Yao Too Late

Yes, yes, Yao

Francis Ochoa
Inquirer News Service

THE BOWED head, intimidating scowl and confident stride as he crossed the cobbled walkway of the athletes' village in Busan, South Korea, in 2002 is a familiar picture to those who know Asian hoops. It is Yao Ming, Chinese cage superstar.

The charming smile, wide-eyed look and puzzled expression that "The Year of the Yao" pasted on movie screens belong to the same person—well, almost.

The movie attempts to paint a picture of Yao, the man.

But other than highlight his evolution from one country's champ to another's underdog, "Year" presents nothing new about the Houston Rockets' prized giant. At least, nothing that ESPN couldn't cram into a 30-minute special.

In any case, everything that happened during Yap's rookie year is in here:

His rivalry with Shaquille O'Neal.

The wager that had Charles Barkley kissing a donkey's ass on national television.

The pressures of playing for a city that had won two championships riding on the shoulders of another center, NBA hall-of-famer Hakeem Olajuwon.

Trying to go beyond what people already know, the movie offers a peek into the special friendship between Yao and his personal interpreter Colin Pine—an angle relentlessly pursued. In fact, the docu is seen mostly through the eyes of Pine.

Directors Adam Del Deo and James B. Stern make good use of their access to NBA games and Yao's private space, decorating their work with game clips calculated to make any basketball fan drool.

Aficionados may wonder at the movie's insistence on pinning Yao's height at 7'5", when he is actually 7'6". The mix-up comes from the fact that the NBA picked up an old data sheet of Yao, one which still had him listed an inch shorter.

Nowadays, though, everybody knows how tall Yao really is. Or how he plays. Or what products he has endorsed. "The Year of the Yao" is a couple of years too late.