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Minutes ago, Yao Ming took part in his fourth
All-Star Game. He ended up on the losing side as the All-Stars from
Eastern Conference came back from 21 points down to beat the team from the
West 122-120.
This is,
however, a good time to gauge Yao's growing popularity, in answer to a
question from a Chinese basketball fan.
The question:
"I'm a supporter of Yao Ming. In fact, it is
because of Yao that I'm now following the NBA on a daily basis. I'm even
trying to read news reports in English. But I find a lot of terms about
the game baffling. For example, what is the All-Star Game any way? Why are
the players called All-Stars, instead of simply stars, or superstars?
"Also, there are
complaints that Yao does not deserve his place in the All-Star team? Does
he?"
Answer:
First of all, trying to follow the NBA by reading news reports in the
English language is the right thing to do.
After all, the NBA is an American
sport. Reports from America are timely, generally well-written and
mostly accurate, in comparison with reports written by Chinese reporters.
In fact, all Chinese fans would be better off if they were able to read
news reports in English. For one thing, it'll free them from complaining
about the prevalent errors, both factual and judgmental, made by Chinese
sports writers and commentators.
Being able to read in English will hopefully make you less
dependent on the likes of, say, CCTV commentator Han Qiaosheng.
Han's commentary is littered with gaffs and inaccuracies and yet, the
man remains defiant and unashamed.
"All commentators make mistakes," he says, making no bones about it.
To be fair, Han is right.
All sports commentators in Chinese are not much
better than him. Han is just being singled out more often, because, I
suspect, the guy is very smart in a unique way.
Han has learned to turn bad publicity to his advantage. His
(intolerable) quotes are pasted on all over the web and he indulges in
talking about them, driving his unpopularity to unprecedented heights in
the process. When fame is hard to come by, he makes do with infamy. He is
thriving on it.
One other reason Han errs more often has to
do with the fact that he simple works more games than others. It's really
as simple as that.
Soccer, Winter Olympics, boxing, Ping Pong,
swimming, you name it, he's calling it, taking up jobs right and left,
blabbering away, sometimes, I suspect, without having the faintest idea
what he's talking about.
What I'm suggesting is, yes, that if he works fewer games, he'll make
fewer mistakes. By the same token, if he's asked not to work any games at
all, he won't make any mistakes.
Which leads us back to where we began.
If you can't rely on commentators to learn about the game, you have to
put in the work yourself.
Being able to read reports in English is a step in
the right direction.
It'll enable you to turn down the volume or even shut the commentators
out altogether without worrying about missing anything in the game, or
whether doing so might hurt their crass feelings. Why should you worry
about their feelings when they don't care about how you feel as they keep
ruining your favorite game by talking endless nonsense year in, year out?
Out of ear,
out of mind. You've got to be able to play this in-out game with
commentators to be able to enjoy a game.
As for sports jargons, they'll clear up as you read on. Unlike it is
with Han, who seems unable to improve, I have total confidence in you.
Kidding aside, here are a few pointers on the NBA's All-Star Game.
The All-Star Game is an exhibition between two
teams of selected players from the NBA's two conferences, the Eastern
Conference and the Western Conference.Since each team has only 12 players
on the roster, you can be pretty much sure about the caliber of players
who make the teams - they are all star players from each of their various
clubs. Hence the term All-Star - they are all stars.
The teams are selected in two steps.
First, through fan voting, 5 players are selected to each team. These
are called starters. A basketball team has 5 players on the court any
given time. The five players to "start" the game are called starters.
The other players are
called "reserves" (who are "in reserve", to be called upon when
necessary). The reserves are voted in by NBA coaches.
Therefore, to be an All-Star, one has to be either liked well enough by
fans, or NBA coaches.
Yao has been well-liked by both.
He's rather loved by fans, many of whom from
China. In each of the past two years, Yao led all players in fan voting.
In this sense, Yao thoroughly deserves his place in the All-Star Game.
Fans like him there and that's all that matters.
Teammate Tracy McGrady, the other Rocket to
make this year's All-Star game, paid perhaps the highest compliment
possible to Yao, saying:
"Regardless of what everybody else says, he's a
guy you can win a championship with. That's all that matters. Any coach,
GM (general manager), player would take Yao Ming on their team."
Yao works hard. He comes to practice early, leaving late. On this
point, Yao's not unlike Han. But quite unlike it is with Han, Yao's
improvement is almost detectable by the day.
Expect Yao to make the All-Star Team every year for
the rest of his NBA career.
In the meantime, don't expect too much from Han and his colleagues.
Instead, learn to master the game by yourself. | 
