SHANGHAI, 15 October 2004 — Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming made his hometown fans proud yesterday as the Houston Rockets center led his team to a close-fought win over the Sacramento Kings in a much-hyped NBA exhibition game here.
Yao, Houston’s dominant force inside, and new teammate, two-time National Basketball Association scoring champion Tracy McGrady, overcame a weak first quarter performance to squeeze past their Western Conference rivals 88 to 86.
In front of a 10,000-strong sell out crowd at the Shanghai Sports Stadium, fans watched Yao sink 14 points and pull down seven rebounds in the historic game. McGrady also scored 14 points. While only an exhibition, the match in China’s largest and wealthiest city was the first here by any American professional sports league and the first Chinese appearance by an NBA club since Washington played China’s national team in 1979.
While it took the 2.26-meter (7 foot-6-inch) hometown favorite almost five minutes to sink his first basket, he rewarded fans in the eighth minute with a strong move inside and a slam dunk for his first points of the night.
Before the game Yao, who in his two All-Star seasons in the NBA has become a national icon in China, addressed fans by thanking them for their “support” and saying his was “happy to be back in Shanghai on this beautiful evening”.
Fans however, perhaps confident of Yao’s continued success in the American professional league, reserved the strongest cheers of the night for point guard Liu Wei, China’s national team basketball star who is aiming to become Asia’s first guard to make it in the NBA.
Liu took the floor for the Kings against Yao in the second quarter and again in the fourth, and won a standing ovation for his only basket of the evening, a two point jumpshot.
The 24-year old, six-foot three (1.88 meter) guard who grew up in Shanghai and played 10 years with Rockets’ centre Yao in junior leagues and with the Shanghai Sharks was invited to tryout for the Kings in July.
If Liu can make Sacramento’s team, he will join Yao, Miami Heat center Wang Zhizhi and the New York Knicks Menk Bateer as the only Chinese players in the world’s top basketball league. Sacramento opened the scoring in the first quarter and quickly took an 8 to 0 lead as Yao missed his first two shots of the night from inside the paint.
Yao struggled defensively against twenty-eight year old forward Brad Miller, who led scoring for the Kings with 19 points, while Webber had 11 rebounds including a third-quarter buzzer three-pointer that brought the crowd to its feet.
The Kings pulled within one point with less than a minute to go but the Rocket’s Tyronn Lue sealed the game when he hit one of two free throws.
The two teams will meet for a second and final match in Beijing on Oct. 17.
