Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Yao Ming knows the thrill of excitement to walk out onto the court every night with the eyes of the basketball world upon you and he knows the burden of increasing expectations.
He understands what it’s like to find yourself standing at the intersection of athlete and celebrity, brain swirling, headlines screaming and each shot, pass or rebound placed on a slide and examined beneath the media microscope on opposite sides of the Pacific.
At this point Jeremy Lin may have bigger fans somewhere on the planet, but surely none taller than 7-foot-6 Yao Ming.
“If he keeps playing like this, he could be an All-Star, don’t you think?” Yao said by phone from his home in Shanghai, China. “Right now, he is handling everything — the game and the attention he is getting — perfect.”
The 31-year-old retired Houston Rockets center would know. Before “Linsanity” there was “Yaomania.”
As the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 draft, Yao was the face of his homeland on both sides of a vast ocean and became an eight-time NBA All-Star due to his popularity.
“Fans here in China are very excited about Jeremy Lin,” Yao said. “He is news all over the place. His story is always on the cover page of the newspaper now. He is not drafted. He signs a minimum contract. In his first year he barely gets minutes to play. Then he gets a chance and in one night he owns New York town.
“Since the NBA games are on in the morning because of the time difference in China, you wake up every day and you want to see what he did. What was the score? What were his points and assists? Every day the excitement grows. They win again today and now he is 7-0. Where does the story go next?”
Yao hopes the direction of Lin’s story goes to furthering the development of basketball talent among Asians and Asian-Americans and getting more to reach the highest levels of the game.
“I know that Jeremy was born in California and we both had very different backgrounds growing up,” Yao said. “But I feel that we are both Chinese and I am happy that a guard like him could come out of nowhere and make this big effect on the NBA. I hope it is the next step for us.”
Yao chuckles at some of the stories that have circulated on the Internet saying that he has been a mentor to Lin.
“Please, don’t let anyone think that Yao has given him any secrets about how to play,” he said. “First, Jeremy doesn’t need my help. He is very talented himself. And I am a big man and could not teach him how to be a guard.
“I know Jeremy. We have exchanged text messages, just normal stuff, not deep. I congratulated him this week. That is all.”
(STORY CONTINUES…)
WRITTEN BY Fran Blinebury has covered the NBA since 1977. You can e-mail him here and follow him on twitter & FULL STORY HERE
PHOTO VIA TEREZOWENS
