One “Tall” Author Tells All

By: Wayne Coffey
Posted In: Sports

NEW YORK- Nine stories over Central Park on Monday afternoon, the NBA’s tallest player and newest author was folded like an envelope on a hotel-suite sofa, his 7-6, 310-pound body clad in a cream-colored shirt, black slacks and size-18 loafers.

He talked about the famous Chinese coach who said he’d never be a top ballplayer, the kindergarten teacher who feared he was too kind to stop people from taking advantage of him, and the admonition from Del Harris, his Olympic coach in Athens, just before he carried the Chinese flag before a few billion viewers in opening ceremonies.

“No turnovers,” Harris said to him in Chinese.

Yao Ming laughed. “That’s the only time I didn’t (drop) something,” he said.

A few weeks before he is due to report to coach Jeff Van Gundy to begin his third NBA season, Yao was in New York City to promote his new autobiography, written with Ric Bucher and titled “Yao: A Life in Two Worlds.” The book, published by Miramax, chronicles his path from a boy in Shanghai who just wanted to fit in, into arguably the world’s most visible athlete.

Fitting in is still a goal- “I just want to be a regular person in daily life”- but one he knows he has no chance of fulfilling. After doing a segment on the “Today” show early Monday, he walked 20 feet on West 48 St., which was enough time for NBC staffers and passers-by to call his name and cause an instant clamor.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Flavil Van Dyke, a media consultant who works with Yao. “Everywhere he goes, people are transfixed by him. Most people are polite about it, but they just can’t help but look at him.”

Fame may be the most jarring difference to Yao’s life since leaving Shanghai, but the adjustments- linguistic, cultural, competitive- have been virtually nonstop. He had to get used to using credit cards, instead of paying cash, to making a doctor’s appointment, instead of just walking into a clinic. He also learned that clear beverages are not always what they seem.

In a limo on the way to filming a spot for Apple computers, Yao wanted to take his vitamins, so he asked his interpreter, Colin Pine, to pour him water from a glass container. Pine complied. Yao downed a tall glass and almost instantly felt his face getting flushed. The water turned out to be gin. Yao had just had his first experience with alcohol, and was about to show up to a major commercial shoot inebriated.

Fortunately, he had a few hours to sober up before filming commenced.

“A lot of people saw (the ad), but no one’s ever asked if I was drunk. Maybe that means I’m a better actor than I think,” Yao said.

Just turned 24, Yao is the son of two former national team players. His father, Yao Zhi Juan, was a 6-7 forward for a team in Shanghai. His mother, Fang Feng Di, was the 6-3 center and captain of the team that won China’s first Asian Championship in 1976.

Yao was 11 pounds, 3 ounces and 23 inches at birth, was 4-8 when he started school. By age 12, Yao was already well over 6-0 when his mother took him to a well-known coach, who briefly eyed Yao’s body and said his rear end was too big and his balance insufficient to play basketball at a high level.

Yao was 7-5 when he joined the Houston Rockets, but not anymore.

“He grew an inch,” Bucher said.

Yao’s parents spend half the year in Houston with him, and so does Van Gundy. Yao was asked to describe his coach, and in fast-improving English, spoke of the endless film sessions and preparation. “He always keeps working. How did he get two kids already?”

The author was getting more playful now. The tweaks kept coming. Co-author Bucher was alongside Yao on the couch. The subject moved to Yao’s favorite part of the book. He looked at Bucher.

“The cover,” he replied.

Yao’s given name, Ming, means “light.” The only girlfriend he has ever had is Ye Li, a 6-3 center for the Chinese national team. He chose his number, 11, because the numbers look like two Y’s (Yao and Ye). A private man by nature, Yao said it was difficult to open up about such things, but that he wrote the book in order to explain his passage from one world to another, to show that he had fears and insecurities and did not let it stop him. His foremost goals are to win an NBA championship and, even more, to win a medal in 2008, when China hosts the Olympics in Beijing.

It isn’t easy hauling around the expectations of 1.3 billion Chinese, of being the most well-known person in his country. Yao Ming, author and center, is doing no complaining.

“There’s a Chinese saying that what you have in your hand, you won’t treasure, but that once it is gone, you will want it back,” he said. “Once (fame) is gone, I’ll never have it back.”

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c 2004, New York Daily News.

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