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.