Posted on 08/11/2008 5:13:44 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch
BEIJING – On his way out of the game, Yao Ming thrust his fist through the air, and soon made that long, wobbly walk to the Chinese bench. The end of a brilliant and historic night for basketball, the end of responsibility for Yao. His work is done. Let him rest.
“The game was a treasure,” Yao said, “and it will be a treasure for the rest of my life.”
Here was a surreal sight on Sunday night in these Olympic Games. Here was the embodiment of Yao Ming’s legacy: His heart, his determination, his immensity. He made possible a billion people worldwide watching a basketball game on television. He made possible these blistering ovations and rock-star treatment the U.S. players receive here. He made possible the hundreds of millions of dollars that David Stern can generate here.
............
For once in his life, Yao needs it to be about him. He’s never going to lose face, but he could have his career cut far too short. Whatever’s happened, Yao must tell China’s government: Enough is enough – we’re even.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
:::rolling eyes::::
Where are my Oprah Kleenexs?? I need one here.
In the Parade of Nations, Yao entered with a stoic 9 year old kid that the commentators described as a survivor of the earthquake. They went on to say that the boy had been chosen because once he freed himself, he went to help save two others. But the most telling comment was that when asked why he did it, the boy replied that he is the class leader, therefore it was his duty. So the boy helped save two others, not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was his duty. Ah...communism takes another life.
I wouldn't think too much into this.. in many Eastern cultures, one's duty to serve others is much like what we describe as a moral responsibility. I learned this when I was an exchange student in Japan, a very democratic country.
I wouldn’t count on Yao Ming quitting the Chinese national team. My guess is that his product endorsements in China are worth more to him than additional years of his NBA career. The Chinese man-on-the-street view is that China made Yao Ming everything he is today. (Which is my mind is horsepoop, given that he could have done the same exact things if he had grown up here in America, but it gives you a window into the kind of warped things the Chinese believe). Not playing for the national team would reduce his value as a product endorser.
I also think the writer is projecting his values onto Yao Ming. The reality is that inside every Chinese (or sundry foreigner) isn’t an American struggling to get out. By the third generation (born stateside), we finally have immigrants assimilated. Yao Ming wasn’t even born here, and he spent his whole education being told how grateful he should be to the Chinese people for his very existence, let alone his basketball career.
Communism OWNS not only all stuff but even the people..
Treatment of the people are whims of the proletariat..
OH!... communism "IS" socialism...
I’ve always wondered how much of his paycheck he gets to keep.
I have heard a chunk of it goes to fuel the Chinese sports machine (similar to the Soviet one), but I have no idea how much.
This guy is an idiot, he has no clue of what he speak. Yao would never dare to do something like that. The Chinese government owns him, and he knows it, just like they own everybody in that country.
Thank you for your insight. I hope you are correct. However, watching that poor little boy, I didn’t sense moral responsibility as much as communist indoctrination at work. He was all business. Very serious. You’d think that he’d be smiling from ear to ear at the honor of walking with a national hero, and international sports star. Maybe they call it moral responsibility in Japan, but it seems different in China. Thankfully, our kids don’t have to be taught.
The Chinese have a basketball player who is much, much better than Yao, but unfortunately is not much to look at. At the last minute Chinese officials let Yao take his place, confident that no one would be able to tell the difference.
When it’s all said and done, I’d like to see how the Chinese athletes fared in sports with unbiased scoring mechanisms versus the subjective crap.
Seems to me like a home job is in the works. Not that the athletes aren’t gifted and somewhat deserving, but it is interesting that they can’t compete in track or swimming only the sports where a French judge sits on the panel.
Well, the host country is allowed all teams to participate regardless of how they might have fared had they had to qualify for the games. Secondly, the Chinese had a program called, I believe, Program 191, which was a deliberate effort by them to concentrate on those sports where they could garner the most medals... for the sake of winning the medal count.
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