After a bruising season that included the Kobe Bryant rape trail and a nasty melee involving players and fans at a Detroit-Indianapolis game, the National Basketball Association could use some good publicity.
| TV-quality: The first NBA season of Chinese phenom Yao Ming, tracked by NBA films for a feel-good documentary. Yao Ming is a neat guy, but the movie is a little forced, and belongs on cable TV.
Rated: PG rating is for subject matter. Now showing: Crest. |
“The Year of the Yao,” a documentary produced by NBA Entertainment, feels like a public relations effort. It’s a way of presenting basketball as a wholesome diversion, by featuring a fascinating character who embodies the best in the game.
That character is Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6-inch phenom from China. The film tracks his first season as an NBA player, and a learning curve that was steep even for a man that tall.
Yao was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall pick in the 2002 draft, so he immediately had a lot to live up to. There was considerable suspense before the season, as there always is with foreign players: Would he adapt to the NBA’s aggressive style, or would he just become another guy whose name is mispronounced by stadium announcers?
Undeniably, it’s a good story. Yao’s first few games made him look like a bust, and led cable-TV analyst and loquacious ex-jock Charles Barkley to make a memorable bet against Yao’s success.
As the movie demonstrates, Barkley had to pay up soon. Yao Ming not only developed his skills to the point of challenging Shaquille O’Neal as the premier center in the league, he exuded a sense of humor and wisdom beyond his years that endeared him to the American public. A series of puckish TV commercials helped.
As though this weren’t enough, the film creates a supposedly heartwarming subplot involving Yao’s translator, a young guy named Colin Pine. This feels forced.
Better is the loose interplay of Yao’s slaphappy teammates, whose cheerful, welcoming bemusement about their new teammate bespeaks a certain kind of no-sweat American generosity.
Although the movie is acceptable as an ESPN special, it isn’t thorough. There’s a lot more to Yao Ming’s life in China than the movie describes, and the demands on him from the Chinese government are quite intense. But this is intended as a feel-good movie, and nothing is going to get in the way of that.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
