During a recent trip to Shanghai, I had a chance to see the city’s basketball team, the Sharks, and watch 22-year-old star center Yao Ming in action. The next day, checking out of my hotel room, I unfolded my minicam and showed the desk clerk some video of the Chinese phenomenon. She asked me how I knew of Yao. When I told her that he was very popular in the U.S., that the Chicago Bulls might select him in the NBA draft, she gave me a puzzled look. “But the Bulls are no good anymore, yes?”
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Now, like President Nixon in the 70s, Jerry Krause is going to China. With some reluctance the People’s Republic has released Yao Ming to play basketball in the NBA, and he visited Chicago in early May for a workout before hordes of drooling scouts and NBA general managers. Many speculate that the seven-foot-six, 290-pound player will be the first or second pick in this year’s draft, which takes place June 26. The Houston Rockets have the first pick, but Yao’s managers have stated that they want him to play in a city with a large Chinese population–namely Chicago, New York, or San Francisco–and the Bulls have second pick. Krause has made multiple visits to Shanghai in the past two years, and while Yao was in town, Krause held a private workout to evaluate his skills.
An even larger concern is the cultural gap between China and the U.S. Ten years ago Jerry Krause helped pioneer the NBA’s international scouting when he drafted Toni Kukoc of Croatia. That move paid off handsomely, and several other NBA teams have recruited tremendously talented players from Europe and Canada. The NBA currently has two Chinese players, both of average skill: Zhizhi Wang of the Dallas Mavericks and Mengke Bateer of the Denver Nuggets, who came to the U.S. without the fanfare and market demands that have greeted Yao’s arrival. To Krause the PRC must seem like a vast and untapped reservoir of talent, unfamiliar with the hype of American sports, and having a Chinatown near the United Center only strengthens his hand.
