, arrived yesterday. I knew it was a big deal with his arrival time and flight number were published in yesterday's Chronicle.
"Yao Ming is bigger than Michael Jordan in China," said David Chen, who came to Bush Intercontinental to see Yao for himself. "Michael Jordan is a great basketball player, but you have the Emmitt Smiths and Jerry Rices of football and Mario Lemeiux of hockey. Yao Ming is China. He's the one thing. He is a national representative.
"I came to see a Chinese guy who could play in the NBA. We had Wang Zhi Zhi and Mengke Bateer, and they're decent. But this is different."
Said Houston City Councilman Gordan Quan: "We saw how much Hakeem Olajuwon did for understanding about the Nigerian and Muslim communities. I think Yao Ming can do the same thing for the Asian community. But there is an excitement in the city that I think permeates every community.
"We talk so much about diversity. Thirty years ago, we had less than 10,000 Asian-Americans in this city. To think that our first draft pick is from Asia and is accepted for his talents. We're looking at him as a basketball player who has abilities to help this team. And I think to me that epitomizes the whole community -- people all over the world bringing their talents to this city. He is a symbol of what's going on every day in this city."
For Chinese-Americans, Yao is also a symbol of how much has changed. "We ignored that whole country for so many years," Quan said. "With diplomatic relations the way they were, they were our enemy. Now, one of their own is our team leader. What a reversal. No doubt about it."
The Rockets had a similar outlook. It had taken magic in the NBA draft lottery to even get the chance to draft Yao, months of negotiations to win his release from the Shanghai Sharks and China Basketball Associations, and patience to wait out his duties with the Chinese national team.
Yao aside, the Rockets are still a bad team wearing pajamas for uniforms. Of course, with Yao in town, they're now a much more interesting bad team in pajamas.