INDIANAPOLIS — The NBA education of Yao Ming began long before Wednesday night’s opener between the Indiana Pacers and Houston Rockets.
It began years ago on the other side of the world. Now, the workload accelerates.
The games are for real, the competition increases tenfold, the arenas are fancier and last but certainly not least, the media throng gets larger.
Yao, the 22-year-old skyscraper the Rockets made the No. 1 overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, acknowledged being both nervous and excited before Wednesday’s loss to the Pacers.
His performance — no points and two rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench — indicated as much. But what rookie wouldn’t have butterflies on opening night? The 7-feet-5-inch Yao is certainly no ordinary rookie, not with potentially 287 million households in China alone watching his debut.
“It’s pretty crazy right now,” Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said of Wednesday’s activity that included interviews with media from China, Japan, and daily and weekly publications from across the United States.
Someone had the audacity to ask Tomjanovich if he knew what all the hype was about. “Look at him,” Tomjanovich deadpanned. “He’s 7-5 and an athlete. Plus, I think he’s pretty handsome, too.
“Look, I’ve had high-profile guys on my team before with Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon), Clyde (Drexler) and Charles (Barkley). But I don’t think it’s ever been this magnitude.
“I know we went to a press conference over in China and there were two cameras and about five reporters and it was big news. But no one can imagine what this guy is going through. We can’t measure it against anything because it’s never happened before.”
For his part, Yao seems to be handling it all rather well. There’s no fidgeting during the seemingly endless parade of questions he’s already heard.
When the lights come on in the interview room, he handles things with an easy smile and usually one-sentence answers.
The Pacers went at him as soon as he hit the floor Wednesday, stealing the ball from him, testing him near the basket, making sure the “big fella gets the proper initiation,” as Ron Artest said before the game.
Yao’s true initiation will come later this season, of course, when he bumps into the man some think he’s destined to replace someday as the league’s dominant center.
When asked what he thought of Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal, Yao smartly remarked that he was just trying to make it through the season-opener.
When asked if he thought O’Neal was thinking about him, he was just as quick with his reply. “I don’t think he’s thought about me yet,” he said.
© 2002, The Indianapolis Star. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.