Hometown fans to get limited glimpse of hero Yao in NBA debut
Hometown fans to get limited glimpse of hero Yao in NBA debut
Benjamin Morgan, Agence France-Presse/Shanghai
Hometown fans of Chinese basketball star Yao Ming will see
their hero in action for no more than 28 minutes when the NBA's
first ever tip-off in China takes place this week.
The 2.26-meter center and his Houston Rockets teammates
arrived in Yao's native Shanghai on Tuesday ahead of their
historic October 14 exhibition game against Western Conference
rivals the Sacramento Kings.
Yao and the Rockets, including new spark Tracy McGrady, the
NBA's top scorer in each of the past two seasons, were to begin
working out soon after arriving, but were delayed when the team's
luggage was lost.
Nevertheless Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy said he was
delighted to be in Yao's hometown and was looking ahead to some
special treatment.
"I'm very proud to have come back to Yao's hometown and have a
chance to see where he's from and have him take us out to dinner
tonight -- we're looking forward to Yao splurging on us a little
bit," said Van Gundy.
But he added that he recognized that while Chinese fans would
be keen on seeing their homegrown superstar, Yao's playing time
would be limited to between 21 to 28 minutes.
"Obviously I want to play him because he's in his hometown,
but I don't want to overplay him given its only an exhibition
game and we have a long season ahead of us," Gundy said.
Yao said his trip home, which includes a second match between
the two teams on October 17 in Beijing, was about work not play.
"This trip home is most importantly not for relaxation but for
work," he told reporters at a press conference here.
The exhibition games are the first NBA matches to be staged in
China as the world's top basketball league seeks to expand its
fan base in the world's most populous nation.
Yao is beloved by sports fans across China, who helped vote
him a starter for the Western Conference in this year's NBA All-
Star Game. Yao was also elected a starter last year in his first
season.
The games are also the first here by any American professional
sports league and the first Chinese appearance by an NBA club
since Washington played China's national team in 1979.
They are latest in a spate of international sporting events
held in China, as international sport leagues, teams and the
promoters who represent them are falling all over themselves to
court 1.3 billion Chinese consumers.
Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Olympics and NBA
Commissioner David Stern has said the city would be capable of
hosting regular-season NBA games before then, possibly in a
fashion similar to the opening games the league has staged in
Japan in previous years.