Yao struggles on the way to NBA superstar
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-12-25 11:35

His popularity and commercial value well recognized, the 2.26-meter center has been trying hard to prove his superiority on the court.

Early this year, Yao Ming edged Shaquille O'Neal, the most dominant center in the league who moved to the Miami Heat from the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer, to become the All-Star starting center of the Western Conference for the second consecutive year, thanks to millions of supporters from his hometown who logged on the NBA official website to vote for him.

The population of China and the popularity of basketball in the country may have helped Yao beat Shaquille in the All-Star voting, but the 24-year-old Chinese showed everybody he had been learning hard to be an All-Star.

Houston Rockets's international Chinese center Yao Ming in Beijing prior to an NBA game vs the Sacramento Kings in October 2004. [AFP/file]

In the 2004 All-Star game in Los Angeles, Yao had 16 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes, bettering his two points and two rebounds performance in his All-Star debut one year earlier as a rookie.

Compared to personal achievements, it is more important for a NBA star to lead his team to win. Yao made good efforts in his second season in the league by averaging career highs of 17.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks to help the Rockets reach the play-offs for the first time in five years.

However, the first post-season experience of Yao was disappointing. The Rockets dropped to the Lakers 4-1 in the first round, virtually prompting the management to trade Yao's good friend and the Rockets' leader Steve Francis to the Orlando Magic in the summer.

"It's upset to see a good friend being traded, but this is NBA," said Yao. After a short break, Yao launched his second Olympic journey with the Chinese national team, this time under the guidance of Del Harris, a famous coach from the NBA.

Marching into the opening ceremony of the Athens Games as the flag bearer of the Chinese Sports Delegation, Yao was ambitious to lead his compatriots to achieve something big at the international stage.

"I won't shave for half a year if the Chinese team does not reach top eight (at the Olympics)," he vowed before the tournament. Unfortunately, an embarrassing 83-58 loss to Spain in the opening group match and two more big-margin defeats to Argentina and Italy diminished the Asian champion's chance to make the top eight.

As the team's sheer leader, Yao himself struggled in those matches. But he did not give up. Thanks for the 67-66 upset win over the world champion Serbia and Montenegro in the last preliminary group match, in which Yao scored 27 points, China squeezed into the quarter-finals and Yao was free to shave.

The Chinese team finally settled for the eighth place, matching its best Olympic finish while Yao Ming averaged 20.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in seven games.

Following the hardship in the Olympics, awaiting Yao is even tougher challenge in his NBA career. In the new season, Yao has to adjust to lots of changes: Steve has gone to Orlando; Tracy McGrady, the league's leading scorer in the last two seasons, has come; the expectation for the Rockets is higher, so is the pressure on him.

Yao has been trying his best, but it seems that he still needs more time. Through the Christmas, the Rockets, who had been considered as one of the top contenders before the season, only managed a 12-14 record, ranking 11th in the Western Conference, while Yao averaged 19 points, 8.9 rebounds in 26 games, but also had career-high 3.7 turnovers per game and often struggled with foul trouble.

In the Rockets' last game before Christmas, Yao completed an awkward triple-double with 20 points, 14 rebounds and 10 turnovers as the team dropped to the Charlotte Bobcats 90-87."It (his 10 turnovers) will be the past, I believe," Yao said after the disappointing setback.

Whatever difficulty Yao meets, he always works hard to overcome it. Even the Houston media that had criticized him this season admitted he had been a diligent worker.

Now the question is, how much potential indeed does he have? It is believed that a player standing over 7-feet-6 could hardly become a superstar in NBA. Yao is trying his best to overthrow this rule, but he still has a long way to go.

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