Film on Yao's rookie season set for US debut next week
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-31 10:13

"The Year of the Yao", an 89-minute film giving a behind-the-scenes look at Chinese center Yao Ming's first NBA season, is set to make a US debut next week.

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming questions him being called for a foul against the Utah Jazz during the first quarter Monday, March 28, 2005, in Salt Lake City. [AP]

The 7-foot-6 star of the NBA Houston Rockets stars in the documentary, which was screened Tuesday and is expected to begin showings in Houston starting April 6 followed by wider US release and later exposure worldwide.

The release comes two weeks before the end of the NBA season, with Yao and the Rockets battling for playoff position.

Yao is shown three years ago struggling to learn his role on and off the court, trying to adjust to language and cultural barriers as well as the faster pace and longer schedule presented by the NBA.

The film includes sound bites from retired NBA stars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, current NBA stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, Yao's first-year coach Rudy Tomjanovich, NBA Commissioner David Stern and former US President Bill Clinton.

Clinton praised Yao as a man who provided an example to all Chinese people to stop "looking inward" and move outward with a sense of humor.

When Barkley first saw Yao play, he said the giant from Shanghai made much-criticized former center Shawn Bradley look like Boston's Bill Russell, an NBA legend from the 1960s. But Yao might have the last laugh.

The first player from outside the United States to be selected with the first pick in the NBA Draft, Yao has been an All-Star game starter each of his three seasons in the league.

Learning quickly after struggles in his early 2002 appearances, Yao averaged 13.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.74 blocks a game in his NBA debut season.

The film follows Yao through the night he was chosen in the NBA Draft, his arrival in Houston, meeting ex-Rockets teammate Steve Francis, his first news conference and practice and debut game at Indiana, where he failed to score and grabbed only two rebounds in 11 minutes of action.

Yao meshed with his new teammates but the film shows he struggled to be aggressive. One teammate described Yao's start as "like teaching a child 90 different things."

The movie captures the strong bond between Yao and his translator, Colin Pine, who lived in Taiwan for several years and speaks fluent Mandarin.

Pine, 28, narrates some of the film and stood beside Yao almost every waking minute - at practices, on the sidelines during games and in discussions with Tomjanovich, other coaches and teammates and with reporters.

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