On September 12, 1980, the phenomenon that is Yao Ming, a genetic wonder, born with his life already laid out ahead of him, entered the world. It was known throughout China, the world’s most populous country, that this child would bring the nation recognition, pride, and glory as a basketball player. At 11 lbs. 2 oz., the already enormous child of two retired basketball players would always huge for his age, eventually reaching the 7’5’’ and 310 lbs. he is today.
But let’s leave the man who now towers over NBA players and billboards all over the world and investigate his beginnings. In 1965 Fang Fengdi entered the elite sports training facility. The tall, lanky, awkward fifteen year old did want to be there, but coming from a poor peasant family she was assured of always having food and a livelihood, the opportunity was her so called “iron rice bowl.”
She had been recruited not because she had any basketball talent, but solely because of her height (she eventually grew to 6’ 3”). Many other girls and young women had also been channeled to the facility, where the ten hour practices bordered on torture; players were routinely whipped for performing poorly, and no one gave any thought to giving a sick or injured player time off. One woman played for months with a severe kidney infection and never once complained for fear of what would happen to her if she did.
Not only were the players abused physically, they were also forced to study and abide strictly by ruler Mao Zedong’s teachings. It was said that the head of the Shanghai sports facility, Zhu Yong, knew Mao’s Little Red Book better than he knew the basketball rulebook. Da Fang or “Big Fang” lived under these miserable conditions for years, being molded by the Communist party and the basketball coaches.
Da Fang became more and more steadfastly patriotic, just as her country wished her generation, the first under Mao, to be. When the Red Guards began demolishing everything remotely western, Da Fang joined in. She became a leader in the basketball division as young revolutionaries imprisoned the coaches and officials. They harassed the officials mercilessly and treated them in ways similar to the wrongs that had been done to them, forcing recitations and confessions.
Mao didn’t need the Red Guards for long; soon he called in the army to take control. Many of the basketball players were sent out to the country to do heavy labor and were never heard from again. Basketball, however, was restored and Da Fang, now more comfortable with her body and with many of the veterans gone, became a star. She was named team captain year after year. The conditions of her life took their toll on Da Fang and a number of injuries forced her to retire at the age of twenty-eight.
When Chinese athletes’ playing careers ended, they were not released from the sports system. Up until recently the sports system took all retired players and made them coaches, and, if they were especially tall or accomplished, they, like thoroughbred horses, were expected to breed champions. When Da Fang retired she was encouraged to do so, but she had no clue whom to marry. With her entire life up to that point focused on the revolution and basketball, the twenty-eight year old had never kissed a man before. The officials in the system found her a partner, the tallest man on the men’s team, 6’ 7” Yao Zhiyuan. Though their marriage was not arranged or forced, it was strongly encouraged.
Four years later the anticipated child was born to the celebrity couple. Yao Ming had been bred to play basketball. He was sent at age eight by his parents to the Xuhui Sports School, where the young boys practiced until they nearly collapsed, giving up his dream of becoming an explorer or an archaeologist.
Ming did not like basketball at all, but did not complain out of reverence for his parents. His turning point came when his mother managed to get her hands on a pair of Harlem Globetrotters tickets. When Ming saw basketball played so joyously it was a monumental event for him. He began to enjoy basketball, emulating the players he had seen.
As he grew and practiced Yao Ming began to receive even more recognition. Nike discovered him in 1996, and the company influenced many of Da Fang’s decisions about her son’s career. Nike at first supplied Ming with clothing and with shoes big enough to fit his enormous feet, while getting close to his family. Nike told the Yaos that for Ming to reach his full potential he would need to compete elsewhere than China, where basketball was not a great market. They took him on tours in the U.S.
This was the beginning of two different worlds, corporate America and the Chinese government, tugging at Yao Ming’s extremely long arms.
After a scandal in 1999 was resolved in which a greedy, conniving agent had weaseled Ming into signing a contract promising him one third of all his future earnings (in a court case Ming’s lawyers claimed that the contract was extortion, as the maximum percentage allowed by the NBA was four percent), Ming faced only one more hurdle before realizing his dream of playing in the NBA: the government that had essentially made him to use for their purposes.
The Chinese realized the exposure that playing in the NBA would bring to Chinese basketball and the glory that, if their giant was successful, his success would bring to the nation. But their deep-seated patriotism made them nervous that Ming would abandon them, as Wang Zhizhi had done in 2001 when he refused to play for the national team.
Once they were given the greatest assurances that Ming would play for the national team in every World Championship and Olympics as long as he is an active player, they consented to let him go to the NBA. In 2002 he was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall selection in that year’s NBA Draft.
“I’m just one of 3 billion Chinese,” Ming stated humbly. “I understand basketball is not my entire life. It’s only a part of my life. And there are a lot of other things that interest me a great deal.”
“I only want to play basketball, and play it well, and be happy about it. But I realize that with being famous comes a lot of demands,” Ming said. “All of the Chinese people, the Asian people say, ‘Oh Yao Ming, you are all the Chinese, all of Asia's hopes.’ That's a lot of pressure. I'm just a basketball player.”
Through his experiences Ming has become wise, saying, “We’re all basketball players, and we’re all out there on the court, but we all live together on this earth.”
Though Joe Sportsfan may see the hulking Yao Ming as somewhat of a disappointment so far in his career - he has played well and been an All-Star, but hasn’t won anything significant and seems to be injured often - knowing the obstacles he has overcome, he is a hero. One generation removed from Communist China, he is helping re-establish the world’s most populous country, providing hope and pride. In a sense he is doing what the Dr. Frankensteins who created him wanted him to do, but in a new, more hopeful era.
-Andrew Sagarin
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